To start the year, I would love it if you could find 10 minutes today to read what I believe is the most important blog I’ve written. It contextualizes the importance of both my first book, The Evolution of Medicine and my second, The Community Cure, to now what I believe is the most important moment and mission of our time…

I also reviewed the incredible recent Lyme Disease Roundtable that probably should have been 30 years ago, but it is exciting to see something come into light that has been hidden to health seekers and clinicians alike. It sets up our community for leadership on this topic for the next decade.

This week on the Evolution of Medicine podcast, we’re exploring what may be the most natural, and most underutilized, home for precision brain health: senior living.

Earlier this year, I was introduced to Doug Motter, President of Homestead Village in Pennsylvania. For the past 27 years, Doug has been guiding a 600-resident senior living community with a clear north star: health, dignity, and longevity. He joins me on the podcast alongside Hal Cranmer, CEO of A Paradise for Parents, a five-location senior living organization in Arizona.

While their communities are different, Doug and Hal share one powerful thing in common: They are innovating at the intersection of senior living and precision brain health.

In this conversation, we explore how both leaders were influenced by the work of Dr. Dale Bredesen, and how they’ve each taken meaningful steps to bring proactive, root-cause brain health approaches into senior living environments—places traditionally designed for management of decline, not reversal.

This topic is close to my heart. It’s personal, not just as someone building in this space, but as someone thinking about where our parents, and eventually we ourselves, might want to live in our later years. What makes this conversation so exciting is that it clearly shows why senior living may be the ideal setting for precision brain health:

• You have people who need this level of care

• You have built-in community and connection

• And you have the opportunity to deliver group-based, proactive brain health at scale

On the podcast, we also announce an exciting new partnership between Homestead Village and TruNeura, where we’ll be deploying a group-focused precision brain health program, in collaboration with Turnpaugh Health & Wellness, a six-location, 20-provider functional medicine clinic serving Central Pennsylvania.

This episode is a glimpse into what’s possible when senior living shifts from custodial care to cognitive optimization, community, and purpose.

Listen in if you’re:

• In senior living and curious about the future of brain health
  
  
• A functional or integrative clinic interested in partnering with senior communities
  
  
• Or simply thinking about what “aging well” could really look like

If you’re interested in exploring a partnership with a senior living center or bringing precision brain health into this setting get in touch with us and book a concierge call to learn more.

This is the future. And it’s already beginning.

This week on the podcast we feature Dr. Kirstie Lawton, Founder of Food for the Brain Foundation and a virtual brain health clinic in the UK focused on ALS (Lou Gehrig’s Disease) which in the UK is called “Motor Neurone Disease” (MND)

This is a hot topic in the UK as there has been a flurry of cases and concern about MND in the professional rugby players community. In this podcast you will learn:

• Is there hope for MND / ALS and what role for nutrition?
• Lessons from delivering a completely virtual brain clinic
• How science and survival of MND / ALS is evolving

Listen wherever you listen to your podcast or watch the full interview on our YouTube channel.

This week on Season 2, Episode 7 of the Evolution of Medicine, we take a deeper and more personal dive into immune resilience and the COVID vaccines, a topic that, five years later, continues to shape our work, our patients, and our health system.

In the News: A UK Decision That Should Concern Everyone

A recent report from the UK announced that public health authorities will not be releasing records that could clarify whether the COVID vaccines were associated with the rise in excess deaths.

Their stated reason:

It might create privacy issues and emotional distress for grieving families.

As someone who lost my mother three months after her COVID vaccination in the UK in June 2021, I want to be extremely clear:

There is nothing more important to bereaved families than the truth.

Understanding what happened is not traumatic, it is healing, clarifying, and necessary for public trust.

I share a brief personal reflection in the episode, not to stoke controversy, but to highlight the human cost of opacity and why functional medicine practitioners must continue to be leaders in evidence-based immune resilience.

Clinical Deep Dive: The Most Important COVID Talk You’ve Never Seen

In the clinical corner, we pivot to what I believe was a critical education session made early in the pandemic:

Dr. Ari Vodjii’s April 16, 2020 lecture on immune resilience.

It outlined, early and brilliantly, the patterns of immune dysregulation that would go on to shape the entire COVID era.

And yet… we didn’t listen.

In the episode, we break down one pivotal slide that every practitioner needs to know cold—a framework that explains:

• how host resilience determines patient outcomes
  
  
• how metabolic fragility and chronic inflammation amplify viral severity

This alone is worth the listen.

This week on the Evolution of Medicine podcast, we dive into a topic that weaves together many of the threads we’ve been exploring over the last few weeks. We’ve talked about AI and its rapid rise. We’ve talked about cognitive decline and the extraordinary possibility of reversing it. And we’ve talked about what it will take to get there on an individual practice level.

But this week’s episode brings those themes together in a way I didn’t expect.

A friend recently sent me what looked like a legitimate video commercial, featuring credible, household-name figures like Dr. Sanjay Gupta and Anderson Cooper. At first glance, it looked polished, believable, even authoritative. But as you’ll see in the episode, not everything is as it appears. In fact, almost nothing is.

And that’s the point.

We are moving into a world where AI blurs the boundaries between truth, reality, and persuasion. Where advertising looks like journalism. Where journalism looks like entertainment. And where the only thing we can count on is that we need better tools, better communities, and better critical thinking to navigate what comes next.

This episode unpacks what that means for medicine, for cognitive decline, for health creation – and for the evolution of our entire ecosystem.

I think you’ll find it interesting… hopefully funny… and definitely insightful.

This week on the Evolution of Medicine podcast, we dive into one of the most exciting developments in healthcare – the Primary Care Renaissance.

Starting January 1st, new legislation makes it easier than ever for both patients and employers to participate in Direct Primary Care (DPC). This shift could finally deliver on many of the promises we’ve been talking about for years – cutting out the middleman, reducing costs, lowering friction, and restoring the sacred doctor-patient relationship.

We explore what this means for the future of medicine, and share insights from a powerful article written by a physician on the pride of ownership – and how reclaiming that sense of purpose and autonomy could be the spark that transforms primary care for good.

In our Worst Pharma Ad of the Week segment, we break down another unforgettable SkyRizi commercial – and what it reveals about the state of modern healthcare marketing.

Finally, we revisit a timeless conversation from our archives – a segment of James’s 2017 interview with Prof. Raphael Mechoulam, the “Godfather of Medical Cannabis,” whose pioneering work laid the foundation for today’s cannabinoid revolution.

It’s a jam-packed episode that connects the dots between economics, empowerment, and evolution in medicine. Tune in, share it with your DPC colleagues, and let’s continue building the future together.

Last week, I shared the differences in entries between Wikipedia and Grokipedia and why that shift represents a turning point for functional medicine.

This week on The Evolution of Medicine Podcast, we take a deeper dive into Grokipedia: what it is, how it’s changing the landscape for practitioners, and why it might finally put to rest the old “pseudoscience” critiques.

We also lighten things up with my favorite pharmaceutical commercial of all time – a hilarious rip-off that prescribes nature instead of pills.

And in the Clinical Corner, we explore a fascinating new tool I found online: the Functional Medicine Capability Maturity Matrix. It’s a quick self-assessment that helps you see exactly where your practice is on the journey from early adoption to full system mastery.

The Evolution of Medicine podcast returns with a deep dive into the seismic shifts reshaping healthcare – from the explosion of direct-to-consumer lab testing to the most disingenuous pharmaceutical commercial ever made. Host James Maskell unpacks how companies like Function Health, Superpower, Whoop, and Aura are democratizing health data, while practitioners must evolve or risk becoming obsolete in an increasingly consumer-driven landscape.

This episode exposes the uncomfortable truth: patients can now access comprehensive lab panels for under $200 annually, complete with longitudinal tracking and AI interpretation. Meanwhile, wearable giants are integrating lab testing to create powerful health ecosystems that compete directly with traditional practice models. The message is clear – practitioners who rely on static PDFs and sporadic appointments are heading toward irrelevance.

The episode also features the most-watched video in Functional Forum history: Dr. Izabella Wentz’s groundbreaking presentation on how thyroid dysfunction masquerades as mental illness, affecting up to 27% of the population. Her personal journey from misdiagnosis to recovery illustrates the power of root-cause medicine and why functional practitioners remain essential in an automated world.

🎙️ Tune in to learn:

• The direct-to-consumer lab revolution: How Function Health’s 200,000+ customers and Superpower’s $17/month pricing are reshaping patient expectations—and what this means for your practice model.
• Why wearable companies are your new competition: Whoop and Aura’s integration of lab testing with biometric data creates comprehensive health platforms that threaten traditional practitioner relationships.
• The data integration imperative: Why practices relying on static lab reports and infrequent check-ins will become uncompetitive against real-time, longitudinal health monitoring systems.

If you’re ready to future-proof your practice against the consumerization of healthcare while maintaining the irreplaceable human element of functional medicine, this episode provides both the wake-up call and the roadmap you need.

👉 Listen now or wherever you get your podcasts.

The Evolution of Medicine podcast is back – weekly, longer-form, and laser-focused on giving practitioners the news, tools, and frameworks to reverse chronic disease at scale. In this premiere of “season two,” host James Maskell introduces the big idea shaping the next chapter: solving “network insufficiency” at three levels – inside the body, across communities, and through a nationwide network of high-functioning practices.

Borrowing from Dr. Dale Bredesen’s framing of Alzheimer’s as a “network insufficiency,” James maps the concept onto the functional medicine matrix (clinical networks), the social fabric that shapes health (community networks), and the operational capacity of clinics themselves (practice networks). It’s a unifying lens—and a rallying cry for the next five years to build the capacity required to bend the chronic disease curve.

Along the way, you’ll meet this season’s mission partners – Fullscript, TruNeura, Freedom Practice Coaching, and Big Boost Marketing – each spotlighted for the role they play in turning “network insufficiency” into “network sufficiency,” from streamlined labs and cognitive-care platforms to scalable operations and patient pre-education.

🎙️ Tune in to learn:

• What “network insufficiency” means clinically (via the functional medicine matrix), socially (community and group visits), and operationally (clinic capacity)—and why solving it is the master key to reversing chronic disease.
• Why this really is “the moment”: the podcast shifts to a weekly, studio-based format to track pivotal ideas, tools, and policy conversations shaping the movement.
• A practical playbook for capacity building:
  • Fullscript’s evolution toward turnkey lab logistics so any clinic can offer “Function-Health-style” testing.
  • TruNeura’s clinical implementation platform and why precision medicine for cognitive decline is poised to scale.
  • Freedom Practice Coaching’s Scalability Assessment and how to use it to grow from one provider to ten.
  • Big Boost Marketing’s education-first marketing to generate qualified discovery calls at the lowest possible cost.
• How broader public-health debates – and a widely discussed HHS-hosted conversation—signal a cultural inflection point for our field.

If you’re committed to systems-level change in integrative and functional medicine, this kickoff episode sets the agenda for the year – and equips you to start building true network sufficiency in your clinic and community.

When experienced integrative physician Dr. Robin Rose discovered she had a kidney tumor and early signs of kidney disease, she was shocked—but determined. What followed was a deep dive into an often-overlooked aspect of chronic disease care: kidney health.

In this powerful episode, Dr. Rose shares how her personal health journey ignited a mission to bring kidney care into the spotlight within functional and integrative medicine. She highlights how kidney dysfunction is frequently underdiagnosed or misunderstood, even in root-cause-focused care models.

Through her own research and collaboration with a naturopathic kidney specialist, Dr. Rose developed a holistic framework for supporting kidney health—incorporating nutrition, lifestyle, toxin reduction, and innovative therapies like bio-regulator peptides. Her new book, Ology Peptides: Kidney Success with Bio-Regulator Peptides, explores this approach in detail.

Tune in to learn:

• Why kidney function is the “silent factor” in many chronic disease cases
• The key lifestyle and environmental factors impacting kidney health
• How peptides—especially bio-regulator peptides—are being used to support kidney repair and resilience
• Why a proactive, systems-based approach is critical to reversing kidney decline
• How practitioners can better support patients before dialysis becomes the only option

If you're interested in whole-body health and emerging tools in functional medicine, this episode will shift the way you think about kidney care.

What if health plans could cover in-home chef services to improve patient outcomes? In this episode, James Maskell sits down with Renata Jenik, founder of Foodom.com, to explore how her company is pioneering a powerful new model of food as medicine—one that’s already being covered by insurance.

Renata shares her personal journey from overwhelmed working mom struggling with PCOS and insulin resistance to entrepreneur with a mission to redefine healthcare through culinary empowerment. What started as a personal solution—hiring a chef to prepare healthy meals for her family—evolved into a scalable program now contracted by health plans like Anthem to serve Medicaid patients in Sacramento County.

Unlike traditional meal delivery, Foodom sends trained chefs into patients’ homes every two weeks to cook nourishing meals and teach basic culinary skills. It’s a powerful model rooted in sustainability and empowerment.

Tune in to learn about:

• How a personal health crisis sparked a revolutionary business idea
• Why health plans like Anthem are paying for in-home chef services
• The key differences between meal delivery and chef-led culinary education
• The challenges and solutions of scaling food-as-medicine at the community level
• Why El Dorado County is emerging as a hub for healthspan innovation
• And so much more!

If you're interested in the intersection of culinary care, health equity, and scalable functional medicine delivery, this is a must-listen.

In this episode, we sit down with Dr. Javier Galvis, the first Latin American physician certified by the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), to explore the remarkable rise of functional medicine across Latin America. Dr. Galvis shares his journey from discovering the IFM Annual International Conference (AIC) in 2010 to completing his certification in 2013—and how the AIC has continued to inspire his practice.

As the founder of the Functional Medicine Academy in Colombia, Dr. Galvis is at the forefront of a growing movement, with thousands of physicians across Latin America now embracing a functional approach to care. He also gives us an exciting preview of the 2025 AIC and its cutting-edge focus on the future of medicine.

Tune in to learn more about:

• Why the AIC has been a game-changer for clinicians around the world
• How functional medicine is expanding rapidly across Latin America
• The role of the Functional Medicine Academy in training new practitioners
• Hot topics at the upcoming AIC, from psychedelic and peptide therapies to longevity and energy medicine
• How the conference bridges traditional wisdom with modern science
• Why this global movement is transforming the future of healthcare

Don’t miss this inspiring conversation! Be sure to listen, share, and help spread the word about the transformation happening in medicine today.

What does it take to build a thriving, scalable functional medicine practice in today’s healthcare landscape?

In this episode of the Evolution of Medicine podcast, we’re joined by Seth Conger, a seasoned entrepreneur and innovator in the functional medicine space who’s helped practices grow from startup to seven-figure exits. Seth shares his own journey, from event marketing into transforming his father-in-law’s clinic with cutting-edge technology and a shift to a membership-based model.

The episode explores three distinct stages of practice growth—startup, growth and scale—and the critical mindset and business shifts required at each level.

Tune in to learn:

• Why the startup phase is all about finding product-market fit and acquiring patients
• How the growth phase requires systems, hiring and stepping back from direct care
• What the scale phase looks like when your vision leads and your practice grows independently
• Why choosing the right business model (and ditching fee-for-service) is non-negotiable for long-term success
• Common mistakes that keep practitioners stuck and the high opportunity cost of not evolving

Whether you’re just getting started or looking to scale beyond yourself, this episode offers a roadmap for sustainable growth in functional medicine. Download today to learn how to build a profitable practice that doesn’t burn you out.

In this powerful episode of the Evolution of Medicine podcast, James Maskell sits down with Tasha Blank—DJ, movement catalyst, and founder of Powerhouse DJ School—to explore how dance, music, and embodiment can be powerful tools for healing and nervous system regulation.

For over a decade, Tasha has pioneered sober-conscious dance events that remove movement from the club scene and place it back into the realm of sacred, intentional expression. Her story is one of personal transformation, community leadership, and deep inquiry into how we heal—physically, emotionally and culturally.

Tune in to learn about:

• How dance and embodiment shifted Tasha’s relationship with her body and launched a decade-long journey of transformation.
• The health crisis in her late teens that forced her to look beyond conventional medicine and into nutrition, movement and energy work.
• A pandemic-fueled identity deconstruction that led to unexpected healing through metabolic, animal-based nutrition—and opened questions around gender, body image and healing.
• The launch of Powerhouse DJ School and teaching others to use music and dance as vehicles for transformation.
• The philosophy behind sober dance spaces and how reclaiming movement as medicine can heal individuals and communities.

This episode is a must-listen for anyone exploring somatic healing, community-based transformation, and new paradigms for health that go far beyond prescriptions and protocols.

In this episode, Dr. Nasha Winters shares her powerful journey with cancer and the urgent need for a paradigm shift in oncology. She explores the limitations of the current cancer care model, the critical role of mitochondria in chronic illness, and why asking different questions is essential for improving patient outcomes. Dr. Winters also introduces MTOMICS, a cutting-edge data platform designed to revolutionize cancer treatment by integrating personalized, data-driven insights.

Listen to the full episode to learn more: 

• The standard cancer care model has seen little progress in outcomes since 1971.
• Cancer is affecting younger populations, signaling the need for new approaches.
• Mitochondrial health is a cornerstone of cancer and chronic disease management.
• Integrative medicine offers evidence-based strategies to enhance patient care.
• Community and collaboration are essential for driving meaningful change.
• Data-driven, decentralized healthcare models can empower both patients and practitioners.
• And much more!

Tune in to discover how integrative oncology, cutting-edge research, and patient empowerment are reshaping the future of cancer care.

Summary

In this episode, James welcomes back Dr. Bryce Appelbaum to the Evolution of Medicine podcast to continue their previous discussion about functional optometry. 

James and Dr. Appelbaum recently reconnected at an event tied to the Make America Healthy Again (MAHA) initiative. Dr. Appelbaum approaches vision health from a functional medicine perspective and considers how functional vision issues can be implicated in seemingly unrelated cognitive issues, such as learning disabilities and ADHD.

Tune into this full conversation that explores:

• How practitioners are working to communicate the full scope of what is possible in terms of improving vision, cognition, and overall health for the benefit of public awareness
• Dr. Appelbaum has worked with Dave Asprey to demonstrate and document how targeted interventions can significantly improve vision
• Why early-life screen time damages children’s health, harming learning and focus  
• How undiagnosed vision problems can have major impacts on health and wellbeing
• Which patients benefit most from ScreenFit

Use code EVOMED for $200 off on ScreenFit, the vision training program designed to minimize the negative effects of screens on vision and promote healthy visual habits.

Dr. Bryce Appelbaum (12:59)- 13:35

This Business of Functional Medicine episode is the second part of podcast episode #349, hosted by Kristen Brokaw with guest and business coach, Ari Meisel.

In this episode, Ari explains that practice owners can use AI to enhance productivity. He also discusses concepts that he teaches in business coaching, including “The 3 Levers of Success in Business” and “The 6 Levels of Delegation.” He also revisits the importance of asynchronous communication, and shares techniques for capturing ideas effectively and for finding the right support to optimize personal and professional life.

Tune into this episode to hear more about:

• Creating custom GPTs to streamline information processing and ideation
• Using tools like Trello to delegate or prioritize tasks
• Why work-life integration is more relevant than work-life balance
• And much more!

Listen to Part I of this podcast, Business of Functional Medicine: Four Entrepreneurial Mindsets for Practice Owners, episode #349.

This week’s podcast guest is Katie Baric, Executive Director at Hands on Peru—a nonprofit organization in Peru and the US, created as a response to the deep inequities in access to medical care among the rural poor of Peru. Hands on Peru is a medical center that provides a range of basic medical services, from dentistry to ultrasounds.

The organization also has a mission to serve as an educational platform for students and medical practitioners from around the world. Katie invites listeners to reach out to her at katie@handsonperu.org to learn about opportunities for visiting and working with the organization to learn about pioneering public health theory into practice.

During the episode, Katie also highlights the launch of Chimuk, a social enterprise empowering local women through knitting, and the impact of these initiatives on the community's health and wellbeing.

Download and listen to the episode to hear about:

·       How Katie came to co-found Hands on Peru.

·       Katie’s and James’ introduction at the Lifestyle Medicine Conference in Mexico City, and why they were inspired by the unique conference format that modeled the principles of lifestyle medicine.

·       Peru’s practices during the COVID-19 pandemic.

·       And much more!

Please tune in to learn about opportunities to travel to Peru to participate in this community development and healthcare initiative.