065 What Your Doctor Isn't Measuring

065 What Your Doctor Isn't Measuring

From The Health Feast by Dr. Rak

May 26, 2026 · 1h 4m

About this episode

In this episode, Dr. Rak interviews Scott Fulton about the importance of measuring functional health rather than relying on traditional health metrics.

You’re doing everything right. But how do you actually know any of it is working? You eat well. You move. Maybe you track your cholesterol, your VO2 max, your labs. But here’s the uncomfortable truth. Almost everything we use to measure health is a proxy. An association. A stand-in for the thing we actually care about. And the thing we actually care about is simple. Can your body still do the things you love? Will it keep doing them as you age? That question is what my guest this week has spent his career answering. Scott Fulton lectures on aging at the University of Delaware and sits on the True Health Initiative Council. In his new book, Function, he builds the framework medicine forgot. Not how to manage disease, but how to measure whether your body can actually do what your life requires of it. In this episode we explore: Why most of what we measure in medicine is a proxy, not a direct answer The five domains of functional health, and the blind spot hiding in the one you ignore Why fitness can coexist with fragility, but function cannot The simple at-home tests that tell you where you really stand How Scott’s wife rebuilt her bone density in 16 months Why doing a little bit…

People in this episode

Host: Dr. Rak

Guest: Scott Fulton

Topics covered

  • health measurement
  • functional health
  • aging
  • fitness
  • bone density
  • midlife health

Keywords

  • health metrics
  • functional health
  • aging
  • fitness
  • bone density
  • midlife
  • VO2 max
  • cholesterol

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: University of Delaware, True Health Initiative Council

Books & works: Function

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