2025 Wrap-Up + HOMeHOPe’s Top Trends for 2026

• How does focusing on foundational cellular health — rather than chasing peptides or supplements — change long-term outcomes in hormone balance and metabolic optimization?
• Why does measuring baseline health markers (metabolomics, micronutrients, and cellular function) matter more than interpreting isolated lab values or AI-generated reports?
• How does chronic sympathetic overdrive impair mitochondrial function, sleep, and recovery — and what practices best restore parasympathetic balance?
• What role does exposomics play in modern illness, and how do environmental toxins, light exposure, and daily habits quietly shape inflammation and cellular stress?
• Why is addressing the cell danger response essential before pursuing performance optimization, nootropics, or advanced biohacking strategies?

What We Discuss:

00:00 Intro & New Zealand molecule trivia
02:00 2026 predictions kick off: hormones, peptides & hype
06:00 Why lab tests and AI aren’t enough
09:30 Foundations first: micronutrients, co-practices, measurement
12:00 Direct-to-consumer testing and the interpretation crisis
13:30 Exposomics goes clinical: the rise of toxins and testing
15:00 Hypoxia is the new hyperbarics?
17:00 AI anxiety and the “concerned patient”
18:00 Wearables as coaches, not just data streams
20:00 The cell danger response: why it’s rising in 2026
23:00 Parasympathetic activation and GABA lifestyles
25:00 Can AI replace doctors? Only the average ones
27:00 Listening: the most underrated health skill
28:00 Community IRL vs screen fatigue
29:00 The 7 Pillars go mainstream
31:00 Cell timing, postbiotics, and the future of feeding
35:00 Health as balance, not absence of disease
38:00 The new paradigm: cell-first health care
42:00 Wrap-up: HOMeHOPe’s mission and predictions for 2026

Full Transcript:

Jodi Duval: [00:00:00] You know, 2019, we started all of this in home, home, and then you feel like it's so good that it's just gonna be the next year. Everyone's gonna be like, poof. Everyone knows it. Then it, it takes time and constant like, come on, people shake it up a little bit. So hormones, I feel this is gonna be the, the year for hormones.

Jodi Duval: Um, but I, I inference there because what I see is this big, huge push of peptides and I. Really agree with it. Hmm. Um, and so that, that's what I, I hope to redefine the use of peptides, redefine. What people know about peptides. You know, it's always this surface level comes out on social media, comes out on chat, JBT and again, I, I, I, I learn all these things from my clients.

Jodi Duval: I see these trends come through with my clients and they come to me going, I need this peptide. I want this peptide. I wanna treat with this. Peptide. I'm like, why? Have you done any of the base work yet? Have you done any of the optimization work yet? Well, it's not gonna.[00:01:00] 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Welcome back everybody to the Smarter Not Harder podcast. You're home for 1 cent Solutions, $64,000 questions. This is the staff, the faculty, the people that run Home Hope. Here we have Boomer, Dr. Ted, Dr. Allen, Jody. We have New Zealand, we have Australia. We have dc, la, and Lovely Colorado with you today.

Dr. Scott Sherr: How's everybody doing? Ladies and gentlemen? Wonderful. Scott. Thank you for asking. You are most wonderful in 

Boomer Anderson: the 

Dr. Scott Sherr: how. I'm trying. 

Boomer Anderson: I'm trying, I'm trying to reach your octave, I'm sorry. Fun fact about New Zealand everybody. Do you wanna know what molecule is legal here? Ted? You cannot answer. Please don't answer for people.

Boomer Anderson: Uh, what molecule is legal here? That other parts of the world is actually questionable in terms of legality. Most places not ruled upon. [00:02:00] I know the answer to this too. I think. 

Jodi Duval: Yeah, I think I did too. 

Boomer Anderson: What is it? Since? Since, since, yeah. Alan, we'll, we'll single you out. You, is it, is it 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: using ceremonies? 

Boomer Anderson: Um, yes.

Boomer Anderson: It's gonna be my birthday gift to you actually. Oh. 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: Propofol,

Dr. Scott Sherr: what is it? Yeah. Speaking stretch for 2020. I like that. Yes, Michael. 

Boomer Anderson: So this is Dr. BUCA's, uh, sleeps Stack. Ready? Here we go. Yeah, he's bringing it 

Dr. Scott Sherr: back to 

Boomer Anderson: Michael Jackson. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Years. I like the, 

Boomer Anderson: the, the answer, ladies and gentlemen, is Nor Iboga, so, no, I was gonna say iboga, so 

Dr. Scott Sherr: yeah. 

Boomer Anderson: Okay. Yeah. Nor Iboga. Iboga is ruled as scheduled in many places, but nor Iboga in certain jurisdictions of the world is either questionable or here you can apparently use it, although I've never, ever met anybody who [00:03:00] actually does.

Boomer Anderson: So any useful fact of the day, let's get things started on a 2026. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Very exciting. So we have lots of trends. We have the, the future man himself, uh, Dr. Ted Osa, who's gonna tell us the future, although it might be vague. I don't know yet, depending on what that's, 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: that's from my famous line to these guys. Like I have seen the future and it is vague.

Dr. Scott Sherr: Alright, who wants to start us off? Anybody have some ideas? I have a couple if you guys are waiting. So. Go ahead. Um, I'll just give you guys some time to thi to think. Jody, you wanna go first? Yeah. Okay. 

Jodi Duval: I can go first 'cause I can be quick 'cause I, okay, well I say that and then I ramble. So, um, cool. It's all good.

Jodi Duval: The things that we're excited for this year, that's what's, what's coming. Anything, what's coming or 

Dr. Scott Sherr: what's, what's trending? What do you think's gonna happen in 2026 that, you know, that's gonna be new and exciting? 

Jodi Duval: Well, I think this can, um, be a good starter for what Ted may say, but I'm very excited for the change [00:04:00] in the, the hormone balancing side of things for this year because I, I feel it coming.

Jodi Duval: I feel it in my bones, uh, client, uh, asking for it. People are wanting it. They're understanding a little bit more about Yeah, the, the. Delicate network that it is of hormones and we don't, right. 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Yeah, Jody, well, I've been teaching this since 2009. 

Jodi Duval: It's 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: just like, well, you 

Jodi Duval: know, make things, take time. You know?

Jodi Duval: I feel like we, yeah, you know, 2019 we started all of this and I'm home, and then you feel like it's so good that it's just gonna be the next year. Everyone's gonna be like, poof. Everyone knows it. Then it takes. It takes time takes and constant like, come on, people shake it up a little bit. So hormones, I feel this is gonna be the, the year for hormones.

Jodi Duval: Um, but I, I inference there because what I see is this big, huge push of peptides. 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: Mm. And 

Jodi Duval: I, I don't really agree with it. Um, and so that, that's what I, I hope to redefine the [00:05:00] use of peptides, redefine. What people know about peptides. You know, it's always this surface level comes out on social media, comes out on chat, JBT, and again, I, I, I, I learn all these things from my clients.

Jodi Duval: I see these trends come through with my clients and they come to me going, I need this peptide. I want this peptide. I wanna treat with this peptide. I'm like, why? Have you done any of the base work yet? Have you done any of the optimization work yet? Well, it's not gonna work like you guys. Well. 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Instant purification is always a good driver, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Mm. Good. And it is very, it is actually one of the difficulties in health optimization medicine is that it's a, this is a rear view mirror kind of practice. Like what didn't happen to you is what you notice. You didn't get sick, you didn't get irritable and say, you know, let's go to the bet. He says, uh, you know, um, you, you, you, you could see all, all of these things that are and, uh, that are being, uh, uh.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: It brought to you by, actually by your patients and by your clients, right? What about this and this, [00:06:00] and what's important here when it comes out is that when you are a practitioner of home hope is that you do have a framework, oh, that's coming from this. Let's do this first, right? And then we can do that.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Right. So, but the, the, the thing is we are informed about these things. It's just that we know where the place is within the framework of actually, uh, you know, taking care of the health of the clients and patients. 

Jodi Duval: Mm mm And that's where we start. So my third one there would be following on from that knowing and, and spreading this importance, which we're, we're there, we're doing it.

Jodi Duval: There's practitioners growing by the minute, um, and the number of practitioners that are coming on board. So, really. Key importance of looking after health and looking after the, the cell, and therefore all of these amazing things within context, within a space of where we put them and within the framework, they're gonna work better and we can actually be smarter about it and you're gonna get better optimization out of it.

Jodi Duval: I think it's just that really found, I always come back to this in the foundations, but it's always that [00:07:00] foundational, um, you know, importance of knowing your. Micronutrients and your enzymatic support and your like, really. People like that to become the, the, the cool thing, the trend, you know, knowing, oh, do, do you have enough iron?

Jodi Duval: Do you have enough selenium? Like, well, I don't, whoa, you better otherwise not gonna be cool. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: How many Kiwis did you eat today, Jody? So, 

Jodi Duval: yeah. Yeah, exactly. So I think like, as, as Ted always says, you know, you, you, you teach the addiction to health. I wanna teach the addiction to, to getting the measurements right and knowing where you are.

Jodi Duval: And actually, like, does anyone know where, where their metabolites are sitting and how healthy their cells are and what's coming in, and what's coming out and what's, um, you know, exposomes and you know, what your, your total sum of your environment is. We, we, most people don't know that. They're just like, I just need to do a parasite cleanse.

Jodi Duval: I'm like, I don't know. [00:08:00] 

Boomer Anderson: Do, do you even have a parasite? That's this 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: gold flushes cancer's. Why? And that's why we're providing the standard of care for health. Right, exactly. So like, where's your baseline? Where are your baseline health markers for which we could actually monitor that you're actually getting healthy.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: You cannot ask a molecule, how are you doing today? You have to take a look at the molecule in the context of its network. Like we, this has been an argument to me by, by I medicine doctors, right? No, you, you cannot smell, uh, an alpha leic. Massive acid molecule when it's inside the cell, you can smell it. Of course.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: You can smell it. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Yeah. 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: You 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: smell, 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: I say, you know, you can say, Hmm, you're alpha hypo deficient. Um, but, but this is like. This is like the old way of doing things, right? It's like, oh, you're just chasing after the numbers. No, we're actually looking at these numbers and correlating it to the quality of life of the person, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So, uh, you know, these are different things and you know, how do you say, how do you say that? Um. [00:09:00] Uh, that your quality of life is proven and you don't have the actual metrics to prove it, right? So, uh, you, you look at the, the, the improvements in sleep in, uh, you know, in, in the, uh, eating habits and, uh, in the blood sugar and everything else that you, you, you monitor when you're looking at, uh, these different, uh, changes in, in habits and the compliance of your patients, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So, uh. It's, it's very different when you take an antibiotic, you know, it works generally for about 90 plus percent of the population, right? Unless, uh, your assistant. So, uh, it's difficult, difficult and different for us because it's by the person, right? Mm-hmm. And how motivated the person really is. So, uh, you know, that's a, that's a good.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Actually this, uh, I think that's coming out in, in, uh, uh, next year, Jody is like, the more, it's like, don't guess test kind of, uh, mentality. Like, no, no, no. There's a standard of care for health. You know, we, we know how to do that. We're delivering that. Yeah. 

Jodi Duval: Yeah. But people realizing that like, [00:10:00] I'll forever live for the look on my client's faces, what I explained to them, all of these metabolites as we're going through the test.

Jodi Duval: And, um, you know, telling them what they're eating and what they're doing too much of, or, you know, this is the root cause of what you are feeling and this is what nutrients missing. And they just look at me like. Really? Wow. I never knew any of this existed. Can we really test this? I'm like, yeah, we are.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Yes, we are. And now I will charge you more. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Boomers answer, always charge more. Okay. You'll get better results too. We're, 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: we're knowledge workers, right? Uh, that's what we are. Yeah. So, uh, and, uh, you and all of you are better translators of, uh, of these kinds of knowledge to your patients. Uh, you know, you know me and my, my snobbery.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: If you don't understand this, we'll just follow the protocol. Do it. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Jody, I I wanted to, uh, echo on my side something you were just describing, which, but I'm gonna take a slightly different tack [00:11:00] because we know there's lots more direct to consumer. Laboratory testing that's happening now. So you have big companies that have raised billions of dollars now to create these panels for people to get labs done on a certain period of time.

Dr. Scott Sherr: And then these panels are mostly disease markers, okay? And they get run through an AI system that gives you a report. There's this whole new industry. I was just reading about this recently, popping up, trying to help you interpret the labs that you're getting from these companies because people don't do this data, have 

Boomer Anderson: genetics a couple of years ago.

Boomer Anderson: Mm-hmm. It 

Dr. Scott Sherr: sounds familiar, right? Yeah. The same kind of trend. Right. That's a good point, boomer. So you have all these new companies that are coming up trying to help you interpret the labs that you're getting, but as you were just alluding to, so. Beautifully and, and Ted as well is that they're missing the mark here.

Dr. Scott Sherr: We're not, they're looking at the wrong suite of markers when they're not looking to optimize health. They're looking to treat disease or illness or find, you know, the root [00:12:00] causes of illnesses, which not we're all about here. We need to focus on that foundational biology, that that cell itself. And so you're gonna see more people, I think, just not very happy with the labs that they're getting and not under really understanding what to do with the data.

Dr. Scott Sherr: 'cause they don't have somebody that's with them that's helping them along the way. So I think a big trend in 2026 is gonna be a rebound effect from all these people getting all these specialty labs and hundreds of thousands of dollars of labs, and then some like random AI readout that says something and then, then you're gonna be like, well, what do I do with this information?

Dr. Scott Sherr: And you're gonna be more lost than you were you started. So I think that we're very much poised as, as a nonprofit, as an organization to be. I don't wanna call it the alternative to that, but the foundation to it all where you come to us, you work with a practitioner that's trained in health optimization medicine, and you know exactly what you're doing and why, and then you understand what that arc is going to be if you focus on optimizing your health from that beautiful age range between 21 and 30 [00:13:00] years of age.

Dr. Scott Sherr: That's the optimized range that we use for nutrient, gut hormone, neurotransmitter levels. That's where the foundation is. So I hope, and my sense is that people are gonna start being, you know, really fed up with, with those trends of getting these labs and not knowing what to do with them. That's number one.

Dr. Scott Sherr: But happy for comments before I go to number two now, please go to number two.

Dr. Scott Sherr: Number two. Number two is actually, Jody, this is close to you and what you've been doing and what Ted has developed really at at Health optimization Medicine. I think there's gonna be a bigger emphasis on exposomics, which is, you know, the study and of toxins in our environment and the clinical applications of this, because again, we are just getting.

Dr. Scott Sherr: Sicker and sicker and more polluted, you know, outside and in, because there really is no real difference guys, right? Everything outside becomes in and, and inside is out, right? And so, and as a result of that, Jodi's gonna be teaching us all about exposomics in 2026 and [00:14:00] going across the world, giving lectures about why we need to be thinking about this.

Dr. Scott Sherr: And then as a result of that, I think more people are gonna be interested in what we're doing in our. Our nonprofit in health optimization medicine practice because we're the only specialty that's focused on a clinical application of exposomics that I think about this in clinical care. And then my third is that you guys are gonna like this.

Dr. Scott Sherr: I think that hypoxia is the new hyperbaric. Yes.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Are you, are you kidding your business, Scott? No, no. I think 

Dr. Scott Sherr: that, I think what it comes down to it is that he, he's trying 

Boomer Anderson: to, he's trying to minimize distraction this year, and so he is getting rid of the hyperbaric side. There we go. I like this. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Well, as, as Ted has mentioned in previous podcast, and many of us, several of us were in Tibet, uh, in the, on the Chinese, in the Chinese side and the Tibetan plateau over 12,000 feet getting intermittent hyperoxic training, mostly hypoxic training.

Dr. Scott Sherr: And I think that. As [00:15:00] I've learned more about hypoxic training over the years, I think it's going to have its heyday now, along with hypobaric therapy might, I think still has definitely has a as a place here. But where I'm interested actually inter is, is the intersection of these. And so you're gonna see more about hypoxic training.

Dr. Scott Sherr: You're gonna see more about CO2 training. This is something that's been going on for a long time with with friends and colleagues like Brian McKenzie and La Hamilton and others. But this is gonna get more medicalized and we're gonna talk about more. This from a parasympathetic sympathetic balance, an autonomic balance between those parts of your nervous system and something that I've finally been calling the parasympathetic edge.

Dr. Scott Sherr: But that's enough foreshadowing for me in my deep voice onto you, Alan, or Boomer. You guys can choose who will likely go next. Alan, 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: please. For sure. Yeah, indulge us. I mean, a lot of what you said resonated. Um. I mean, the AI health boom has hit all of us [00:16:00] from, from the spectra of. Of health all the way in the disease space as well.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: And so you can imagine if you have people that are coming to you saying, Hey, I, I wanna get my, I wanna improve my health. They are also likely using something like Open AI or Claude. And they're at, they're inquiring and then they're coming with a whole bunch of recommendations and how they're asking us to help sort through or help them sort through.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: And so I think we're, what we're seeing is, and we're gonna continue to see this, I, I don't think it's gonna rebound this next year. Uh, I, I hope it does, but really I think it's gonna get a lot worse until it's gonna get better in that folks are gonna be more, I don't wanna say informed, but they're gonna, we're gonna see, uh, a continued propagation of this ancient, uh, this, this anxious informed, um, you know, concerned person.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: Um, and I think what's interesting, and we're already seeing this in er, where someone comes in and they, you know, we ask them what's going on and they, they give me a list [00:17:00] from chat GBT with their symptoms. And it has a bunch of rare, you know, genetic polymorphisms as well as, you know, some travel, you know, suspicious infectious disease, tr you know, tropical medicine issues and they haven't traveled outside of the local LA area.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: Um, and so. I think what's challenging is that, you know, we're seeing it's generating these, these really challenging health narratives and bringing it back to home hope. Right? We, the first thing we don't do is we, we don't guess, right? We say let's stop. We measure and we say what's happening at, in the level of the hoby and, uh, we can't really do that as easily in the emergency department, but in the health optimizing space, we certainly can.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: Um. I think related to this, but maybe now on the, on the positive side, we're, I think we're gonna be seeing wearables becoming a lot more, rather than just producers of data to hopefully more coaches and helping us with actionable decisions. I think all of us that were early adopters of whether it was eight [00:18:00] sleep or the OAR ring or any of these wearables, um, even the CGMs, it just gave us a bunch of data and.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: We didn't really know what to do with it. We, and so we'd either come to our providers or we'd go to the ER saying, oh my gosh, my glucose spiked to 300. What do I do? What do I do about this? And so I think there, uh, that rebound effect, I think is now in effect. We're starting to see that these companies are coming up with better actionable insights, more deliverables, probably with the help of ai.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: And I think the biggest space that we might be seeing this is gonna hopefully be in the chronology space. Which is really, which is really awesome. 'cause that's actually one of our pillars in health optimization. And it's actually a, uh, one of the, one of the fields that's near and dear to my heart as a shift worker that doesn't really have a choice in working in the emergency department.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: And so being aware of. Sleep timing, light exposure, food intake. Uh, how do we recover safely so that those of us that are working shifts? Oh, you mean you can't predict [00:19:00] I'm gonna get stabbed now. Uhoh. Uh, I will say, yeah. Uh, I will say minority report. 

Boomer Anderson: Minority report. Report. 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: Yeah. I will say, if I were to trend out, you know, the highest risk riskiest behaviors where people end up getting shot or stabbed.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: Uh, it's usually, believe it or not, minding my own business, going to church or, you know, going to the market is typically the, is what I hear. So 

Boomer Anderson: I heard that sar, I, I hear sarcasm in that. See, so the moral 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: of the story is don't go to church. So I'll just say, be a busy body or, or create your own. 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: Just create your own.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: That's where, that's where everybody gets injured. And then, I don't know, my third would probably be, uh. We'll call it better tasting alcohol substitutes. Um, you know, right now, I mean, I guess if we were to put this in a, a health optimization pillar, it'd be exposomics, right? So things that we're putting into our body that disrupt gut health, [00:20:00] recovery, sleep, um, also and stresses ourselves.

Dr. Allen Bookatz: And we, if you haven't hopped on the bandwagon with, uh, how there's not really any redeeming effects to alcohol at this point. Um, I, I am hoping that there are more, 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: uh, unless you actually own an alcohol based company, right? That's a, that's a redeeming value. That might be the one. This is, this is 

Boomer Anderson: where a Alan's kind of tying this all into a pitch for propofol.

Boomer Anderson: Exactly. 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: There's a delightful, uh, you know, milky based, you know, lipid emulsion that will induce you right to sleep. And, uh, 

Dr. Scott Sherr: anyway, 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: no, I'm not advocating for prop fall. Uh, GHB then

Boomer Anderson: used to be an improved drug, right? Still is. Oh, 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: yes. In the, in a responsible, in the most responsible way possible. I'm sure [00:21:00] medically supervised. Um, but those would be my, those would be my, my, uh Alright. Boomer, 

Boomer Anderson: take 

Dr. Allen Bookatz: it over. Don't do folks. G hb. All right. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: I'm gonna mute that 

Boomer Anderson: it, I'm. Speaking of propofol, I'm gonna moonwalk this back a little bit.

Boomer Anderson: Uh, so, uh, that was a Michael Jackson joke. You guys are too slow. It's beautiful. That was great. No, I loved it. Thank you. Um, so, you know, 2026, uh, is a, a theme that I keep hearing a lot, uh, at least in my own life, our team's life, et cetera, is, uh, foundations. And going back to foundations, uh, one of the things that oftentimes we forget in this super sexy world of peptides and, uh.

Boomer Anderson: And direct to consumer AI testing, which may or may not be nonsense, is uh, just getting the foundations right. You know, there's this trite phrase a long time ago that you can't [00:22:00] out supplement a bad diet. I, I think that's also, uh, gonna be proven true here with things like, um, testing, uh, taking more peptides than you really need, or not needing any peptides, a a and so many other things as is come true time and time again, like history repeats.

Boomer Anderson: All the time. And if you don't get the foundations right, everything else is going to crumble. And so what do, what do I mean by that? And I have the benefit of also looking at Google search trends and those kind of things. And one thing that's popped up in the last quarter of this year, uh, became a little bit more popular was the cell danger response.

Boomer Anderson: And we talked about, um, Dr. Ted and I were on Dave Asbury's podcast a couple weeks ago. I have no clue when that's going to actually be released, uh, versus this podcast. But, uh. The topic of the cell danger response is something that inherently, if you ask 10 people on the street, I would imagine nine, if not 10 of them, don't even know what that is.[00:23:00] 

Boomer Anderson: And, uh, when you're not managing your cell danger response, are you actually able to get all of these supplements, these peptides into the cell to even help you? Uh, the short answer is no. And a couple of years ago, I hope we can link to this lecture and this podcast, Dr. Ted did this awesome. Um. Basically redefinition of nootropics and nootropics.

Boomer Anderson: Still very much trending, uh, albeit not as much as they were a couple of years ago. Uh, nootropics are designed to give you cognitive enhancement, improve the, the health or performance of a cell, uh, uh, and particularly looking at brain performance here. But if your cell itself is functionally broken, uh, the nootropics only gonna take you so far.

Boomer Anderson: So it might take you from 50 to 55 rather than from 50 to one 20. But by looking at the cell danger response and saying, you know, am I addressing the. Extracellular a TP. Am I addressing the inflammation? Am I, [00:24:00] uh, making sure that, you know, I'm taking the phospholipids I need, you can start to really build solid foundations with, uh, with actually less cost and less supplemental involvement initially, uh, to get just the foundations built so that everything else afterwards works well for you.

Boomer Anderson: So I, I do think the rise of the CDR, um. You're, you're gonna see that the next thing is something that, uh, Dr. Cher here, SURE has been talking about, uh, for quite a bit this year. And that's, uh, you know, you had another term earlier, uh, but you also called it like the parasympathetic or the sympathetic spiral of doom and a few other things.

Boomer Anderson: But when it comes to foundations, one thing that globally. I, I'm trying to think of any sort of country that doesn't average this way. One thing that we're really, uh, increasingly [00:25:00] getting worse at is relaxation and activating the parasympathetic nervous system. To that end, when we take that to a cellular level, we start looking at neurotransmitters, uh, like gaba.

Boomer Anderson: And so, you know, the sexiness of GABA is, it's like. It's like the unsung hero or the girl you wish you asked out in high school because you know, you're, you kind of come back a couple years after college and you're like, wow, she was really beautiful. But in high school, no chance. Right. Uh, but like GABA's one of those things that once you embrace a more GABAergic lifestyle or just any sort of.

Boomer Anderson: Element of relaxation and parasympathetic activation. The dividends in sort of the multiplier effects of the return on investment is certainly huge. So that's number two in terms of foundations, the last one, uh, that I have on the foundation side is the. For practitioners, and, and this is something that we talked a little bit about, a few companies that are [00:26:00] raising hundreds of millions of dollars and getting valuations that right now I, I can't see how they're justified to do direct to consumer testing with, um, interpretations and supplement recommendations on the backend and what.

Boomer Anderson: The belief of those companies is, is that at some point they'll be able to replace the practitioner. Now, my personal belief is that they'll be able to replace the average or below average practitioner. Uh, and they'll certainly give people access to this, uh, world that will broadly call health optimization at a lower cost.

Boomer Anderson: But they're never gonna replace the above average practitioner. And when we. Start thinking about what makes up an above average practitioner. Of course, experience is one, but there is actually a, a study done with the Cleveland Clinic a few years ago, and this was within the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine.

Boomer Anderson: And they looked at different practitioners. There was 15 different practitioners, and [00:27:00] they looked at patient outcomes. And the patient outcomes were done by what's called a promise score. And they measured them over time to see which, uh, practitioners. Uh, D had the best patient outcomes and what were the characteristics of those practitioners?

Boomer Anderson: And the number one thing that actually, uh, set those practitioners that scored above average in success, uh, to uh, those that were below average was actually listening. And so when it comes to, uh, practitioners and sort of, you know, as practitioners, uh, either try to grow their business or try to expand, uh, their existing clients, uh, one of the elements that I am hopeful and in fact I know it will return because if it doesn't return, you're probably gonna lose your business to somebody else who does Listen.

Boomer Anderson: Is that element of listening for a practitioner, because one thing that the artificial intelligence cannot do for you right now is. Suss out, and I used the term suss, I'll probably work six, seven into [00:28:00] year two. Uh, suss out those, those six seven signals, uh, suss out those things that, uh, those sort of nonverbal cues.

Boomer Anderson: The, the, the things that the. The patient won't say to you the things that won't come up on the lab test, the triggers for that cell danger response that I mentioned earlier. So there's three things there. They all sum up into foundations. Uh, and then finally, for all of our practitioners, the other thing that I care most about here is this growing element of community, uh, and the growing emphasis on community.

Boomer Anderson: Because when you increase. The amount of time we're spending on screens, there needs to be a sort of counterbalance somewhere, uh, of people getting together. IRL ha, ha ha. Um, IRL and uh, really just. Uh, getting together with like minds in person is something that we're gonna continue to see, and that, that function of community is really what we're doing at Health Optimization Medicine and practice.

Boomer Anderson: And in 2026, we [00:29:00] have two events. One's, uh, virtual, April 22nd, 23rd, that's free. So if you're listening to this, just come, uh, I promise you the education will be better than. Anything you'll get in person. Uh, but also number two is the physical event in the greatest city in the world, Chicago, October 2nd and third at the Drake Hotel.

Boomer Anderson: And, and so we hope you join both of those, but I took four there. It was actually two with a sort of sub definitions or subtask, but I'll, uh, I'll bump that spike over to Dr. Ted to take us home. 

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Well, I'll take a lot more. No, um, the, the first thing that I see here, uh, that you've discussed as you know, uh, prescient of next year is actually what they've already been doing.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So the first thing I see is, uh, a more mainstreaming of our. Multi seven pillars. Right? And why do I say that? Well, there's, you know, exposomes is already now getting headlines. The [00:30:00] PFAS are the forever chemicals in your water, right? You begin testing for those now, you know, you see microplastics in, in, in semen and all these kinds of things that are in the news.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So exposomes, uh, is actually, there is a big thing. The other thing is that, you know, we see the, the, um. Uh, uh, basically the huge, uh, birth in, uh, you know, the GLP ones, et cetera. This year, this will affect the practice of health optimization next year, right? Because this is instant gratification pipe, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: And that's really intended for disease. First, we will see that these companies will actually try to position it for health purposes, right? We still, for, for me, it's like, yes, we still, uh, although these metabolic medicines are going mainstream, right? We still have, uh, we always have the, uh, framework that says, well use what the cell uses first, and then, you know, uh, if warranted, then you're a physician and you know how to use it.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Maybe can, you can add these things as warranted, right? So, [00:31:00] um, the, the, you know, the other. Um, uh, pillar that is a multis for us. It's like the CDR metabolome or the cell danger response metabolome, right? So you could see there, there's, you know, uh, there's, uh, the clinical metabolomics pillar. There's the exosomes pillar, and then now there's the evolutionary medicine, uh, where we look for the cell danger response.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Metabolome, you know, actually isolated it away from clinical metabolomics because the clinical metabolomics is just, you know, basically teaching you how to detect and correct imbalances. On the metabolome, but the basis for that is actually Cellgene danger response, which is, uh, contained in our, um, uh, evolutionary medicine, right.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Um, uh, module. So, you know, we could see this, uh, and uh, also in, in our, um. Chronobiology module. You see now, you know, the certain drugs, uh, are, are more effective, uh, taken at different types of day. We've always said this about taking supplements, right? There are [00:32:00] regimens for doing that. And you know, one of the things that we actually do is up.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Sparing, uh, you know, if you, this is your wake up supplementation, then this usually leaves some supplementation. So, and then you don't do a single thing anymore. Just don't take a single supplement, rather, oh, you have a regimen for, for this. And that's in our chronobiology module. Right? And then you see a lot more of the, you know, the tests coming out, you know, this methylation tests and aging tests and so on.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: And, you know, your epigenetic age and, uh, and so on and so forth. As, as more as, uh, we learn about that and this will be in the, uh, zeitgeist of this society a lot more, right? So because of those and because of our efforts, I'd like to say that. Much of this actually comes from our efforts to actually educate, uh, you know, practitioners about this and including patients who are actually our clients who actually bring this to us, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: This would be the year for, um, a, a more mainstreaming of our seven pillars, right? Uh, into. [00:33:00] Uh, uh, into the, uh, into the practice. And I, medicine doctors are actually going to be forced right to, to learn the stethoscope of the 21st C century, which is metabolomics. Right? Um, the, the second thing that I'm looking at and which is, uh, you guys know that this is dear, near and dear to me, is that, you know, AI is actually.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Quietly taking over a lot of the things in the background that you don't even know it, right? So, uh, and in the diagnosis, et cetera, uh, you, you know, as an interventional neuroradiologist, patients are, you know, um, still send me, um, you know, um, um. Images like as MRI or scan images for me to read. And what I do is actually read them.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: I like a professional, right? And then I shove them in, uh, you know, a, a program that I actually created for myself to, to actually do this. That's done by ai. And I say, holy shit. There's actually no difference in my reading. I said, I am totally replaceable here, you know, and then I said, oh wait, I [00:34:00] do the interventional part.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Uh, no. That's actually more accurately done by robotics now. Right? So, um, but in terms of, uh, in terms of this and the affecting their lives, it's not only in the, uh, in this testing, right, it's also in the advent of the devices as say you guys predicted, you know, many of these devices that you wear, uh, actually now have AI interpretations, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: In fact. A lot of them have too much. Right? One of my irritations now with the aura is that they have too much stuff going on in your readout. They say, where the fuck do I focus? It's like, just fucking hide everything. Right? And of course, my, my beef always like, you're charging us for all of these subscriptions, et cetera, and you own our fucking data.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: I mean, that's, that's been always a beef for me because I've always been a proponent of the patient-centric medical record. Right? It's not owned by the hospitalists. It should be owned by you. Um. And then, um, you know, as I said in in our, um, uh, chronobiology modules, like you see more patients actually asking, [00:35:00] when should I take this?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Right? When should, when should I take a probiotic? When I, when I'm taking an antibiotic, when am I going to do this? Right? So, uh, and, and in the gut immune system, you'll see the rise, of course, the rise of a lot of, uh, postbiotics, right? Uh, that are, that are coming out. Uh, I've always been a prop proponent of, um.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Of, uh, butyrate supplementation, for example, those that do not degrade in the small intestine, rather open up in the colon. Right. And you could see this because, uh, in, in testing you will see that the butyrate levels of the person are rising, right? And, and this is, you know, we, we, we, in Umab, we insist on this.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Colonoscopies, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. But what, what can we do in the meantime, right? Uh, what can we do in the meantime in order to, uh, to check, uh, you know, the health of the colon, uh, and so on. And actually take a look at the, the, the risk correlation with colon cancer, right? And it's a very highly correlated, uh, with that.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So. So for [00:36:00] 2026, uh, I think that the trends will be the mainstreaming of a lot of our seven pillars, and we should not be sur surprised. Right? This is a message over there. And of course. With that kind of mainstreaming comes a lot of, uh, you know, uh, uh, negative comments for those people who actually don't understand what it is, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So, and who are used to having an illness, medicine mentality. So we'll be having to actually, uh, re shepherd the perspective, you know, back, right? Sometimes you need to, to take the gloves off. Sometimes you actually have to handle them gently, right? So, uh. You will see also, you know, we were talking about worried well ear earlier, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So you see a lot of this metabolomic test now being used, right, to optimize health rather than to diagnose, right? So, uh, and then in hormone balancing, right, Jody, were interested in that. You know, now we are finally saying, well, okay, we just took our take, take care of it in a physiologic manner. [00:37:00] It's like, this is what the body does, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Um, uh, and, and, and then, um. You know, where you could see that health first, right? Disease second, right? So essentially, you, you have your metabolic strategy first and then your, uh, disease, uh, uh, afterwards. See, all of these are tied to the seven pillars, right? So as a mainstream, and people are more and more aware that environment matters.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: You know, your plastic, uh, uh, water containers, right? And, uh, and so on. So, um, the, the things that I'm, I'm actually gonna say, uh, here. Um, is, you know, um, uh, just a, just a few things in terms of, um, the, the, uh, big picture, right? In terms of, um, the, the predictions. So, so this year that's coming, we will see more that health isn't the absence of disease.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Rather it's the presence of balance, right? More and more people will [00:38:00] realize that it's the presence of balance, and that's because of our messaging and home hope. It's the balance within metabolic and catabolic processes, right? So, and for us, take care of the cell and you're taking care of the organs, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So show, show the cell some love. You're already loving the organs. Then. Time itself is a therapy in itself, right? So we should use it. When do you give supplements? When do you sleep? When you know, time itself is a therapy. And as I like to say, uh, you know, uh, if you want to shirk responsibility, say I don't have time.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: But if you want to embrace time for what it is, it's you create time. You know, you never not have time. Time doesn't own you. You create the time for things, right? Uh, the, uh, uh, fourth one is. Make your biochemistry younger before you make your workouts harder. So this is what Boomer was saying earlier about nootropics, right?

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So there can be no true performance optimization without. [00:39:00] Any prior health optimization, and I'd like to exemplify this, A vitamin B six is not only good for your brain, it's good for all the cells in your body, right? So when you overclock and an un un unhealthy cell, you're actually going to push it towards uh, um, uh, its limits and it may actually decompensate.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: And then so. You are a human hoby, right? And we will see disturb more and more in 26. We are going to push it, uh, in, in your faces. Uh, and we are hoby, we are made up of all of these cells of, uh, different types. And we also have a various microbiota in our, mostly in our gut, in our skin, in our corneas, uh, and so on.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So. How is it best to show our, our love for this, right? It's the way our mothers show our love for us, uh, for me at least, you know, feed them wisely. So remember, you're what you eat. You, you know your cells are what they eat, right? You give them [00:40:00] lots of refined carbohydrates. Then they show you what rusting is all about.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So, uh, you know, so feed them wisely. Know why what you're feeding your, your, uh, your cells, right, and not, not just your macros, you know, uh, you know, the discussions about that are, are actually become moot when you actually take a look at what the different cellular requirements are. And this will be what will be, uh, in.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: In the news next year, it's like, oh, you, you know, people finally realize that, you know, oh, you mean intestinal cells are not fed by glucose? So, you know, then, then suddenly, oh, you mean my heart cells actually are not fed by, by glucose? And, and, and suddenly, you know, all of those that I have been. Okay. Used to use a negative and harping on for many, many years is, I think next year will be the part, since it's the mainstreaming of the multi portion of the seven pillars.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: You know, that's the overarching prediction that I have. All of these actually subcategories of predictions will actually fall in there. Right. Uh, [00:41:00] each, each of those, each of those, uh, will actually have their own set of, um, of, uh, new realizations for patients, clients and the public, uh, in general. But the trend is now, uh, I think, uh, as, as I said, we've begun the, the, the, the.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Fluttering of the tiny butterfly swings in the desert of Sonora right to cause a hurricane. And we've begun to flap, we were flapping furiously a few years ago. Now you are seeing that even more gentle flaps on our, our part, uh, in, in doing this and in more organized and coordinated way. Right. Um, because we now have more students and more and more are actually interested, we see now the shift or the bifurcation point that we, we have been waiting for.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Right? It's here. We're shifting the point of view away from disease into health. Right? You, you know, it's, it's. It's like you never know disease without being healthy first, right? So it's not, it's just like, you don't know light without darkness. It's the [00:42:00] same thing, right? So, uh, so I, I, I think that's the thing that's going mainstream next year, is that all of these are going to, to be put out there in seventh pillars, the health markers, detection, correction, and, and then, uh, the more emphasis on health optimization.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Right, true. There will be, uh, treatments for new treatments for disease. But you see then, you know, in the biggest blockbuster drugs like GLP this year, they will be incorporated into health regimens rather than in disease regimens. Right. So you could see that that a trend of movement to movement towards metabolic healthcare.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: Right. Uh, not repair, but in the caring of, of it, even before it gets, uh, uh, it gets derailed, right? Or, um, or is, is needing repair, right? So, so then we have, uh, uh, we, we'd see now what I've been hoping for actually is a more emphasis on the quality of life because for [00:43:00] me and for us at Health Optimization Medicine, we've always asserted that.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: The quantity of life is a mere byproduct of the quality of life. Okay? So, you know, if you have a high quality life, then you know that you're probably, uh, going to live a lot longer, right? So, uh, and we are going to push this message, uh, also next year, right? Uh, it's like if you want eternal life, don't forget to ask for eternal youth.

Dr. Ted Achacoso: So that's my prediction for next year. 

Boomer Anderson: All right, so we're all on the hunt for the fountain of the youth next year. I love it. Alright. We found it called, well we got the recipe medicine. Yeah, we just got, we got the recipe. There you go. All uh, Dr. Deep Voice. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Do you 

Boomer Anderson: wanna Yeah. Pro. 

Dr. Scott Sherr: Well, this has been, I, this has been really fun.

Dr. Scott Sherr: Lady and gentlemen, uh, going through 2026 predictions, uh, finishing up with Dr. Ted there. Of course, Mike dropping it at [00:44:00] least four to five times throughout that. The biggest one for me actually when you talk was actually the timing piece. That was super interesting. But anyway, guys and gals, thanks so much for listening to the episode to the Smart Not Heart of Podcast, where we give you 1 cent solutions, $64,000 questions and we'll see you all next time.

Dr. Scott Sherr: But don't forget to like, and subscribe and tell your friends and family to listen, to watch with us, and. All those six, seven trends for next year. We'll see what's next I guess, guys. Right? Bye everybody.

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