Health Is A Skill with Todd Vande Hei

Almost nobody is absorbing it correctly. For fifteen years, one man has been answering the same question from high performers watching their bodies slowly fall behind—and he keeps discovering the answer hiding in places nobody thought to look. This time it's inside wild salmon, a compound that's been there for millions of years, studied in over a thousand peer-reviewed papers, crossing barriers most supplements can't touch. But the version most people buy at Costco isn't doing what it's supposed to do.

Todd Vande Hei walks through astaxanthin—a molecule that works like a pharmaceutical anti-inflammatory without the side effects—and why it matters once you've already built your foundation solid. You'll learn the bioavailability problem supplement companies don't advertise, the patented form that actually gets absorbed, and why chronic low-grade inflammation is the root driver of almost every major disease. The research is clear. The dosing window is narrow. Measurable change arrives in four to eight weeks—which means Health Is a Skill listeners can implement this immediately and track the results.

For Vande Hei, this is personal. After his own stroke—brain damage that reached his occipital lobe and threatened his eyesight—his rebound was extraordinary. Part of that was this particular compound. He's brought in a biochemical engineer who solved this problem during his own battle with untreatable bone marrow cancer to take you deeper into the science that most practitioners miss.

Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

Choosing between meditation and exercise when you have only 30 minutes is a common dilemma for high performers.Many professionals assume that physical training is the only path to health mastery. However, balancing your routine requires understanding which tool serves your current physiological needs. Whether you need to regulate your nervous system or improve your physical capacity, the decision depends on your specific goals and daily stress load.This episode breaks down how to prioritize your health optimization strategies when time is limited. By evaluating the role of mental clarity versus physical exertion, you can make smarter decisions about your daily habits. Learn how to weigh the benefits of meditation against the demands of a workout to ensure you are actually improving your performance rather than just going through the motions

Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

AI in healthcare is evolving rapidly, yet implementation often stalls. Learn why the gap between developers and administrators persists.

Many developers build sophisticated tools, but these solutions frequently fail to reach the bedside. The primary friction stems from misaligned incentives between those creating healthcare technology and the hospital administration teams tasked with managing budgets and clinical workflows.

With 18 years of experience bridging this divide, our guest explains the reality of current medical innovation. We examine how the insurance industry impacts adoption rates and why, despite these structural hurdles, the long-term outlook for patient care remains optimistic.

Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

Most high-performing leaders are disciplined in business, yet struggle with their health. The issue often isn't a lack of effort—it's chronic hurry and constant nervous system activation.

In this episode, Todd Vande Hei, CEO of Stark, explores why an ancient 3,000-year-old practice—the Sabbath—might be the ultimate health and longevity protocol. Drawing insights from John Mark Comer’s The Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and modern neuroscience, we break down how chronic sympathetic stress ruins your markers and why intentional rest is a biological necessity.

Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

Many business leaders do everything right: they optimize their workouts, track their metrics, and stick to strict protocols. Yet, across patient data at Stark, high performers remain the loneliest demographic—and it comes with severe biological consequences.

In this video, Todd Vande Hei is explores how transactional environments and convenience-driven communication leave leaders functionally isolated. He highlights critical data—including how isolation increases heart disease risk by 17% and mimics the health hazards of heavy smoking—while offering three clear, actionable prescriptions to restore real connection and boost longevity.

Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

For over 100 years, we’ve been told that lactic acid is a toxic waste product responsible for muscle burn, fatigue, and hitting the wall. We were wrong.

In this video, Todd Vande Hei (CEO of Stark) breaks down the history of lactate, why it isn't the villain we thought it was, and how it actually functions as a primary fuel source for your brain, heart, and muscles during high-performance work.

What you’ll learn in this video: The 100-Year Myth: How Archibald Hill’s 1920s Nobel Prize-winning research led to decades of misunderstanding. The Paradigm Shift: How George Brooks uncovered that lactate is an essential fuel shuttle, not waste. Cognitive Stamina for Leaders: Why high-stakes decision-making burns lactate and how training your metabolic engine keeps you sharp all day. Mastering Zone 2 Training: How to use portable finger-prick lactate analyzers (like the Lactate Plus) to find your true aerobic threshold instead of relying on generic heart rate estimates. The Future of Fitness Tech: What continuous lactate monitors (CLMs) will mean for performance tracking. Stop blaming lactate—learn how to optimize it to elevate your physical endurance and executive brainpower.

Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

The discussion focuses heavily on perimenopause, menopause, and midlife health, emphasizing the lack of modern clinical education for doctors regarding these life transitions. Dr. Rollins debunks widespread historical medical myths regarding hormone replacement therapy (HRT) and breast cancer, sharing insights on how synthetic hormones vs. bioidentical hormones behave in the body.6789

Key topics explored include:

The "Three Sisters" of Hormones: Understanding the crucial, interconnected roles of estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone in regulating mood, anxiety, sleep, bone density, and overall metabolic health in women.

00:00 - The Perimenopause Crisis Conventional Medicine Misses

Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

Peptide therapy is entering a new chapter with recent FDA decisions. Learn what this means for your long-term health protocol.

The FDA recently voted to legalize six specific peptides for compounding, sparking a significant debate with the pharmaceutical industry. This decision impacts how we approach health optimization, especially for those who have relied on these compounds for years. We look at the history of these substances, which have been used effectively for nearly two decades, proving their role in a disciplined performance health lifestyle is far from new.

Many high-performers and business leaders struggle to maintain their physical well-being while managing intense professional demands. This discussion clarifies why FDA compounding regulations matter for your access to effective treatments and how to maintain discipline in your health routine despite the noise from the industry. It is about understanding the landscape so you can make informed decisions regarding peptide therapy for your body.

Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

What if your fatigue, low drive, or inability to push through a performance ceiling isn't a lack of motivation at all? In this episode, Todd Vanderhay, CEO of Stark, sits down with Dr. Aumatama Simmons—a double board-certified naturopathic doctor, naturopathic endocrinologist, and the creator of the Restorative Fertility Method.

With nearly 20 years of clinical experience, Dr. Aumatama shares her unique insights into how hormonal intelligence governs both conception and peak performance. Discover why high-achievers running on "cortisol override" hit a hard ceiling that discipline alone can't break, the moving personal story that led her to holistic cancer therapies, and how mind-body resilience and personalized epigenetic screening can unlock the body’s innate power to heal and reproduce. Whether you are seeking fertility optimization or aiming to break through a professional burnout ceiling, this episode provides a profound look at shifting from survival mode to thriving.

Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health

Before the sun came up, everything looked impossible. Payroll was due. The state wanted sixty thousand dollars he didn't have. The business felt like it was dying. So he got into the ice bath. Twenty seconds later, he thought: maybe there's three things I haven't tried yet. When he got out, he couldn't wait to try them.

Dr. Thomas Seager is a tenured engineering professor at Arizona State University who built the Morozko ice bath—a machine that manufactures its own ice rather than relying on cold water alone. His accidental discovery: ice baths before exercise dramatically elevate testosterone in men through a measurable biological shift in the blood. His research has reached mainstream attention and opened a clinical door to understanding how cold thermogenesis rebuilds mitochondria—the cellular engines where aging accelerates or decelerates. On Health Is a Skill, you'll learn the protocol, the science behind hormonal optimization through cold exposure, and how thermal medicine reshapes recovery and nervous system resilience.

Todd Vande Hei built Stark Health as a facility where leaders come to recalibrate their nervous systems and reclaim their bodies as operating systems. For him, the ice bath is a leadership tool—a three-minute lever that shifts his emotional state for five hours, making him present with his team and his family. This conversation bridges the engineering precision of cold exposure with the real stakes of building a business, leading people, and understanding what your body is actually capable of.

About the Guest: Dr. Thomas Seager is an engineering professor at Arizona State University and founder of Morozko Forge, where he applies rigorous science to thermal medicine and human performance. Learn more at morozkoforge.com.

Your health is a skill you can build. Start with the free resources at podtodd.com or explore team-based health optimization at stark.health