Note: some of the info in this blog will lack context if you have not read the Dr Mariano Call blog first so I recommend reading it before proceeding.
I worked with Dr Daniel Kalish of The Kalish Institute back in 2019. He has been very helpful for my case - I'll explain why and why I think he could be useful for all of us.
Dr Kalish is up there with the best functional medicine practitioners I've come across. He has been doing this for decades, he now teaches functional medicine to others and for many years he has weekly calls with the guy who basically invented functional medicine, his mentor (can't remember his name).
Dr Kalish's method focuses on treating what he calls the four horsemen of physiological damage: inflammation, catabolic physiology, insulin resistance and oxidative stress. To do this, he uses a number of tests: organic acids, adrenal DUTCH test, GI (gastrointestinal) map testing and detox pathway testing.
His youtube channel is really informative: https://www.youtube.com/c/TheKalishInstitute
I won't delve into each test too much because there are a lot of markers and they are very complicated, but we tested my organic acid markers, DUTCH test markers and GI map markers.
My GI map was fairly unremarkable.
My adrenal DUTCH test showed that my adrenal output was poor, namely cortisol and DHEA-S. The DUTCH test is not cheap but it is so much more comprehensive than the usual adrenal tests online. It tests about 40 different hormones and metabolites. Before I did a DUTCH test, I thought my adrenals were fine based on normal cortisol testing. Working with Kalish on adrenals made me realise that I really had no clue what I was doing. He advised me to start a protocol specific to my results which had very noticeable benefits on my mood, energy and sleep. Here is a link to a DUTCH test example: https://dutchtest.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/DUTCH-Complete-Male-Sample-Report-Ref062521.pdf
My organic acid test results were quite surprising. Organic acid testing can assess a range of bodily systems. Here is a 5 minute overview of the test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCvLUHqeJ1s
Here's the surprising part - when I spoke to Dr Kalish, he told me that in his 25 years of practising functional medicine, he had never seen someone in such a hypo-metabolic state. What this basically means is that my mitochondria are extremely dysfunctional (if you have read the Mariano call blog, you know why this is relevant for Permanent Deca Dick) and that my body is severely lacking in Glutathione, the bodies primary anti-oxidant. Remember from the Dr Mariano Call blog - if metabolic energy production is insufficient, we are using Norepinephrine for energy production. This all makes me wonder if mitochondrial dysfunction is common among PDD sufferers. I think it is worth finding out. Mitochondrial dysfunction is no joke, it is associated with accelerated ageing, early death due to age related disease and it's an important indicator of early onset alzheimer's. Mitochondrial dysfunction can be addressed with supplements so it's good to catch it early.
Comments/ questions are welcomed