---
title: 'Why Most Longevity Protocols Fail Before They Start? Dr. Sogol Ash & Klaudia Balogh'
source: 'https://youtube.com/watch?v=RUUWSdC3KWQ'
video_id: 'RUUWSdC3KWQ'
date: 2026-09-28
duration_sec: 1242
channel: 'Biohackers World'
---

# Why Most Longevity Protocols Fail Before They Start? Dr. Sogol Ash & Klaudia Balogh

> Source: [Why Most Longevity Protocols Fail Before They Start? Dr. Sogol Ash & Klaudia Balogh](https://youtube.com/watch?v=RUUWSdC3KWQ)

## Summary

In this episode of the Biohackers World Podcast, Dr. Sobel Ash discusses the explosive growth of the longevity industry, the importance of cutting through misinformation, and the principles of functional medicine. She emphasizes data-driven, personalized care, the role of lab work and genetics, and the critical need for nervous system regulation before advanced therapies like peptides.

### Key Points

- **Longevity Industry Boom** [00:30] — The longevity industry is booming with AI, lab companies, diagnostics, and peptides, but this creates more noise and misinformation.
- **Global Medicine Influence** [01:45] — Dr. Ash's master's in global medicine opened her eyes to different health ecosystems and integrative practices, shaping her desire to practice differently.
- **Red Flags in Conventional Medicine** [02:37] — The average patient visit is only six minutes, making it impossible to understand a patient's lifestyle, diet, or stress levels—a major red flag in conventional care.
- **Supplement Overload and Education** [04:41] — Many patients arrive with 20-60 supplements or 12 different peptides, but combinations may not be right for them; education is key to phase protocols properly.
- **Data-Driven Approach** [06:20] — Lab work is always the first step, with functional panels covering over 100 biomarkers; genetic testing adds deeper insights for personalized protocols.
- **Foundations Before Peptides** [08:10] — Foundations of health (sleep, nutrition, nervous system) are 80% of the work; peptides should be used therapeutically, not just as anti-aging.
- **Peptide Cycling Basics** [09:37] — General peptide cycles are at least 90 days, followed by a break to let receptors reset; chronic illness may require longer continuous use.
- **Retesting Frequency** [10:42] — Labs are recommended every 3-6 months, tracking inflammatory markers, homocysteine, and ApoB for ongoing health monitoring.
- **Nervous System and Healing** [12:03] — The body cannot heal in fight-or-flight; nervous system regulation is essential for treatments to work, and toxins can dysregulate the nervous system.
- **Burnout Stages Explained** [16:07] — Burnout stages: stage one is mild tiredness, stage two shows lab changes (cortisol, DHEA), stage three is severe exhaustion affecting all systems.
- **Adrenal Support Strategies** [17:39] — Support for adrenal health includes DHEA replacement, adaptogens like ashwagandha and rhodiola, contrast therapy, and morning sunlight exposure.
- **Niagen IV Benefits** [18:50] — Niagen IVs are preferred for quick absorption, clinical backing, and minimal inflammatory response; effects last about a week.

### Conclusion

The longevity space is booming, but success requires cutting through noise with data-driven, personalized care. Focus on foundations—labs, nervous system regulation, and lifestyle—before adding advanced therapies like peptides.

## Transcript

You are listening to the Biohackers World Podcast.
What are you seeing is happening in the longevity industry as we're literally in the middle of it? It's booming, incredibly booming. I don't think we've ever seen it like where it's at right now.
I think it's exploding with AI, with different lab companies, diagnostics, peptides. Everyone's talking about peptides. I've never seen anything like this, but I think it also creates more noise.
I really try to cut through that noise and you know talk from an expert's perspective because there are a lot of people talking about things that aren't you know they don't have the credentials so I warn people about that but it's such an incredible space to be in right now you know
it makes me happy that so many people are caring more about their health you know they're thinking preventatively and they want to change and how their health care is being delivered so true and And your experience in this field goes back to like years and years where you trained and traveled and studied under the UN, UNICEF.
So your history goes way back into global levels. I want to talk a little bit about how that global experience is influencing your practice today. Yeah, it's a great question.
And so before medical school, I did a master's in global medicine, and it really opened my eyes to how medicine is practiced around the world. And I think when you're younger and you're pre-med and you just want to be a doctor, you think that's the only way to help people, right?
There's this one track. And it just opened my eyes to there's so many other ways to help people. And that's what also started, you know, I don't know how to say it.
Like, it showed me that I want to practice differently. You know, showed me what integrative medicine is, you know, studying health around the world, studying different health ecosystems, how patients are treated all around the world,
really changed my views and really showed me that I want to practice a bit differently. What are you seeing? Like, what were some of the red flags that popped up years ago that were like, wow, that is not the path I want to take?
Yeah, so the time spent with the patient, the average of, you know, six minutes. In some states, I'm seeing maybe 10 minutes, but the average time spent with the patient, there is no way to understand a patient the way I understand them if I only have six minutes with them.
How is that even possible? That's one of the biggest red flags. I think the training, you know, being trained just to treat symptoms and avoid, you know, give a medication only, that's probably the biggest red flag.
It's not, the training isn't about getting to the root cause. No one's asking, you know, and a lot of doctors aren't asking about the foundations of health. What's your lifestyle? What's your diet? What are your stress levels? These things that are so important to health.
I think that I hear patients come to me and say, my doctor said, it doesn't matter what I eat. It doesn't matter if I only, if I'm constipated, I go to the bathroom once a week. And, like, my jaw drops every time I hear these things.
That's wild. Okay. going toward functional medicine now you're looking at patients as a whole system as a holistic interconnected web and as you mentioned in this longevity space there is a lot of noise
anytime something goes mainstream a lot of people start to take advantage of buzzwords and without the credentials a lot of people can still go on tiktok and go and look at different
reels and like, oh, XYZ told me this, it's got to be right. They've got 100,000 followers and whatnot. Do you still have to do a lot of education when a patient, a client comes to you about
helping to expand their health plan? Yeah, I think there's, you know, I get a range of clients. I got people who are kind of already biohackers and they're in the space and they know and they're
doing a lot of the right things. And then I get people that have no idea and they rely on me which is really my job. That is my job to quarterback their health, right, and to personalize the protocols. But there is a lot of education that goes on. I also get people that come with,
like, you know, 20 different supplements, some more. I've seen 60 supplements at a time. Yeah, I've seen 12 different peptides. I've seen they're just doing everything. They're giving their body
all these different things. And while those things may be good, it doesn't mean the combination is good or doesn't mean it's right for them so there's a lot of educating and also people come to me like you know a lot of cases I see they just want everything at once and I have to educate them on this the body not going to respond to everything at once The body we have to phase out a protocol We have to work on certain foundations first Or let say someone has like dysautonomia long COVID They want to take all
the pet pets. I'm like, your body won't respond. It's not going to respond until we regulate your nervous system. And then sometimes they don't listen. And then they try and then they call me and they're like, I can't move, you know? And I'm like, you have to, yeah. So it's like, you know,
trust people that know what they're talking about to take care of you you don't have to do it all yourself right there's people like me exist for a reason so that we can guide people in the best direction and I love that you mentioned that because in this world of biohacking there is
that rabbit hole where people just go to these conferences and leave with five to ten different supplements and they start taking them all without even really truly knowing whether one, their body responds to them well.
Can their body metabolize them at all? And how do they work synergistically? So what are some of the first steps that you encourage your patients and clients to do before putting them on any type of peptide protocol or stem cells or any of that more
regenerative medicine approach? Lab work. Always lab work. So obviously we do a long consult, like at least an hour where I'm getting to know the patient and that triggers me that you know for each person kind of will do something different
but everyone needs lab work we need and we need data we need to know what's going on in your body so at the very least a long kind of functional medicine lab panel the ones we do over 100 biomarkers and that's just the basics right and then if you want to get more deeper into it doing
genetic testing I love having genetics because I take that and then I take the biomarkers I have today and then I take what they're telling me and then it's all this data where I can tell them right here's what's right for your body then there's so much more there's toxin testing and
and gut health testing and you know if it were up to me we would definitely do a lot of tests we can't do it for everyone not everyone needs every test either but I would always say you need data and you need a practitioner like oh these symptoms because your labs can say one thing
but your symptoms might not match it or your symptoms might be telling you something different I got to listen to that. So I think working with the right person to integrate all of that and then create a personalized protocol, that's the game changer.
That is true. Now I wonder when it comes to all of these therapies that can be prescribed and protocols that can be planned out for two, three, six months at a time,
do you try to get them to optimize their lifestyle, optimize their sleep, do a more of a remove all this junk first before we can add something that would initially take
you to the next level absolutely yeah so I try to do it simultaneously but absolutely for some people you have to work on the foundations of health either during the protocol or just in
phase one because so if someone is you know not sleeping well not eating well what's the point of doing all these beautiful peptides and all of that, like 80% of it is foundations of health.
So we're always working on that. But I don't mind, you know, adding some NAD or optimizing mitochondria at the same time as we're working on the lifestyle. They can be synergistic.
So I don't think it's one or the other. But in certain cases, yeah, I won't introduce certain things until we get the, you know, the nervous system under control or the sleep under control. But I like to, you know, use the peptides therapeutically.
I don't like to just think, oh, they're just anti-aging. No, they're therapeutic. Like, if we're using it, let's use it to the benefit. They're so wonderful. And I love that you mentioned that there is a therapeutic aspect because now that peptides are widely available across different websites,
and there's a lot of information out there that can either be helping or confusing, but regardless, people can get access to it as much as they can get access to a lot of other types of supplements. But with peptides, correct me if I'm wrong,
but there are certain protocols that should be followed in order to maximize their efficacy. Like, it's not something like, oh, I'm just going to start injecting myself, and I'm just going to inject myself for the rest of my life. Like, you know, what are your patients tend to come to you with, like, okay, I'm going to start on this peptide.
What is a, obviously different for everybody, but a general understanding of a cycle? Yeah, so general understanding, you know, most of it is you want to do at least 90 days to get a full benefit.
And then a lot of them you cycle off, you know, maybe two weeks. Some people do 10 days. Some people do a month off. And then you can cycle back on. Certain ones, you know, people can do six months on.
Like, it really just depends. like if someone's dealing with more chronic illness, like, and it's more of an immune regulation peptide, I probably won't cycle that right away. We'll stay on for a while. So it depends But the general cycle I would say 90 days at least to give it a chance you know to work And then sometimes from there we say okay maybe we add on another month and then take a break It really depends on the person But people you know if you don have a practitioner that how I would do it
I wouldn't just stay on for a long time. You want your receptors to take a break from these things. That makes perfect sense. And also, are you retesting multiple times a year or is it like every three to six months?
Exactly. Every three to six months. So I like quarterly labs. Not everyone needs quarterly labs. So I think at the very least every six months. And then if we can do it quarterly, that's great.
Sometimes it's just certain biomarkers. So if we're working on, like, heart health and thyroid health, we'll kind of just look at that. There's nuances to the lab testing. Not everyone can afford it. Not all insurances cover every lab. So it's a little more nuanced than that.
But, yeah, I try to check, you know, there's certain biomarkers I'm always tracking, inflammatory markers, homocysteine, ApoB. There are certain ones that over time, you know, you'll really get an understanding of what's going on.
Makes perfect sense. I do want to get a little bit into energetics. There's a lot of buzz about if your emotional state is not at a certain, like, regulated level, then your body may not respond really well
to some type of substances. So how deep is that educational curve to help people understand that your emotional well-being is just as important as your physical well-being?
And how are you climbing that ladder? It's really important. I would say think of it as more like just your nervous system, right? So fight or flight versus rest and digest.
Fight or flight is that sympathetic nervous system. People these days are mostly living in that fight or flight. the body can't heal in fight or flight so you know whether you're emotionally distressed or
you're just stressed out whatever that state is your body will not receive treatment in that state or it's not going to receive it as well being more in the parasympathetic chill and rest and digest that's when heme happens that's even when we digest you can't digest food if you're in fight
or flight right so if you're you know meditating daily that helps bring your nervous system to balance, helps ground you, helps regulate emotions as well. The other part is that sometimes there
are things going on in the body that are dysregulating the nervous system. Toxins will dysregulate the nervous system. So it could be this like negative feedback loop. You got to figure out what's the chicken or the egg. So for some patients, it's their gut health causing a lot of
anxiety and depression. And it's not their fault. So I have to, you know, sometimes I have to start there yeah so again this is where it's like there's so much more to it it's like one of those
things that like people say it's all in your head yeah when it really is probably in your gut exactly yeah and and some people but the mindset's important too like using I I use for chronic illness patients especially like things like Parkinson's and really really like people that
are really struggling I have to work on their their um positivity as well right and they see it So when we do, you know, I have them do affirmations, they start seeing that they're healing.
They're getting better quicker. But, you know, sometimes it takes a year for them to even do one thing like that because they don't believe me. They give me pushback. You know, some people listen and then they're like, wow, I wish I did this earlier. Because, again, the body relaxes.
The body feels safe. The body needs to feel safe to heal. So when you're doing these affirmations and you keep repeating things like that, it's different for everyone. Some people are just going outside on a walk, whatever it is. Your body needs to feel safe in order to receive things.
And that's such an important point because safety in our brain can be disrupted so easily in our environment today. So many things in our environment get perceived by our brain as a threat.
Even just all these pings on our phone every day, right? Like an alarm was meant to be for a threat. and think about it you just keep we wake up with an alarm we're getting pinged every day ding ding ding yeah of course we don't feel safe or of course we're in fighters right yeah it's yeah
it's crazy it's something that I think especially a lot of often what I see women having a hard time personally I'm a hard time with down regulating and really up regulating paracetamol in order for me to just not burn out over time do you have a lot of patients who deal with burnout do you burn
A lot, and great question. So, you know, when I was younger, I experienced real burnout. Like, there's, like, stages of, like, HP axis dysfunction or adrenal fatigue.
And I got to stage three, so I'm very mindful about not getting there. But don't get me wrong, I work really hard. And, like, even though I know better sometimes, like, that's just the state of life I'm in or the stage, right? So I do, I catch it quick.
If I notice I'm burning out, I'm like, all right, what are we going to do? We need to slow down no matter what And I have to put boundaries with my team or you know I try not I don want my patients to suffer So I like okay what can I do to support myself That also why I keep up a lot with things like Niagen like the IVs
I keep up with my wellness. I keep up with my morning grounding practice. Those things help me not burn out. But I deal with a lot of founders who have burnout. They come to me and they're in stage two or some are already in stage three.
How do you – I don't mean to squeeze all the blood inside you, But you're mentioning stage three. What is the difference between those? Like, how do you identify almost stage two and stage three? Yeah. So, like, in frontal medicine, we have HPA axis dysfunction,
hypothalamic pituitary dysfunction. And that's kind of how we say adrenal fatigue in layman's terms. Right. Stage one, you're okay. You're maybe, like, kind of tired. I think that's where I'm at right now.
That's where I'm at. Yeah. Stage two is where I catch a lot of people. I'm starting to see it on their laps. Right? Their cortisol is starting to be affected. Their DHA is being affected. Their hormones are starting to dysregulate.
They maybe don't feel super exhausted yet, but you're starting to see the signs, and it's showing on labs. So they're kind of there. Stage three is, like, very hard to get out of bed, right?
No matter how much you sleep, you're tired. The adrenals are really drained. Constantly needing caffeine. No matter how much caffeine you have, then you're still not feeling better, right? then the gut helps start suffering.
So think like in stage three, everything's affected. Like when the body burns out, then everything starts, the other systems are affected. It's like a very bad domino. It is. It is. But it's so prevalent and it's often an underlying root cause of other issues that is not caught.
So like doctors aren't looking at DHA levels. DHA is a hormone. It's a precursor to a lot of our hormones. But to me, when it's super low, I can tell that the body's tired and the body's stressed out and it needs support.
How do you support it? I know there's got to be a million things. But what is your, like, first and second step to go to DHA support? Yeah, so sometimes we replace DHA directly.
So you just take DHA in low doses, sometimes in higher doses. I love to use adaptogens for the adrenal glands. The adrenal glands respond so well to adaptogenic herbs like ashwagandha, rhodiola.
They're literally meant to help our body better adapt to stress because we can't get rid of stress. Right. Right. So we want to work on our resilience to stress. Yeah. And that's a big part of it. So adaptogens help with that.
Those are some of my go-tos. Contrast therapy. So alternating hot and cold, even if it's just in the shower. You don't have to do sauna cold pumps. That's great. That's going to help as well. and then being outside getting outside first thing in the morning is going to help regulate
your cortisol you need your eyes to be exposed to natural light whether it's sunny or not that's going to help regulate as well yeah I love how you mentioned so many basic stuff right they're so basic yeah it's free unless they're looking at supplements but most of it is
like breaking yeah one more minute okay I wanted to one more minute not a lot of time but I do want to ask a little bit about why are you loving niagen plus IVs? Great question. I love niagen
because it absorbs so quickly. It's researched, so it's really clinically backed, and that's important to me. Clinically, also just the responses I see from myself and from my patients.
It's not an uncomfortable IV, so your cells take it up quick. You can do it fast, and it's, you don't really have an inflammatory response like a lot of people can with regular NADIDs which those are good too I'll do NAD injections on myself like throughout you know the month and then I'll do the
IVs like every other week if I can like twice a month to keep myself going but it's really just the results you see that's really cool do you feel the results from extended I think I heard
friends talk about it how they feel like a super human for like a week yeah yeah absolutely yeah so some people feel it for longer but it does get absorbed quickly so I think about a week is like
a really nice way but it's also when you're working on your mitochondria consistently and you're replenishing it consistently you should keep feeling those effects too long term but your body does take what it needs and gets rid of the rest so if you're just doing it one time
you're not going to feel that forever yeah very cool so many things on back I could sit with you sit here with you for another hour and a half. Me too. I wish we had more time. I know. But I think our time is up.
But people can find you in so many different places, so please share. Yes, yes. Very active on social media, Dr. Sobel Ash. Our website is conciergemdla.com. We're a nationwide practice.
Work with patients one-on-one directly. And then those are probably the best ways. Awesome. We got you. Thank you so much. Thank you. This was so nice. I'm already looking forward to the next events in 2026, Los Angeles and to Chicago and to New York.
And I know in January after, there's going to be Miami as well.