#35: Dr. Ted Achacoso – How to Get Your Health Foundation Right to Enjoy the Pleasures of Optimal Performance

Listen to it on your favorite podcast provider: 

 How do we get everything we want out of life? For Dr. Ted Achacoso, one cornerstone is getting a good health foundation first before focusing on the pleasures of optimal performance. Dr. Ted Achacoso became a medical doctor at the age of 22. Ben Greenfield called him the smartest physician on the planet. Luke Storey calls him the Cosmic MD. He is the founding pioneer of the clinical practice of Health Optimization Medicine and Practice (HOMe/HOPe), which is the detection and correction of imbalances at the level of the metabolome. And he also formulated Blue Cannatine which is one of the most sought-after nootropics in the biohacking world. Despite formulating a nootropic himself, Dr. Ted is also a spokesperson for taking nootropics with care. 

Dr. Ted is also one of the pioneers of machine learning. And he’s just extremely cool and fun, someone who makes you laugh, and who exudes a good attitude towards life. He has also been advising heads of states, CEOs, world-class athletes, and so on. 

Dr. Ted was very generous with his time, which means that I divided the episodes into two episodes. One is a full-length episode and another one is a shortened version. Both of them are really informative. 

This is the full-length episode. 

I look very much forward to getting this to you and I’m super proud to have Dr. Ted Achacoso with me today.

“I tell my students:  Always be curious and allow your curiosity to come from your area of interest.” 

– Dr. Ted Achacoso

During our discussion, you’ll discover:

How did Dr. Ted get into being this rock star of a doctor and a pioneer in what we call artificial intelligence now? (01:12)  

• “I’m a specialist in Interventional Neuroradiology. And the easy way to understand that is: I used to poke brains for a living. So I was doing a lot of imaging. I was there at the beginning of the development of the CT scans and all the way to the development of the MRI.”, Dr. Ted shares.

Challenges he faced in developing accurate imaging before any brain procedure? (03:57)  

• “I went back to my lab and I coded the fuzzy logic into the algorithm, and that accounted for the patient’s breathing. And pretty soon it was that kind of artificial intelligence logic that actually stabilized the image so that you could actually do your procedure.“, Dr. Ted explains how he nailed the problem of stabilizing a patient’s head in order to get a clear image before and while doing minimally-invasive brain surgery.

What is Health Optimization Medicine (HOMe) (07:45)  

• “The technology to detect all of these metabolites, small molecular intermediates inside the cell, have advanced and they’re now in our clinics. So now we are able to go into a maintenance mode instead of just a repair mode. That’s the kind of thing that I’m doing — putting in the other half of medicine, which is the maintenance medicine.” as Dr. Ted shares.

Why health is A plus B plus C according to Dr. Ted (11:05)   

• “A is the Absence of disease, B the Balance between anabolic and catabolic processes, according to C the life Cycle of the organism.” as Dr. Ted explains.

What are metabolites (12:11)  

• “… the small molecules that are found inside your cells that are the results of the functioning of the cell. It’s like a factory. It’s like all of the things that are being produced inside the cell in order to make something else work.” as Dr. Ted shares.

All about normal blood testing and metabolites (13:45)  

• “For me, what I’m trying to measure are metabolic markers. So my endpoint is different. So when you discuss optimization, and the way I say this is that if the World Trade Center were never bombed, no one would ever know the extent by which people tried to prevent it, right? And that’s just like optimization.” as Dr. Ted explains.

Before recommending botanicals, what are Dr. Ted’s considerations (19:00)   

• “Once I see that it’s been standardized, and they have good clinical test results, and I’m assured that they’re getting it from where they are getting it, which is the clean source, then I do recommend it or tend to recommend it.“as Dr. Ted shares.

‘After the quality of life’, the Eos and Tithonus story (21:00)   

• “If you want Immortality, which is what illness medicine is asking for, don’t forget to ask for Eternal Youth which is what health optimization medicine is asking for.“   as Dr. Ted shares.

Why he started Health Optimization Medicine (22:15)  

• “The reason why I started Health Optimization Medicine, which is for doctors and Health Optimization Practice for non-doctors 10 years ago, is precisely because we have these developments now, like clinical metabolomics as I discussed, but we also have the developments in bioenergetics, which is the mitochondria.” as Dr. Ted shares.

Epigenetics, what is this all about  (28:24)  

• “The way of thinking of epigenetics is that you are not only passing on your DNA. Epigenetic changes that are in your histones and in the methylated portions of your DNA — they are also inherited.” as Dr. Ted points out.

Transition to a better medical and health practice using the holobiont concept (30:29)   

• “In order for us to transition to better medical practice or to better health practice, we have to look at the body itself as an ecosystem. The body itself is an ecosystem. And we have to start treating our microbiota as part of us. You know, they’re growing with us, they’re inside us, and in fact, they control us.” as Dr. Ted explains. 

 Why you cannot have any performance optimization unless you have health optimization. (35:34)  

• “…that’s fundamental because a lot of people and many health gurus out there are always teaching about performance optimization. Well, how can you have performance optimization when your basic cell isn’t healthy?”, as Dr. Ted points out.

All about his Blue Cannatine, how he tested it to himself first? (36:15)  

• “When I formulated that, I actually was making sure that before trying it on myself, my neurons or at least my neurotransmitters were optimized. And how do you do that? You do that by metabolomics. You check the neurotransmitter metabolites.“, Dr. Ted explains to address the stir around his supplement.

Why Dr. Ted disagrees with many people on how they define nootropic (39:55)  

• “For me, the first characteristic of a nootropic is that it should be neuroprotective. 
• “First, it should protect your brain. Before it overclocks performance, it should first protect your brain.”
• “So okay, so you guys are going to insist on taking loads and loads of nicotine and all of these things, you know, then why don’t we do health optimization as a neuroprotective and then we could give you these things to overclock your performance.”, Dr. Ted shares.

Dr. Ted’s goal for his patients (sick) and clients (not sick)  (43:28)  

• “My goal for you is to get you addicted to the feeling of wellness. So that when you get away from that feeling — let’s say, you ate a piece of cake — you will feel so rotten that you say ‘Argh, I’m never going to do that again!”  as Dr. Ted explains.

 Dr. Ted’s take on IgG4 food panel testing  (48:00)  

• “People who are saying, well, it doesn’t work, etc. Yeah, but do they practice? What’s your experience with it? For me, it was the best test available at the time and it has worked for my clients. 
• “And I’ve developed a very simple way of actually dealing with this because, knocking out the foods that you’re sensitive to — that’s a very involved process.” 
• “So I just have a very simple guideline on how to go about it. And essentially, all of my clients and patients have gotten better by just eliminating things that are in there and then reintroducing them systematically.” as Dr. Ted shares.

Your gut bacteria’s role  (52:30)  

• “Your gut bacteria pre-process everything that you eat. Everything that you put into your mouth and swallow, they will pre-process that.” as Dr. Ted shares.

What’s a high-quality life means for Dr. Ted?  (58:31)  

• “A high-quality life is a life without pain. When you wake up in the morning, and you feel no physical pain, there is quality right there. But then we expand that to a life with no emotional pain and a life with no mental anguish, you know, and so quality escalates that way.” as Dr. Ted shares.

Looking at a person as an ecosystem (holobiont)  (01:03:40)  

• “If you stop looking at the person with eyes, nose, mouth, etc, and just look at them as an ecosystem of cells, it’s easier to get them healthy.” as Dr. Ted shares.

RECOMMENDATIONS FROM DR. TED ACHACOSO: 

1. Sleep well. 
2. Hydrate well.
3. Eat well. 
4. Ground well. Walk barefoot in the sand.
5. Sun well.
6. Move well.
7. Relate well.
8. Love well.

CONNECT WITH DR. TED ACHACOSO

• Health Optimization Medicine website: https://www.homehope.org/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/drtedachacoso 
• Pharmaceutical grade Blue Cannatine: https://troscriptions.com/  
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/troscriptions/ 
• Asia (Manila) website: https://biobalanceinstitute.com/