Learn
Daniel Tagge, MD
Board-certified family physician
How I think, what I teach, and what I am reading.
Everything on this side of the site is education. None of it is gated behind an email address, and none of it is a sales page.
It has four parts, and they are different kinds of writing. The framework is how I think and changes slowly. The essays are what I teach and are meant to stay true for years. The Report is dated: what I am reading now and what it changes. The glossary is reference. Start wherever your question is.
Four ways in
01Framework
How I think.
Health Optimization Medicine: the definition of health I work from, the method, and the seven systems I read. The durable reference. It changes slowly, and on purpose.
Read the framework02Essays
What I teach.
Evergreen writing on the biology, one topic at a time, organized by the seven systems and by a few short reading paths. Written for the people I treat.
Browse the essays03The Precision Health Report
What I am reading now.
Dated commentary on current research, issue by issue: what is new, what it means, and what it changes. Each issue is sourced and stays where it was published.
Read the Report04Glossary
Reference.
Plain definitions of the terms that appear across the site, so a word in a lab report or an essay never stops you.
Open the glossary
The framework’s second level
Seven systems, one map.
Health Optimization Medicine organizes physiology into seven interacting systems. They are a map for interpretation, not a checklist of tests. Each has its own page.
How the seven fit together- 01MetabolomicsA window on current chemistryThe small molecules your cells produce as they make energy, build, repair and clear waste. A view of what is happening biologically now, used when it adds to standard laboratory medicine.
- 02Evolutionary MedicineThe interpretive lensHuman physiology was shaped by an environment that differs from the one we live in. The clinical logic for reading the other six.
- 03ChronobiologyThe timekeeperHormones, immune function and metabolism run on circadian schedules. Disruption is common, often measurable, and often modifiable.
- 04ExposomicsThe environmental loadThe cumulative burden from diet, chemicals, metals, air and light. Some of it can be measured; it is assessed when a history suggests it is relevant.
- 05MitochondriaThe energy engineMitochondria produce most of the energy every other function depends on. Aspects of that function can be assessed, and lifestyle and clinical measures can support it.
- 06Gut-Immune HealthThe internal ecosystemThe gut houses a large share of the immune system and communicates with the rest of the body through what its microbes produce. Read as part of the whole picture.
- 07EpigeneticsThe dynamic gene regulatorEnvironment and behavior shape which genes are expressed without changing the sequence. Some patterns can be measured, and many respond to how a person lives.
Where to start
Three short paths.
Each path is a handful of essays in the order I would hand them to someone. Read one path and you will know how I think about that question.
Start with the framework
The foundation. What Health Optimization Medicine actually looks at, one system at a time.
What your number actually means
One result at a time, read the way I read it: why the lab called it normal, what was never ordered, and what gets missed.
- 01A testosterone of 200 and an ApoB of 120: what a chatbot cannot do with those numbers.
- 02A ferritin of 20: what the lab calls normal, and what it is costing you.
- 03A fasting insulin of 12: the number that moves ten years before your A1c.
- 04A TSH of 3.8 with symptoms: the four tests nobody ordered.
- 05An Lp(a) of 150: the lab you measure once, and why it is about your family.
- 06An ALT of 45: the most common liver disease in the world, dismissed.
Choosing a doctor
For anyone comparing concierge, longevity and direct primary care practices. Written to be useful even if you go somewhere else.
- 01Concierge medicine, direct primary care, and national networks: what actually separates them.
- 02Ten questions to ask before you join a concierge practice.
- 03How to tell a longevity doctor from a longevity clinic.
- 04Do you need a concierge doctor if you feel fine?
- 05What is actually in an executive physical?
Other ways in
Start with what you’re experiencing
If you are starting from how you feel rather than from a system, each symptom page says what it can mean, what should not be missed, and where in the framework, the pillars and the essays to read next.
Start with a symptomBy search
One search across the framework, the essays, the Report issues, the glossary and the symptom pages.
Search the siteBy email
New issues delivered by email when published. Nothing on this side of the site requires an address to read.
Get new issues by emailWhen you want it applied to you
Reading the biology in general is not the same as reading it in you. That is the practice, and it begins with a conversation, not a purchase. How care works.