274: Biochemistry, Mineral Deficiencies, and Getting Your Health Right with Barton Scott

Hi, I'm Natalie Jill, fat loss expert turned lifestyle and high performance coach. Welcome to Listen up the podcast. On this podcast, I do what I do best. Taking complicated information that is relevant to us now and breaking it down simply with actionable steps you can implement to level up your life. I also regularly interview some of the most inspiring and courageous men and women on the planet who at their worst, learned how to achieve success greater than anything they ever dreamed possible. Creating everything from nothing.

If you are new here, I encourage you to go back and listen from.

Episode one, when this podcast was previously called Leveling up for the Full Transformative Experience.

Today on Listen Up, I've got my good friend, Barton Scott. I met Barton in Maui when we came became instant friends. It's funny how close and how much I got to know him in such a short period of time, but one thing I loved about Barton was like, his zest for life, just in general. And it was interesting because I learned he was a biochemist and I thought, your personality doesn't quite match what I would think of a typical biochemist. I don't know what I thought a biochemist would be like, but it's not how you are to me. And Barton founded Upgraded Formulas, and he's got a really fascinating story involving his mom and you, his desire to really go deeper and learn more and, and help her and ultimately help so many others that got him to create this. So thanks for being here today, Barton. I have so many questions and so many things that are going to be of such value to my audience. I know it.

Oh, Natalie. Yeah, I would say all the same things. It's been so great getting to know you, and it was such a fun trip, and I think none of us wanted to end. We're like, oh, it's plenty of time. And then it was, you know, time to fly home already. And all the adventures, the hiking, all of it was super fun. So great to be here. Thanks for having me.

So take us back, Barton. First of all, why did you become a biochemist? Where did that even come from? Is that something you wanted to be as a little kid? Where did that come from?

I really just wanted a challenge. I had an affinity for chemistry, but I wanted a challenge I got out of. I played a lot of sports in high school, and I really felt complete in that, you know, excelled at a really high level in wrestling, played both ways, football. And because of that, I had a lot of nutrient deficiencies. And that comes into play later in the story because my health really started to slip in my mid-20s, around the time my mother's did too. But before that, I really wanted to come out of college with the goal of feeling like I would be unintimidated to learn anything. So I chose chemical engineering because I. Well, I just wanted the challenge of, you know, I'd seen Goodwill hunting and I saw how they talked about organic chemistry. I was like, is it really that hard? Like, let's, let's see, let's see. So. And turns out it's pretty hard and. But it was also beautiful. It was fun. And a lot of the other courses too were that way. So you basically do all the hardest math and chemistry and physics and then they're like now, only now are you ready to do the chemical engineering courses? So there's a lot of, like a lot of application and it, it was, it was a cool thing to study.

I actually really like the honesty in that one too. You said you, you wanted to be able to like discuss any challenge. You wanted to be able to be knowledgeable there. That's a pretty interesting. Nobody ever really admits that. I don't. That's why they're doing those hard classes or that hard major or that hard studying around that. So that's pretty. I love that you just said that.

Yeah. I don't think I knew that at the time though. I just thought like, just generally like there must be something valuable in doing something hard.

Okay, so how did your health and your mom's health, what was happening to her really shape into what you do now?

Well, we were really close. I was born to older parents and as you know, and you know, they had two girls and then they waited 18 years and. And had me totally, totally planned, of course, as that goes, right? No, no, not, not planned, but yeah. I mean, my parents were 42 and 43 and by the time they had me, they had. You know, they're in a great place in their life. So it was an interesting way to grow, grow up. And I think I. Kudos to them. They. They got all their mistakes out on my sisters and.

It'S, it was, it was a great way to grow up. But I was essentially raised kind of like a peer by them. So losing one or both of them was always a really, really big fear for me. And when I started to see evidence of it going that way for, for my mother, it was really like all hands on deck. It was, it was, it was a pivotal moment and couple of years there where what was happening to your mom, she was on. She was prescribed prednisone and she started just. She went from vivacious and full of life to. And she had retired at that point. I mean, life was good. She was like low stress, like should have been able to bounce back. I'm sure she had a lot of nutrient deficiencies and stuff that we'll talk about later and how important that is and how it's all diseases rooted in nutrient deficiencies, specifically mineral deficiencies. But I didn't know any of that then. And I did know that there had to be some fix for it, because when you're healthy and then really quickly you take a drug and you get less healthy, the drug's doing something to the body. And I know now that something I didn't know then, which was that the drug is causing your body to burn minerals at a higher rate.

So she was prescribed prednisone for something completely unrelated to what created health issues later, which is a normal thing that doctors prescribe when you have. You could have a break. You could have. There's a lot of reasons they would. It's a steroid really. So she was prescribed that. So I'm assuming it was starting to fix that problem. But now you're saying her other. Everything else started going wrong. And so you learned that that drug sort of fast tracks that if you already have a problem. Is that what I'm hearing?

Exactly. That's exactly it. You know, so that I realized that the drugs in general are something that we have to detox from. So they can, they can be great in a short term in some cases.

And some of them, you know, in the case of say, statins, once you get on them, it's. It's a great, It's a great money making tool for pharmaceutical industries because you can't really get off of them or it's really hard to. And yeah, so the path for her was drugs and then surgery, which was elective surgery to remove the thymus gland. And then from there it was more drugs. And you know, I just saw this. I already, I knew from a high level perspective that it just wouldn't. Wouldn't be likely to work. And the body, if it ever did work, it was always the case where the body's overcoming the actual quote, unquote treatment and then getting. Well, sort of in spite of.

What was she on the prednisone for? Sorry, I'm asking a lot of questions because I want to make sure I understand, like, what was she on that for and what was the surgery? So, and I'm wondering if that's at all connected too, because somebody listening might go, well, she already was having a health problem. That's why she was on the drug. So was it a completely unrelated thing, what was happening?

It really was. There were a few different instances that she would go in for that were just like unrelated. Like she had inflammation, things like that. So she'd have some stiffness and she'd have some pain and things that were just general that could have been treated by, well, all right, let's check out your diet. Let's pull out some of the causes of this inflammation. Are you, for example, exercising too hard? There's a checklist that's easy to run through if you're really trying to get someone well. But when your only toolkit is drugs, then there's only so many options you have.

So there was no functional medicine involved. There was no, like, are we having dairy, are we having grains, are we having sugar? Are we like the reg. The. What we know is general. How well we. I hope many people know is general health. There was none of that. It was right to like, let's just attack the inflammation with the drug.

Right. And change nothing. It knows, you know, no questions of, oh, so are you eating fries and cheeseburgers?

Sure.

You know, every. Every day. Like what, What'? You know, just high level stuff like, what's your diet like? Just generally. Yeah, things like that. That could have been easily. And then she had, you know, calcium deposits and joints and things, you know, heel spurs and that's. I know, I didn't know this then, but I know that now that that's just a sign that your magnesium and calcium is out of balance. And then your blood sugar is out of balance because of that and just a lot of issues. Your thyroid is going to be out of balance. Your parathyroid is going to be contributing. So, you know, there's just, just different glands in your body basically just start to malfunction because the nutrients that are feeding them are in a ratio that doesn't support.

Got it. Okay. So she. So your mom, when this is happening, is she thinking, the prednisone is causing this? I need to go off of it? Is she thinking I must have a disease? What's going on in her mind? And where did you start jumping in and having questions?

Yeah, with her, I think. And I really think, looking back on it, being sort of so.

Devoted, like, I think.

It'S interesting probably, to be completely honest, probably because of. Not that this, not that people can't think independently because of this, but she was so used to Sort of trusting.

In the same way that you would trust like gospel and religion that you sort of, oh well, you know, they're in a position of power, I'll trust them that this is going to work sort of thing and, and being really brilliant in a lot of areas, but not, you know, super knowledgeable in the area of nutrition and things and eating otherwise good diet. But I think really she reflected a lot of America in that like where you would hope to be, most people would hope to be where they would, they would retire in their 50s or 60s and they would now be ready to live life on their terms and they would still have access to the best medical care or medication care really and which is really just sick care. And then, you know, not realizing until it's too late that oh wait, my health is still my, my responsibility and I shouldn't just put it out on someone else and give them autonomy. I need to self educate in this area. It's really my responsibility. So taking ownership for that or finding it in someone that really knew alternatives. But you know, back then 2012, this wasn't that long ago, but then again the world was different than it is today in terms of our connectivity and access to functional medicine doctors and nutritionists.

It was still considered very woo woo. It's just now starting to be more, more accepted. Naturopaths and functional medicine doctors and alternative. Some people were doing it then, but it wasn't, it was more frowned upon. And I, and I noticed in this last year it's gone a little bit backwards when you look at what's going on in the world with just really this big divide between that. Now that's a whole nother topic. But. So when did you say, when did you start connecting the dots with the minerals and the deficiencies here?

So probably about a year before she passed, which was 2012. 2011, 2012. I started to see that. Well, it started with finding a hair test. My girlfriend at the time had told me about this test because I was spending lots of money on different functional medicine tests, doing every single one for her and for I and for myself.

When you say that, is that like you're talking saliva, urine, blood. Blood?

Yeah, yeah. All these different things. Yeah. So I was doing all the different tests. I was doing OAT tests, I was doing adrenal tests, all sorts of stuff. Thyroid tests, full panel, blood work, urine challenges, all sorts of things. Anything to figure out because at the same time I was, I'd pushed hard ever since I was a kid. Just in all the sports I worked some of the summers in college and really kind of never stopped. You're, you know, with, with that workload in school, it's really like an eight, eight year curriculum crammed into four and you just, you're just all just buried under work. So you're, you're always pushing, pushing, pushing. And then I was training, I was in Brazilian Jiu jitsu through some of that. I was just always going and I had a lot of brain fog towards the end of it that was just making it really hard to concentrate. I felt like I was going to lose my job as an engineer and I was starting to work as a nutritionist around that time too. And I was having people come to me for years before that and I was just kind of helping them, like, hey, here's some supplements to take, here's some testing to do, basic stuff just for free. And then I started to charge for it and get just word of mouth recommendations and referrals and things. And I just, I'd been supplementing since I was a teenager and I knew all the brands and things like that. So when I found a hair test and I had, luckily, and this is a key point, I had a really good consultation. So any, anyone that you talk to, they didn't have a really good consultation as, you know, looking at your own test results, it's, you can be really knowledgeable and not know what you're looking at.

Yeah, I got, because I got my hair test back, which we're going to talk about in a few. But I was like, I have no idea, I've never seen anything like this. I haven't heard of some of these things. So I had no idea.

Exactly. So it's incredibly valuable, it's affordable, but it's very complicated. So you just need a guide just like anything. So. And I luckily found someone then that had the test, really understood it and.

Several of us went through it at the same time. I did, she did, my girlfriend, my girlfriend's dad. So I had a sort of, you know, n equals 4 or 5 sort of people in there. My sister did it around that time too. And you know, it was just interesting because I learned it was fascinating because without knowing anything about me, he was saying things like, I imagine you don't remember your dreams very often. And I was thinking like, how do you know this? Like, how is this? How are you interpreting this from the test? So, and it was. It's a periodic table, basically, it's all the elements that make up our body. It's, it's the same thing that makes up the planet, the food that we eat. And so we're testing all for all of that in relationships to each other. And I started to notice. To answer your question about minerals, where did minerals come in? Minerals came in because I already knew really good brands. I was supplementing things already intuitively, that I knew I needed to take, like, magnesium, potassium. There's just a handful of them, and I was still chronically deficient in them. And I put my mother on some. Chelsea was on some. I mean, it was just. It was a whole thing. And I remember thinking, like, wow, this is not working. And I don't know what to do because these are quality brands. So if these brands aren't working, like, we'll try. I guess we'll try other brands. But my intuition knew, like, yeah, it's not about quality. It's about absorption, which is something I intuitively understood better than almost anyone on the planet after going through chemical engineering. Like, that is the discipline that learns that, that makes that better for the world, because our job is. Here's Natalie, here's your congratulations on your degree. And maybe you did some internships. It's been your whole life in the lab, it seems like.

Here you go. Here's the industrial process. That's tens of millions of dollars. Your goal is to improve the efficiency of it by 30% in the next 90 days. Like, that kind of thing. And it. And it's so. So it's. It's. I was like, uniquely in the spot to go. All right, well, I can do that for huge companies like Exxon and Shell and produce more pure gasoline, or I can do something that I've always been interested in anyway, which is making supplements that really work. And apparently I really need this because Even in my mid-20s, I'm not absorbing it. So it's. If it's gut dysfunction, then, oh, my God, everyone apparently is going to have issues because I was eating a good diet, all these different things. I already knew a lot more and was taking better care of myself than most people, frankly, would ever know unless they spent a huge amount of time, because. Yeah. So with that in mind, I start thinking, all right, so how is this going to get done? And from there, it's just. That's been the past 12 years. So. And then I started a company about six years ago, so.

Wow. Okay, so talk to me about, like, what. What did you learn? I want to know specifically if you're open to sharing this, like, kind of what were the big deficiencies and things that you saw with your mom. And what do you see overall? Like, I know there's some commonalities you see with people. I know when we were together in Maui, you brought up things like magnesium and potassium and how critical those are. And I'd love to, for everyone listening to sort of hear like, what you saw with your mom. And then where do you think? Just, I know it's. Everyone's unique and different, but you see some general commonalities with people. Can we talk about those?

Absolutely. Those are phenomenal questions. Um, no one's ever asked that with her. Um, so her calcium was really, really high, it turned out. And like I mentioned, she had bone spurs, heel spurs, and it made it really uncomfortable for her to walk. And you. And you think, well, all right, I get that. That. That kind of sucks. It's not like life ending. But when you think about it, when you. When it's hard for you to walk and you're used to, like, walking and exercising, suddenly you walk less and you. You know, and then that leads to just a whole series of things. Now you're gaining weight more easily, or. So I helped her lose about 25 pounds. And she wasn't even overweight, so. So she was doing well. And this is right before.

Right before she had the aneurysm. And, I mean, it just, you know, just like aneurysms do, they can come out of nowhere. So there's. There's no anticipating it. But what I know now is what likely caused that particular thing could be traced back to low magnesium and therefore the buildup of calcium and also just taking. Eating foods that were too high in calcium. We think calcium is great, and frankly, nearly all of us have too much of it because it's easy to get in our diet. We get it from our water pretty often, pretty easily compared to the nutrients that balance it. So the nutrients that balance it are things like potassium and magnesium. So that's. That's why I mentioned those sodium.

So, Bart, let me back up for one second because you said something I've never heard before, and I want to make sure. So you're saying that you feel, based on what happened with your mom and your research, he's not saying this is a fact. He's saying what he. What you're. What you've concluded is that aneurysms can be caused is. Am I hearing that right? By low magnesium and too high calcium. And how does that work? Because we've always been told an aneurysm comes out of nowhere.

Right. So it Happens with a stiffening of the, the arteries in the heart or the blood vessels in the brain. And when they become more stiff and you have changes in blood pressure, for example, sitting to standing. Elvis died going to the bathroom. He's straining.

So you have a change in blood pressure and then you have a stiff. Imagine a hose that sat out in the sun and it's all brittle. Now calcium is a brittle element. So it, it lines that. And then now you, you push a lot of water through that hose suddenly and that hose just snaps and then you have internal bleeding.

But this is pretty cutting edge. I've never heard this. I mean, this is some seriously valuable information. Do you have, have you, have you seen this? I'm assuming you didn't just learn this with your mom. You've probably studied other cases and looked at this. Are you, have you seen a trend with this?

Yes. Yeah, just not, not just brain, but just, just throughout the body, that too much calcium is a real problem. And it, when it's in the body, I mean, it has to go somewhere.

And too much calcium doesn't necessarily come just from eating too much calcium. It could be with how your body processes calcium. Is that correct?

Yes. Yes, for sure. So there's, you know, it's easy. I think if someone in your family has. Runs high in calcium, it's likely that you will as well.

It's an indication of thyroid, thyroid activity as well, which is interesting too.

But eating with all things. I always tell people your genes are not your destiny, which is one of the really hope inspiring things that I always remind people of, that we have this whole field of epigenetics, which is you being able to be in control of your genes through how much sunlight you get, how much food you get, which by the way, we should all get some every day is on as much skin as possible. No matter what you've ever been told, you need that.

You also, I learned some interesting things from you. Just even in Maui, we were going on our ATV excursion and I put my sunglasses on and he said, don't worry. He said, don't worry. It was fun. He said, don't wear your sunglasses before noon. I'd literally never heard that. I said, why? And I just. Anything Barton says now I'm like, okay, got it on. And I think you said, maybe I heard it wrong, but it could affect your hormones by wearing your sunglasses before noon. So these little tweaks like that, I would have never known.

Right. We're inside right now and I have glasses that are like blocking out some of, some of the fake light spectrum. Right. So my vision's 2020, but I wear these just to clean that up. And it causes your brain to work more easily. So some people get headaches under artificial light, for example. What I was talk. Talking about there is that it's something I learned recently. There's a paper that was. That was showing that light. So especially daylight before noon, particularly even before 10, 10am stimulates thyroid hormone. So the. Or the thyroid, the pituitary to tell the thyroid to make more hormone, which is metabolism for everyone that's interested. If you're like, that's too technical. I was just talking about weight loss and how to make it super easy. Cliff Notes. Like Natalie was saying, just take your sunglasses off and leave them off until after noon each day. Um, so you want. Actually want that light in your eyes because it's going to activate. It's going to tell your body, hey, it's time to be. To work and to move and to. Yeah, all these things.

So when you figured this out with your mom, did you figure this out before she passed? I'm assuming you saw that and then after she passed, you put it together with the aneurysm, Is that correct?

Yeah.

Okay. And when you mentioned prednisone earlier, do you. You mentioned that that can affect how your body is absorbing things. So was that creating her to absorb the calcium at a higher rate, or was it creating, like the. Whatever would have combated that to change?

You know, I'm not. I'm not sure. I'm not sure. I just know that. That I don't know exactly the effects that it had. I just know that that was the medication she was on and. And I just saw the vitality come out of her. And I've seen it happen in other people too, since then, where I've. I haven't seen them in a year. And then I see them and I go, how are they? And they go, you know, a lot of people start talking to me about health immediately, and they're like, so, yeah, doctor started me on this and okay, well, what drugs did they put you on? Oh, well, this. And they'll. And they'll name a few. And I. What I usually find with that one is that it's a general thing from a doctor where they're in a spot where they're not really sure what to do, and they give that. And.

It'S symptom alleviation at best. Right. And yeah, so that's. That's it. I think with her, she Also had low sodium, which a lot of people. And so did I. A lot of people that eat a pretty clean diet actually have low sodium. And that. That's a real problem for your adrenals, which is a big part of how. It's a big part of your metabolism. Right?

Yeah. I can't wait to go over mine in a few minutes because I'm like, now I'm so curious because I know what I have struggled with versus that. But let me. I want to. Before we do that, I want to talk about potassium and magnesium, because those are the two you. He was the Barton and Maui was putting it in all of our water. He said, make sure you get. And I shared it with him, the ones I was using, and he said, no, no need. Better absorption. So he was. He was making our water taste salty with his potassium and all the things. But can we talk about that a minute? Why are those two so important.

Specifically? Potassium and sodium.

Yeah, Potassium and. Nope. And magnesium and magnesium.

Okay. Potassium and magnesium.

Those are the two you kept giving everybody there.

Yes, yes. So. And then I was. I was salting the water some, too, on top of that. But magnesium specifically helps people relax, so.

He must have sense with me. I needed that.

I was like, natalie has no problem going out. This is vacation mode. Let's just help her get into parasympathetic and relax and enjoy the moment. Yeah. So that. And then we were winding down for the night. So magnesium converts into melatonin in the body, and it helps you sleep really deeply. Melatonin is a really powerful antioxidant, but there's some research to show that you don't want to take a lot of it very often because your. Your body could potentially make less of it. Whether or not that's the case, it is definitely safer to take magnesium because your body can't make any of these elements we're talking about. Right.

So instead of adding melatonin, take magnesium. Your body will convert it, which is more natural than just adding them. The melatonin. That makes sense.

Okay, exactly. So that's a big one, because then you're going to sleep better, you're going to heal better, you're going to balance your calcium level, which you probably get plenty of anyway, even if you're not trying, even if you're not supplementing. You probably do, by the way, when you take vitamin D, it actually boosts calcium absorption in the body. So you want to take magnesium when you take vitamin D. At the same time. Yeah, at the same time.

So, like, I Take vitamin D in the morning and magnesium at night. Should I be taking them together?

You can take a little bit of magnesium in the morning and. And then take most of your magnesium in the evening.

So if I take two capsules, one in the morning with your. That or you cut one in half kind of thing.

Yeah, you could do that. You could use our liquid magnesium and take, you know, half of a dropper with. Dropper full with. With your magnesium. I'm sorry, with your vitamin D. I also Recommend People take B6 because most people are low in it. And it helps you. It helps the magnesium be utilized in the body. Not absorbed, but utilized. And then.

Yeah, what else?

Okay, then talk about potassium.

Sure. And then. Oh, and then boron to help activate the vitamin D, which no one has ever talked about.

I never knew that. Okay.

Yeah, Yep. So. And we have something called upgraded boron on the site too, and that helps a lot with. It's synonymous with intelligence. So it's in our upgraded memory blend.

So I need to definitely get some boron. I didn't know about this. Okay.

Yeah, you can either get it by itself or, you know, we have upgraded memory, too. Uh, so it's in that blend the. And so to potassium. Right. Potassium is amazing for muscle contraction, and people think of it with cramps. Magnesium is actually almost always what you want to take for cramps. Potassium will help to some extent, but magnesium is really the biggest player. Why? Because magnesium. Think about magnesium and think relax. That's why you think sleep. But magnesium is also key for producing ATP or energy in the mitochondria. So that's why you can take it out during the day. If you ever have too much coffee and that causes some anxiety, then magnesium is going to tamp that down really easily.

Wow, that's good to know without making it drowsy. It just kind of counters it.

Exactly, exactly. It's a big one. I always have our magnesium on hands on hand, and I always travel with it. And our potassium, too. Potassium is great for adrenals, so that's the other reason nearly everyone we see have adrenals that could use some potassium. Some support. Because you can't make the hormones in your body without minerals and. And specifically minerals, not. Not vitamins. But in the case of adrenals, you need potassium. So. Yeah.

Okay. And before you pull up mine, you had told me recently about. Your dad was struggling. I think you said he was struggling with leg cramps. Is that. Was that he was. He was dealing a restless leg syndrome.

Yeah, you got it.

And Then you put him on magnesium and potassium, which changed that.

Yep.

Is that correct?

It's going.

He also, Barton also told me it'll help your REM and your deep sleep by adding those. Is that correct? Okay. Did I hear you correctly? Great. Yep.

Yep. We've seen people take those and increase, believe it or not, on their aura ring. They've. I've had a number of people send me screenshots and we'll do a sleep study soon. Um, the. That they increase their deep sleep now like 30 to 40%.

That's amazing. I know. I've taken that seriously from you because my deep sleep has always, I always get four hours of REM and like less than 30 minutes of deep. So I'm doing what you suggested.

Yeah.

And to note, I'm doing a few different things, but my, like, my deep sleep last night on my OURA ring was an hour and 30 minutes.

I was like, yay, oh my God.

Moving in the right direction.

There you go. And the average before taking was less than 30 minutes. Yeah, so we've seen that too. There's a woman, I was at a health conference this, this weekend, or mastermind rather, and she and her husband were there and she was just really there to support him. She was kind of interested. He was like really into it. And he told, he sent me a text. Well, she told me the next day. She took it the first night.

She didn't really even know how to read her Fitbit much, but she said, here's what I said. Well, look, show me what you normally get. And her deep sleep was normally like 28 minutes. And it was an hour and seven minutes the next morning. And that was on one night of improvement. The next night it was like an hour 15. It's. I mean, that's, that's life changing stuff. That is frankly, like, that's disease prevention when you sleep that well because your body's healing and repairing when you're sleeping deeply. It's not really repairing when you're doing a light sleep. So that's anti aging, that's longevity, that's health. That's so much. And there, there's a, there's, there's been research to show that of course, like every disease is somehow linked to nutrient deficiency, specifically minerals. But every disease, what I found recently, every disease is linked also to specifically magnesium deficiencies as well as some other nutrient.

That makes sense.

I'm certainly not a sleep expert, but this is what I do know. Because I wear an OURA ring. I know that I sleep on average 9 to 12 hours a night, which is excessive. And I couldn't figure out why. My husband could sleep five hours a night and feel amazing, and I would sleep 9 to 12. And it's like, okay, I need that much to feel amazing. And when I started looking at our aura rings, the majority of his sleep was deep sleep. The majority of mine was REM. I would get 4 plus hours of REM sleep. Could tell you my dreams in vivid detail. And my theory, certainly not a scientist, is that some of us that get a lot of sleep, it's your body's trying to get that deep sleep, so it keeps going because you deep sleep follows rem. So I've been playing with, learning what I'm learning from you about magnesium, learning about focused on new things, getting your heart rate up more during the day, just more of those things. And what I'm noticing is I'm sleeping less and my deep sleep is going up. So I think we might. This, I mean, it makes sense what you're saying, and I'm learning it too.

Amazing. Because you're getting more of your life back, really, is what that ultimately equates to when you can sleep less, you can live more. I mean, it's great to sleep well, but really what we want from our sleep is we want to feel refreshed when we wake up. None of, like, none of us want to sleep 24 hours. What if we could. And we can't only sleep an hour, unfortunately. But if we can go from nine hours down to even eight hours, that's huge. Over the course of the year, that's a lot more. Life over a decade, it's a lot. So over, you know, two, three decades, it's, you know, it's the difference in maybe starting a company and not. It's. It's all sorts of stuff. So.

So I. When I. When I met Barton, I decided to do his hair test, and he said, we got. Did that. And I. I was someone who had done the urine, the saliva, the blood. I'm on top of that every quarter. So I'm curious. So, Barton, do you have mine in front of you and that you can share whatever with anyone listening? I don't care. I want to. I want. I want to learn. And I think this could be interesting, too. And I'm someone who, by the way, I feel eats extremely healthy. I take great supplements. So I'm so curious what we found here.

Beautiful. Beautiful. Well, yeah, we have the report here, so, yeah, I'll take a look at it. Well, yeah, so this is a really good profile. I mean, unsurprisingly, in all the conversations we've had, I knew you really knew your stuff. And you do eat well and you exercise and you have great habits, all these things. And there's always going to be something to improve. So one thing that we're seeing, so we. I always glance and take in the first page here and. And then I look at the significant ratios on the top of page two. So one of the ones that I go to first is sodium to potassium. And I love to see that you're like, right on the money for that, which is great because that one, if you're really low, if you're below about a 1.4, you can, quote, guarantee emotional disturbance.

Wow. Well, I can tell you I ate a lot of pickles.

Weird.

But I do pickles and clams. I don't know why I like them both. And they have sodium.

So, yeah, you're doing great right there. So that's. That's one that I always like to see because that's. That's really a balance. That's an indicator of personality. Are you going to be stable and everything? And you're your ideal on the money right there. So. So that's awesome. And that's also an indication of adrenal function too, which is rare to see it. Really good. The. The one to the right of that calcium. Ca to K. So that is thyroid function.

Yep. So you're. You're like pretty ideal there as well.

The. The way you can optimize that is you can, you can fix. You can improve it by reducing intake of calcium.

And so was I higher on calcium or.

Yeah.

Okay.

A little bit. Not. Nothing crazy.

Okay.

But, you know, a little bit. So any supplements that have calcium in that, if, if you have any and you might not.

I don't.

Yeah, I wouldn't think so with this level. So that. And then, yeah, increasing potassium, taking potassium several times a day because it takes quite a bit. Um, the body wants like over 4 grams of potassium a day, which is really only possible right now. Yeah, yeah. Only possible through pretty extensive supplementation, frankly. Um, but that boosts metabolism. You know, whenever your thyroid becomes more optimal, yours is, is. Is looking really good. And.

The. When we look at calcium, Ca2P, that first column, that is. That's metabolism is really what that indicates. And yours is pretty, pretty good as well. And the way to improve it would be, again, less calcium. So we have two indications of calcium being a little high in the ratio section, which is more important than individual levels. So people will misread these all the time. I've studied this for over a decade, and we have a course that we teach practitioners that can be. If you're interested, if you're listening to this, you can get that on the website. Um, because it's important to understand that there's so many things that I don't have time to speak to, and I certainly, in this conversation, I can't, you know, teach listeners how to interpret a consultation. It's taken years to learn.

But I'm thinking about what you said about your mom and the calcium and the bone spurs and pain with that and inflammation. Do you. And I'm thinking of myself with my no disc in my back and dealing with pain and inflammation. Do you think that could be part of that? The calcium, the higher calcium and that?

I think in your case, no, I think you're fine. I really think you're good there, at least at this time right now. Right. So I always recommend people to test quarterly. This test is affordable. The test and consultation together are affordable.

And by the way, everyone listening, you can get it at. We already started@nataliejillfitness.com hair test. And it takes you right to the page to get it, so it's easy to find. Nataliejofitness.com forward/hair test.

Beautiful.

If you want to take one, too.

Yeah, that's awesome. So thanks for setting that up for people. That's. That's really cool. Um, and yeah, I will just say that again. It changed my life. Like the. The test. We. A. We wouldn't be talking today, but I also wouldn't have, you know, my mid-30s, better health than I did in my mid-20s and in my late 20s. So it's been really profound to get this. And what we're really looking at is a collection of elements and particularly the ratios between them that represent real things in the body that are happening, real processes in the body that are happening. So you're a little low in selenium as well. I'm looking at that. And that will help you push out some of the mercury in the body. Another way to boost metabolism a little bit.

I forget how you feel about meat.

I think I don't eat it. I don't eat red meat.

You don't eat red meat. Okay, got it.

But I do know from my blood test that I'm super high on zinc. Like too high on zinc from eating probably eating too many clams.

Yeah, probably. I see your zinc is, like, impressively high, which is interesting.

Yeah, I have a clam. I'm just going to be real. I have. I eat a lot of. I crave them, I don't. Yeah, something to do with that.

Interesting. Okay. Well, you know, your copper is also fairly, fairly elevated, so it's interesting. I like that is probably a biological thing where you had most likely copper toxicity at some point. Wow. And you're, you're craving zinc. You're craving foods that have zinc in them and, and you're using that zinc, your body's using that zinc to push the copper out. Now you need some copper. Yep.

That's so good to know.

Isn't that crazy?

Yeah.

Yeah. So there's a good chance that you won't always love them the way you love them now. So. Yeah. Yeah, just now. And that if you supplemented zinc, you might not feel the need to eat clams.

So I like eating them. So let it go right now.

Let it go. Let it go now. It's also one of the things that I'm not too concerned that someone's high end. It's, you know, it represents testosterone and certain, certain dominance of progesterone over estrogen. But that right now, I mean, there's, you know, I think that from everything in other conversations we've had.

I think it's fine. I guess, you know, for people listening, we're skipping a lot of steps. Natalie and I know each other. We've had a lot of conversations about health in general. So I'm making assumptions based. And I also have a lot of knowledge just on. Based on being around her, knowing her, sort of, you know, seeing, witnessing like energy levels and all sorts of stuff. And that's just like in my mental algorithm. So normally a consultation would be. It started off with questions and listening and really taking in and then looking at the results and not just diagnosing based off results, but actually blending that with questions like, hey, I see, for example, your zinc is elevated. Do you feel like you eat it? Do you eat foods high in zinc? Or your sodium is this way? You know, what is your salt intake like? In fact, I can ask you that right now because I'm not completely sure. With salt. Do you salt your food? Do you salt?

I don't salt my food, but I eat, I don't avoid. So I don't eat processed food, but I don't avoid salt. So for instance, clams have a lot of salt in them. I eat pickles. I love. I cr. I crave it. So I listen to my body and eat what I'm craving. So I believe I have added salt daily because of things like that. Or I'll use tamari sauce or something that has it in there.

Got it. Yeah. So that's. That's you just your body intuitively seeking those foods, which makes sense. So if you look at the top of page two, you'll see the NA to mg. So you actually want to increase this, this is adrenal function by really easily just salting your food, using salt as liberally as possible, really, for the next 90 days until you retest or even 60 days. But.

Yeah, until you retest, you want to bring that up a little bit. And you know, you're ideal on the NA decay. But if I'd rather see you be a little bit high because. Because you're right at ideal. If you drop off at all, you'll be low. So.

So at pink Himalayan rock solder, those things of foods.

Yeah, I really like Celtic. Pink Himalayan would be good too. It's tested, like, vibrationally. It measures a little lower, but Pink Himalayan's good. Sometimes I do that, sometimes I do Celtic. I've even done salt from Hawaii and I find it like that, fine grain. So it dissolves in your water easily, like we've talked about. And. Yeah, so those. Those are some really good ones. Your blood sugar ratio on here looks good, so you're good there. Your iron to copper is a little bit low again because your copper is a little bit on the high side. But, you know, your zinc is. Is high compared to that. So.

Which is. Okay. This, by the way, from a personality thing. Zinc and copper really affect personality in a way that I think people will find really interesting. So whenever you have a ratio like this, you'll tend to be more analytical, which is really how I know you to show up. Anyway. There's, like, very focused and driven and things like that when. When people. And it's. It's good. It's great for getting things done. Frankly, there aren't that many downsides to it.

There is such a thing as being too high zinc. And then you're. Someone would be overly analytical. And then, you know, someone's trying to make, like a sweeping statement. They're like picking out and, you know, different things like that, like kind of nitpicking, nitpicking. But the opposite end of that spectrum is high copper, which is creativity, but ungrounded creativity. So you're. It's interesting because you're high in both zinc and copper. So you have the creativity. You also have the analytical. The reason why that affects Personality. Well, a. Something I've said for a couple of years now is nutrition becomes personality. And it's a really interesting thing to think about because it absolutely does affect who you are in your, quote, moods. And the big red flags are green flags that pop up for people when they're around you. And they'll say, oh, she's like this. She's a certain way, or, you know, he's a certain way. And that's really largely based a lot on. On your hormones, and your hormones are based on your minerals, and your minerals and your fat intake is how we produce our hormones. So really interesting.

Super. This is super cool. Okay, so everyone that is listening right now, I highly suggest doing this. This is fascinating. So go to NatalieJofitness.com hair test. You can find out and what Barton is helping me now as my friend on here, sharing. But when you do the hair test, you can choose when you get it to have a consultation as well. And so they'll help you interpret their report, which I highly suggest, because most of your doctors, they're not going to. This is a newer thing, so they don't. They might not be familiar with it. Even my doctor, who's super educated, she said it's newer to her. So I recommend doing that and then work with your doctor and, you know, together you can do that. Well, this was fascinating. Barton. I love all this information. I love how you took a personal problem, really a personal pain, a personal tragedy, and you've turned it into something so positive that can help so many people. It's really fascinating. I love all you're doing in the world and what you stand for and what your company represents. It's really amazing.

Thank you so much. I really appreciate that reflection. And, yeah, we didn't even have time to get into heavy metals, but just so people know, we can. We see heavy metals on this test, too. And you'll have a consultation, they'll be able to go over some things there. But, yeah, we covered some really good things, I think, for people to understand.

Amazing. Thank you so much, Barton. Thank you.

This was fun. Thanks.

Thank you for taking the time out of your day to listen in as my guest today. If you found this episode valuable, please share it with friends and on social media. I don't advertise this show, so I rely on word of mouth and reviews to get it out in the world. The biggest thank you that you can give me is leaving me a review and a nice one, I hope, by the way, this is how others find these episodes. If you do leave me a review, be sure to message me at Support Natalie Jill fitness.com with a screenshot of your review because I would love to send you a free digital download of my DSR journal as a thank you. And please don't forget to connect with me on social media at Natalie Jill Fit on Instagram and Facebook.

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