Cellular Health as the Center of Healing

• A simple shift in perspective marks a significant difference — Now, what if your doctor instead asked, “What’s driving the inflammation or imbalance triggering this pain?” That simple shift in perspective — from managing symptoms to uncovering root causes — marks the difference between temporary fixes and true, lasting healing.

• Your symptoms are warning signals — Chronic symptoms, whether they manifest as pain, fatigue or inflammation, are not the problem themselves. They’re warning signals, much like a warning light on your car’s dashboard alerting you that something deeper needs attention. Unfortunately, for too long, medicine has treated symptoms like a game of whack-a-mole — treat one, and another pops up.

• This reactive approach has left countless individuals trapped in cycles of chronic illness — One issue arises as soon as another is suppressed. Comprehensive energy-centric medicine breaks this cycle by focusing on cellular health, specifically mitochondrial function, to restore energy production.

• When energy production improves, so does everything else — Your immune system becomes more responsive, your tissues regain the ability to rebuild and processes that had slowed or stalled begin working efficiently again. Instead of managing a collection of symptoms, your body starts to heal at its core.

• The treatment for high blood pressure illustrates this perfectly — A prescription lowers the numbers on a monitor and reduces the immediate risk of heart attacks. But what caused the high blood pressure in the first place? Was it stress, a poor diet or a deeper cellular dysfunction? Without addressing these root issues, the problem persists, quietly undermining health.

• Diabetes is also another good example — Blood sugar-lowering medications are the standard treatment, but they fail to address the metabolic dysfunction driving this condition. Similarly, if you’re struggling with relentless fatigue, simply taking stimulants isn’t the answer. What is draining your energy? Is it a nutrient deficiency, toxin overload or disrupted mitochondrial function?

• The same is true for chronic inflammation — This is a driving force behind arthritis, depression, and even cancer. Anti-inflammatory drugs suppress the pain or swelling, but the source of the inflammation remains. Worse, these medications often come with side effects that create new problems. Addressing root causes, like gut dysbiosis or cellular dysfunction, offers sustainable solutions without collateral damage.

• Symptom-based care is disempowering — It treats patients as passive recipients, reliant on medication to keep illness at bay. Foundational care, by contrast, engages patients as active participants in their recovery. It fosters understanding — why their body is struggling and how to support it — which leads to better outcomes and long-term health. Ultimately, a foundational approach restores faith in the body’s intrinsic capacity for healing.

• Integrating foundational care doesn’t mean rejecting modern medicine — It enhances it and offers a deeper, more comprehensive approach to wellness. By combining symptom relief with root-cause resolution, this model creates a path to sustained health and resilience. The result is not just an improvement in symptoms but a transformation in how we understand and support health.

• Surviving but not thriving — For example, Ashley Armstrong, the co-founder of Angel Acres Egg Co. and a leading advocate for regenerative agriculture, had always considered herself health-conscious. Like many others trying to improve their well-being, she experimented with diets and trends, including keto, carnivore and intermittent fasting. At first, these methods seemed promising. But despite her efforts, she wasn’t thriving — she was merely surviving.

• A simple check led to a significant discovery — One day, her sister suggested they measure their body temperatures. At first, it seemed like an odd idea because she didn’t understand why it would matter. But when her thermometer read 96.3°F instead of the ideal 98.6°F, everything clicked. Her metabolism was slow, a survival mechanism caused by low energy reserves and poor nutrition.

• This moment changed Ashley’s perspective — She realized metabolism isn’t just about how many carbs you eat or how long you fast. It’s a direct measure of health.

Inspired by Dr. Ray Peat’s bioenergetic principles, she shifted her focus from restrictive diets to nourishing her body with energy-boosting foods, including plenty of carbs from whole foods. Her health transformed. She had more energy, faster metabolism and the freedom to enjoy a wider variety of foods without guilt.

• My experience on how addressing foundational systems transforms health — For years, I battled an unrelenting rash that defied conventional treatments. It wasn’t until I began uncovering the deeper factors driving my condition, like mercury exposure, oxalate buildup, and their impact on mitochondrial health, that I found answers.

• Getting a renewed sense of vitality — By restoring my body’s energy balance, supporting my gut health, and addressing the root causes of dysfunction, I resolved the rash and discovered a renewed sense of vitality. My energy levels surged, and I experienced a level of well-being I hadn’t thought possible.

• A revolutionary way of providing health care — Just as a mechanic inspects the source when a car fails to run, doctors must start by assessing the body’s energy systems and what’s fueling or draining it. This doesn’t mean abandoning traditional tools like blood tests and imaging.

Instead, it involves integrating those diagnostics with an understanding of mitochondrial function. Tests for markers like insulin resistance, reductive stress, oxidative stress, and nutrient deficiencies become essential in diagnosing energy imbalances.

Alongside these, doctors must incorporate personalized nutritional guidance, stress management strategies, detoxification and therapies like photobiomodulation, targeted supplementation, and individualized fasting protocols to effectively prioritize and restore mitochondrial health.

• The role of patient education is also important — Many patients feel powerless in the face of chronic illness because they’ve been conditioned to see their symptoms as isolated problems requiring external solutions. Empowering patients starts with shifting this narrative.

It means showing them how their everyday choices — like what they eat, how they move and when they sleep — directly influence their energy systems. Patients who understand this connection are more likely to make sustainable changes, leading to better outcomes and greater independence from medical interventions.

• This shift benefits both patients and practitioners — Many doctors feel trapped in a reactive, symptom-driven system that leaves them unable to deliver lasting solutions. By focusing on energy balance and cellular health, doctors will achieve outcomes that are more rewarding, both professionally and personally. They become partners in their patients’ journeys toward wellness rather than providers of temporary relief.

• Prioritizing profits leads to poor supplement quality — The degradation of nutritional supplement quality is a direct consequence of the increasing influence of business interests, venture capital and private equity in the wellness industry. And the consequences for you, the consumer, are serious.

Venture capital and private equity investments, while fueling growth in many industries, have eroded the integrity of the supplement market. These financial backers often prioritize their immediate returns over the efficacy or safety of the products.

• Ingredient quality is compromised — The pressure to maximize profit margins leads to cost-cutting measures that compromise the quality of ingredients, manufacturing standards and overall product effectiveness. For example, manufacturers will substitute high-quality, bioavailable nutrients with cheaper, less effective alternatives to reduce production costs.

• Marketing strategies further contribute to the problem — Slick packaging, celebrity endorsements and misleading claims often overshadow the actual quality of the supplements. Consumers are drawn in by branding rather than substance, unaware that many of these products fail to deliver meaningful health benefits. In some cases, they even contain contaminants or unlisted harmful ingredients.

• The lack of rigorous regulation and oversight is a glaring issue — While pharmaceuticals undergo stringent testing and quality control, supplements operate in a largely unregulated space. This allows companies largely driven by financial interests to sidestep quality assurance measures, further diminishing product reliability.

The absence of consistent testing for purity, potency and bioavailability means that consumers are often left with products that fail to reach the parts of their biology where they are most needed.

The decline in quality also stems from systemic issues in sourcing and manufacturing, with companies obtaining raw materials from suppliers that prioritize cost over quality. This has led to the use of ingredients that are diluted, adulterated or poorly calibrated for biological effectiveness.²

• Poor-quality supplements don’t deliver benefits — Even when high-quality ingredients are used, inadequate encapsulation and delivery systems will prevent the nutrients from being properly absorbed and utilized by your body.

The entry of venture capitalists and private equity firms into the supplement market has also disrupted the trust consumers once had in established brands. Many once-reliable companies have been acquired and stripped of their commitment to quality and replaced with a focus on scalability and short-term gains, leaving you questioning whether the supplements you’ve trusted for years are still worth it.

• What makes this decline even more troubling is its timing — More people than ever are turning to supplements because they’ve lost faith in conventional medicine’s symptom-focused approach. Supplements should offer an alternative, but instead, many products fail to meet these expectations, trapping them in a cycle of frustration as health concerns remain unresolved.

• High-quality supplements must begin with clean, responsibly sourced ingredients — They should be free from contaminants like heavy metals, pesticides and synthetic additives.³ The origin and purity of these ingredients directly impact how effectively a supplement works in your body.

• Good supplements avoid unnecessary fillers and additives as well — Many low-quality products contain artificial colors, preservatives, sweeteners or binding agents that do nothing to enhance their health benefits and even harm your body.^4,5 In contrast, high-quality products focus solely on what your body needs and minimize unnecessary ingredients.

• Delivery systems play a key role in supplement effectiveness — Liposomal delivery, for instance, encases nutrients in fat-like particles, helping them pass through your digestive system intact. This technology ensures that nutrients reach their intended target without breaking down prematurely. Effective delivery systems separate supplements that simply pass through the body from those that actively support your health.

On the topic of bioavailability, or the ease with which your body absorbs and utilizes a nutrient, some nutrient forms, such as natural vitamin E (d-alpha-tocopherol), offer superior absorption compared to synthetic forms (dl-alpha-tocopherol), as they’re more readily recognized and used by your cells. This makes them more effective at supporting antioxidant activity and overall health.

• To distinguish ethical brands from questionable ones, check their transparency — Ethical brands openly provide detailed information about ingredient sourcing, manufacturing processes and third-party testing. If a brand doesn’t openly share these details, it’s often a red flag and could signal the company’s unwillingness to meet high standards.

Reputable brands also adhere to good manufacturing practices (GMPs) and conduct rigorous quality control checks. This ensures that every batch of supplements meets the same high standards and minimizes the risk of contamination or variability in potency.⁶