Who Is Dr. Casey Means? The MD on How to Improve Metabolism, Lose Weight and Treat Healthcare ‘Blind Spots’

Stanford-trained surgeon Casey Means, M.D., wasn’t satisfied with the status quo in healthcare, where patients seemed to stay sick. So she quit. And she became one of the most well-known and influential “disruptors” in the wellness world, helping people achieve ideal metabolism and limitless health. But who is Dr. Casey Means and how did she get to this point in her career? Keep reading to learn more, including exactly how you can use her advice to get healthy and lose weight too! (Drinking water is part of it.) 

Who is Dr. Casey Means?

The go-getter attended Stanford University for undergrad, where she graduated with honors. Then she went on to Stanford Medical School and became a surgeon. But you may have heard of her from her other careers: as the founder of the wellness company Levels or the author of the new book Good Energy, a #1 New York Times bestseller. And how she got there is a story in and of itself…

Dr. Means and the problem with medical specialties

When we have a problem with our foot, we see a foot doctor… our eye, an eye doctor… that’s the typical approach in western medicine. But it didn’t seem to be working for Dr. Means. “We play very reactive ‘Whac-a-Mole’ medicine,” explains Dr. Means, who believes this approach has led us (and our waistlines) astray. Dr. Means is no stranger to medical specialties. She was a head and neck surgeon. But she realized, “the more specialized healthcare becomes, the more chronic illness we’re getting.” Plus, there’s no specialty for metabolism, even though there’s a surprising connection between metabolism and every aspect of our life and health.

Dr. Casey Means set out to create a new approach

Frustrated by the old system, Dr. Means walked away from her hospital job. Now she is proposing a radical shift: Instead of treating individual body parts, let’s focus on improving the health of the most fundamental and universal element of our body: our mitochondria. It’s the part of every cell that makes energy so all our cells can function optimally. It’s a simple, groundbreaking idea: When our individual cells are healthy, our whole body enjoys overall health.

 

Dr. Means’ pursuit for “good energy”

Dr. Means calls this state of ideal cellular health “Good Energy,” but you may have heard it referred to as being “metabolically healthy.” And we’re desperate to get there. Currently, 93.2 percent of Americans are metabolically unhealthy. Dr. Means says, “The ability to make ‘good energy’ is the most important and least understood factor in our overall health.

Metabolic health is the “biggest blind spot in healthcare”

This blind spot is painfully personal to Dr. Means. She witnessed her mother struggle for decades with seemingly unrelated metabolic issues: an inability to lose the baby weight, severe menopausal symptoms, high blood pressure, cholesterol and blood sugar and then finally pancreatic cancer. “My mom did not know—nor did her doctors help her understand—that the extra fat on her body was a sign of cells that were overwhelmed and under-supported.”

Dr. Means reveals, “What’s particularly devastating to me is she was working so hard to try to be healthy, but she was putting her arrow in sort of a scattershot way. If she had focused directly on the mitochondria, she would have had so much more improvement.”

Dr. Means: Modern diets are weakening our cells

Now Dr. Means is on a crusade to reverse the world’s metabolic health crisis. She contends, “Our modern diets and lifestyles are synergistically ravaging our cellular mitochondria.” How? In multiple ways…

1. Our cells are tired

Americans eat about 20 percent more calories and up to 3,000 percent more sugar than previous generations — and our cells have to manage it all. “Imagine being asked to do 700 to 3,000 percent more work than you normally do daily — you’d collapse!” says Dr. Means. “The cells simply cannot process all the material coming in from too much nutrient depleted food.” But ultra-processed foods continue to drive our cravings, making us eat, without delivering the energizing nutrients we need to power our cells.

 2. Our cells are clogged

The body has to find somewhere to stash all those extra calories. Its not-so-helpful solution is to store fat in a cell that is not a dedicated fat cell. (Think liver, muscle and heart cells.) Dr. Means explains, “Any cell that is not a fat cell that is filled with fats is a big problem, because its normal cellular activities, like cell signaling, get blocked. It’s a traffic jam inside the cell caused by excess toxic fat.” It’s no surprise how clogged heart cells, for example, could harm heart health.

3. Our cells are dehydrated

Another thing that happens is our cells lack water to run optimally. When that happens, Dr. Means explains, “making fat tissue is a way for humans to store more water.” A lot could be said about Dr. Means and drinking water, especially clean, filtered water. It’s a topic that’s near to her heart. She explains, when we’re under-hydrated, our body “causes us to print fat by disturbing mitochondrial function.” And research shows how water affects metabolic health. Dr. Means shares, “drinking just one additional glass of water per day reduced children’s risk of becoming overweight by 30 percent,” one German study showed.

Bottom line: When our cells get overworked, overstuffed and overly dry, it leads to cellular dysfunction, obesity and bad energy.

Dr. Means offers hopeful health news

The good news: Dr. Means says, “We can change course quickly. Our cells have an incredible capacity for adaptability and regeneration.” In fact, Dr. Means equates our body to a powerful 3D printer. “We can literally print a new and more functional version of our body with the choices that we’re making,” she says. “We take in somewhere between 40 and 70 metric tons of food in our lifetime, and all of that food is just molecular information that is literally rebuilding the next version of us.” For example, spinach contains compounds that stimulate two hunger hormones that promote satiety. “Millions of people can improve and extend their lives right now with simple principles doctors aren’t taught in medical school.” It’s that optimism that led Dr. Means to write her book, Good Energy.

Dr. Means’ easy plan for optimal cellular health

In Dr. Means’ 4-week plan, she shows how to eat and make lifestyle choices that will support mitochondrial health to improve everything. If you do nothing else, Dr. Means says, “eliminate processed foods.” She says, “Ultra-processed foods are an experiment in history that failed.” Follow these steps to try her plan for yourself…

Week 1: Know where you stand

Poor metabolic health causes dangerous fat to be stored in places we can’t see or pinch between our fingers. Dr. Means says the best indicator comes from routine lab work and simple measurements. So get lab work done, try a wearable device like continuous glucose monitors or test your blood sugar with a finger-prick test. Dr. Means also suggests keeping a food journal to see your dietary patterns each day. Of 1,685 participants in a 20-week weight-loss program, the number of food diary entries made per week was a major predictor of successful weight loss—allowing folks to lose twice as much weight than those who didn’t journal, one study showed.

Week 2: Focus on food

“Our bodies are built entirely of food. The pathway to Good Energy starts with your fork,” says Dr. Means. Yet doctors traditionally haven’t received training in nutrition. Dr. Means says, “At Stanford Medical School, I didn’t take a single dedicated nutrition course.” She recommends following a mitochondrial-optimizing diet focused on whole foods, like antioxidant-rich produce, protein and fiber. In addition, avoid cell-damaging foods like processed grains, added sugar and chemically extracted seed or vegetable oils. Dr. Means says, “Cutting the unholy trinity of these three ingredients from your diet will completely change your health and ensure you’re making room for more Good Energy foods.”

Weeks 3-4: Upgrade your lifestyle

During this time, look for easy ways to deepen sleep, slash stress and get more sunlight. “A key way that you regulate your hormones, metabolism, weight and risk for disease is by showing your cells what time it is by exposing your eyeballs to direct sunlight throughout the light part of the day and by hiding your eyeballs from as much light as possible when the sun is down,” says Dr. Means. Research shows you should also aim to walk 7,000 steps a day to move glucose out of muscles so it doesn’t get stored there.

Get amazing results on Dr. Means’ plan

What changes can you expect from your mitochondria makeover? Basic biomarkers can quickly improve. They did for Betsy McLaughlin, who lost 81 pounds in seven months—that’s 11 pounds a month!—by following Dr. Means’ advice to track her metabolic health and wear a continuous glucose monitor from Levels. She paid attention to her post-meal glucose and insulin levels. Plus her A1C went from 6.1 to 5.2, her glucose went from 117 to 84 and her insulin went from 30 to 5.

“When we have our mitochondria and metabolic health at the center of our efforts, we can create the most difference,” says Dr. Means. “I’ve seen people drop their triglycerides 200 points in six months by making very simple changes.”

Women can also lose weight and improve their skin, sleep, mood, pain, menopausal symptoms and cravings. Dr. Means says, “How we power the body affects every aspect of the body. So you can expect most symptoms to get better, which is why this is such a hopeful message.”

Cheat sheet for cellular health

For a mitochondrial-boosting diet, Dr. Means says to “maximize 5 things and remove 3 things”

Eat these 5 things:

• Micronutrients/antioxidants (from fruit and veggies)Omega-3s (from chia seeds, flaxseeds, walnuts)

• Fiber (from plants and seeds)

• Fermented foods (like sauerkraut, kimchi, yogurt, tofu)

• Protein (from meat, fatty fish, beans, lentils)
• Bonus: remember to drink plenty of clean, filtered water

 Avoid these 3 things:

• Refined grains
• Refined sugar
• Chemically extracted oils (like soybean oil and corn oil)

You have good cellular energy if your…

Consider these routine tests and optimal ranges…

• Fasting blood sugar is under: 100 mg/dL
• Triglycerides are under: 150 mg/dL
• HDL cholesterol is between: 50 and 90 mg/dL
• Blood pressure is less than: 120/80 mmHg
• Waist measurement is under 35 inches