Episode #98 Featuring Dr. Robin Berzin! THE ULTIMATE HEALTH GUIDE! Anything and everything you need and want to know about functional medicine and taking control of your health!!

Summary

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The Dylan Gemelli Podcast

Episode #98: Featuring Dr. Robin Berzin – THE ULTIMATE HEALTH GUIDE!

Release Date: March 7, 2026
Host: Dylan Gemelli
Guest: Dr. Robin Berzin (Founder & CEO of Parsley Health)

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Episode Overview

This wide-ranging episode dives deep into the principles and practical applications of functional medicine with renowned physician and Parsley Health founder, Dr. Robin Berzin. Dylan and Dr. Berzin discuss how to move beyond a symptom-based approach, get to the root causes of health issues, and take true, sustainable control of physical and mental wellbeing. The conversation also touches on optimizing nutrition, lab testing, supplements, navigating the modern "DIY" health fad landscape, and how Parsley Health offers an integrative path different from other programs.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Is Functional Medicine?

[03:15–05:25]

• Functional medicine is about “getting to the root cause of disease instead of treating the symptom.”
• Dr. Berzin: “You’re not lying awake at night because you have an Ambien deficiency. That is not why you can’t sleep.” [03:45]
• The functional approach: Ask “why,” not just “what.”
• Integrates lifestyle, environment, nutrition, movement, and stress alongside medication when necessary.

2. Limitations of Traditional Medicine

[05:25–06:38]

• Traditional healthcare excels at acute, life-saving interventions, but struggles with chronic illness, prevention, or helping patients thrive.
• Overprescription without context: “Why is it every time that we go to the doctor [...] I get amoxicillin or...Z-pack?...Why does it never work?” – Dylan [05:28]
• Functional medicine shifts from merely adding years to life, to adding life to years.

3. Functional Medicine: Longevity and Living Well Now

[06:28–08:07]

• It’s not just about “living longer” but making existing years healthier and more vibrant.
• Chronic issues common in adults (depression, PCOS, infertility, hormone imbalance, gut issues) can all be tackled with this integrative approach.

4. Mind-Body Connection: The Forgotten Factor

[08:07–10:38]

• Mental health and physical health are inseparable.
• Dr. Berzin’s book State Change explores how “we heal the mind through the body.”
• “It’s like trying to climb Everest but not getting to base camp. You’re just going to get stuck.” [09:12]
• Chronic stress (fight-or-flight) blocks healing; shifting into parasympathetic (rest-and-digest) is crucial.
• Importance of developing tools for constructive stress management.

5. Practical Strategies for Stress & Nervous System Regulation

[11:50–15:20]

• Exercise outperforms many medications for mental health: “95% of people respond to exercise” – Dr. Berzin [12:29]
• Building daily healthy stress management skills (meditation, movement, prayer, downtime, technology like Apollo Neuro).
• “The human body is the most sophisticated, beautiful, incredible machine ever created.” [13:10]
• Personal anecdotes on meditation, setting boundaries, and the value of deliberate slowness.

6. The Role of Data, Labs, and Personalization in Health

[18:01–24:44]

• Getting comprehensive bloodwork/data is only the first step.
• Most people are overwhelmed by data, don’t know what to do next, and regular doctors often don’t have time or training to interpret functional labs holistically.
• Parsley Health’s distinct approach: Provides labs plus an action plan from a trained provider—a “BYO Labs” 30-minute consult model.
• “Everyone should have a doctor who understands nutrition and sleep and fitness and supplements and advanced testing and who will talk to you and hear you and give you guidance so that you actually take the actions that get you healthier.” [22:39]

7. Fixing Root Issues Versus the Symptom-Chasing Mentality

[24:55–33:32]

• Many people chase quick fixes, take innumerable supplements/medications, or self-diagnose based on AI, but often treat effects, not causes.
• “No drug will ever outrun an underlying health issue.” – Dr. Berzin [32:17]
• Real-world examples: SIBO diagnosis/treatment, unnecessary long-term supplement regimens, unintended side effects from medications.
• Hormones and supplements: Many symptoms (esp. low testosterone) can be fixed without immediately resorting to medication.

8. Contemporary Health Trends: GLP-1s, DIY Drugs & Social Influence

[33:47–36:57]

• GLP-1 agonists (and similar medications) are powerful but widely misused as quick weight-loss solutions.
• “They’re the most DIY drug out there that is being DIY dangerously.” – Dr. Berzin [34:57]

9. Nutrition Realities: The Flipping of the Food Guide Pyramid

[38:06–43:39]

• Dr. Berzin’s clinical observations support whole foods, ample fiber, “good” fats, and adequate (but not extreme) protein – this is more effective than ultra-processed foods and low-fat dogma.
• The correct ratio of protein (0.7g/lb for most, higher for athletes) is key, but “you don’t have to drown yourself in protein shakes.”
• Fat does not make you fat & is vital for hormones; quality matters more than quantity.

10. Whey & Plant Protein Reality Check

[43:33–45:37]

• Not everyone tolerates dairy/whey; inflammation is common and can be misattributed.
• Plant protein powders often lack complete amino acid profiles unless carefully formulated.
• Industry example: Mainstream “protein” claims (e.g., Starbucks) are usually low quality.

11. Supplements & The Basics Versus the Hype

[55:15–66:58]

• Dr. Berzin’s Top 5 impactful supplements:
  • Vitamin D3/K2: “Profound effects on overall body function.” [55:37]
  • Creatine: For cognitive function and muscle health, especially as we age.
  • Methylated B Vitamins (B12, folate): Crucial for mood, detox, and hormonal health – the methylated form makes a clinical difference.
  • Urolithin A: A promising (but still new) supplement for mitochondrial function and cellular health.
  • Omega-3s & Magnesium (also discussed)
• NAD+ “does nothing” taken directly; only precursors (like NMN, NR) may work, but more research is needed.
• Avoid overprioritizing advanced supplements/peptides at the expense of foundational basics.

12. Peptides, Shortcuts, and the Importance of 'The Cake'

[66:58–67:27]

• Many want peptides or “biohacks” before their foundation is in place.
• “Too many people are writing their names in peptide icing and missing the cake.” [65:38]
• Focus on establishing strong nutrition, movement, stress management, and sleep before adding “icing.”

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “Functional medicine is really just about getting to the root cause of disease instead of treating the symptom.” – Dr. Berzin [03:30]
• “You’re not lying awake at night because you have an Ambien deficiency.” – Dr. Berzin [03:44]
• “Exercise goes head to head with almost all antidepressants. In fact, it does better.” – Dr. Berzin [12:12]
• “No drug will ever outrun an underlying health issue. Eventually the underlying illness...will outrun the drug’s ability to keep up with it.” – Dr. Berzin [32:17]
• “The food is the first thing on the prescription pad.” – Dr. Berzin [48:40]
• “Everyone should have a doctor who understands nutrition and sleep and fitness and supplements and advanced testing and who will talk to you and hear you and give you guidance so that you actually take the actions that get you healthier.” – Dr. Berzin [22:39]
• “Too many people are skipping the cake and the icing and going to the writing...and it’s not benefiting their long-term health.” – Dr. Berzin [65:38]

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Important Timestamps

• 03:15 — What is functional medicine & approach to disease
• 08:07 — Role of mental health and stress in overall wellness
• 11:50 — Practical tools for de-stressing and vagus nerve regulation
• 18:01 — Lab tests, the problem of data without guidance, and Parsley’s unique solution
• 24:27 — Addressing inflammation: More than just numbers, it’s about root cause
• 32:17 — Medication cannot substitute for addressing the root issue
• 34:57 — GLP-1s: DIY dangers, celebrity hype, and misuse
• 38:06 — Nutrition: Whole foods, fiber, fats, and protein
• 43:33 — Pitfalls of whey and plant-based protein supplements
• 55:15 — Dr. Berzin’s five essential supplements
• 65:38 — The “writing on the icing” vs “the cake” of health habits
• 68:03 — Dr. Berzin’s mission and closing thoughts

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Where to Find Dr. Robin Berzin & Parsley Health

• Website: ParsleyHealth.com (Includes free 15-minute consults and info)
• Socials: @ParsleyHealth | @RobinBerzinMD
• Newsletter: Female longevity focus at robinberzinmd.com

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Episode Takeaway:
Functional medicine offers a blueprint for addressing modern health concerns by looking at the whole person. Sustainable wellbeing requires not just data, not just medications or supplements, but action, personalization, and an integrated approach to mind and body—food and movement first, with advanced interventions as the icing, not the foundation.

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Transcript

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[Dylan Gemelli]

All right everybody, welcome back to the Dylan Gemelli podcast. So I have a great story about my guest today and how I met. Well, didn't meet you, but knew of you immediately, which I kind of told you.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

So you found me.

[Dylan Gemelli]

I did find you. And my wife pointed out, she said, who is that? We, we need to interview her and I'll tell you what happened. So I told you I'm a partner with Dr. Dave Raven and you were on that AI panel, kind of moderating, just handling it. And you did tremendous. And I sent her a video home and I took a video because I was doing it for Dave to post and she said, who was that about you? And I said, I am, I don't know why I'm not 100 sure. So I found, I, I figured it out. Okay. And so we found you. And then I, like two weeks later I get this email of one of your representatives asking if I wanted to interview you.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And I said, yeah, the universe.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, exactly.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

It found us.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, it did. And I, I was thrilled when I saw it. I was like, yes, sweet. I don't even have to try to reach out here. I was going to ask Dave for help, but I don't like to ask for help from anybody. I just, you know, we're going to

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

have to talk about that.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, I know it, I know it. But anyway, to introduce her, to give her a little bit of her accolades before we really get into it here, she's a Columbia trained board certified internal medicine physician, but well known as being the founder and CEO of Parsley Health, which we're going to get into pretty good here because now that I've Learned more about it. I really want to stress everything that's done here because it's solving so many problems.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And.

[Dylan Gemelli]

And she's a pioneer in. In functional and personalized medicine. She's done a ton. She's going to continue to do a ton. She's going to make a huge impact, and I'm here to help her make the biggest impact possible. So, my friends, welcome Dr. Robin Burzen.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Hi. So good to be here.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Thank you for coming in on short notice, especially to come and see me. I appreciate it, and I am thoroughly looking forward to this interview.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Me, too.

[Dylan Gemelli]

All right, let's do it. So. All right. Functional medicine. We talk about this, we hear the term. I know what it is quite well. Very important in my life. What is it, and what does it mean to you, and why are you involved in it?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

You know, when I was in my medical training, I looked around the hospital, and I saw that our healthcare system was really good at keeping us alive, but not good at helping us thrive. And I saw that all those people were in the hospital largely. Not entirely, but largely because of the ways in which we're eating, we're moving, we're living our environment. And I saw that our healthcare system was like drowning under this tsunami of cost and overwhelm, and we can't even get to people. And meanwhile, everyone's insurance premiums are going through the roof, and meanwhile, everyone's trying to be healthy, but our healthcare system isn't helping them do that. And I was fortunate enough to learn early in my career about functional medicine, and it just hit for me. It was like, okay, this is it. And functional medicine is really just about getting to the root cause of disease instead of treating the symptom. So you're not lying awake at night because you have an Ambien deficiency. That is not why you can't sleep. Okay? There are many reasons you may not be able to sleep.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

You're looking at screens. You have anxiety, you have high blood sugar, you're inflamed, your circadian rhythm's off. There's a hormonal imbalance. Right. Like, we can figure out why. I'm being a little flip because of course we want to use medications when we need them to achieve goals, but we can't only use medications to achieve goals. And when it comes to things like, we were just talking about heart health, blood sugar, depression, infertility, hormone issues, when before we started, you were talking about testosterone and the reasons people have low testosterone in the first place, functional medicine just digs in and I call it the medicine of why. We figure out why you have these issues and then we treat them with the best possible tools. And sometimes that tool is a drug and sometimes it's a food and sometimes it's nervous system resilience and stress management like Apollo. And we can get into all the ways we do that, but that more holistic approach, it works so much better and the results are incredible. And so once I saw that, I was like, this is what I have to do.

[Dylan Gemelli]

And that's what I love about it, is the actual digging into the problem. I can't tell you how many times that I had questioned when I was far younger, why is it every time that we go to the doctor that all that ever happens is I get amoxicillin or, or now Z pack, like when I was into my teenage years, why is it no matter what I have, this is what I'm getting and why does it never work? You know, and you don't understand, you don't know. And most people just do what they're told and they think doctors are the end all, be all that you go to and know everything and anything. That's kind of like when you get older, when you thought your parents knew everything and you realize that's not the case. So I find that now it's becoming more and more prevalent that people like yourself are changing from regular practice or coming out on their own, etc. I think the important thing now is to educate them on why this is necessary and how to add, you know, life to your years, not years to your life type of thing. Is that kind of your goal and what you can do?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Absolutely. I mean, what I love about functional medicine, it's both about optimizing your health so that you can live longer and live better and about treating the conditions you have right now.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

We talk a lot about longevity right now. It's like a big buzzword. Right. But like parsley. My practice has been around for almost 10 years. Our 10 year anniversary is coming up. I've been doing functional medicine for a decade. And before we called it longevity, we called it health optimization. So different words, same thing. And we've been doing this for a long time. But what I love about functional medicine is that we're not just doing peptides and GLP1s and looking at, you know, how are you going to live 30, 40, 50 years from now, we're actually addressing the health issues that you have right now. And 60 plus percent of adults in America are dealing with something they have high cholesterol, they have depression, they have hormone imbalances, they have pcos, infertility, pms, autoimmune, gut issues, can't get pregnant, whatever it is. People are living with stuff. And functional medicine addresses what's going on right now. So we diagnose, we treat and we optimize. And what I love to do is I get to do all three. So if I'm working with a woman in her 50s and I'm working on hormone replacement therapy and weight gain, and yes, we're adding to GLP1 and yes, we're addressing depression and anxiety through meditation, through psychedelic work, through supplements and then sometimes through medication. I'm also looking at her calcium score and saying, what are we going to do to make sure you don't develop heart disease in 10, 20 years? And so I get to look into the future, but I also get to help her feel better right now. And I think that those two things together are what make this medicine awesome.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, I totally, totally agree. So let me ask you this. I always looked at everything kind of through a improper prism, so to speak. So I had the one side was the, the fitness and the nutrition, which is what I've dedicated like I don't know, 20 some odd years to. But I never, until I met Dave and started working together with him, I never really looked at the mind side. I know I had a lot of anxiety and a lot of stress and it was, it would accumulate. But I never pieced together the importance of the balance in both and how it takes both to really be fully healthy. Because you and I can fix everybody's diet, their hormones, everything. But if this is really off, we're really not getting anywhere, are we?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Not at all. And you know, this beautiful. My book called State Change is all about how we heal the mind through the body and how much so much of, of our mental health actually starts in the physical health and how people kind of get stuck. I liken it to, if you're dealing with depression, anxiety, chronic fatigue, insomnia, all of these things that so many people are experiencing day in and day out, and you're not addressing inflammation, blood sugar, nutrient deficiencies, lack of exercise, sleep. If you're not addressing some of these physical things, it's like trying to climb Everest but not getting to base camp. You're just going to get stuck.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

You're going to.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And yet in. When we address mental health, we sort of ignore the physical and act like your brain is, you know, got a concrete wall between your head and your body or something. And that's just not, that's not what's happening. It's all deeply connected. And then when your nervous system is on fire, it's like we're all running from a lion all day long. With the lion is our email and our text messages. You get stuck in fight or flight. This is what Dave Rabin and Apollo really work on. You get stuck in this. He knew stress should go up and it come down, go up and come down like that sine wave from physics from high school. And we get stuck up here where it's always on. And then the body can never begin to heal itself because when we're in sympathetic fight or flight, we can't heal because that's our run and go mode. What we have to do is to get into parasympathetic, which is your rest, digest, relax and heal side of your nervous system. And when we can get there, the body can actually start to heal itself. It's just that in our daily lives we're not giving it a chance. And so that's also why I love functional medicine is because we don't look at just physical. We look at mind, body, spirit and every single patient. If I have a mom and she's not sleeping and she's anxious and stressed, I know that anything I try to do for her gut health is like game over. It's not going to work. I have to address these other things first.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, 100% I haven't taken it serious enough. I'm like that super type A, that's seven days a week. And so I have this ongoing constant. I operate with a sense of urgency at all times and it's not good. It's good to accomplish stuff, but then it becomes a problem. So I have like de stress dressed, wearing the Apollo and through prayer. And I swear to you, I know this is going to sound immature and crazy and I don't care because it works. But I, I bought myself a gaming PC and put it in my office and when I need a break, I switch the screen and I'm very controlled. See, I'm a very controlled person. But I start to play that thing 30 minutes and I come right back down and totally stress goes away. So I found something that made me feel like a kid again for a few minutes that took away from it. I don't obsess like a gamer, but I, I find that if you can find something that can just slow you down a little bit. And that's why I love the Apollo, because it does that and it, it, See, I didn't understand vagus nerve stimulation and that role that it plays and everything. But like you said, why do you think that people get stuck in that fight or flight constantly? What, what is the main cause that? Is it trauma? Is it workaholic? What is it?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I mean, I think you just said it for so many people. It's our patterns. And we don't. We learn to tie our shoes and brush our teeth, but we don't learn constructive, healthy ways of managing our stress and our emotions and our nervous system. And we teach people that when you feel stressed, work or do drugs or drink alcohol or zone out in media or TV or scroll on your Instagram. Right. We have all of these frankly unhealthy ways of managing our stress. And we don't actually teach people the healthy ways. But exercise goes head to head with almost all antidepressants. In fact, it does better.

[Dylan Gemelli]

I agree.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And 95% of people respond to exercise. When it comes to mental health only, you know, the studies vary, but somewhere between 30 and 60% to some, some of the medicate common medications. And it's not to knock the medications, those can be powerful too. But exercise works for pretty much everybody and it works just as well. And so if you look at the data, like we should be prescribing exercise as our top mental health tool, but it's just not what happens in the medical community. And so I think when we teach people these skills and give them tools, whether, you know, we both love Dave and the Apollo, it's a device that helps through these vibratory patterns, stimulate your vagus nerve and your vagus nerve. Everyone is. You actually have two of them, one on each side of your brain stem. And they come down in your body and they innervate. Everything that does that happens for you automatically. It, your heartbeat, your breathing, your digestion. I always want to remind people, because I find we're often at war with our bodies. This human body is the most sophisticated, beautiful, incredible machine that has ever been created. It is so cool. So much is happening for you at every second of your life that you don't have to think about or direct or ask for. It's just automatically happening. And the vagus nerve is a big piece of that. And if we can take care of this thing, this only vehicle that we are given for life, then everything else unlocks. And so for my patients and what I see, it's teaching people tools that are healthy and constructive to manage stress and to get out of fight or flight. And when People realize they can do that instead of say, drinking or some of these less helpful things, people start to feel a lot better.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yes. I've been learning about so many people that are providing health by just fixing what you're talking about, fixing the state of mind, getting people rewiring basically their brain. I've talked to multiple people about that and the significant impact that it has on everyday life. I need that done half the time too.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

That's what I'm working on.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I mean, meditation has been shown on functional MRI studies to truly remap the brain. It fills in the ruts in the road of the brain so that your thoughts, instead of going in that same unhelpful pattern, can go into new directions. And so I meditate for 15 minutes every single morning. And if I don't, things are off the rails that day. Yeah. And if I do, it completely sets me on a new trajectory. And like usually I have a kid or two kids like sitting on me. It's like 6:30 in the morning. But I really, I'm religious about it. And my meditation practice, my prayer practice, my yoga, my exercise, these are all ways in which I am neuromodulating myself so that I can do all the things I want to do. And they are as important as my gluten free, dairy free, high fiber, high protein, high healthy fat diet.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Absolutely. I, I just had this conversation before you came here and I said, you know who I have the most conversation with every day is in prayer. That's where I have the most conversation with any, anybody. I, I thought about it and I was like, okay, I do 1, 2, 3, 4. And I started going down the line and that's when I'm at my, my most peace, when I'm actually not thinking about work most of the time. Unless, and turn the notifications off of the phone away. It's the only time I'm really at strong peace. And I don't think people take that silence or the, that understanding of the most importance is to just slow down and like rationalize a little bit and relax.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I have a sign in my office and it says slow down five miles an hour. Because I say, as you' talking, I'm like, I think you and I are built from the same, same materials. And slowing down fixes a lot of things.

[Dylan Gemelli]

It's not easy.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

It's really hard.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, I know it.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And it's not reinforced around us. Right. We're just constantly told to go, go, go, go. And then the message is to fuel, to go, go, go, Go. And that's why we have a food system that is fueling us to go, but it's making us sick.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Somebody was just asking me because they, I said, oh, my birthday is coming up at the end of the month. Well, what are you going to do? Like, what are you going to do? What's my barber? What are you going to do? What? I said, you know what? All I want is just a day off to not have to do just a day to just do nothing. And I would be the happiest guy on the planet. You know, do it. Probably not.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Come on, you have to do it now. How old are you turning?

[Dylan Gemelli]

44.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Oh, my gosh, I'm 44.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Really?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Well, see, there you go.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

All right.

[Dylan Gemelli]

I know. I think for me it, I'll still work out, but I think other than that, I'm going to. I, I left my day blank. I can't. Not on my workout days. I'm going to do it. I do it on Christmas. I do it unless it falls on a non workout day. But I think other than that, now, the older you get, sometimes you get so fed up where you're just like, okay, I'm doing this. You know, four or five years ago, I wouldn't have, I would have lied to your face and told you I'm gonna do it and then not do it.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Not do it. All right, well, holding you accountable, people, if you have one day off.

[Dylan Gemelli]

So I want to get into more of the parsley side because I asked you, is it similar to function health? And you just gave me a full blown education on it because I think function's very popular and people know. But the marketing's good on it. But you do something similar, but very different, which I really appreciate as you explained it. And I wasn't necessarily going to go deep into parsley, but I want to now because of learning more about it, it's more intricate, it's more personalized. So just talk about what you filled me in on earlier.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Totally. So, you know, like many of the lab testing companies out there, we have a full comprehensive blood work panel, longevity labs that you can get with us nationally. You get them through Quest and you can do those labs with us and we'll give you a whole breakdown of what your labs mean, what your results mean. We look at hormones, we look at heavy metals, we look at heart health, blood sugar, all the things. So you can do that with us. Like you mentioned function. There's lots of other companies out there also. I'm on whoop the Wearable company's medical advisory board. They have comprehensive labs as well, which is awesome. And I'm all for it, by the way. I think that our data should be in our hands. And getting your lab tests and knowing what they mean is a great starting point. So whether you get them through parsley, which we offer, or whether you get them through one of these other companies, great. It's a great place to start in your health. But what happens over and over again and what I see with all these lab tests is that people get the results and they get the AI report and you know, they look at it and they kind of understand some things. Okay, I understand. Then they're like, oh, what do I do with this information? I don't know. And then they throw it into Chat, GPT or Claude or whoever your favorite, you know, AI platform is, and they get some more information. And maybe their vitamin D is low and maybe the AI gives them seven ways to fix their vitamin D and they're like, I don't know what to do, what do I do next? Like, how do I make decisions around this? And God forbid, it's not vitamin D, it's heart health or it's autoimmune, it's fertility or hormones, it's like, what do I do with this information? And then what happens is they go to their primary care doctor, the regular doc, who is wonderful and well meaning, but who's like, why did you order these tests? I don't have time to review these tests. I'm not trained to connect the dots across all these different tests because in my conventional medical training, which, you know, introduced me at amazing places like Columbia and Mount Sinai, I wasn't trained there to think about the body as ecosystem, to connect the dots between your lab results and your nutrition and your mental health and your physical health. And so, you know, regular doctors, people are coming to us all the time at Parsley and being like, yeah, they either didn't have time for me or maybe they blew me off, or maybe they just didn't answer my questions or they didn't give me a plan. And so what I'm seeing over and over again is people have results, they have data, but they're not taking action.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And so what parsley offers in addition to those lab tests is actual medical care with board certified functional medicine doctors. And we do it online nationwide, so 50 state. You can just zoom with us over from your house, your car, your work or whatever. And our doctors will, we have a visit, you can buy where you will just Go over your lab results so they could come from any of the companies, any other company, it doesn't have to be us. And we not only tell you what your labs mean, which is a great starting point, but we also do a little bit of our own health assessment. And we look at what you're eating and how you're moving, we look at your symptom severity, we look at your symptoms across your whole body, and our doctors put the pieces together and give you an action plan. Because if you get all this data but you don't do anything with it, you're not getting healthier because you have data, you're getting healthier because you do something. And so we have this visit, we call it BYO Labs, where you can do a 30 minute doctor visit with us and we'll give you this plan and tell you what everything means and answer your questions and hear you right, because like the AI isn't hearing you or listening to you or in conversation with you, or understanding that because your house is under construction, you don't have a kitchen, you can't eat this way, or, or because you're working too hard, you need help navigating the healthcare system. And so we do that. And then we also have our annual program for clinical care. And so lots of people come to us, not just for labs. We do the labs, but they come to us to work with our docs on fertility and menopause and heart health and low testosterone and depression and weight and inflammation and autoimmune. We do a lot of gut health, a lot of autoimmune, a lot of hormones, a lot of weight and metabolism. And it's, you know, I like to make fun of some of these really fancy pants doctors who we all know and love. Some of them have big podcasts, let's just say, and they have fancy pants medical practices where they see like 50 patients a year for 250 grand a month.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, I know it.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And if you're like, well, I could never have that, my answer to you is, yes, you can. It's called Parsley Health. And one of the doctors who used to work for me at Parsley went to work in one of these $250,000 a year clinics. And I saw him a couple years ago and I said, hey, it's great to see you. What's it like over there? Are they doing anything different than we're doing at Parsley? And he said, no. And so everyone, everyone should have a functional medicine doctor. Everyone should have a doctor who understands nutrition and Sleep and fitness and supplements and advanced testing and who will talk to you and hear you and give you guidance so that you actually take the actions that get you healthier. And that's what we do. So we do it all online. And so it's, yes, it's the labs, but it's also the actual care.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And the care is what is missing. And that to me is the gap to close. And that's what we're here for.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah. And that's just starts with the data. You gotta have the data.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yes.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Interpretation of the data can be tricky and you can get so many different pieces of information and. And you and I both know these ranges go all over the place anymore too. And you got to be careful on those.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Because they change with what they say is healthy, which I don't even know what that means anymore, to be honest with you. I think the gaps that are like this should be more like this. I mean, personally.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah. Well, we, because we're functional medicine, we tell you not just what's in range, but we tell you what's optimal.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right, Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And we, and we do explain to you in the lab product like what that means. And this is good, this is great. This is out of range.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, that's great.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And, but then here's the thing about the out of range. I have, you know, people bring us these tests from all over the place and people have out of range tests, but then they just don't know what to do about it.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

So it's like great to get a little pat on your back if you're optimal. I've got the optimal magnesium level. My APOB is optimal. Woohoo. Right, right. Like you know, do that like Saturday Night fever walk. Sorry.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Levitan's looking at me. But then what about when things are not optimal?

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And why is my HSCRP high? Why am I inflamed? Well now we got, we got to have an investigation because there's a lot of reasons your HSCRP and inflammation could be high.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And we now need to take the next step. And to take the next step, you need a doctor to help you navigate. Because what is right for you may not be what the AI spit out as an answer.

[Dylan Gemelli]

And that's just it. And what you just said. A lot of people don't even know what that is, nor understand what it means. Then they look it up and they don't realize the correlation that has on every damn thing that could be wrong. Right. Because if you're inflamed that could, that potentially could cause anything. Right. I mean, it's more than likely the culprit of whatever problem you have.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Exactly. And it could be indicative of something deeper. It could be a heart health issue, it could be an immune system issue, it could be an injury. It could be because you had a cold and flu when you got these lab tests. Like, there's all sorts of stuff going on when I, you know, I see patients on Thursday mornings and I'm always amazed that, you know, somebody will have been seeing me for like six months and will have totally fixed their GI issue. Like, they'll come in with gas, bloating, all these things. They turned out to have small intestinal bacterial overgrowth. We treated it. It's better. That's the number one cause of most of, like GI distress today. But it goes under diagnosed. We do a breath test to diagnose it, we treat it, and it's six months later. And I'm like, how you doing? And they're like, I cannot lose these 10 pounds. And I'm like, remember when you came here and you were bloated and couldn't poop and like have reflux and all these things? And it's like our memories of even how we feel felt six months ago, it's like gone. It's like, oh, yeah, I don't care about any of that. That's great. But like, now I'm onto this thing. Right? And that's how we as human beings work. And so it's hard for us then to expect us to take all of this data, even with the AI. And the AI is amazing. I mean, I use it every day, but to then sort of self navigate and connect the dots across, like my health history, my family history, the condition I had five years ago, that could actually be informing why I feel the way I do and why people have SIBO because they took all these antibiotics for sinus infections and ear infections and that destroyed their microbiome. But, like, they're not connecting the dots between the bloating I have now and the crazy amount of antibiotics I took for sinus infections five years ago. And so that's where the guidance can help you to that next step and to actually feel better.

[Dylan Gemelli]

We live in, like a more is always better type of society. So you could rob Peter to pay Paul and think you're fixing one thing and causing a whole nother issue somewhere else. And I see it all the time. I've done it a million times myself. I mean, when I was telling you about the lp. You know how many things I threw at that thing under the sun and created, like liver problems, kidney problems. I was taking everything that I thought could fix it, and I was. And my wife would look at me and she'd go, are you really taking that much stuff? I mean, the pile was like this. Yeah, but it does this. But it does this, but it doesn't.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I even know better.

[Dylan Gemelli]

But you can't help it. That's why it's important to have somebody that's taking care of you or watching over you, even if you know or think you know, you know.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Oh, yeah. Everybody comes to us with the supplement graveyard, and it's like, I took it a little bit for a little while, and then I took this other thing for a little bit for a little while. And I'm always like, yeah, that's not how supplements work. No, you gotta take them consistently. Start one thing at a time. And then I took all these things, and something was making me sick, and I didn't know what it was, so I stopped all of them. And I'm like, okay, cool, we're starting over. Clean the slate.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Oh, my gosh.

[Sponsor/Ad Reader]

But. And.

[Dylan Gemelli]

And that's the thing, too. Some things that work necessarily aren't going to work for everybody, because it can. Like what I was telling you, what I'm going through now with the Jardians, I. I think those are just magnificent drugs. What I was telling you before is it's gotten to the point now where the past, like, two or three weeks, my heart's jumping out of my chest constantly because I can't keep electrolytes, I can't keep potassium. And when your electrolytes are off, you get irregular heartbeat. I know the pattern because I. I carried low potassium before I even took it. And it's gotten to the point now where I had to just stop. And in three days, now that it's kind of out of my system, I feel like, okay, I can breathe again. I'm back to normal.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah. So many of these medications that are targeting one thing, they have full body effects, right? And the doctor that prescribed the one thing for the heart doesn't really care about the skin or the hair loss or the bloating or the, you know, the other or whatever else that happens. My. I was making fun of her this week. My best friend from childhood, and, you know, she's complaining to me about her bloating and her sort of weight gain and her hormones being off. And we're in our mid-40s now, and I've been telling her for 10 years to try stopping gluten. And she was having all this hair loss. And so she, her doctor put her on Minoxidil and she's doing PRP in her scalp with a Minoxidil. Made her whole body puffy. And she's a jewelry designer, and so now she can't wear her rings. And like, I'm just like, okay, finally. I don't know what I said. 10 years of banging my head against the wall. She was like, I went gluten free this week. And, you know, it's funny, all my bloating went away and I, you know, don't feel so foggy. And I had a really stressful week and I was a lot calmer. And I'm just like, I want one of those slow motion videos of me just like banging my head into like a wall, you know, just like. But I'm like, cool, well, let's stick with this for a few months and then maybe let's taper off the minoxidil because actually some of your, you know, global low grade hair loss might just be from chronic inflammation from eating a food that's inflaming your gut and therefore inflaming your whole body. And then we don't need this drug that makes you puffy and that makes you can't wear your rings. Right. It's like getting to the root cause. Right. And that is what I did not learn even in my incredible medical training. It's what I learned in functional medicine. And when we take a beat to try to get to that root cause and let the body heal, sometimes we don't need all these medications, sometimes we don't need all these supplements.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

We can get ourselves into a state where the body's actually regulating on its own.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Absolutely. And it goes with every single condition and everything I learned about this, not in this field, but training bodybuilders, like I was kind of getting into before, and everybody wanted to be on testosterone replacement therapy. And I was learning about it in my later 20s, early 30s, and I was coaching steroid users and seeing what they were doing to themselves and eradicating things. But then there were people that were following their suit. Well, they're taking trt, so we're going to take it. And it's like, well, yeah, but if we fix your shbg, it's high. If we get that in range, your testosterone is going to boost right back up. Probably if you're not taking anything else because it's bounding up your testosterone and sometimes it's easy, like it's a simple fix, but you wouldn't know if you don't talk to.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

There's so many men, they're living sedentary lifestyles. They've got metabolic syndrome, high blood sugar, they're inflamed, they're, you know, whole system is out of whack. Their digestion is completely off. They're not exercising, they're not doing anything. And then if you are like that, your testosterone is going to be low.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Absolutely.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And then they're going online and these places will just give people testosterone nowadays. And what happens is then they don't realize that it's going to kill their fertility.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And I'm like, all for TRT and hrt and we prescribe a lot of hormone replacement therapy, especially for women at parsley. I mean, we see men too, but we see a lot of women who are going through menopause and perimenopause and, and prescribing hormones. And I'm a huge fan of testosterone and including testosterone when appropriate for women and in moderation for women. But I can't tell you how many people could have had their own testosterone levels just rebound if they just addressed some of these root causes. And by addressing those root causes, they not only get higher testosterone, they get better everything. Yes. Their energy, their clarity, their hopes at work.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Their digestion, their weight. And so I'm all for using medications, whether it's a GLP1 or hormone replacement, but what I'm seeing is everybody like skipping the step. They're going straight to the medication without addressing the underlying core health issues. No drug will ever outrun an underlying health issue. Like it will never outrun it. I always talk about like, if you're eating, you know, sugar and ultra processed foods and you add metformin or you add GLP1s, it's kind of like there's a fire burning in your basement and you're stuffing a towel into your kitchen door and just like hoping it doesn't burn down your house. Eventually the underlying illness or the underlying disease process will outrun the drug's ability to keep up with it.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And GLP1s are the same thing. They're very powerful tools. They're awesome. I use them in practice, but they're not a miracle drug. They can only do so much and they do not make up for eating an ultra processed food, high sugar diet and a sedentary lifestyle. They just don't. And I think a lot of people are confusing them and Thinking, well, I can just take this and then I can keep doing what I'm doing. And the reality is you can't. Your body will get sick.

[Dylan Gemelli]

There's no golden ticket to just eating.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

There's no golden ticket. Yeah.

[Dylan Gemelli]

I mean you can think that and you may look at for a little while, but then when we look internally, it's kind of like when you're a kid and it's like, oh, Joe can eat Burger King every day and never gain a pound. Yeah. Well, let's check Joe's cholesterol in his 20s and 30s and see what's got going on there.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah. And how does, how does he feel?

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right. Exactly.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Probably not great.

[Dylan Gemelli]

No. 100 not. And, and that's the other thing is the glorification of some of these drugs by celebrities or people on influencers or whatever that make it appear to be something that it's not. And never, ever, ever explain to you what goes along with it. You notice you never see like steroid users, you never see the downside. You think they're going to go on and tell you every single thing that they've got going on that's a problem. And these people that take the GOPs, do you think they're going to get on and tell you the side effects and the stuff that's going on or they want to look great? Nobody ever talks about any of that. And it's just not the reality. Do you find that GOPs right now are the most maybe abused drugs that are out right now or the ones that maybe are even the most polarizing? Because there are a ton of benefits there if used properly and, and everything. But I think that we're creating more negative perspective on them by the way they're being used.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah, I agree with that. I think there's, I don't know if I would use the word abused, but I think they're the most DIY drug out there that is being DIY dangerously.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And I mean you can go online, you can go to like Eli Lilly's website and you can get your, get your own GLP1. Right.

[Dylan Gemelli]

It's eas.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And I do think that these are powerful tools and I'm glad we have them. I have a mom in her early 40s who just all of a sudden gained like 60 pounds. And we address thyroid, we address diet, we address gut health, we address inflammation, alcohol, stress. Nothing was touching it. She just went into a perimenopausal set point shift where her weight went through the roof. And I'm so grateful to the GLP1 because it's the only thing that's actually helped us allow her to get back to herself and then the goal is to get her off of it and allow her to re achieve like her her new set point along with the support on estrogen and progesterone. So they do have like incredible uses. And then for folks who do have diabetes or are morbidly obese and stuck like I've seen incredible results. I've seen incredible results for folks who are really have some level of like, you know, really deep seated emotional eating that like nothing has touched. But at the same time there's a lot of people just using them, not understanding the side effects, not changing their underlying diet, not doing anything to ensure they're getting adequate protein, not doing anything to build lean muscle mass and who are sort of relying on the drug to make up for all ills and also not having anyone, you know it does increase your skin cancer risk. They're not seeing a doctor. There's no one sort of looking globally at well what else is this doing to you? Because just as you said earlier, every single drug as great as the guardiance may be, for one thing, it hits all parts of your body and there's, it's like a seesaw. It's great for one thing but then it is sometimes not so great for something else. Yeah. And that's where I think like people are. It's sort of like cowboy medicine, like frontier town, like DIYing their GLP1s and that can get tricky.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, it's dangerous. It really is. I've seen it in so many different things and I, I just, it's troubling and I wish more people would come to places like you have. I, I wanna shift here. I want your thoughts on the, the flipping upside down of the food guide period. I've started to talk about this with some people, but I'm, I'm a heavy nutrition guy so I really like to hear different differing opinions on this because I know how I feel about it and I know like I battled an eating disorder even as a nutritionist and I fell into this living low fat category for so long and I know I wrecked myself. I, I don't need anybody else to ever tell me because I already know and I finally was able to get out of my own way like year and a half ago and my diet now kind of more so correlates with the way this flipped. But there are a lot of people that still say, oh, you can't eat this way you can't eat these fats, you can't do this. It's going to cause X, Y and Z with cholesterol and everything else. So I want, I want your thoughts on the flipping of it. And isn't that wild that we did that? But then do you, do you find it to be pretty accurate the way it's laid out now?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah, I mean, the way that it is now is how we've been guiding nutrition at Parsley Health for a decade. And what we see in clinical practice, we have treated over 50,000 patients, so.

[Dylan Gemelli]

So you would know.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

We would know. Yeah. And what we see is that when you get rid of refined sugars and flours, when you get rid of ultra processed foods, and I think that's the biggest thing everyone's talking about, the protein. And we can get into the protein. But what you take those two things out of your diet, your body starts to heal itself when you eat whole foods and vegetables and nuts and seeds and whole grains and you get closer to 30 to 50 grams of fiber a day, as opposed to the part, part the, the measly 15 grams that the average American gets. Barely not good. What do you fix with that? You fix your heart health, you fix your hormones, you fix your blood sugar, you fix your digestion. When we eat healthy fats and we eat those fats, even if they're saturated fats from butter or dairy products or meat, when we eat those fats, not alone, not with a burger bun and fries and sugar filled ketchup, but when we eat them alongside brussels sprouts in a salad and nuts and seeds and whole grains, our body metabolizes those fats beautifully. And when we get adequate protein, we can actually build lean muscle mass. And when we don't get enough protein, and the former food pyramid, you know, or food guideline recommended daily protein was too low. When we get too little protein, we can't build lean muscle mass. And we have a population that if you look at full body DEXA body composition is, you know, maybe we're getting a lot of calories, but we're undernourished from the standpoint of we have low muscle mass and we have high fat mass.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Which is a recipe for poor health regardless of what your weight is. And so, you know, getting adequate protein. Now as a woman, I'm, so, I'm 44 and I got diagnosed with osteopenia this past year on DEXA scan. So I'm losing my bones already, which is lit a fire under me. And I'm lifting. And I'm lifting heavy in part to reduce bone loss, in part to build up myelin muscle mass before I go into menopause. Cause I'm actually not in perimenopause or menopause yet. And as I do these things, I know that I have to eat adequate protein, otherwise I'm not gonna be able to like really build any lean muscle mass.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And so for me, my targets are around. I'm not targeting 1 gram per pound of body weight because that's just a freaking lot. And I'm targeting around 0.7 grams per pound of body weight. And what I see for myself and what I see for a lot of my patients is that that's really enough for most people to build lean muscle. Now if you're trying to like be a bodybuilder and pack it on at the gym and add pounds and pounds and pounds and pounds of lean muscle. Yeah. You may need to eat more protein than that.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Oh yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

But I think that. And you would know. So you can be the expert on that for me. But the, the reality is, you know, you do have to pay attention to it. You do have to get adequate protein, but you don't have to like drown yourself in protein shakes to get to a body that can put on lean muscle mass.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Well, I don't think a lot of people realize just how difficult it is to. I'm not talking about gaining weight. I'm talking about adding sheer lean muscle mass. I mean, really. Because this gets lost in the shuffle. And I battled this for years to get like two or three pounds of muscle that you keep all year long and keep it is very, very difficult. It takes a lot of muscle manipulation. And how you lift it takes a very strong diet. You got to mix up how you're lifting the types of lifts. You can't let your body get stagnant and, and desensitized to what you're doing. This is a tricky process, especially as we get older. And so, yeah, prioritizing protein is very important. And for me, I have to eat a lot more because of the output. So I'm burning like 4, 000 calories a day with all the cardio and everything. So I do a pound and 1.5 to a pound. But it's easy for me in the way that I structure my diet because I'll have a 12 ounce piece of salmon and boom, I got 70 or 80 grams of protein.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Right.

[Dylan Gemelli]

But that's not for everybody. I'm able to do that because I'm so hungry from the output. Not everybody's doing that. So I think structurally and then the concept of how do we actually put this on and keep it on and it's tricky when you get older. Creatine's important, you know, things like that. But not over supplementing. Not relying on protein shakes, which are not the answer.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah, I mean they listen, they can help you. Got it. You gotta eat real food.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And first and balancing that with getting good quality animal protein. I struggle because I'm sensitive to dairy. You know, the whey protein is actually a very good protein. Like whey protein is a very good protein source. But for a lot of people whey is tricky and dairy is tricky because it causes, for me it's acne and eczema. For a lot of people it's asthma, chronic sinus infections, GI issues. I can't tell you how many people in the performance world who are like living on whey, whey bars, whey protein shakes, and they don't realize that they're being super inflamed from dairy. So just if you're somebody out there who's eating a lot of whey and are experiencing a lot of these like allergy, chronic nasal congestion, snoring, breakouts, digestive issues, it might be that dairy's not for you.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And then you have to find, well, like how else am I going to get the protein in? The other thing I see is that, you know, I. So okay, I don't eat the dairy, I do eat meat, I do eat fish. But I need something else to get like to my protein target. So I'll have like a plant based protein powder that I make a smoothie out of. And a lot of people don't realize that most of the plant based proteins like the pea and rice blends or the rice protein, the pea protein, unless that protein powder has had branched chain amino acids including leucine added to it, it's not a complete protein. And it's not even close to the usability, call it bioavailability, that a whey is or that like an animal protein is. And so be careful everyone, because a lot of these like chain smoothie places. Not going to name names that you have at the airport or you have the mall. Yeah, a lot of these places have these plant protein powders and I've, I've like remember recently Talked to the CEOs of one of these big groups and when I mentioned to them I said, well, is your plant based protein powder, is it, you know, um, is it Optimized with branch chain amino acids. So it's a complete protein. They had no idea what I was talking about. Yeah, and so you're getting, quote protein, but not really, but it's really low quality and it's not something your body can use. So as people start to sort of focus on protein. Actually on my flight here to Phoenix to see you from la, I walked by Starbucks, a place I do not consume anything from everyone. But I noticed out of the corner of my eye on the menu it said protein something or other. And I'm like, oh my God, they've already jumped on this bandwagon again. And I guarantee whatever that source of protein is at the Starbucks, sorry, Starbucks. And I'm going to name names. I just. Nothing quality is happening from a food and beverage standpoint, from that store, whatever that protein source is. I'm, I would, I would bet you, and I can bet like a thousand bucks right now that it is not what it should be. I've been in this, I didn't read the fine print. I'll go back tomorrow one morning and look.

[Dylan Gemelli]

You bet your ass.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And I'll send you a photo.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, it's not quality. I learned 2011ish probably the way protein powders worked and how they were, how they were really made and what you were getting from the big name companies. I won't say anything but the biggest names and why they're so cheap and then weather and Costco and everything. I'm not saying it's bad to go in Costco, but you have to be able to cut the cost to be put in those stores and those facilities. You have to understand what you're getting and so structurally how they make them and where they come from. Now what I changed was that I still have whey, but it's like 25% of the protein intake I take from a powder. And I custom everything with beef protein isolate and then a little bit of bovine collagen protein. And I customize and synthesize these myself. And that's 75% of what I take in. And I don't rely on protein powders. Honestly, I use it in my coffee twice a day and in my yogurt. Smart. And that's the only way I don't drink shakes at all. And when I made that switch, I did notice less bloating, less water retention and my blood panels. Actually, I wouldn't correlate at all to that, but I would say that that did have some sort of benefit for me.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And by the way everyone. Whey is a great protein source.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

If it's high quality, if it's coming from, you know, pasture raised and organic cows and so forth, just know where the whey is coming from and then just know that some subset of people don't tolerate whey and are super inflamed and don't realize it. So that's like really my call out on whey. It's not whey is bad, it's that some people like myself, if I eat that, I have acne, I have eczema, like I can't do it.

[Dylan Gemelli]

And that's why I split it, because there is good purpose to it.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yep.

[Dylan Gemelli]

But I found that for me personally, it was too much for what I wanted to take. But I'm like a scoop and a half a day guy, you know what I mean? At the most. And so I think several things you said. Whole foods first, prioritize that this is a supplement, meaning you use it as a supplement for what you're missing or lacking, but don't try to overcompensate. Right. I don't, I hate this term meal replacement. It's not a meal, it's not really replacing a meal. It's just supplementing some hunger or some nutrient lacking.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Right.

[Dylan Gemelli]

In my view.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Make it your snack.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yes.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Or make it your post workout.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Absolutely.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah.

[Dylan Gemelli]

I, I, you know, it's funny because we're talking about the fats and I kind of told you I went from my last 20 years eating like 25 grams of fat a day if I was lucky. And it was strictly from peanut butter or something of that nature. Almond butter, one of the nut butters. Now I do about 130. Wow. Grams of fat a day and I went from like 1500 calories to 3000. And I haven't been this lean or felt this good or skin or just focus even on non good sleep day type of things.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Diet runs everything. You can train all you want. If you have a shit diet, you can't outwork it a hundred percent.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I mean in our, you know, in our medicine, in functional medicine, nutrition and food is the first thing on the prescription pad. And yes, of course we prescribe drugs and medications and we prescribe supplements in some cases and we prescribe exercise and neuroresilience and mental health practices. But we also prescribe food first. And you can, you can address so many of today's top health issues and symptoms with food and getting people again off of the sugar and the ultra processed foods, getting the fiber content up healthy fats. You know, we, we can go down the seed oil rabbit hole if you want, but we, we, you know, forget when we were in that sort of era of, you know, low fat, fat free and that messaging that, you know, cholesterol is the building block of all your hormones.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Exactly.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

It's what makes your testosterone and estrogen and progesterone. And so getting really good sources of fat and having fat in your diet is really important. And fat doesn't make you fat. And fat for most people doesn't really increase our cholesterol. There are some people, and we talked about this before we started, who have genetically high cholesterol. Either very genetically high total cholesterol numbers across the board or genetically high lipoprotein little A. It sounds like you have, and that one actually tends to be genetic if you have it and not really impacted by lifestyle or diet much at all. And I do have some patients with what's called familial hypercholesterolemia that like everything's high because it's just genetic. And occasionally those people like accidentally do keto or something and it just sends them into like a terrible, terrible place.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And I explained to them, you know, and sometimes they're statin resistant, they don't want to take statins, which I respect. But I explained to them, you know, you can live on twigs and brambles in the forest forever, like don't, don't go to modern life, don't go to a restaurant, like forage forever. And that will probably bring your cholesterol down.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

If you are for some reason unwilling to do that then I'm sorry, but you're going to be on a statin.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And let's go. Yeah. And I've actually, you know, I've actually come around on statins. I will say I used to be in my earlier in my practice and career kind of more anti them and as I've, as I've aged and as I've matured, maybe I just see them as another tool. I don't see the, I don't see the negative metabolic impact meaningfully impacting people too much. They can really get your apob to where we want it to be and for some people we try everything else and just a low dose statin because you don't need to go into high dose statins because once you get in higher and higher doses they sort of effectively don't work as well.

[Dylan Gemelli]

No.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

So I'm using them more liberally than I used to and it's really Personal and patient dependent. And we do everything else to mitigate any kind of metabolic or negative effects. And we take to CO210 and make sure that we're also balancing blood sugar in other ways. But for most people, you can accomplish so much of what you need to accomplish through food. And then occasionally there's people where we hit the wall. Not all the. Like, the diet sort of reaches its limit because genetically they have a predisposition. And then we add the meds on top to get where we want to go.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah. And, you know, sometimes I would do this. Oh, I'm the exception. Even though I hate. I hate that. And I was doing that to myself and I just despise it. I took a. Have you heard of the Pinoy? The one that measures your breath and shows you. So that's one of the things. I did that at Eudaimonia two years ago and I took that and he's like, man, you were just like burning, ripping through fat. And that's kind of when I was changing my diet a little bit, working on it. And then I was in my head and I was like, man, I'm gonna just try this out and see what happens. Because I. I always felt like I'm overdoing carbs. When I sit back and look at everything I was eating, it was just 100 carbs, vegetables, like 13, 14 servings a day, two or three bowls of oatmeal. And. And I sat and I thought. And I thought, man, you're eating a ton of carbs and that's all you're eating. Like, it. And then I did that and I changed it and it just like changed my life. My HDL went up 40 points. Seriously?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

That's incredible.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Last time I checked, it was 80. I've always been low 40s. The problem with the statin for me was is it took me down to like 30, 30 on my LDL because I was taking Rapatha too, and I panicked and I was like, yeah, well,

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

together, that's too much.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah, I stick with the repath.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I mean, pretty much for you, somebody else, it's not. But for in your case, with the

[Dylan Gemelli]

LP and knowing repatha can help a little bit with it, I know it's not going to do drastic.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah, well, there's a. There's a new drug that's in kind of phase three, final trials for LP that I think for those folks who actually have good lipid levels otherwise. And we don't wanna statins. I actually see statins lower LP a Little bit. But they just don't do very much. Um, you know, for those people that everything else is good, they don't wanna be in a statin, they don't wanna be in a lipid lowering drug, but their LP is genetically super high. I'm hopeful that this new medication I've

[Dylan Gemelli]

been following, I've been following you for two years.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah, you just wake up every morning, it's the first thing you check. Some people check the price of crypto. You check the status of this phase

[Dylan Gemelli]

three, check it every couple months, an hour and just look at on. I was really like inundating myself with everything that I could learn. And so I, I have a pretty good understanding of stuff now. But my problem with statins was the over prescribing of them. Yes, that's my major problem with it. I feel like they just want to put everybody on it and they just want to just drain people's cholesterol levels and I don't think that's healthy.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah, I totally agree. And I also find it frustrating that so many people are just put on statins without any assessment. Like true nutritional assessment. Yeah, true lifestyle assess. Because for most people, like you said, if you, if you reduce or eliminate the alcohol, the triglycerides come down. If you reduce the sugar in the ultra processed foods, the cholesterol comes in check. If you add fiber, protein, healthy fats. Most people, not everybody, but most people's cholesterol numbers get in a really healthy place and everything else in their body works better and they feel better and they can sleep and they can poop and they can have babies. And so it's like, why do we not do that first?

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Rather than, you know, we manage, we're treating you as a whole person in functional medicine. We're not treating numbers.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Right.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

So the numbers again, back to the lab test thing, they're helpful, they're a great starting point, but they're not your end point.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Do you have a specific, like I don't know, five essential supplements. And, and I'm not talking like the basics that people need to take. We need to take magnesium, we need to take certain vitamins. I'm talking stuff like creatine or something. Five supplements that you find that are proven beneficial, that are most people should or you could see taking that are going to have a benefit in their life.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah, absolutely. Number one is vitamin D. Vitamin D3K2. I know that falls into the basics category, but most people are deficient. Vitamin D is a pro hormone. It is important for Mental health is important for immune function, it's important for bone health. And if you're pregnant, it's important for your baby's future teeth. So it's just something that still somehow like not enough people are taking and has profound effects on overall body function and health.

[Dylan Gemelli]

One question on the vitamin K side, sometimes It's I'll say K2 or 3 or 7, which one? What's the difference?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Vitamin K. Vitamin D3. K2 is my preference. And the reason people add the vitamin K, this gets missed a lot is that it has to do with how the calcium that you absorb, one of the things that vitamin D does is it help you, helps you absorb calcium from your diet. And you need calcium for your bones, you need it for the functioning of your cellular membranes. Like beat calcium for everything, everyone. But where we don't want the calcium to go is into the heart. And so the K2 helps with where directing where the calcium goes is how I put it. So the vitamin D3 I take is the vitamin D3 K2 drops. I just put them right in my mouth every morning. All my little, my kids, that little birds, they all open their mouths and mama goes around and sprinkles the vitamin D in everyone's mouth. And my husband, then our nanny, I'm like, you know, we're. And so that's one that I absolutely recommend. Creatine's up there for cognitive function and for all of us who are trying to lift heavier. My version of lifting heavy and your version of lifting heavy are very, very different. Everyone. But I'm like woo, £25, but I'm working on it. But yes, creatine I definitely think. And we're learning more and more about. The other one that I see be really game changing for people is the right kind of B vitamins. So methylated B vitamins, okay. Methylated cobalamin and M5MtHF, which is the methylated form of folate.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Okay.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

A lot of the B vitamins out there and the multis that have multivitamins that have B vitamins in there, they're not the methylated forms. And about two thirds of our population has a genetic variant. It's not a mutation, it's not a disease, it's just a variant. I have two copies, some people have one copy. That mean you don't methylate as well. Yeah. And why do we care? Well, methylation is happening a billion times a minute in our bodies and it's important for all sorts of things including making neurotransmitters like dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I have personally a huge mood impact when I am not taking my methylated Bs. You know, I had some depression and anxiety in my college years and like now in my later life, I have all of these tools to manage that. But one of the things that I found consistently over the years since I learned and trained in functional medicine was that the methylated Bs, for me, like, are an antidepressant. Okay. And I've, when I stop, I've tested this many times and you see it in the population and there's great data on it. So it's not just the end of one of me. But I can't tell you how many patients I see start them and just see some of the fog clear and the uplift. Methylation is also really important for detoxification. So many people are eating all this grocery store sushi or fancy pan sushi, I don't care where it comes from. And they're full of mercury as a result, and they're not detoxifying it well. And when these heavy metals get into our bodies, where do they go live? They get to sit in our fat and stay. Most of our brain is made of fat. And so a little bit of mercury here and there, fine. But a lot of it, or consistently over time, it just bioaccumulates. It bioaccumulates in the tuna, it bioaccumulates in us. And when we're not good at methylating, we're not good at detoxifying. We also, when we're not good at methylating, we don't every day your body, especially for women, but men too, you make estrogen and you break it down. Methylation's important for that breakdown. So for folks with like PMS and pcos and endometriosis and symptoms of estrogen dominance, irregular periods, all of these things. Again, our methylated B vitamins can help our bodies kind of break down and work through our hormones in a better way. So this is one that's like in the basics category, but that methylated version I see have outsized impacts versus what people talk about. Oh, just take a B vitamin for energy. That's not what I'm talking about.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Is this like a B complex then

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

that you're talking a B complex. But just make sure that the version of it, when you look on the back and you look at the fine print, it says methyl M, E, T, H, Y, L, cobalamin. Or when it talks about the folate, it says the number five, the letter mthf. And you can test genetically for the MTHFR gene variant to see if you have it. The kinds that make you less likely to methylate. Well, that I have two copies of. So that means I have a 66ish percent reduction in my methylation speed.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Wow.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And so I do see those really being interesting. And then something that I'm experimenting right now with and seeing is Urolithin A. Oh yeah. And improving mitochondrial function. Because now that I am over 40, improving my mitochondrial function as I look to slow the clock and give myself more energy to run out around after my children is very important. So that's one that I, I, I'll be honest with you, I'm not ready to say it must be a staple for everyone. But it, it has not been kicked to the curb like NAD yet. So I'm taking it and I'm discovering and seeing what it does as we get it out more into the population, regardless of the claims of any, you know, anyone who makes it.

[Dylan Gemelli]

So like what do you, what about you?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I want to hear your answer to this question.

[Dylan Gemelli]

My biggest partner though, my first partner I signed with when I went into biohacking was timeline. And so I went to frickin Harvard and studied cellular health at night and I took a cellular health coaching class. So I'm a big believer in it. The more understanding of, I saw how it worked and what it did and what I've seen it do for me. So I do find that is definitely a staple for me.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah. And I'm taking it by the way, and I'm taking that brand. Like the data and the research on it is good enough for me to take it. And my question about it, not that specific brand, but just urolithina in general. And my question on a lot of these things is something like omega 3s or magnesium glycinate or methylated Bs. We know what happens when you eat them. You absorb them into your body and they get into your cells. And with some of these sort of newer supplements where the data and the underlying research behind them is really strong, but we don't fully yet know how eating them in the form of a pill for example, fully plays out in a large population. Like I'm, I'm convinced enough that I am taking it.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

But I'm also looking to see over time like how does this play out in the data in actual humans more.

[Dylan Gemelli]

And I, I did some work with ME Screen and, and I know the founders of ME Screen and so we were talking about different ways to improve mitochondrial health, and they firmly backed it, too. So that was encouraging to me. You said NAD plus. Now, here's what I say to you and, and for people listening, because I've talked about this multitudes of times. Your body, if you take NAD straight, nad cannot absorb nad. It does not get into the cell. It is too large. If you do not take a precursor, it will not work. So you take NMN or nr, it can get into and penetrate the cell, which can then release nad. And so many people don't get that. And they don't understand. I. My wife takes the nmn. She loves it. I'm a little cautious now on everything I take, but I. I've used it. I like it. But nad, like you said. I'm glad you said that. It does not work. It does nothing.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah. I don't take it. I don't recommend the IVs.

[Dylan Gemelli]

No.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And the other thing. And I'm gonna. You and I might be in a slightly different camps on the NMR and the precursors. Nicotine, my riboside. I haven't seen compelling data that taking those while you can absorb them and they can get into the cell once it gets there. Does any great shakes.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Yeah.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

That's what I'm not convinced of.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Well, the 30 day is a problem too, doing anything.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

And so our bodies, when we make this through our natural workings and metabolism, can use it. And I find the science on this particular area to be more theoretical than actually clinical. Clinical meaning we actually show that it improves health and cellular function in some way in humans when we take these supplements. So that's the part that's like, patchy for me. So I'm not a no, but I'm a not yet.

[Dylan Gemelli]

I'm just glad you brought the NAD up because people get tricked. Yeah, they do. Creatine, obvious. Now dine, betaine. These are really key for muscle growth without having to use an anabolic steroid or anything like that. These actually work. They do quite well. And they are safe to use because I'm trying. I'm looking more on the safe side as opposed to the reckless side. But you brought. When you talked about folate, I don't think people realize how important that is and if you're low, how significant of a problem that particular vitamin can be. So I'm glad you brought that up, too. I have been looking at taking, making sure I'm more on level with that as I've understood more.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I'm gonna send you my favorite one okay, please.

[Dylan Gemelli]

I've looked into more intricate stuff. The more problems I've had with the Jardians. It's made me look at vitamins more than I did because I'm so, I'm so focused on the obscure shit that I don't focus enough on the core stuff. And that made me take a step back and go, okay, this is stripping me. And I know that, but maybe I've been missing something this whole time too. That is crazy. Just exacerbating a problem that I already have. And I think sometimes we look so obscure we forget the basics.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I'm all about the basics right now. You know, I get asked about peptides all the time and I call them not peptides as in GLP1s, but peptides as in like the longevity stacks. And I call them not the icing on the cake, but the writing on the icing on the cake. And I see too many people writing their names in icing peptides and missing the cake. And the icing and the cake is the nutrition and the exercise and the sleep and the getting the environmental toxins out of your system and your life. The icing is the supplements that we're talking about, the vitamin D3s and the Omegas and the creatine and the, I'm going to say it, throw the urolithin A in there. I'll put that in the basket. For now it's in the icing basket until it gets kicked back to writing. We'll see. Maybe it won't and you can't. Those things will not work and they will not be enough. And some of them are straight up placebo effect and some of them have some validity that's coming and getting better and better and I think are interesting. And I'm all for peptides as a technology. Like nothing against them, I'm excited for them. But I just see too many people skipping the cake and the icing and going to the writing and it's not, it's not benefiting their long term health and it's not, it's not really even benefiting how they feel that much right now.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Well, let's want everything now and not understand. It's a marathon, not a sprint. Things have to be taken care of first. I've been battling this for 15 years with people. I, I founded peptides in 2011 along with SARMS, along with everything else. And people just don't get it. They just want, want, want, but they don't ever get what they're supposed to out of them. Because their bodies aren't ready. Just like what you're saying. If you get optimized first, then you take a look at that stuff. But I digress.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I'm with you. I'm with you.

[Dylan Gemelli]

I have had such a great conversation with you. I enjoyed every second of this. Thank you for all of the extensive knowledge. We knew we'd get into all kinds of things.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

I didn't even know where this was gonna go.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Nobody ever does when they come here. I just try to bring out the best in everybody and let you talk about stuff that you may not talk about. I don't want you to have to talk about the same old, same old. Of course there's certain important things, but I want to show your versatility. I want to show that you have an extensive knowledge base and let it shine.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Thank you. Well, my. My goal, my purpose in this world, or my, let's say my professional purpose in this world is because family and being a mother and a partner and all these things are also my purpose. And being a light is also my purpose. But my professional purpose is really around transforming the health of as many people as possible and is showing and helping people understand what I know and what I've seen in practice and what I've had the privilege of seeing in a practice like parsley, where we've been able to treat tens of thousands of patients and so we're able to see what really works and really doesn't. Kind of beyond, you know, these tiny little practices that just that privilege of having seen that is huge. And so I'm honored to be here and to get to have this conversation with you and to cover everything from peptides to prayer in one. I don't know how long we've been here, people. It could be hours, it could be days. But however long it is, it's just an honor to be here. And thank you so much.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Thank you. Well, tell everybody and I'll link all of this in description. What are the best places to find you?

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yep. Parsley Health.com and Parsley Health. On all the socials, you can do a free 15 minute consult call with one of our team members to learn more about our medical care. Or you can just sign on up, up to you. And then for me, Robin BurzenMD.com I have a newsletter that's really focused on female longevity.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Sweet.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

That's kind of my passion project and people seem to really like that. And Robin Burzen MD on all the platform, your platform of choice.

[Dylan Gemelli]

I love it.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Yeah.

[Dylan Gemelli]

Well, thank you for coming again. I am always just humbled when people come see me. And I appreciate it. And I am excited about what parsley does and what hopefully is going to continue to make changes for health and everybody. So thank you for everything.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Thank you. And when you go on your Instagram, if you see me, I tagged you. I video videoed myself outside dancing because and saying you need a waiting room and I'm dancing on the street. So. Well, I repost me making fun of your waiting room situation on Instagram.

[Dylan Gemelli]

I love it. I love it. All right, everybody, well, that wraps up another one. I am certain this will be highly impactful. So enjoy it. Soak it in and listen. Listen to everything we said and improve your health, please. So that being said, stay tuned for plenty more to come. Dylan Gemelli and Dr. Robin Burzen signing off.

[Dr. Robin Burzen]

Sa.