Health Dial

Tuning in to your body's own signal

Assoc. Prof and CEO in Medtech

NeuroEngineer, PhD • Metabolomics • Brain Imaging

Patient-to-Patient Insight

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Imagine a dial that corresponds to your health. As that dial moves your key proteins change shape and function (redox proteomics). This allows you to adapt and respond appropriately to each moment. The ability of that dial to move, defines health. The dynamic adjustments of your functioning across scale—from cellular to behavioral—makes you healthy. Stress, in the right dosages, builds resilience, resilience to stress.

Finding My Health Dial

I found my health dial after a set of ordeals: a third concussion, followed by a giant benign tumor discovered growing inside my heart. The story unfolds intertwined with my father’s death. On some levels, I never lost connection with my internal health gauge. As a visceral thinker drawn to new frontiers of understanding our complex dynamic systems, this remains an active thread, part of why and how I relish humanhood. As part of my awe for the infinitude of existence, this also constitutes a core of my spirituality.

With my dad’s terminal diagnosis of lung cancer, I knew that I must resolve the remaining sliver of trauma from the 3-tons of vehicle and equipment that annihilated my beloved raced-out Subaru and initiated a two-year period of impaired cognition, vision, and mental balance. Already, my lifestyle and nutrition were dialed in to support my mitochondrial health and my brain functions restored. However, whenever an emotional event caused my amygdala (brain region) to flair, I braced for impact. When my father’s diagnosis came, my dear friend offered her somatic therapist as a reference. I accepted and discovered this tendency, and together we asked my body what it needed in those moments. “Equil...ibri...ate—is that even a word?” The word passing my lips for the first time, my body’s answer. My therapist translated that to mean ‘restore balance,’ something we all need at all scales.

Tuning In

Join me. When I close my eyes to tune into my health dial, my mind quiets. My eyes close. My gaze softens. The balance scale of my shoulders centers left to right, front to back. I tune into my center of gravity in my belly, or just below. As I write this for you I realize, I scan and align my upper, middle, and lower dantian (chi centers). This is not my health dial. The health dial awareness comes from answering a question for yourself. What percent are you in this moment? In this moment, my answer is 2% shy of 100%. Tomorrow marks 90 days since my father’s passing. My mitochondrial health typically takes top priority in the decisions that I make. Right now, coming to terms with my father’s death can make sleep less of a priority than my mitochondrial health requires.

The Science of Self-Repair

Just like metal rusts, so do we. The loss of electrons, termed oxidizing, and the gain of electrons, termed reducing, yields the realm of redox—red(ucing)ox(idizing). Through redox signaling, our body coordinates across scales to tune our metabolism and behavior to meet the moment. During a crisis, our body releases redox signals. In remedying the crises, we return to redox balance. We build stress resilience through enduring crises and returning to balance. When stress exceeds our ability to return to balance, mitochondria no longer function optimally and energy recedes. Unlike metal, we can self-repair.

Your Turn

What helps your dial float back up to one hundred? What works for you may be different than what works for me, tho I am happy to share patient-to-patient knowledge. What do you do for self-repair and preservation? How much sleep do you need? What foods help restore you? Does your exercise routine feed your mental well-being and unlock energy reserves for the week?

Trading sugar for protein in our morning routine helps our household. Vitex berry, saffron threads under the tongue, adaptogens—fun tools in our belt. The stress hormone cortisol shares building blocks with testosterone and estrogen. When you stress do you feel your ovarian function or testosterone dwindle more rapidly? Weaving in rest and relaxation into my year, month, week, and day keeps me balanced—before I overexert myself. Placing my feet up a wall for 5 minutes restores me. Crawling into my sauna sack, or smelling crushed sage brush unwinds stress that clings. Anticipating my own needs, and prioritizing them over the desires of my dependents preserves me. Forgiving myself and others frees me from rumination’s stranglehold.

My father and I share a rare high-risk mutation for cancer, a predisposition for low vitamin D, and difficulty absorbing non-methylated B vitamins. The foods that I crave fulfill some of those unmet needs. What healthy cravings do you harbor? I yearn to give and to connect. Drumming, appreciating art, nature, and absurdity, chi gong, hiking, forest bathing, crying, time in or near water... Where do you find awe for the infinitude? What promotes your flourishing?

Use your health dial to discover what works for you.

Written July, 2025