Josh Clemente, Levels Health, Ex-SpaceX Engineer, Why Track Your Glucose Levels? (#43)

The Kevin Rose Show

In this episode, Kevin speaks with Josh Clemente about continuous glucose monitors, insulin, metabolic health, tips for hacking glucose levels, and more.Josh Clemente, Founder of Levels, is a mechanical engineer and CrossFit-L2 trainer. At SpaceX, he led a team to develop life support systems that sustained astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley on their May 2020 trip to the International Space Station aboard Dragon Endeavor: the first new crew-carrying spacecraft since 1980. Josh has also spent time designing and building Hyperloop technology at Virgin Hyperloop One and leading engineering for a company providing vehicle-based rescue systems for emergency response teams.

SHOW NOTES

• What does metabolic health entail, and why should we care about tracking glucose? [01:36]
• What changes our metabolic health as we age, and what drew Josh's attention to this as a serious issue? [03:58]
• With so many dietary choices available, how can we know what will work for our optimal health? Hint: it's highly individual (with a possible exception for people who share an identical twin). [07:52]
• Why Josh and I constantly monitor our own glucose levels even though we're not diabetic or even pre-diabetic, and why even the healthiest among us should consider doing the same. [12:16]
• Why do health providers seem hesitant to prescribe CGMs as a preventative measure? How long does Josh think it's going to be before we see CGMs being available to consumers over the counter, and what are the potential risks to be aware of? [20:22]
• When 88 percent of American adults are metabolically unhealthy, how do we determine what constitutes a "healthy" blood glucose range? [26:00]
• How does Josh stay within what he considers a healthy range? [29:16]
• What physical exercise does Josh consider optimal for maintaining a healthy range, and how close to mealtime is ideal? [31:23]
• How does Sauna usage affect the data? [35:11]
• Why we shouldn't take the glycemic index at face value. [36:48]
• How important is sleep to maintaining healthy blood glucose levels? [38:30]
• Food combining: how much does it matter if you eat starches before proteins (or vice versa)? [41:38]
• Does the rate of consumption/chewing make any difference to the data? Will eating an apple affect you differently than drinking a smoothie or juice made with that same apple? [45:41]
• What supplements might someone take to positively affect their blood glucose levels? [51:03]
• Josh explains how his company, Levels, aims to help us maximize our metabolic fitness with minimum invasiveness. [54:01]
• How does the program work, and what kind of budget is Level geared toward? [56:43]
• The ways in which Level can pinpoint the causes, effects, and solutions when your numbers fluctuate unexpectedly. [1:01:22]
• What we might expect Level to look like in five years. [1:02:28]
• How are glucose and insulin involved in unwanted weight gain? [1:03:55]
• What can you do if you're interested in giving Level a whirl? (Go to levels.link/krose to skip the waitlist of 28,000+ and join the early access program.) [1:08:19]
• A further appeal to people who think monitoring blood glucose is just something for diabetics to worry about. [1:09:41]
• How does fasting affect blood glucose? [1:13:00]

PEOPLE MENTIONED

• Peter Attia
• Rhonda Patrick
• Jason Fung
• Casey Means
• Tim Ferriss
• Darya Rose
• Justin Mares