Many enthusiastic climbers work hard to level up their performance year over year, and some of us invest great time, effort, and resources into pursuing our climbing goals. One powerful tool for gaining a performance edge is the use of a functional medicine approach to blood testing…which is the focus of this episode of the T4C podcast. My expert guest joining us for this episode….is Thomas Cunningham, a Louisville Kentucky-based doctor, who also happens to be a 5.14 climber! Dr. Cunningham is a board-certified physician, researcher, and functional medicine specialist who believes in combining evidence-based medicine, nutrition, and training to improve your health, wellness, and human performance. The specific focus of this podcast is the use of regular blood testing, and how you can potentially use blood test results to adjust your nutrition and training in ways that amplify your efforts, accelerate recovery, boost performance, and enhance your overall health and well-being. RUNDOWN 00:15 – T4C podcast mission statement 00:45 – The things we do to level up our performance 1:10 – Intro of podcast topic: Blood testing to optimize health and performance 1:35 – Introducing our expert, Dr. Thomas Cunningham (Instagram: @thomascunninghammd.com) 2:30 – Use of blood test biomarkers 3:45 – Value for older athletes 4:10 – Podcast Sponsor: PhysiVantage Nutrition -- used by 2024 Olympians Natalia Grossman, Alex Megos, and Yannick Flohe'. Get your PhysiVantage at 15% off (code: PODCAST15) at PhysiVantage.com 5:00 – Interview with Dr. Thomas Cunningham 5:30 – What is functional medicine: “Medicine 3.0” 9:30 – Preventative health care through your primary physician – The "Big 4 Killers" 11:20 – Pursuit of “optimal” rather than “average” 14:00 - What testing is appropriate for 20-somethings vs. 50-somethings, etc. 16:40 – “Treat the patient, don’t treat the numbers!” 19:15 – Basic blood panels: Metabolic, Lipid, Complete blood count 22:25 – Self-order/self-pay bloodwork at Quest.com or UltaLabs.com 23:30 – More nuanced blood work to consider: Vitamin D, Hormone Panel, Thyroid Panel, HbA1c, ApoB 31:45 – Vitamin supplements to support Testosterone – vitamin D3, zinc, selenium, boron. (PhysiVantage Nutrition VITALIUM is a single-source supplement containing these micronutrients.) 35:00 – The role of genetics, stress, training, nutrition, and sleep. 37:10 – Considerations for vegan athletes. Supplements to consider: B-6, B-12, Iron, D3 + k2, iodine 40:00 – The journey toward optimization. 47:02 – Considerations for female athletes – abnormalities to watch for and treat. 49:50 – Thyroid function and blood panels 53:00 – Hormone changes in women 55:00 – A brief mention of peptides 57:00 – Get the low-hanging fruit…by getting your sleep and nutrition on point…and do some strength training every week. 1:01:00 – Final thoughts Support the TFC podcast sponsor, PhysiVantage Nutrition. Get 15% off full-priced nutrition with checkout code: PODCAST15 (North America only). In Europe and elsewhere visit EPIC-TV Shop or BananaFingers.com to get your PhysiVantage! Music by Misty Murphy SAVE on  La Sportiva shoes here >> Thank you! La Sportiva, Maxim Ropes, DMM Climbing, Friction Labs Follow Eric on Twitter @Train4Climbing Check out Eric’s YouTube channel. Follow Eric on Facebook! And on Instagram at: Training4Climbing Copyright 2024 Eric Hörst | Horst Training, LLC.