From Neonatal Neurobiology to Elite Performance Coaching: Interview with Dr. Tommy Wood

June 20, 2018

Dr. Tommy Wood studied medicine at the University of Oxford, graduating in 2011.  After two years as a junior doctor in the UK, he returned to academia to earn his PhD in physiology and neuroscience at the University of Oslo, Norway.  He is the current PAH President, as well as the Chief Scientific Officer of Nourish Balance Thrive, a company that specializes in optimizing health and performance in athletes using advanced biochemical testing and an online health-coaching paradigm.

Tommy believes that diet and lifestyle interventions should form the basis of treatment for all systemic disease, and has lectured internationally on subjects related to this. In this podcast, Dr. Wood discusses his professional journey and the research that has gone into developing a machine learning algorithm to forecast health conditions from a basic blood chemistry.

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Here’s the outline of this interview with Drs Josh Turknett and Tommy Wood:

[00:00:37] From biochemistry to coaching elite athletes.

[00:07:00] Crossfit, Robb Wolf.

[00:09:02] Paleo Diet, Autoimmune Protocol Diet (AIP).

[00:09:25] Terry Wahls.

[00:09:52] Multiple Sclerosis risk factors.

[00:12:19] Talk: Systems Analysis and Multiple Sclerosis - Physicians for Ancestral Health Symposium, 2015.

[00:14:28] Terry Wahls studies: Lee, Jennifer E., et al. "A Multimodal, Nonpharmacologic Intervention Improves Mood and Cognitive Function in People with Multiple Sclerosis." Journal of the American College of Nutrition 36.3 (2017): 150-168; and Wahls, Terry, et al. "Dietary approaches to treat MS-related fatigue: comparing the modified Paleolithic (Wahls Elimination) and low saturated fat (Swank) diets on perceived fatigue in persons with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial." Trials 19.1 (2018): 309.

[00:14:34] MPI Cognition: Dale Bredesen's approach to Alzheimer’s disease.

[00:15:12] Difficulty of studying multimodal therapies.

[00:16:24] Nourish Balance Thrive.

[00:17:21] Megan Roberts, MSc; Study: Roberts, Megan N., et al. "A ketogenic diet extends longevity and healthspan in adult mice." Cell metabolism 26.3 (2017): 539-546.

[00:18:00] Clay Higgins - health coach.

[00:18:58] Blood Chemistry Calculator; Christopher Kelly; Bryan Walsh.

[00:19:19] Optimal reference ranges. Podcast: Health Outcome-Based Optimal Reference Ranges for Cholesterol, with Tommy Wood, MD., PhD.

[00:20:32] DUTCH test, Organic Acids Test (OAT), stool testing: 1, 2.

[00:21:25] Gut problems in ~90% of runners.

[00:24:47] Subjective quality of life as predictive of health (e.g., lack of sex drive, GI symptoms, sleep problems).

[00:28:03] Blood glucose as predictor of all-cause mortality.

[00:28:56] Hemoglobin and RDW as predictive measures.

[00:30:11] Study: Petursson, Halfdan, et al. "Is the use of cholesterol in mortality risk algorithms in clinical guidelines valid? Ten years prospective data from the Norwegian HUNT 2 study." Journal of evaluation in clinical practice 18.1 (2012): 159-168.

[00:31:34] Study: Stavenow, Lars, and Thomas Kjellström. "Influence of serum triglyceride levels on the risk for myocardial infarction in 12 510 middle aged males: interaction with serum cholesterol." Atherosclerosis 147.2 (1999): 243-247.

[00:31:46] Study: Després, Jean-Pierre, et al. "Hyperinsulinemia as an independent risk factor for ischemic heart disease." New England Journal of Medicine 334.15 (1996): 952-958.

[00:34:42] Metabalomics.

[00:39:04] Meeting the Queen.

[00:42:37] nourishbalancethrive.com; Blood Chemistry Calculator; 7-minute analysis; Highlights Newsletter; ancestraldoctors.org; email.