If we only pay attention to typical risk factors, we will miss what I call the "surprise diseases" that affect so many of my patients and people I know. The heart attack or plaque (detected on a heart scan) in someone who exercises and appears otherwise healthy, the breast cancer in a woman with no family history, the autoimmune disease that appears out of nowhere. How can we avert these conditions? Understanding the mechanism of Emotional Immunity (EI) is critical so you can start breaking common thought patterns. In this episode, we explore the following:

• A Case Study of "Surprise Diseases"
• Emotional Immunity (EI) explained and linked to disease
• The most common emotional patterns that overactivate and/or suppress immunity
• Key questions to identify if you're at risk
• How we inherit and pass on thought patterns that disrupt immunity

Meta Health is going to take a slight shift in direction with Season 2, as it incorporates more mindfulness, since it's not possible to fully optimize energy and wellbeing unless we recognize thought patterns that hold us back.

I'm calling this the Season of Inner Change, and this episode gives you an overview on my refreshed approach to sharing my insights from the clinic, from my programs, and from my personal life. Some topics include:

• Why the shift?
• Reconciling modern research and ancient wisdom
• Format change to meet the demand of authentic human voices in an AI world
• Addressing youth

Peter was kind enough to allow me to re-release our interview from 2019 from his podcast, The Drive, Episode #69. Many people have found me through Peter and told me this was one of their favorite episodes. Aside from insulin resistance and metabolism, we end the discussion with a topic that really resonated with Peter, which is the impact of generational stress, social media, and devices on youth and how I've navigated this in my own personal life.

This is longer than my usual episodes since we cover a ton of important topics, so I included detailed timestamps below. I hope you enjoy this important conversation.

• Peter's overview and perspective on our discussion (0:58)
• Surprise moment for Peter from our discussion (2:30)
• How a tough case of insulin resistance led Peter to my work (5:08)
• Metabolic disease in South Asian and East Asian patients (5:54)
• Triglyceride paradox in African Americans (10:38)
• Visceral vs subcutaneous fat and shortcomings of BMI (11:30)
• Cortisol and glucose variability (25:00)
• Mechanistic discussion of insulin resistance (27:20)
• Origins and evolutionary theories on insulin resistance (37:00)
• Brown adipose tissue and impact of climate patterns on insulin resistance (46:43)
• Vitamin D and hyperinsulinemia (50:38)
• Uric acid, high blood pressure, and fructose metabolism(54:05)
• VO2 max and Zone 2, including ethnic diferences (56:23)
• Zone 2 fitness testing to evaluate mitochondrial performance (1:01:15)
• Exercise for long-term functional health (1:01:00)
• Lifestyle changes to improve insulin resistance and other metabolic phenotypes (1:02:55)
• Aging and leg strength (1:09:59)
• Ron's approach to exercise and stress management for those with little time (1:10:00)
• Ron and Peter discuss stress management (1:13:00)
• Ron discusses his 5S approach to fatigue and stress management (1:16:00)
• The impact of family dynamics on health risk (1:17:00)
• PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) and its link to insulin resistance (1:18:34)
• Stress, adiposity, and weight loss resistance in females(1:20:00)
• Sleep apnea and insulin resistance (1:29:00)
• How a culture of achievement and expectations can lead to undue stress, unhappiness, and health problems in our children (a Silicon Valley case study) (1:30:10)
• The negative impact of devices and social media on children and Ron's approach to managing this (1:40:00)