Metabolic Health & Mineral Balance with Bill Quaterman

Welcome to the Balanced Body Podcast, where Sherri Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness in Omaha, talks to us about health, wellness, and balancing hormones.

I'm Sherri Griggs with Balanced Body Health and Wellness, and today we have a special guest, and I am very happy to introduce Bill Quateman with Advanced BioCell. Bill, welcome. Tell us Tell us about yourself and, and what you do and how you got into this realm of where you're at.

Well, thank you, Sherri. It's a pleasure to be here. Thanks for having me. You know, uh, like you and probably a lot of people that we know, we're just out here doing our best to help people. I mean, the way we will all feel fulfilled in this life, really more than anything, is as much as we can do to be of service. And to help other people. In the end, that's really the main issue, I think, of being alive and being here on this rock floating through infinity at godly speeds to who knows where. And the chances of being alive on this rock are like maybe 40 million to 1.

Yeah.

So I think all of us are amazing. Just by being here. And that's pretty much how I think of it and do my best to do stuff about it like that. So, you know, I had the great privilege many, many years ago of having a 32-year tutorial with a psychiatry professor from Northwestern University in Chicago. And, you know, that was really the gift of my life. Having the insights and having somebody give you the feedback that you just don't get unless you have a good coach of some kind or another. And those are the really main issues is like, who is your coach? And so I've done my best to pass that along in one way and another to whoever it is I work with. Certainly my family, my puppies, my wife and my kids, and now my clients and my staff. And anywhere you can go to be of service in one way or another. So that's really what drives me. That's what gets me out of bed in the morning and makes me feel full, I suppose you could say. So now I do that with Advanced BioCell. It is a regenerative medicine company, and we talk to people about their whole life. The whole idea is you can talk about the individual stuff, Which is important.

Yeah.

Whether it's hormones or metabolic function or oxidative stress or inflammation or can't sleep or you can't think straight, all those things. The point we make is let's look under the hood. Let's find out what went wrong and how we can fix it. So those are the kind of basic things that we do with Advanced BioCell. There's a whole raft of treatments and protocols, from ozone to peptides to hair tissue mineral analysis to stem cells and all those wonderful parts. But we'd like to say, tell us what you want as a person and we'll help you get it.

Is there a good baseline that they could start at? Is there a, you know, here's where you start? What if I don't know? I know I just feel better, but I don't, I don't know what I need.

Exactly. The best place to start really is what we had chatted about briefly, is your metabolic function. Now, metabolic function is how your body takes nutrients from any source and uses those nutrients to make energy. In the end, uh, Sherri, what is health? Health is energy. When you're not feeling good, when you're sick, when you have some kind of disease, your energy level is in the tank. Right?

Right.

So when your metabolic function is working properly, when your body has the right nutrients, when it has the right foods, when it stays away from the stuff you should be staying away from that impedes that, you can keep the interferences To a minimum. And that's where your body has the opportunity to actually help you and heal you and keep you in what we call peak span. Peak span is how long— yeah, how long can you live your best life rather than just how long can you live?

Rather than just longevity, right? Or lifespan. I'll say healthspan. But I like peak span. That's good.

Yeah. Staying at the top of your game, thinking right, having a good active sexual life, being energetic and being able to sleep properly and good relationships with the whole person. It's the whole person. We look at the whole person and talk to them about that if they want.

So you would start out with the hair test like we had talked about?

Sure, sure. A lot of people call, they say, look, I've heard about ozone. I want to come in and get some ozone therapy and I want some peptides. And sure, okay, we do that. But let's talk about the basic. The basic is metabolic, like we talked metabolic function. That's how your body makes that energy. And if the metabolic function is diminished or interfered with, you're not going to have the good life, the peak span, the energy that you would love to have. Most of us have no idea. People have no idea that The decline of all the things, whether it's metabolic function or stem cell production or mitochondria function or population or mental clarity, whatever you want to say, begins in your early 30s.

Yeah.

So one of the things we talk to people about is, okay, so if that's true, and it is, why don't we ask ourselves a good question? That question would be, When would be good to start working against that decline and start rebuilding and repairing? Would it be tomorrow, next week, next month, or yesterday?

Yeah, in your 30s. We knew that, right? And, and when you said that, that's when I heard you say we want ozone, we want peptides. We know that Those things can't do as much as they might possibly be able to do if we don't have a good foundation, which is our metabolic— how our body runs is our metabolic system. You really need to fix that first before adding some of these other treatments.

Right.

Right, exactly.

Yeah, exactly. What you can think of perhaps is a car with 6 cylinders and 2 cylinders aren't working. You'll still get to the grocery store, you'll still get to the movies, you'll still get to the beach, you'll still get to work and home, and everything will be like fine because you'll be in your car driving around. However, you'll be using more gas, there'll be more wear and tear on the engine, none of the mechanics will last as long. Is this sounding familiar? So the idea is let's take care of this miracle body, because remember, we're amazing miracle beings on an interesting planet in the middle of everywhere. So let's pay attention and take some good care of it. So the energy production is really the first step with the hair tissue mineral analysis. I invite anybody in your audience to Give us a call and look into what we're doing with that because it's one of the things that we do remotely. It's really one of the best pieces of information anybody could have. Nobody knows what's going on without this type of testing. Blood has good information, urine has good information, saliva has good information, but for nutritional values, nothing compares to the hair tissue mineral analysis. A 20-page report, digital measurement of your biochemistry, and a phone consultation to interpret that, and coaching for diet, lifestyle, and supplementation. So it's a really closed little loop where you, you don't have to guess about vitamins and whole foods anymore.

Right. So let me ask you for a little bit more specifics. What— so it looks at When you say nutrients, you're talking about our vitamins and our minerals. What else does it pull out?

Minerals. Minerals. Minerals. What the test measures? Yeah, the test measures 37 crucial minerals that have been determined are the ones that make or break metabolic function.

Got it. Okay.

Some are too high, some are too low, some are okay. There's toxic minerals that are showing up. And the idea is to know about it instead of just going around guessing which supplements you should take because you saw it on YouTube.

Oh, I know. Yes. I just had a patient the other day. But my friend's losing weight with this. I said, yes, but you are not insulin resistant. And it was a great thing. It had the berberine and the chromium and the nesitol and all the things that help with insulin resistance. And she must have said it to me 3 times, but she's lost 11 pounds. I said, yes, but you're not insulin resistant. 80% of the population is. You happen to be the 20% that's not. You're going to waste your money. And she did go on to tell me about all of these things that she had tried and all these different proteins she had purchased and these things she'd done. And I said, you should have just asked me. I would have said, don't get that, don't try this, don't do that, don't do that.

Perfect.

Don't, but some people just want to, they want to try it all. I have an app called, I don't know, some people call it Yuka, Yuka app. Are you familiar with that?

No.

It's a free app. It's Y-U-K-A, has a little carrot. Telling you this, folks, this is really interesting. And you scan barcodes and it'll tell you, it'll score it anywhere from 0 to 100. And if you're somebody who doesn't want to read numbers, it'll say poor. or good or excellent, and it's also color-coded red or yellow, green, but it will tell you what's in it that is bad and why it's considered bad. And I went to a conference and they were serving these, and I'm not afraid to say it, pure protein bars, not afraid to say it, and they've got all these protein and they had them there, and I pulled it out and scanned it and it got like a 20 out of 100. Like a big red bad, not poor, but bad. And it had so much stuff in it. You know, we know like sucralose, we've had, we've had the sweetener talk on here before. Sucralose, right, damages your microbiome, raises your blood sugar more than real sugar does in general. And it just had a lot of bad stuff in it.

There's a real easy way To do the best stuff possible for yourself. And that's just don't eat anything in a package or a box.

That's what I told my gal yesterday. We've actually had a food scientist on here, and she works for a very large food company, and she's worked for several of them and did some talks about ultra-processed. And, and that's what I told the gal. She goes, what do I eat? I said, meats and vegetables.

Eat an orange.

Yeah, eat fruits, meats, vegetables, fruits. If it comes in a box or it comes in a package, or it's pretty much a box or package, I told her pretty simple. It's that simple.

Listen, I'm not a purist, uh, Sherri. I, I have some, you know, chocolate wafers on occasion. Dark chocolate. Okay, dark chocolate's good for you. Yeah, but the point of the story is, what is your orientation? What are you thinking about? What are the choices that you're making on a moment-to-moment basis about anything in your life, let alone what you put in your mouth?

Right. And we don't think about it. And some of it, it's education. Because I made the comment about crackers. She goes, crackers? I can't eat crackers. Well, I like my cheese and crackers. I said, listen, when I get home late at night, I have been known to occasionally pull out gluten-free. And melt some cheese on it, but that is not healthy. That is not healthy food. But sometimes when my choice is nothing or that— But we talked about prepping and having things ready ahead of time, and, and I tell my patients all the time, I'm not perfect, so don't ever feel embarrassed to tell me anything. I don't judge, and I don't claim to be perfect.

Right. No, that is exactly the point, which is to say, what are you doing to get your own personal best? How committed are you? How dedicated are you? How focused are you? Anything you focus on is what you feel and become.

Correct. What you focus on expands.

Yeah, exactly. Exactly. So one of the first things you want to do is be kind to yourself, speak nicely to yourself. Tell your heart what a beautiful heart you are. Tell yourselves what beautiful cells you are, how healthy you are. Talk to yourself in a good way, like you would talk to a— give a loving conversation to a child.

Right. And we need that. We need to do that a lot. We can't count on other people to do that for us. We need to have that inside of ourselves and practice that and be kind to ourselves. And that's, that's one of the first places to start. And part of that self-care, what that is, is literally the word self-care. And people will tell me they feel selfish. They don't think they should spend the time taking care of themselves. And then, of course, we will say— I had a friend that would say this. So, That means that you don't care about your spouse or your children. Well, I do. Well, do they love you? Well, yeah. So you don't care what you're doing to them by not taking care of yourself and the fact that you might leave them early? People don't look at it that way, but it can open some eyes.

Oh, yeah. You know, everything that we do comes from the stories that we've heard. That the stories that we tell ourselves. And until you kind of investigate that and look at it and see, well, where is that coming from? I'm taking care of my family and I'm taking care of everybody. I'm not taking care of me because I don't think that's the right thing to do. Well, why?

Yeah. So sometimes they just have to see it in a different light, that by taking care of themselves, they are taking care of those people.

Well, exactly. That is the point. Seeing things in a different light is a really great phrase, Sherri, because that's really the key to it. That's mindset. And mindset is the first step into any territory of feeling good, living long, healing, being able to help anybody. They do it on the airplane. You hear them say the oxygen dips, you put it on yourself first so you don't pass out, and then you could do your kids.

Yes, yes. Had plenty of coaches talk about that, right? You got to put your oxygen mask on first so that you can help everyone else.

Exactly, exactly.

So if I decided that— say I've decided, okay, I'm listening to this podcast and I'm hearing this and I'm thinking, okay, I, I should probably do that. So I could go to Advanced BioCell And could I sign up for the mineral hair test, or how would I get started?

Sure. If you go to advancedbiocell.com and you'll probably print it somewhere, but it's advancedbiocell.com. You can click around there. You can purchase a hair tissue mineral analysis testing. We send out a hair sample collection kit in the mail. Full instructions on how to snip some hair from the back of your scalp. Somebody needs to do that for you. And then you send it back to us, and then we send it to the laboratory, and then you get emailed a 20-page report. It's a digital measurement of your biochemistry, so there's no wiggle room. It's really what's going on. It has nothing to do with Bill. It has nothing to do with Advanced BioCell. It's your body language being translated into what it is you are doing to create the health you have. And so that's where we start. You can call us. We like talking to people. We are very much encouraging everybody to open a conversation with us. We don't charge people for conversation. We just like to have people get better. That's the whole idea. So call us or send us an email or order a test, whatever you like to do. But it's one of the best Starting points, basics that anybody could do for themselves.

So it looks at, did you say 37 minerals?

37 of the minerals that make or break metabolic function. Some of those, there's 7 of them that are toxic minerals, whether it's the lead or the mercury. But the other ones. Yeah, the other. Right. The other ones are what make the energy. The other ones are what show you how the calcium is staying in your bones and your teeth or not. And if they're not staying in your bones and your teeth, where is the calcium going? It's going into the soft tissue. Well, that's a nice phrase, but what does that mean? It's going into the arteries and it's also going into the kidneys for kidney stones. It's going into the gallbladder for gallbladder stones. I mean, This is no fooling around.

So we could catch some of these things before the actual symptoms start.

Well, yeah, we have what we call the 4 Ps: preventive, proactive, preemptive, and the most important P is participation.

Right.

You gotta be in the game. To win it. So that's the point. We talk to people all the time. Well, I've had the privilege of working with some of the finest integrative regenerative practitioners in the world for over 30 years, and I've learned from them. They've mentored me. I've seen them as practitioners and so forth. And all of them say the same thing. About 20% of the people really get it, really are focused, really are dedicated. Consistent. And the other 80% are like, okay, now and then, maybe yes, maybe no, I'll do it, I won't do it. And I talked to my dear friend, Dr. Loeb, a surgery professor at the University of Illinois Medical School, a practicing surgeon, a naturopath. He has his own life extension, age reversal practice, concierge practice in Chicago. I say, okay, so people come up to you and you tell them, Based on what they tell you they want, you do A, B, C, D, E, F, and G, and they say, well, I don't know, I don't know if I want to do all that. What do you say? And invariably they'll say, well, okay.

Yeah. What can you say? They have to want to do it. You can't do it for them. It really is. I tell people, I assist them, I go along with them on their journey, but it's their journey and they can decide if they—

Right.

For instance, my autoimmune people, I do a lot of work with a lot of autoimmunity. If you don't want to go— I have one person, um, Hashimoto's thyroid autoimmune, didn't want to go gluten-free. Okay, that's fine, you don't have to, but I will tell you I can probably guarantee you, you will have another autoimmune disease down the road. We don't know what it will be. It could be celiac, could be MS, could be, who knows, diabetes. But this is the last I'll say. I'll say it to you. It's your choice. You have to want it.

Right.

I've educated you. I've let you know what could potentially happen or probably will. And then you decide and I won't bring it up again. But if you ever decide you want to do it, you know, something flips that switch for them and they decide they want to do it, I'm here to support you and help you.

Exactly. That's the whole point of all the discussion. It's like, what do you want? And what do you— why do you want it? And what are you willing to do to have it?

Right. So they get these results back, and then when they buy the test Is going— is reviewing it part of that, or then do they— so they— then you guys will review it with them?

Yes. What happens is the laboratory generates a 20-page report. Part of that report is a digital measurement showing the imbalances in the metabolic function, the highs, the lows, the antagonisms, and the toxicities. It shows us what it indicates, adrenal and thyroid function. And we talk, then we have a phone consultation to interpret that report because it looks like hieroglyphics at first.

Yeah.

When you get the hang of it, the idea is what you want to do is you want to be having this feedback and this assessment ongoing. I've been taking myself a retest every 3 to 4 months for 18 years.

Wow.

Subtle changes here and there and a little different supplement recommendations, quantity recommendations, and so forth. But the idea is to be in touch with your body. And so we go through the report and we interpret what it says. We tell people what all these things mean. We talk about what can happen if you do make a change, which shows what can happen and usually does happen if you don't make a change. And then we get into the conversation about diet, lifestyle, and supplementation.

Right. So I just heard you add something. So you talked about the 37 minerals, but then you also said it can tell us how the thyroid and the adrenals are performing. What other body functions does it tell you about?

Well, those are the basics. Those are the basics. I mean, actually, it may be in your experience, but all the doctors that I talk to talk about how inaccurate the blood test is for thyroid function.

Yeah.

The phrase that one of the big guys that I love says is that The thyroid blood test is about 40% accurate on a good day with the wind blowing in the right direction.

And I bet they're referring to the TSH. We find that traditionally, as I teach my patients, the only thing checked is the thyroid stimulating hormone. So I know my pituitary is working. I know nothing about my thyroid. That tells me nothing about the Thyroid. It's supposed to, you know, and then I talk about, and some of our forward-thinking providers look at the T4, so we know the thyroid's making T4, but the biggest problem, and this is where your test I'm sure comes in, is what's the body doing with that T4? Is it turning it into T3 that my mitochondria and cells can use for energy, or is it turning it into reverse T3 that blocks my cells and mitochondria from being able to use that T3? Right. Reverse is where you start getting into missing minerals, selenium, iodine, zinc, toxins, stressors, all of these things can cause our body to take that hormone and turn it into something that's not good. I always say the negative T3, not the positive, the negative, and I know it's called reverse, so, but it helps people think about it. And, and, but traditionally, TSH, that's all we look at. So your friend, I don't even know if 40% of the time you can use it because it really doesn't— I think it's 0.4 to 4. This is your, your range, and it's so large.

Mm-hmm.

It's not optimal, but it's a large range where people are just left To suffer many times with all of their symptoms and be told they're fine, but your test is going to show them they're not.

It'll give them what's really happening. That's really what's happening. That's the difference between that. And the idea is the thyroid and the adrenal information is more like showing the adrenal or the thyroid function either is increased or decreased. But it's important. Well, that's the starting point. Starting point. Everybody has one gland, either thyroid or the adrenal. That's the major issue for them. It's either one or the other that's really leading the charge and being dysfunctional in a certain kind of way. So that's why you want life. Good health is a balancing act. We all know that.

100%.

Yeah. The basis of all the things that we do our best to bring. We talk about relationships. How's your relationship with the husband, with the wife, with the kids, with the family? How do you like your work, the job that you do? Do you like it? Do you not like it? If you don't like it, how long have you been doing it and not liking it? And it's very surprising how many people are just having far less of an enjoyable time in their life than you would expect, given all the opportunities that we have.

I know, I know. But, you know, it almost goes back to what you said. Do you want to make these changes? How bad do you want it? And they aren't— they don't want it that bad. In with it, whether it's the health, they want the easy pill, right? They want the easy button. For health. Like, you made the example of, well, yeah, maybe I don't want to do all those things.

Right. And also, one of the biggest problems, again, so much of living well is mindset and storylines and stuff like that. And change is so difficult for people because they're so attached to what they've got. That something new seems more frightening than what they have, even if it's not fun.

Well, and I'm sure your 32 years with the psychology guy would say, I love change. If I don't have enough change, I get bored. So there's something wrong with me.

It's called novelty. I think it's called novelty. You know, one of the things is we all want certainty. We want to walk into a room and know that the ceiling is not going to fall on you, right? And then you want to have uncertainty, you want to have novelty, you want to have something new. These are all human needs. This is Tony Robbins from the very ground floor. And those are all important pieces. We want love, we want connection, and all those different bits and pieces that are so crucial. But there's, again, interferences that we have kept in place that don't allow us to have the full experience of that. So, yeah, when you get more and more of a— it's like a muscle. It's like a muscle. You build a muscle that says, okay, I want more insight, I want to learn more, I want to grow more, I want to progress more. That will lead you into infinity.

Yeah. I have to tell you, when you brought up your car analogy and when you talked about the thyroid and the adrenals, So my listeners have heard this lots, lots and lots. But if somebody's new, I use a car as a way to explain hormones. And I say cortisol is the motor and thyroid is the transmission. And those are 2 really important parts in your car.

Hmm.

And I tell them that your tires are your estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, and DHEA. Insulin's your electrical system. So I tell them, I used to have a hormone provider and she gave me 3 new tires and that was it. So my car could get out there, but it wasn't running as well as it could because my transmission wasn't in the right gear, my motor was skipping, and eventually it threw a short in my electrical system. And then, and of course, there is the gut, and that's the garage door opener. Door doesn't go up, car doesn't get out at all.

That's great. That's great. You know, the new one that I'm, I'm using also lately— did you see the Brad Pitt movie F1? Okay, so the F1 cars— are you familiar with the F1 cars, the Formula 1 cars?

Okay, yes, yes, yes.

Yeah, those are those low-riding cars that go so fast you can't believe it, you know.

Yeah, right, right.

All the major car companies, you know, Ferrari and Mercedes and Jaguar and, uh, Maserati, all of them, all of them, all of them have their own F1 cars. Now, I'm, I'm not a race car guy. I just, you know, that's fine. People that like that, they can enjoy that. It's It's just not one of the things I seek out. But the fact of the matter is that what are the— what I ask people is, what do these F1 cars companies do? And what they do is they spend millions and millions and millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars on the best tires, The best gasoline, the best wires, the best steering wheels, the best drivers, the best tech guys, the best everything.

Everything.

So why don't you do that with your body?

I just need some investors.

Yeah, well, you are your main investor. Invest some time, invest some attention. Invest in discipline. Right. That's all. I mean, obviously, yeah, you're not going to spend millions. There are people that do spend quite a bit of money, and I'm one of them. But the point of the story is let's think differently, I guess.

Right. And that goes all the way full circle back into thinking about our bodies, ourselves, what we're here for, what we're doing. who we're here for and, and, and taking care of ourselves.

Exactly. I mean, taking care of ourselves enables us, like we started out, to take care of other people, which is really the only game in town.

Right, right. Well, this has been great. And, um, so everybody, advancedbiocell.com. You can go to the website, as Bill had said, you can call them, you can click the Book Now button, you can order your test. And if you are looking to work with me for, as we talked about, hormones and gut health, and, um, I'm Sherri Griggs with Balanced Body Health and Wellness. This has been the Balanced Body Podcast, and we are so happy that you're here to listen to us. And Bill, thank you so much for coming on. This was a Very interesting conversation. I very much enjoyed it.

Thank you, Sherry. So did I. Appreciate you having me.

You bet. Take care.

You too.

This has been the Balanced Body Medical Podcast with Sherry Griggs, owner of Balanced Body Health and Wellness. If you're looking to find Sherry, go ahead and look for the website balancedbodymedical.com. If you're looking for the business and you want to find Sherry at her office, you can find her at—

10815 Elm Street in Rockbrook Plaza.

Thank you.