About GL Health Optimization, Its Author and His Views On Health

Warning; this is a long about page :).

Hey there, and welcome to the Green Light Health Optimization about page, where you’ll learn a little more about the website’s aims and goals as well as my (the author and sole writer on the site at the time) background in health and chronic disease that make me fairly qualified to write on the topic.

I’m Emil by the way, your “health guide” on this website :).

About Green Light Health Optimization
About The Author – My Background and My Views On Health, Illness and Nutritional/Medical Testing:
Bad health advice can be harmful
Affiliate links
TLDR
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About Green Light Health Optimization

Green Light Health Optimization (or GL Health Optimization) is all about optimizing your personal (and whomever you may influence’s!) health and wellness for the better, including maximizing health and wellness and weight loss, performance and with an additional focus on getting and staying disease-free (especially as you age).

See the homepage section “How can I help You?” for even more on this.

It’s a brand new website, so be a little patient, and become a healthy patient :).

Please help us grow and reach more people by following, sharing and recommending our content on social media, your personal blog or to whomever it may concern (most of us want better health, don’t we?).

“GL Health Optimization is all about optimizing your personal health :).”

About The Author – My Background and My Views On Health, Illness and Nutritional/Medical Testing:

It’s me again, Emil :).

I’m a little of what you may call a “health enthusiast by necessity”, which sadly isn’t all that uncommon nowadays, having experienced a lot of problems with my own health in my later teens and early twenties (I’m in my early thirties now), prompting me to, somewhat desperately, ceaselessly be on the lookout for new and promising solutions to my problems.

A never-ending search for answers to the health puzzle… you get the point.

“Health is a puzzle.”

And I’ve picked up a lot of knowledge and hard learned lessons along the way, including a broader appreciation for what are likely the main drivers of this ill-health pandemic (nowadays basically all of us have or will get one or more chronic diseases, again see homepage), motivating me further to do what I can to spread the word and truth so that more people can avoid such a dreadful fate (and it’s probably easier than you might think).

On a political note, correcting health recommendations and regulations could also save a lot of money, meaning more money for other important causes while also preventing a lot of suffering and preventing families from going bankrupt due to ill health, so, important and meaningful in many more ways than one!

“Improved health could save society a lot of money.”

Personally my health journey started with having to quit my education (unable to sleep or function properly and thus deal with the stress) and going down the rabbit hole of promising health supplements with potential to do the trick or at least somewhat help (the lessons learned are that most supplements are not needed for a perfect or very good health [not saying they’re a complete waste of money, but, again not necessary and often a distraction from more impactful remedies or supplements, because remember, if it’s not something that’s required by the body, it’s also unlikely to be able to help the actual deficiencies and/or underlying causes of your problems – It may help treat the symptoms a bit, but like much of medicine today when it comes to treating chronic disease, it won’t make you well, or, healthy, just medication dependent :(…]).

I don’t mean to shit on doctor’s here however, it’s just the sad reality of how most doctor’s training and medical education is built today, with very little/inadequate focus on actual health and nutrition and what actually works to prevent and reverse ill health/chronic disease, and instead an overly focus on medication and treating specific symptoms of disease.

“Modern allopathic medicine is poorly equipped to properly deal with chronic disease”.

Everyone loses here, since of course, most doctor’s are genuinely good people with an ambition to help and make their patients as well as can be, making it a frustrating experience for everyone when the tools available are inadequate and won’t help promote a patient’s actual health, which explains the rise in popularity of root cause based and functional medicine in recent years.

All that said however and back to the supplements, there are a bunch of supplemental nutrients that our bodies actually require, coupled with deficiencies of these being fairly to very common today, on a processed diet especially but often, unfortunately, even on a really healthy diet as well (due to numerous reasons), and which I therefore recommend most everyone take in one form or another (through supplements or targeted healthy foods, see my article on the supplements you should probably be taking!).

“Some supplements can be necessary, especially to deal with potential nutritional deficiencies, but most aren’t.”

Having tried literally in the thousands + of different supplements and healthy foods over the years, I do speak from some experience here, so again, read my article on the supplements you should probably be taking :).

Not finding my magic pill in the supplement sphere, while still keeping one foot in there I moved on to broader niches of diets (I’ve tried many), fasting (can be huge), religious fitness regimes and improving posture and ergonomy (highly underestimated), earthing/grounding (touch some grass, will ya?), sleep optimizationp (everyone should be doing this, imo), the importance of light and sunlight (with a caveat), stress reduction through meditation, breathing techniques and mindfulness, journaling and/or healthy habits overall (I don’t personally meditate or do breathing techniques anymore but I have other tools to replace it), medical/nutritional/genetic testing (useful to an extent, see below), yoga (actually an ancient healing practice and can be very effective, especially when done intuitively), overcoming allergies and food sensitivities (I’ve beaten mine completely [I had a lot of them, both food allergies for all my life and had developed a lot of food hypersensitivities later on too] and I aim to share how I did it and believe others can too in a future post), nofap (can be helpful to an extent, especially for guys or in general if you suffer from a porn addiction or are having social issues), healthy clothing and fashion (can affect your posture and natural freedom of movement among other things), addiction control (you may be more addicted to things than you think!), detox (some health issues may require detoxification) and avoiding potentially toxic substances such as fluoride, aluminium, dental fillings and various food additives (msg, perhaps magnesium stearate, random E-numbers etcetera), parasite cleansing (to my surprise I did have parasites, as evident in my stools on a cleanse!), radiation and EMF exposure reduction (an underestimated yet hugely relevant problem today in my opinion [mobile phones and wifi are everywhere and expanding and there are many potential downsides to these, although I believe the research on this new phenomenon isn’t quite there yet, as with earthing, and it’s not something we have evolved with, leading me to suspect that there will be more thorough health recommendations on the subject in the future). Also, my article on how and why to best avoid overexposure to these will be coming, eventually :).

Then we have other health hacks such as saunas, hot/cold showers, infrared sauna/light therapy devices (I got one of these), magnetism and PEMF devices (got one of these, too), oil pulling (I do do this), and the list goes on and on.

Everything listed above, I have tried at one point or another (or several), and much more..

Needless to say, it can get complicated, which is partly why I’m making this website – to make the puzzle of optimizing your health a lot clearer and not as intimidating.

You’ve got to start somewhere, right, so why not start with the main and most impactful health improvement strategies first and foremost, as well as the ones that are the easiest with the most bang for your buck, and steadily move along from there.

“We’ve all got to start somewhere.”

Start with How To Optimize Your Health For A Healthier Life & Lifestyle to get a good oversight of the most important (imo) things to be done first and to focus on, as well as these posts on simple actionable health hacks as well as which ones that give you the most bang for your buck and effort (articles in the making), and pick and choose from there.

Back to me:

I had a bunch of doctor’s visits early in my ill-health-riddled journey that didn’t really lead to much, and decided early on that I had to try and go the private route.

I made a medical tourism trip where I did every test that I could imagine or come up with beforehand, including full body X-rays and MRIs, nutritional testing, cardiology and neurology consultation and physical exams, allergy and sensitivity testing, virus-, fungal-, parasite- and bacterial infections testing, and more (again, I was desperate!).

I discovered a possibly chronic or dormant (at the very least I had had it at some point) Lyme disease, as well as chronic venous insufficiency through an ultrasound, a couple of protruding and or bulging disks through the X-rays/MRIs, all of which were helpful discoveries. I also discovered some potential nutrient deficiencies as well as some additional allergies and/or allergen sensitivities on this trip.

None of these health issues bother me much if at all anymore today though, so there’s really something to be said for truly optimizing for health and healing/disease reversal.

I also did a bunch of other testing unrelated to this medical tourism trip, such as:

Testing my genetics/DNA with 23andMe for problematic gene mutations (discovered a bunch of helpful things here, such as MAO and COMT mutations (can lead to slower than normal breakdown and thus overly high levels of neurotransmitters such as serotonin, dopamine, adrenalin/epinephrine and noradrenaline/norepinephrine, thus leading to increased stress and possible problems with addictions and addictive/highly stimulating substances and/or activities), which I may get into in a blog post at some point).

Such tests are also useful and commonly used for detecting mutations in the MTHFR gene.

I did various nutritional blood tests such as regular doctor’s visit blood tests, NutrEval from Genova Diagnositcs, SpectraCell (cellular nutrition panel) as well as a Trace Elements hair mineral analysis (that taught me that I might have a lithium deficiency as well as low B12, having incredibly low cobalt levels), and so on.

The great news is that the solutions are mostly the same (optimizing for health), whether you choose to do testing or not (!), meaning you can (and probably should) actually start improving your health to get well/better right in this instant (i.e., without expensive testing).

“Testing or not, the solutions are mostly the same!”

(Oh, how I wish I’d known that in my late teens or early twenties).

That said, I’m not saying testing is a waste of time or entirely unnecessary.

(Knowing what nutrient deficiencies and/or other more specific problems you have [Lyme disease or chronic venous insufficiency as well as a vitamin D, K2, zinc, B12, lithium, manganese and B2 {borderline deficient}, pantothenic acid as well as a likely magnesium and/or iodine deficiency {since they’re just so common} in my case] can be really helpful for knowing what nutrients to take in extra high doses to correct the deficiencies as quickly as possible, as well as for knowing what targeted foods and supplements that may be helpful [and sometimes, yet rarely, possibly even required, anti-Lyme supplements and/or antibiotics as well as anti-parasite supplements/foods/medications are good examples of this] and that one can take to combat or ease symptoms).

It can also be a good strategy to test yourself extensively if you’ve already tried everything else to improve or maximize your health.

It’s just, luckily, less important to know these things when approaching health, wellness and healing from a more holistic perspective, since the correct supplements/diet and health improvement strategies for optimal general health (including my recommended supplements and a good multi) will deal with these problems fairly effectively in their own right, albeit just slightly slower for more specific deficiencies and illnesses.

Hence, testing is, not necessarily, in my humble opinion and experience, where you should start your health improvement journey, although it can again definitely be helpful, especially so if you really want to cover all/most of your bases immediately.

“Nutritional/medical testing can still be helpful in specific cases and/or for better knowing where to start and/or where to put extra focus initially for a speedier recovery or if you’ve already tried everything, so they definitely still have their uses.”

Functional medicine is still largely reliant on testing today, which like I said can have some definite upsides, but the bigger drawbacks are that it (health/nutritional tests) can get really expensive, and quickly.

It is still a good investment and probably the future of healthcare to do these kinds of tests [as opposed to just subscribing medication often based on symptoms alone, and as in, functional medicine is probably the future of modern medicine, imo), because again, chronic disease and often a lifetime on specific prescribed medication/s to deal with this, is again (see homepage), incredibly taxing on on the economy and the healthcare system at large (and to peoples’ personal economy and not to mention it as a source of a lot, in my opinion sadly undue, suffering).

Solving the actual underlying causes of the chronic diseases and ill-health conditions, be that with the use of front-loaded costs in the form of proper health testing as with functional medicine, and/or with general health optimization and better public health recommendations, is/can be a net benefit and cheaper overall compared to the allopathic/”traditional” system of drugs and surgeries (sometimes still warranted, of course) to treat these conditions.

Especially as the best and most up-to-date tests for particular deficiencies and/or conditions keep getting more accurate, cheaper and more cost-effective with advancements in understanding, techniques and technologies, and then of course, again, with the added and not to be underestimated benefit of actually making people well.

“Solving the actual underlying causes of disease should be, and likely is, the future of healthcare.”

Moving on:

Later on in my health journey I started following my instincts and intuition more (as opposed to just blindly following popularly touted health advice and recommendations) when deciding whether or not a certain at least on paper health-promoting habit or activity was any good for me or not, which was hugely beneficial but also had a learning curve to it when fairly new to it (we’re all different and therefore may need and/or crave different things at different times, even if the general main rules for improving health still apply to us all).

I thus came to appreciate that a sound “health-intuition” is something that can definitely benefit your personal health a lot both in the short and in the long run, helping you make better and more tailored-to-you health decisions, but also that it works both ways, meaning that an improved health in general will in turn improve your natural and/or health-related instincts, leading to a welcome upward spiral of health improvement because of this synergy.

“A sound and healthy intuition is something that can definitely benefit your personal health a lot!”

Healthier body and mind <-> healthier decision-making and intuition.

I’ve delved further into this topic here (or through the links right above, they go to the same page), going more into how you can use this concept to your advantage and start making more intuition-based health decisions in the areas where it matters most (a “healthy” mix of science, tradition, intuition/instinct and common sense is still however best, in my book and experience :)).

That said…

I’ve had Lyme, chronic venous insufficiency and varicose veins, chronic fatigue and lethargy, chronic daily headache, brain fog, anxiety and/or depression, severe addictions, arthritis and joint issues, bulging/herniated/protruding disks, derealization-/depersonalization issues, parasites, sleep issues, acne, POIS, nutritional deficiencies, enlarged tonsils, allergies (still have to pollen) and food sensitivities, been slightly overweight at one point as well as in psychosis due to severe lack of sleep (certainly an unorgettable experience that you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy), among other things that I may be forgetting..

So..

I can say this much:

Bad health sure can suck, and also, health is wealth, literally, in my as always so humble opinion :).

So take care of your health, or you’ll be sure to miss it when it’s gone.

“Take care of your health, or you’ll be sure to miss it once it’s gone.”

Bad health advice can be harmful

Bad/incorrect/inaccurate/erroneous health information and advice can be outright harmful, and more or less so depending on the advice in question, of course (just look at the [imo] faulty health recommendations on omega-6-rich vegetable oils and where that’s gotten us [lots of chronic disease]).

It can not only lead to a lack of the results you were looking or hoping for, but it can also outright cause damage to your body and health, leading to your health getting worse instead of better (for some to you then inexplicable reason).

That is why I put a lot of effort and thought into what I share on this blog, so that such unfortunalities (made-up word :)) to an as large extent as possible can be avoided.

“Unfortunalities is a made-up word.”

Affiliate links

This website uses affiliate links, meaning I might earn a small commission on some of the products or services that I recommend (you can read more about that here, on the homepage [recommended]), or on the Affiliate Disclaimer page here.

Basically it helps support the blog at no additional cost to yourself, and only products that I actually recommend and would use myself are recommended.

“Please buy your products from the great stores below using our affiliate links to support the blog.”

Our favorites are All Star Health (best and cheapest for quality supplements, groceries and hygiene stuff) and Amazon (for general shopping).

TLDR

When it comes to health I usually know what I’m talking about.
My aim and or goal with the website is to influence as many peoples’ health positively/in the right direction as I can and eventually, hopefully, help inspire health-related political change (with the potential, imo, to make most chronic and ill-health-related problems of today nothing but a second thought/a non issue). I also want to, ideally, be able to make a decent/sustainable living off of this blog, allowing me to focus even more fully on it.
Bad health advice can be harmful.
I can help you get better, and healthier, and my methods are mostly universal :).
Nutritional and/or medical tests can be helpful, but may be less necessary than you think.
Please help out by following/supporting, sharing and linking back to this blog and its articles whenever it’s relevant, it does help out a lot in spreading the word and message of proper health improvement for all :).

Our social accounts and sharing buttons are to the left/right here below!