In a 12-week clinical trial at Ohio State, every woman with PCOS who completed the intervention experienced a change in her menstrual status. One participant, who had never had a period in her life, began menstruating within a week. Another saw spotting after five years of amenorrhea while taking only a ketone supplement without adopting a ketogenic diet. These are among the earliest controlled findings linking ketogenic interventions directly to reproductive hormone restoration.

Dr. Madison Kackley is an Assistant Professor of Kinesiology at Ohio State University and Director of the SHE Is Laboratory. Her work focuses on how hormonal fluctuations shape metabolic flexibility and resilience in women across the lifespan.

In this episode, she explains why a single fasting glucose or insulin measurement is misleading without knowing where a woman is in her cycle, how the luteal phase creates a state of increased energy expenditure and insulin resistance that conventional carb-loading advice may worsen, and why perimenopausal women who jump into intermittent fasting and high-intensity exercise without prior fat adaptation can end up in a high-cortisol catabolic spiral. She also introduces the Renew study, which examines ketone supplementation alongside group exercise for postpartum depression, a condition she frames as an energy-availability problem rather than a purely psychological one.

Questions Answered in This Episode:

• What will we look back on in ten years and realize we got fundamentally wrong about women's health?
• Why are women more susceptible to dementia than men, and what does it have to do with reproductive energy?
• Why might long-term hormonal birth control contribute to infertility, metabolic syndrome, and type 2 diabetes?
• Why can women in perimenopause feel exhausted and still not be able to sleep?
• Should weaning be understood as its own distinct hormonal event, separate from postpartum?

For clinicians, researchers, and women navigating these transitions, this conversation previews the evidence-based framework that female metabolic health has been waiting for.

Special thanks to the sponsors of this episode:

✅ Toups and Co – Get 15% off your first order with code METABOLIC here.
✅ iRestore – Get a huge discount on the Elite and the Illumina bundle with the code LINK here.
✅ MudWtr – Get up to 43% off + free shipping and a free rechargeable frother with code METABOLICLINK here.

In every episode of The Metabolic Link, we'll uncover the very latest research on metabolic health and therapy. If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, follow, and leave us a comment or review on whichever platform you use to tune in!

You can find us on all your major podcast players here and full episodes are also up on our Metabolic Health Summit YouTube channel!

Find us on social:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• LinkedIn

Please keep in mind: The Metabolic Link does not provide medical or health advice, but rather general information that does not serve as a substitute for a licensed healthcare professional. Never delay in seeking medical advice from an appropriately licensed medical provider for any health condition that you may have.

A veteran walks into the clinic with a persistent migraine. Four minutes of vagal nerve stimulation later, the migraine is gone. This is not a one-off result. It is what Dr. Michael Hoffman has been observing for over seven years in the VA hospital system, using non-invasive devices he considers severely underutilized.

Dr. Hoffman is a stroke and cognitive-behavioral neurologist who trained at Columbia University, spent 14 years in the VA system, and has evaluated an estimated 10,000 stroke patients across his career. He now practices at the University of Central Florida, where he integrates ketogenic nutrition, advanced imaging, vagal nerve stimulation, and hyperbaric oxygen into his neurological care.

In this episode, Dr. Hoffman walks through what he calls the "five brain fitness rules," the specific, measurable lifestyle prescriptions he gives every patient, and explains why standard cognitive screening tools like the MoCA and Mini Mental miss the most dramatic behavioral syndromes caused by brain injury.

He also discusses why PET scans and diffusion tensor imaging should be used far more often, and why post-TBI hormonal evaluation is critical but routinely overlooked.

Questions Answered in This Episode:

• What are the five brain fitness rules every neurological patient should follow?
• Why do standard cognitive tests fail to detect some of the most severe brain injury syndromes?
• How is vagal nerve stimulation treating migraines, and why is it so underutilized outside the VA?
• What clinical changes would most improve neurological care today?
• Does the evidence support hyperbaric oxygen therapy for traumatic brain injury?
• Could fungal infections contribute to some long-standing Alzheimer's diagnoses?
• What is the surprising decade when your brain's cognitive function peaks?

Dr. Hoffman makes a case that the gap between what we know about the brain and what we do in clinical practice has never been wider, and that closing it starts with giving clinicians the time and tools to actually examine their patients.

Learn more about Dr. Hoffman on his website here.

Special thanks to the sponsors of this episode:

✅ Fatty15 – Get 15% off a 90-day Starter Kit with code METABOLICLINK here
✅ Troscriptions – Get 10% off your first order with code METABOLICLINK here
✅ ZocDoc - Find and instantly book a top-rated doctor here
✅ MudWtr – Get up to 43% off + free shipping and a free rechargeable frother with code METABOLICLINK here

In every episode of The Metabolic Link, we'll uncover the very latest research on metabolic health and therapy. If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, follow, and leave us a comment or review on whichever platform you use to tune in!

You can find us on all your major podcast players here and full episodes are also up on our Metabolic Health Summit YouTube channel!

Find us on social:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• LinkedIn

Please keep in mind: The Metabolic Link does not provide medical or health advice, but rather general information that does not serve as a substitute for a licensed healthcare professional. Never delay in seeking medical advice from an appropriately licensed medical provider for any health condition that you may have.

You could have elevated levels of contaminants like uranium or arsenic in your drinking water—and not know it. Many of these compounds are colorless, odorless, and undetectable without testing.

Johnny Pujol is a water chemist and the founder of Tap Score, a drinking water testing platform supported by a network of roughly 270 specialized laboratories. His path from electrochemistry research to consumer water testing was driven by a simple realization: the chemistry inside what looks like a clear glass of water is far more complex than most people realize.

In this episode, Dr. Dominic D’Agostino and Johnny break down what’s actually in drinking water, how regulatory standards are set, and where they may lag behind emerging research. They also discuss how chronic exposure to certain contaminants may intersect with metabolic health and long-term disease risk.

Johnny also shares insights from Tap Score’s forthcoming research comparing contaminant profiles in unfiltered tap water, bottled water, and filtered tap water.

Questions Answered in This Episode:

• Why does the EPA action level for lead differ from the ideal target of zero?
• Can certain filtration systems introduce unintended issues, like microbial growth, if not properly maintained?
• How can environmental factors like rainfall impact private well water quality?
• What's the difference between a "first draw" sample and a "representative" sample, and why does it matter?
• Is the health risk from showering in contaminated water meaningful compared to drinking it?
• Why do some water tests cost $600 to $800 while others cost a fraction of that?

Understanding your drinking water starts with recognizing the difference between what’s legally permitted and what may be considered optimal from a health perspective. This conversation explores that gap, and what individuals can do to better assess their own water quality.

Learn more here: https://mytapscore.com/

Special thanks to the sponsors of this episode:

✅ Troscriptions – Get 10% off your first order with code METABOLICLINK here.
✅ Toups and Co – Get 15% off your first order with code METABOLIC here.
✅ iRestore – Get a huge discount on the Elite and the Illumina bundle with the code LINK here.
✅ MudWtr – Get up to 43% off + free shipping and a free rechargeable frother with code METABOLICLINK here.

In every episode of The Metabolic Link, we'll uncover the very latest research on metabolic health and therapy. If you like this episode, please share it, subscribe, follow, and leave us a comment or review on whichever platform you use to tune in!

You can find us on all your major podcast players here and full episodes are also up on our Metabolic Health Summit YouTube channel!

Find us on social:

• Instagram
• Facebook
• YouTube
• LinkedIn

Please keep in mind: The Metabolic Link does not provide medical or health advice, but rather general information that does not serve as a substitute for a licensed healthcare professional. Never delay in seeking medical advice from an appropriately licensed medical provider for any health condition that you may have.