How to Stabilize Your Jealousy and Your Blood Sugar Level w/ Dr. Ben Galyardt EP 60

[00:00:00] Shanenn Bryant: If you're trying to change your life, whether it's overcoming your jealousy. Healing from trauma, improving your relationship, building a career, whatever it is, health should be at the foundation of that change. 

And I keep saying this, but without our health, none of that matters or is even possible.Just as we want to get to the root cause of jealousy. My guest today does that with health. 

Let's not treat the symptom. Let's treat the root cause. 

If you're on Tik Tok or Instagram and you engage in any type of health topics, I'm sure you've seen today's guests. He is all over social media. He is the founder and CEO of Well centers. Welcome Dr. Ben Galyardt. I hope you're ready. I have so many questions for you. 

[00:00:52] Ben Galyardt: I'm ready when you are.

[00:00:53] Shanenn Bryant: All right. Well, let's start with the basics. Can you just describe what functional medicine is? Let's talk a little bit about what you do.

[00:01:01] Ben Galyardt: So, uh, functional medicine is, uh, almost more of a philosophy than it is like, oh, you go to, you know, the four years of functional medicine school. you can be basically anybody.

[00:01:15] Ben Galyardt: You can be a MD, a DO, a DC, a PT, an acupuncturist, a nutritionist. You can be anything out there like your, your training. But to do functional medicine, you can bring that in regardless. So, uh, it's really more of a philosophy of, hey, if there is a health issue, if there's a health crisis situation, whatever it is, can we get to the underlying root causes of why the body's going haywire, which it's not supposed to.

[00:01:45] Ben Galyardt: We're supposed to just function and keep going, and then eventually when our time's up, it's up. Um, but so many people, I, I always say I, I see just as many teens and 20 something year old’s as we do 50- and 60-year-olds. So. Age isn't really an issue anymore. Uh, there's, there's just as many young people getting sick as old people. 

[00:02:06] Ben Galyardt: Especially when we're talking about chronic conditions like autoimmune digestion issues, inflammation, all these different things. So functional medicine, the philosophy is, and, and it's different than alternative medicine or integrative medicine because a lot of people that go natural, they'll say, okay, let me give you this herb instead of this drug. But really what needs to happen is .Why in the world would you have low iron? I don't wanna just give you iron. I wanna figure out why you have low iron. Oh, well, you know, I'm not absorbing it, right? So just take iron. Well, why aren't you absorbing it right? And so then we just gotta keep another step, another step, deeper, deeper, deeper. And you truly fix those imbalances. And that's how, whatever it is, whether that's that's autoimmune, or whether that's digestion or uh, any condition, it has to be from that philosophy, if you truly want to heal and not just cover it up. 

[00:02:45] Shanenn Bryant: So then really it becomes us needing to change our philosophy as well. When we go to our doctor's appointments, And maybe push a little bit more to say. Yeah. Thanks for the prescription for this, but can we figure out, can we dig a little bit deeper? How can I do that with you? 

Is that the approach that we should be taking? How can we then get our doctors or get into a situation where we can dig deeper.

[00:03:33] Ben Galyardt: Yeah. And, and this is what I always, uh, ask people if, if I'm doing, uh, a talk on social media, I'll say, you know, how many of you have your doctors sat down with you, looked you in the eyes and said, I want to take you by the hand.

[00:03:47] Ben Galyardt: I want to walk you through this process the next month or three months, or six months, however long it takes, and we're gonna go in depth and figure out exactly why. You have this thyroid problem, why you've been diagnosed with this autoimmune disease, why you don't feel good, and, and you know that that one. It just can't happen in the traditional medical model because they've got eight-minute appointments. They're, they're in an insurance-based model where insurance will pay for X, Y, and Z. They will not pay for them to hold their hand and go through that. Most Doctors have been taught that your patients don't really wanna change.

[00:04:26] Ben Galyardt: They don't really wanna do much, they just want to take a pill and move on and, and don't bother 'em talking about nutrition or, or all these different things. So, you know, it, it's a, um, you know, it's a challenge, uh, to find, to find that, that right doctor to, to take you by the hand with this. And so, you, you need to ask that question next time you go to your rheumatologist or your endocrinologist or your PCP or your whoever is, I really want to figure out why this is happening and I wanna really reverse the why's. And, and unfortunately, a lot of times that, that, let's say it's an endocrinologist and, and you've got Hashimoto's, a lot of times that endocrinologist will say, well, there’s really nothing you can do here. Just take this levothyroxine, uh, this T four hormone, and and you're gonna take that. You just, because, uh, you, you've got Hashimoto's.

[00:05:19] Ben Galyardt: And then if you say, well, Hashimoto's is an autoimmune disease, correct? Yes, it's an autoimmune disease. What does taking a hormone do for my autoimmune disease? Well, uh, nothing really, but there's nothing we can do for Hashimoto. So you, it's gonna cause low hormone, so you're just gonna take this and so then you're like, okay, well I, I, I want to, I want to fix this.

[00:05:41] Ben Galyardt: Well, you really can't. And then the question you need to ask is. Are there things that can make my autoimmune worse? Are there things that can flare my autoimmune? And if you think about that, I, I I hear it all the time from people, and it can be an estrogenic event. So a lot of women, it'll be after a pregnancy, it'll be after, uh, going through menopause. I've got half a dozen teenage girls right now that I'm working with that have multiple autoimmune conditions. Each one of 'em. And, and some, actually some have reversed them, and they don't have 'em anymore. So I'm gonna say that, uh, they don't, some of them don't have them anymore, which is cool. Um, but it was going through puberty, you know, but then other, other, so estrogenic events can do that.

[00:06:23] Ben Galyardt: What about stress? A lot of people, they'll say, oh man, that autoimmune really flared me up after that stressful event when my dad died or I went through a divorce or whatever it was. Um, and, and so they had this stressful event, or when they got a virus or when they got an . Infection or Epstein Barr or whatever it was. And so then the, the thought process is if there's things that can drive an autoimmune disease and make it worse, then wouldn't it make sense that if we change and reverse those things that are making an autoimmune worse, wouldn't it make sense? If we can take those things this way, that we would be less likely to attack our own tissue, we'd be less likely to damage our own tissue. That's the the thought process and the communication you need to be having. 

[00:07:07] Shanenn Bryant: Oh, my gosh. You're so right with a conversation with the doctors, because…you and I had a conversation a few weeks ago when I was talking about you coming on the podcast. And I explained some of the things physically going on with me right now, bursitis in the hips. I have an ankle that hasn't healed after a year. And we talked about how many doctors I've been visiting specialists, regular doctors, my family doctor, um, a special ankle doctor. And with all that. 

And I wanted to show you this, I saved it. Um, to show you this, I know people can't see if you're just listening to the podcast, but here is the result of going from doctor to doctor, to doctor, trying to get somebody to just connect the dots, because I knew. they had to be connected in some way. And here's the result. 

I saved these. So, one prescription, two prescriptions, three prescriptions. There's more. um, I just didn't bring them in here. I haven't taken any of them because I'm now working with you and I know that we're going to get to the root cause of it, but that was the end result. 

 So is that your recommendation get with a functional medicine doctor let's get into the blood work or at least go to your regular doctor and say, Hey. Can we do some blood work? 

Is that just really being an advocate for yourself and asking for those types of things? 

[00:08:35] Ben Galyardt: Uh, yes, and unfortunately, from what I've seen with most patients is they're still not going to get the answers that, that you need. And, and that's not, you know, I'm, I'm not knocking, you know, and I always say endocrinologist is probably about the worst job in the world because people are going to Come back every single day, upset and you know, just give, give 'em a hard time. But, but they're in a box and you know, people go and it takes 'em three months or six months to get in and they're supposed to be the thyroid specialist. And they went to four extra years of thyroid school and did all these extra things. And then they go there and all they do is go, oh, I'm gonna raise your, raise your dosage. I'm gonna lower your dosage and raise it or lower it raise. And you're like, I still don't feel good. Well, that's okay. Your numbers are fine. But I still I wanna feel good. I don't care about my numbers. I wanna feel good. Uh, and so, um, you know, in, in a lot of these specialists and a lot of these doctors' models, they are handcuffed, and they are limited as to what they can recommend, what they can even request for blood work, what insurance is gonna cover. So it unfortunately, it is a limited amount of support and healing that someone's gonna be able to get going down that path.

[00:09:53] Ben Galyardt: That's why I've chosen to go down this functional medicine route, and one of the main reasons that we are actually outside of the health insurance model, and a lot of people look at that as a bad thing, but for me, you know, it, it actually makes my job a lot harder. I, I guarantee you, if I was able to be in the health insurance model, I would be booked out 12 months in advance. You know, we would, we would be so busy. It, it would be absolutely ridiculous. So it, people are like, oh, it's just, you just want the cash pay and it's just, you know, no, I, I'm doing it for my patients to be outside of the health insurance model because the health insurance model is going to limit the number of visits you can do, limit what you're gonna be able to test in the blood work. Mm-Hmm. , they're going to, you know, the blood work that Uh, that we run with our patients is, you know, let's say two $250, $300 that we end up have, have to pay for it. Uh, cash prices, the exact same blood work, if you run it through insurance or just go through the lab is $3,000. 

[00:10:57] Ben Galyardt: And so the, the whole model is just, you know, it, they, they mark up all their pricing, and so they're also going to limit, just like that endocrinologist, that endocrinologist cannot focus on your autoimmune condition, because legally all they can do is focus on your hormones. And so, you know, they're, they're pigeonholed. It's just such a limited thing. So yes, we have to step outside of that system. Outside of that. 

[00:11:23] Ben Galyardt: We're only gonna pay for so much. And as we do that though, that, that's when, man, I can just figure out exactly what's going on and I don't have to account to anybody that, Hey, I, I want to give you, you know, 20 visits and hold your hand and do this, where this other person only needs 12 visits.

[00:11:40] Ben Galyardt: I don't have to go and ask, ask somebody for permission on that. Through the insurance, and then if it gets denied, then we have to, you know, cut you off and all those things. We get to just say, let's help you get your life back regardless of, of other people's opinions. 

[00:11:55] Shanenn Bryant: Yeah, that was actually a big draw for me in where I knew that there was going to be some progress made because as I mentioned, I have been for over a year now going. To see specialists, I've been to physical therapy for my ankle. And that was part of the problem is. Insurance will only approve six sessions at a time. 

[00:12:16] Shanenn Bryant: And so I get to that fit their succession and the physical therapist, or the doctor would submit more. The insurance company would deny it. 

[00:12:24] Shanenn Bryant: And then they'd have to put in a new claim or fight that rejection from the insurance company. And sometimes that would take two, three, sometimes a month where I'm just sitting, not able to do physical therapy and then it was starting back all over again. 

[00:12:39] Shanenn Bryant: And then it just continued to get into that cycle. Okay. Now they approved. Six more sessions and then the same thing would happen over and over again. And really the only person that's suffering is me, which now that unhealed ankle, because of that process and because the insurance company holding it up now I have bursitis in my hips because of the way, um, the imbalance and the way that I was walking from the injured ankle. So I love that you're outside of network and can do those things. 

[00:13:09] Shanenn Bryant: If somebody really wanted to make changes with their health, what is the first thing that you would recommend they do provided they're not a heavy drinker or smoker. What's the first thing you would recommend they do.

[00:13:20] Ben Galyardt: I just held up my second one. It's called Blood Sugar Doesn't Lie. And, uh, glucose levels, blood sugar levels is the foundational piece that we do with everybody. And, you know, obviously don't smoke. Don't, don't drink even, uh, Dr. Amen that, um, he, he has the world-renowned Amen Clinics and does spec scan and, and he's found that even, even a drink a week, even a small amount of drinking is detrimental to the brain. 

[00:13:50] Ben Galyardt: You know, people are like, oh, you know, have a glass of wine at night. I'm like, you are degenerating your brain. Period. That's what the research is showing. So anyways, smoking, drinking, you know, sitting all day. Uh, I, I've got, normally I'm sitting right now, but normally if I'm talking to patients and doing things, I'm, I'm at a standing desk and, and I'm moving around, um, not exercising all those things.

[00:14:12] Ben Galyardt: Those are kind of the known ones. But blood sugar, stability, I, I say If we could re uh, if we could stabilize everybody's blood sugar, 85 to one 10 all day, every day, we would reverse or prevent upwards of 90% of chronic health conditions. I. We're talking cancer, we're talking cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer's, autoimmune conditions, inflammatory conditions, all of these different things. If we could stabilize blood sugar, we would see those, those type of changes. How do I know that I, I've got to experience it for the last 20 years in practice. 

[00:14:50] Shanenn Bryant: And that's part of your program, right? For all of your patients. To go on glucose monitors?

[00:14:56] Ben Galyardt: Absolutely.

[00:14:57] Ben Galyardt: So, uh, we were the first office probably eight, nine years ago in the United States to have every single patient track blood sugar, but get this cGMs weren't available to the masses. So we had every single patient, finger prick, six to eight times per day every single day for like 2, 3, 4 months and we were able to help people reverse their diabetes.

[00:15:22] Ben Galyardt: We were able, you know, amazing, amazing things. Um, and. I, I knew I knew that we had to track blood sugar, but it was just, you know, A CGM was four grand and it just wasn't, wasn't feasible. Um, and about three, four years ago, we were able to get continuous glucose monitors at a reasonable, I. Level at regional price. And so we were the first office in the US to have every single patient use a continuous glucose monitor, not just a diabetic, not just a pre-diabetic, but we do it with our kids, we do it with our adults. We do it. I just had a lady today and her average and her blood sugar is showing that she is hypoglycemic. She's low blood sugar. She's not pre-diabetic or diabetic. And, uh, and it's really stressful to her adrenals and to her autoimmune and all these other issues. She's gonna get a CGM And most doctors would be like, well, that's dumb. You know, she, she doesn't have diabetes. And it's like, uh, we literally have, have looked at tens of thousands of daily records of people's, uh, glucose monitoring and, you know, it, it's amazing. I think about it this way, if somebody is not actively tracking their blood sugar or has and kind of figured it out because you don't have to do it forever. Some people choose, choose to do it long term just because it is, it's more accountability than anything. But, uh, right.

[00:16:46] Ben Galyardt: But, uh, you know it, unless you're actively tracking it, you have no idea if your blood sugar is okay. Looking at glucose levels, looking at hemoglobin A1C, looking at insulin. I, I can tell if it's off and if, and if it's bad from those numbers, but if, if everything comes back. Okay. I. You, you have no idea if your blood sugar is, is where it's supposed to be because it's all about the swings. I don't care. Even where the average is, but some people's average will be perfect, but they're swinging a hundred points and I don't want it more than 25 points in a day. 

Shanenn Bryant: Well, I am such a big fan of the continuous glucose monitor that you do. I have already done one round. I'm getting ready to do another 14 days and I'm going to video putting it on and, you know, talking about what it shows because I learned so much just in that first 14 days of being on a CGM and seeing what food is doing to my blood sugar level. What I ended up finding out is I'm hypoglycemic. My blood sugar level is so low. 

[00:17:57] Shanenn Bryant: I mean, it stayed often in the fifties and there were several days where it was really low in the, in the fifties. And so I would have never known that because in going to see these other doctors, of course, they've done blood work. And, you know, hey, your A1C is fine. This is fine. Everything's in normal range. So it's not going to show that it's not going to show with just that one blood test that. You know, I stay. low in the fifties. 

[00:18:27] Shanenn Bryant: And I could correlate that too, because I noticed over the last six months to a year, during the day I'd get kind of these fleshed out cheeks and I wouldn't feel very good. And 

[00:18:38] Shanenn Bryant: I was actually testing my blood pressure because I thought, okay, red cheeks, you know, fleshed out cheeks and. Just the way I felt, I thought my blood pressure must be high. And then when it wasn't, I just couldn't figure out. What was happening? When I wore the continuous glucose monitor, just even for those 14 days, I was able to see 

[00:18:57] Shanenn Bryant: that I'm hypoglycemic, which I would not have known. So I'm a huge fan and I can't wait to do my second 14 days to learn even more.

[00:19:07] Ben Galyardt: Yeah. and and you don't look diabetic, you know, and you're not, you know, the age of, oh, most people are diabetic your age, or, or you're not a hundred pounds overweight or whatever. And so, um, I, I've had, uh, I've had doctors write on a, on their little, uh, notepad and send it back with their patient and they go, um. This person's blood sugar's fine. It glucose, you know, or A1C if it's under this, someone's blood sugar's totally fine. Like trying to educate me on what, what's okay for blood sugar? And, and it's like, I, I, I get that where a diabetic range is, but we're looking for different things. So think about it this way. Every time the blood sugar spikes up and every time the blood sugar crashes down, it revs up the immune system and you destroy more tissue if you have an autoimmune disease. So if you've got Hashimoto's, if you've got lupus, if you've got ray nods, if you've got, uh, alopecia and your hair's falling out, whatever it is, um, if your blood sugar is swinging. Into these extremes that we see with a lot of people. Mm-Hmm. . Every time that happens, you rev up that immune response and you destroy more tissue. Uh, we know that they call Alzheimer's type three diabetes, and so there's a huge, huge part of brain degeneration that comes from blood sugar imbalances, especially the highs, uh, cancer. Is fed by glucose and there's a huge metabolic connection with cancer and, and blood sugar. And we know that the worse somebody's diet, the higher rates of cancer they have. That's just straight, straight facts right there. And, and some people are like. Oh, my grandma ate totally fine and she got cancer.

[00:20:51] Ben Galyardt: Well, of course there's always gonna be some, some outliers there, but the, the majority of, of, uh, cases are gonna have this. We know that inflammation. I just had a patient that Um, I, I reviewed, we're six weeks into care with her and I was going through her initial complaints and chronic pain was one of them. and she's 35, which is pretty young to be in chronic pain, but she's been diagnosed with lupus. She had a high uric acid, which is gout. She had a high CRP, which is that inflammatory marker. And so after looking at it, it was like, okay, well this makes sense. And in six weeks, um, she went from seven to eight. On the pain scale with the chronic pain down to maybe a three, and it's mostly just her feet. And I go, would you even call that chronic pain or just kind of annoyance? And she's like, yeah, it's more just an annoyance, but the other stuff's gone in six weeks. How? How is

[00:21:45] Ben Galyardt: that possible because of this inflammatory cascade that gets going in our body? And I always say, if you do more of the good stuff, less of the bad stuff, that's that's how we get to see miracles. 

[00:21:57] Shanenn Bryant: Oh, yeah, that was the other really interesting thing that I found with the continuous glucose monitor. 

[00:22:03] Shanenn Bryant: How foods will affect people differently so I could eat one thing and it might spike my blood sugar. My husband could eat the same thing and maybe it wouldn't do that to him or maybe not as drastic. 

[00:22:16] Shanenn Bryant: so another great reason to do the glucose monitoring. So you can see like, yes, I'm eating healthy, but there might be something that spikes my blood sugar level that before I may not have thought would do that.

[00:22:29] Ben Galyardt: Absolutely. I I always use sweet potatoes, the example right in the, the paleo world, you know, sweet potato's good. You hear people talk about, oh, sweet potato, way better than white potato.

[00:22:39] Ben Galyardt: And I'm like, actually I've seen sweet potato spike people more than white potato. Over the years, and, uh, a lot of times it, it's worse, but then one in a, in a couple, one spouse might be able to eat sweet potato and not do white potato, but the other one might be able to do white potato and, and, and not do sweet potato.

[00:22:58] Ben Galyardt: So it just really depends on that individual. In my, in my book, I could have written this and made it a lot fatter, but there's no diet, there's no menu, there's no meal plan. I'd be lying. I'd be like, Hey, this is like 75% of the people can kind of fall into this category. But the whole point of, of what we do and of the book is to say you need to individualize it to what your body is going to be doing. Um, the, another lady this morning, brussels sprouts made her blood sugar spike. 

[00:23:30] Shanenn Bryant: Wow. Yeah, you just never know. Huh? 

[00:23:32] Shanenn Bryant: Speaking of your book, Blood Sugar Doesn't Lie, I love it. I learned so much from that book. Just now understanding. You know what this organ does and what triggers this and how that responds and why that makes a difference. So thank you so much for the education. And I want to talk briefly about just sugar itself, because I know it's really hard for people. They have these sugar addictions in these cravings, they may not be a smoker or a drinker, but they've got this sugar addiction.

[00:24:03] Shanenn Bryant: So any tips on that? Can we talk about the sugar addiction? Just a little bit?

[00:24:08] Ben Galyardt: So, you know, there, there's definitely reasons for it. Uh, some are just genetic and evolutionary where our bodies, crave that sugar if you lay out food, for kids to, to eat, you know, uh, go go and find a, a 10-year-old boy or 12-year-old boy and give them some options. I mean, you know what? They're gonna go, go and eat if you give them, give them the bad stuff. So, uh, you know, that's part of it. A a lot of people it's emotional, you know, if you've got a, a, a bad thing that happens, oh, you know what? We're gonna, we're gonna eat some sugary stuff, eat poorly. We're gonna go with our cravings. If you've got something good that happens and you're celebrating, oh, we're gonna go and we're gonna we're gonna evol involve food with it.

[00:24:53] Ben Galyardt: So there's definitely, emotional side to it. Uh, but a lot of it is just habits and it's quick and easy and, and we're not even thinking that it, it has sugar, you know. Does, um, does a

[00:25:06] Ben Galyardt: PIta bread and hummus have sugar in it? Well, it turns to sugar. But it, it's not even sugary. So a lot of people are like, well, I don't even eat that much sugar.

[00:25:14] Ben Galyardt: And it's like that, well, there there's other things going on. So that's the whole point of the continuous glucose monitor and why I named my book Blood Sugar Doesn't Lie. You know, once you, once you see it, you can't unsee it. You know? Tell me, tell me something over those first two weeks that you saw that, like, legit, you can't unsee, you can't go and, and think, well, Mm-Hmm.

[00:25:36] Ben Galyardt: I'm gonna go eat that and I'm just gonna forget that it's bad for me. 

[00:25:40] Shanenn Bryant: Oh, yeah. And just seeing those spikes, it gives you some accountability because you don't want to see those spikes. And you're like, okay, what? I just ate. That was bad for me and being able to see, okay, well maybe if I, this in combination with something else, how does that. You know, how does that show up? 

[00:25:56] Shanenn Bryant: And am I still spiking? Because the whole idea is not to be able to see those spikes, right. And that's something that you help people understand and help people to figure out how to stay within that. 85 to one 10 range that you're looking for on that glucose monitor. 

[00:26:12] Shanenn Bryant: And when you're able to see it on the graph, you know, one of the things that I realized, I mean, yes, maybe I knew I was doing it, but it really shows up when I kind of in grazing throughout the day. And I ha don't have it a hundred percent dialed in, you know, certainly the first 14 days, you're still trying to figure everything out. 

[00:26:28] Shanenn Bryant: So I didn't have it a hundred percent dialed in yet. When you can see that visually on the graph. It really tends to hold you more accountable. 

[00:26:35] Ben Galyardt: Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And, if you, if you get your, uh, insulin receptors dialed in, if you get your liver working better, if you get your body dialed in where it needs to be, you'll flip your phone to the side and it's going to be very challenging.

[00:26:53] Ben Galyardt: Looking at a 24 hour period, I want it to be very challengIng to tell when you have eaten. And that's my goal when I've got a CGM on. Um, my goal is to look at it and not be able to tell when I ate. 

[00:27:07] Shanenn Bryant: Yeah, you can really tell the difference. You know, when I would eat something healthy for breakfast and it looking very different on the graph. Then when I was eating unhealthy before I was really dialing in my diet and seeing those spikes everywhere. So yeah, the whole idea is not seeing those spikes. Uh, that I was seeing in the beginning. 

[00:27:30] Ben Galyardt: Um, you know, I I, I love the thought of the CGM that, uh, you know, this is, especially if somebody be, because he, here's the important part is uh, to have somebody then hold your hand with it is really important versus, you know, what, um, you know, you just kind of do it on your own and like winging it and all those things.

[00:27:50] Ben Galyardt: So, you know, it, it, you're learning a lot and yet somebody holding your hand is very helpful. Um, and I truly believe if every single person in the United States had access to a CGM and, you know, had support with it, we could change the entire health status of this country. Uh, you know, it, it, it would be, it would be revolutionary think about this. There's an Alzheimer's drug. Have you heard about this? This, uh, new Alzheimer's drug that Medicare approved. It's like $56,000 a year, and, and I'm like. Hold up a second, $56,000 a year. You could get an at-home hyperbaric chamber. You could get, um, you know, vibration plate, you could get cold laser, you could have a personal chef, you know, a thousand dollars a month.

[00:28:41] Ben Galyardt: They could come in. Think about this, 56,000, that's over five. that's almost $5,000 a month. You could get a a thousand dollars a month personal chef. You could get a thousand dollars a month home, uh, home trainer, personal trainer to come into the house and work this person out. You could get continuous glucose monitors. I mean, you can, you could do so much. for somebody's brain instead of just giving this drug and that, that's just one example, you know, you've got Humira, one of the, the autoimmune drugs. You'll see it on TV for commercials for it, $10,000 a month. 

[00:29:17] Ben Galyardt: You know, what could, as a functional medicine practitioner, what could I do with $10,000 a month if I wanted to get you as healthy as possible? I'd run outta things to do. I guarantee you, we would've leftover money. 

[00:29:32] Shanenn Bryant: Oh my gosh. Yeah. Crazy To think about that kind of money. And we know people who are on severat different kinds of medications a day 

[00:29:42] Shanenn Bryant: And really it's the same concept, maybe on a much smaller scale, but same idea. 

[00:29:47] Ben Galyardt: yeah, absolutely. And uh, you know, the, and the, I'll get back to picking on that Alzheimer's drug, and it has not been shown to reverse Alzheimer's. It, it said it might slow it down. You know, and, and maybe, maybe stabilize it, maybe, but the, the research was a little bit iffy and now Medicare is gonna be even more in the hole because tens of thousands of prescribed this drug. 

Shanenn Bryant: Wow. That is just crazy to think about, you know, while we're on sort of a controversial type of topic I wanted to hear from you. There are so much out there. Um, On one end of people saying they don't like people who do not have diabetes Or who are not pre-diabetic they don't like the fact of them getting the continuous glucose monitors because they don't quote unquote, need them. Um, and so there's some controversy out there about wearing the glute continuous glucose monitor. 

[00:30:46] Shanenn Bryant: So can you please set the record straight case that detour somebody from, you know, if they go out and they're researching or they're looking you up and maybe they run into some controversial conversations about the glucose monitor. Can you set the record straight on that? 

[00:31:02] Ben Galyardt: absolutely. You know, the . , the people that usually say that, the ones that I've heard are people that are type one diabetic that, and they're like, uh, you know, this is, I don't know, they, they kind of own it is what I've seen is like, this is, this is our, our thing and you don't need to be doing that. Uh, we, we had a friend that's got, uh, type one diabetes and she like scoffs at us, that we that we use them. But, um, you know, it, it really has nothing to do with Type 1 diabetes. Uh, all it is,

[00:31:34] Ben Galyardt: it's not a type one diabetes device. It's a continuous glucose monitor. You get to see what your blood sugar is doing 24 7, 

[00:31:44] Ben Galyardt: and I guarantee you, your blood sugar is not where it's supposed to be, and unless you wanna poke your finger 6, 8, 10 times a day, you're never gonna know exactly what you should and should not be eating. So this is a, a, diagnostic tool. That you're gonna be able to figure out where your blood sugar is and then it's actually a therapeutic tool as well, because you will start changing what you're doing. So you, you saw diagnostically your hypoglycemic a lot of the time, but now, so like that, that could be cool. Right? Okay. 14 days. I'm, I'm hypoglycemic man. That stinks. Okay, well now it can turn into a di uh, for, instead of just diagnostic. Now it can turn into a therapeutic tool, meaning, okay, great. Now we're going to use this to actually improve and actually get feedback and reward, feedback and reward. Do more of the good stuff, less of the bad stuff, and actually therapeutically change the outcome. And when you truly understand.

[00:32:52] Ben Galyardt: How vital stabilized blood sugar is to somebody's health. 

[00:32:56] Ben Galyardt: Uh, then, then it's like, at that point you, you're like, well, this is crazy not to, you know, for the price that it, you know, how much Ozempic, how much people are spending a year on Ozempic? Oh, yeah, it's crazy expensive, right?

[00:33:11] Ben Galyardt: $15,000 a year on Ozempic. where, you know, we're for a functional medicine program that we do that's, we're pennies on the dollar compared to that, and that fixes nothing. 

[00:33:23] Ben Galyardt: It causes you to potentially lose weight, but also potentially if you went on Ozempic, you would even go lower blood sugar.

[00:33:31] Ben Galyardt: It causes hypoglycemia as well, so it would even make you worse off. And so, you know, when we're thinking about this, it's like I would much rather Invest in somebody education and learning and teaching and, and making these changes versus, you know, let's just give them, give them the yellow pill that solves it all. And they don't, they don't have to change anything. 

[00:33:56] Shanenn Bryant: Oh, yeah. I mean the educational alone is so worth it. I have learned so much just from your book, Blood Sugar Doesn't Lie so I highly recommend people go out, get it. I will link it to the show notes below. Any final things that we should be thinking about when it comes to our health?

[00:34:16] Ben Galyardt: Yeah. Uh, I, I like to, to, always say, uh, I'm not smart enough to get past the basics when we're talking about helping somebody heal and somebody get better and fix their, their root causes. and and that's where you guys need to start, is start with the basics.

[00:34:34] Ben Galyardt: You don't have to go down and get genetics run and do all these organic acids and stool tests and spend thousands of dollars, you know, even after, after almost 25 years of functional medicine practice. Guess what we we do for testing? 

[00:34:51] Ben Galyardt: Blood work, you know, that, that, that's it. You know, starting off right off the bat, it's a, it's a, a $300 blood panel and and it is not, you know, uh, $2,000 in all these fancy different tests.

[00:35:06] Ben Galyardt: And, you know, the labs love it. The labs love all these tests because they're getting paid, but then that's coming out of your pocket and that's money that you're not gonna be able to put towards getting better. And put towards a dietary change or A CGM or a supplement, or a detoxification program, or whatever it is.

[00:35:25] Ben Galyardt: And so I would rather learn what we learned from the blood work and fix the basics off of there and see the miracles that we get to see versus, you know, spend, spend half, half the money on all these, all these tests. And so start with the basics. Blood, sugar, liver. Gut inflammation, adrenals, these basic systems before you go down this rabbit hole and start going, Ooh, I have Lyme and I have mold, and I have, you know, it's my hormones and I've gotta, you know, take, take all these, all these extra things and ozempic and all this stuff.

[00:36:00] Ben Galyardt: It's like, you know what? Put a CGM on, you can't, you can't unsee what you're seeing with that. Um, you, uh, put energy into getting proper sleep and see what the difference is there. We have patients lose 20, 30, 40 pounds and I'll ask them, Hey, did you exercise yet? No, I haven't added exercise in. I'm like, well, that's cool. So when, when you plateau and you start complaining that you're not losing weight anymore, you know, we'll, we'll talk again. But, that can happen because you can't out exercise a poor diet. 

[00:36:37] Ben Galyardt: I mean, if, if you're eating a really bad diet, you know, it, you, you're going to McDonald's, you're eating Seven 11 breakfast and, and all those things. But for a lot of people that think they're doing the right thing, they're really not. And unless you're actively tracking it, you'll never know. 

[00:36:54] Shanenn Bryant: Well, and the cool thing is anybody can work with F 8 Well Centers. and work with you. because yes, you guys are in Colorado, but you have offices everywhere. And someone, you have labs everywhere that you work with. So you can go to a lab in your hometown and still work with. F8 and still set up that virtual call with a doctor it's like an hour and a half of going through. All of that person's blood work. 

[00:37:20] Shanenn Bryant: So it's fantastic. No matter where you are, they can work with you. 

[00:37:24] Ben Galyardt: We, we did it before Covid, but after Covid and through Covid, you know, just people were like, oh, I can do all kinds of stuff, virtually. And so we're probably 95%, uh, of our, our patients now are virtual and we get a, we get to see 'em all over and we've got labs locally. Every town in the United States. We can get blood work done and. get it figured out and then, , just jump on a call like this and, and work through system, by system, by system. And it's, uh, it, it's pretty rewarding getting to, to do what we get to do and just hear the stories day in and day out of people repairing and recovering and, and just loving life again.

[00:38:09] Shanenn Bryant: Well, Dr. Ben, I love seeing all of your Instagram and your tik-toks and your live events. I know you even have free webinars from time to time. So how can people reach you? Where can they go to hear more from you?

[00:38:15] Ben Galyardt: Yeah, a absolutely. uh, TikTok, uh, as of this recording, I think we're at like 380 something thousand followers on TikTok, which is, yeah, like crazy and I, I don't dance on there at all. Um, but Instagram, we're on Instagram, we're on Facebook. We've got, uh, over 800 videos on, on YouTube. Uh, a lot of our longer videos on YouTube of like in-depth webinars and all types of information there. f8wellcenters.com is the website. Uh, lots of, lots of information on there. And, just want you guys to ultimately be inspired. Take massive action in your health. None of this is just God struck you with diabetes or, or you're just doomed to have this autoimmune disease. There are specific reasons why and if there's reasons why you can stop those reasons why you can reverse those reasons why and you can get your health back. 

[00:39:10] Shanenn Bryant: Great. Well, Dr. Ben, it's so great to talk to you. Thanks for being here. 

[00:39:13] Ben Galyardt: You betcha. Take care everybody.​