Episode 046, Tommy Wood PhD, MD and Christopher Kelly, Innovation in Functional and Ancestral Health: Machine Learning and Blood Chemistry, How Two Friends Are Seeking to Change How Medicine is Practiced

A Medicinal Mind

In episode 046 of A Medicinal Mind: Wisdom and Well Being , I welcome TWO guests, and new close friends. Dr. Tommy Wood and Christopher Kelly of Nourish Balance Thrive. Between the two of them, Tommy and Chris have been helping burned out athletes achieve both optimal performance and wellness through a combination of targeted testing, nutritional approaches and selective augmentation. The two have helped thousands of athletes and are constantly providing nourishing content, no pun intended to thousands more via their NBT podcast. Additionally Tommy puts out an incredible weekly review: a “Highlights” emails that will leave you with more to chew on that just your thumbs.

In this episode we start the conversation exploring the origin stories of Chris and Tommy, finding their way into the ancestral health space. They both offer descriptions of the paths that lead them to their current work in addition to more specific details regarding the nature of the education and scholastic background.

When then explore the birth of Nourish Balance Thrive and discuss in depth the vision, passion and ethos behind this unique and innovative initiative. Chris offers a personal look into his own leap of faith starting the business, followed by the quick collaboration with bright and curious minds like Tommy.

We then get into the meat of the discussion, the newest technological feat between the two and their partner in crime naturopathic physician and biochemistry extraordinaire: Dr. Bryan Walsh. Chris and Tommy describe their blood chemistry calculator, a tool utilizing machine learning and incorporating data from thousands of athletes, that can actually predict nutritional status, blood sugar regulation, and even potentially xenobiotic exposure from just a handful of laboratory tests. While still early in its implementation, this calculator has the ability to transform medical care and functional medicine testing, and you will here from them both how they see it being optimally used and explored.

Combining perspectives for both clinicians and the lay audience, Tommy offers some great reasons, why machine learning and this calculator should be on your radar.

We then end the podcast with Tommy sharing a little of his background leading the innovative group: Physicians for Ancestral Health, an organization of which I am proudly affiliated. Tommy shares some of the vision and initiatives of the group and how he hopes to expand its reach in the months and years to come.

I still cannot fully believe I was able to share this conversation with Tommy and Chris, having listened to the two over many years during my own incubation and exploration of ancestral and functional health. I am extremely excited to share this conversation with you all and please be sure to explore the podcast show notes with links to their page, podcast and their Blood Chemistry Calculator.

And with that, let’s dig into the show!

Check out Tommy’s homepage: http://www.nourishbalancethrive.com

Blood Chemistry Calculator: https://bloodcalculator.com

Physicians for Ancestral Health: http://ancestraldoctors.org