It’s important for people to understand from where I started and what I had to overcome in order to get to where I am today.
Some people start out in a great place and ruin their health. I had a lot of challenges growing up, not all of which were related to health, but I’ve overcome them all.
But health was the biggest challenge I faced over a lifetime.
At the height of my health issues between the ages of 23-26, I was completely disabled to the point where I couldn’t work or school or have friends or be in any relationships. I was just focused on survival and overcoming my health challenges. I didn’t think I would ever be healthy at that point and that I would never get better.
At a certain point, I went from being completely disabled to starting multiple companies.
But being a high-tech entrepreneur with many businesses, being in relationships, and having a rich social life created new challenges that I didn’t face when life was more simple.
For a few years, I would say I neglected my health to focus on building SelfDecode, but I’ve since renewed my focus on my own health optimization in the last year and a half.
I’ve been on a continuous journey and the cutting-edge tools that we built with SelfDecode really allowed me to make leaps and bounds with my health – 10X more than I ever thought possible.
I was always interested in improving my health and started health hacking at an early age. I stopped eating junk food for the most part since I was in high school. But without the right tools and information, I was just swinging blindly and my health just kept declining.
The following were previous health problems that I have completely gotten rid of without the use of any drugs.
My health regimen completely solved all of these problems. Not only did I solve them, but I am significantly better in almost all these areas than “healthy people.”
For example, I went from very low motivation to very high motivation, rather than just having a normal level of motivation. The same thing goes with other areas – I didn’t just fix them to be average, I fixed them to be way above average.
I reiterate, what works for me won’t necessarily work for you, which is why I highly recommend you use SelfDecode to figure out your own personalized regimen.
My Health Problems
Keep in mind that all of these health problems were occurring as I was eating extremely healthy from a standard perspective. I was doing everything “right”, yet I was so unhealthy. This is exactly what motivated me to get into precision health, because I realized one size doesn’t fit all.
If you’ll also notice, none of these problems are considered a serious or deadly disease like cancer, so they aren’t taken too seriously by the medical world.
Mental/Social:
- Irritability
- General anxiety
- Social anxiety
- Panic attacks
- Inability to handle stress
- Mood instability
- Depression
- Insecurity and low self-esteem
- OCD
- Alexithymia
- Antisocial
- Sleep problems: Quality, Latency, Length, Continuity, Tired after waking
- Lip/nail biting/hair pulling/teeth grinding and other compulsive behaviors
- Libido problems
- Restless leg syndrome
- Caffeine intolerance – hyperactive, anxious and irritable (even from tea)
Cognitive:
- Low motivation and excessive procrastination
- Inability to focus/ADHD
- Brain fog
- Poor verbal ability
- Poor working memory
- Information Processing issues or thinking in real-time
- Short-term memory loss
- Long-term memory deficit
Fatigue/Metabolic:
- Chronic Fatigue
- Exercise intolerance – tired easily, getting sick post-exercise, being sore for days after exercise, insomnia and anxiety from intense exercise
- Low energy & stamina
- Dizziness during exercise & when blood pressure was low
- Couldn’t function without 8+ hours of sleep
- Glucose intolerance – severe fatigue after glucose
- Cold/Poor circulation (feeling cold all of the time, inability to regulate temperatures)
Gut:
- IBS: SIBO & Bloating
- Flatulence
- Constipation
- Gut pain
- Bloody stools
- Nausea, especially while in a car or bus or after intense exercise
Skin, eyes, teeth, nose, nails
- Tinea Versicolor/Skin fungus
- Jock Itch
- Itchy skin
- Warts
- Hemorrhoids
- Acne
- Early hair loss and thinning
- Dry eyes and eye sensitivity (overly sensitive to environmental dust, etc…that would cause itching and pain)
- Early graying
- Periodontitis (Gum inflammation)
- Cavities
- Dandruff
- Worsening vision every year (from 11-32 yrs old)
- Sunburns
- Teeth grinding
- Nose bleeding
- Hearing loss
- Eye twitches
- Heavy sweating – especially under my arms
- Ingrown toe nails
- Blisters
Inflammatory:
- Pain (knees, back, shoulders, fingers)
- Frequent urination and excessive thirst
- Brain inflammation
- Chemical sensitivity and intolerant to alcohol
- Exercise headaches
- Post nasal drip
- Tinnitus/ear ringing
- Chronically stuffy nose
- Bells palsy – with multiple flare-ups after the first one
- Immunodeficiency
- Frequent infection
- Early artery hardening (measured by CT scan)
- Plantar Fasciitis
- Golfer’s & Tennis Elbow
- Rotator Cuff Tendonitis
- Wrist tendonitis
- Muscle twitching
- Muscle pain during exercise
Labs That Were Not Optimal
The following are lab tests that I successfully corrected that were increasing my risk of disease significantly.
Most of these were actually not contributing to the issues mentioned above, but rather I still have worked to correct them to lower my risk of future disease.
Out of the normal range:
- High Cholesterol
- High LDL-C/LDL particle numbers
- High Lipoprotein a
- High APOB
- High blood pressure at certain points
- High homocysteine
- High creatine kinase
- High Amylase and Lipase
- High Hemoglobin
- High phosphorous
- High IGF-1
- High IgE
- High SHBG
- High Ammonia
- High lead
- Low DHEAS
- Low T3
- Low free & total testosterone
- Low ferritin
- Low zinc
- Low Arginine
- Low Histidine
- Low Proline
- Low B1
- Low B3
Out of the suboptimal range:
- High Alkaline Phosphatase
- High ALT
- High AST
- High LP-PLA2
- High fasting glucose, HbA1C
- High GGT
- High hsCRP
- High Antimony
- High Tin
- Low & High BUN
- Low white blood cells
- Low uric acid
- Low CO2
- Low Total Protein
Requirements for my regimen:
Generally, in order for a supplement or lifestyle habit to be included in my regimen, it must meet 4 out of the 5 criteria below:
- No noticeable harmful side effects
- Double-blind placebo-controlled research published showing its effectiveness in my main area of interest
- Noticeable and positive effects with a mega dose
- More than 1 benefit – it can’t just benefit one specific thing (pleiotropic)
- Must improve significant biomarkers or genetic weaknesses
See my complete health regimen here.
