Instead of guessing, you need to test when it comes to your health. Barton Scott is on the podcast to talk about his struggle with brain fog and low energy, despite being a high level athlete in his youth and how he discovered the connection between minerals and optimal health. Find out how to improve your thyroid function, why magnesium and iodine are crucial to your hormone health, and how to get more of them into your body ASAP. [1:40] Barton started his journey because of his own experience. When he was younger, Barton was a high-level athlete and student and always pushing his body. His mother had ill health for a long time, and he could tell that she was losing her vitality as time went on. [3:35] Barton spent a lot of money on testing for him and his family, and he noticed that nothing they seemed to be doing affected the test results. He started looking at what areas of his life he could change. [4:20] As a high-level wrestler, Barton had been supplementing since the age of 12. Eventually, he realized that his lifestyle was preventing him from really benefiting from the supplements he was taking. [5:15] If we don’t absorb, it doesn’t matter. If you’re not testing, you’re guessing. As a chemical engineer, Barton was uniquely positioned to solve the issue. [6:50] Mineral supplements go a long way towards replenishing the body and have a major impact on how you show up in life. It affects your energy levels, your ability to sleep well and to focus. We need minerals to activate the building blocks of life. [8:20] We are all missing something, and that something changes over time. That’s why testing is so important. [9:10] Barton has done a few extended fasts in order to accelerate the healing process of a hamstring injury. Knowing his mineral levels at the time was crucial. It can be hard to do a water fast when other people in your life aren’t participating and it really makes you aware of your relationship with food. [13:30] Minerals activate all the enzyme pathways in the body. The only other way to do that is with heavy metals, but we need to take steps to protect ourselves from the accumulation of heavy metals. The safest way to detox your body from heavy metals is using minerals to fill those gaps. [15:55] Heavy metal toxicity is very common in people. Lack of appropriate minerals is a pandemic on its own. [16:40] The source of your minerals doesn’t particularly matter. Your body is smart enough to be able to make use of them, whether they come from food or supplementation. [17:10] Iodine is important for a number of bodily functions. Dr. Peter McCullough recently talked to Joe Rogan about using Iodine as a nasal rinse as protection against Covid. Iodine is a vital mineral and we take in such a small amount on average that it’s surprising we don’t all have hypothyroidism. [19:35] Healthy populations in Japan eat 80-100 times the amount of Iodine that the typical North American eats in a day. Iodine is critical for the thyroid to be able to support your hormones as one of the foundational building blocks. [22:50] Barton’s iodine formula is unique because of its ability to be absorbed into the bloodstream without having to go through the digestive system. Gut issues are incredibly common and are the main reason people aren’t absorbing the minerals they need. [25:25] There are many ways to ingest the supplement and many people report that they become more vascular. It  helps with cold sensitivity, which correlates to more mental energy and clarity. [26:00] It took the better part of a year for Barton to fix his iodine deficiency. For a normal healthy person, we are not consuming anywhere near enough iodine each day. If you have chlorine or fluoride in your water, they are also interfering with your ability to take in enough iodine. [28:10] Hair analysis is an important piece of information when it comes to iodine and mineral absorption. It’s an easy non-invasive test that can reveal a lot about someone’s condition. [33