Episode 243: The Research Behind MetaPWR Pt. 2

We are so excited to finish our in-depth look at the science behind MetaPWR® with Dr. Nicole Stevens. If you missed the first episode, go back and listen. You will want to hear everything.

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Today, we're excited to talk to Dr. Nicole Stevens, Director of Clinical Research at doTERRA, about some of the science and research behind the MetaPWR System. This is the second part of a two part episode where we go into all the details.

doTERRA

Nicole, you mentioned in that response statistical significance, and you've mentioned it in some of your other presentations about MetaPWR as well. Can you go a little bit deeper into what statistical significance really means?

Dr. Nicole Stevens

Oh, I'd love to, yeah.

So in clinical research, we're typically looking at differences between what we're interested in studying, and we'll sometimes call that an active, and something that really shouldn't have an effect--we call a placebo. You've probably heard those two terms before.

Now, even in the very best studies, we sometimes get effects that are just due to chance. So, for example, if you were to toss a coin 100 times, you wouldn't expect to get heads 100 times in a row. But just due to chance, there actually is a possibility of this occurring. So we have mathematical ways of figuring out how much of an effect is due just to chance and how much is due to the activity of what we're actually studying.

So to find a significant effect, the difference between what we're likely to see by chance and what we're likely to see by an active has to be pretty big. So in the MetaPWR® Metabolic Assist studies, for example, we were looking at the differences in participants' blood sugar after they ate. Now, those taking the placebo had significantly larger spikes in blood sugar than those taking the active.

So this means that we were looking at the active MetaPWR Metabolic Assist working and that this response was likely to be due to the supplement and not just by chance of our population.

Now, if you're reading a paper, you might see scientists reporting this as something called a p value. You've probably seen that “p=” and then some number.

Now an effect is generally considered significant if the p value is less than 0.05. So you can use that the next time you're looking at a scientific publication.

Now for us, well, and in general, I suppose this means that at least 95% of the time the effect that we see is generated by what we're studying and not just by chance. In the main MetaPWR Metabolic Assist study our p value was 0.001.

doTERRA

Wow.

Dr. Stevens

This means that 99.9% of the time the results that we see in an after meal blood glucose modulation would be due to MetaPWR Metabolic Assist and not just because of chance. So this is a really strong indicator that MetaPWR Metabolic Assist works.

doTERRA

Those are such incredible numbers to see, and I'm sure very heartening to you as a researcher.

Dr. Stevens

Very exciting.

doTERRA

Now, in this MetaPWR Metabolic Assist study specifically, you showed these effects using a blood glucose monitor. So, some people looking at these studies might wonder if they need to be using something like that at home to track their own blood glucose.

Dr. Stevens

Yeah, that's a good question and one that we got actually quite a bit at convention.

So, our continuous glucose monitors, they were really handy for the study and it was a great way for us to see what was happening to our participants' blood glucose levels throughout the day, day and night. The problem is currently you don't tend to be able to get these without a doctor's order because they're most often used for people who are needing them in their life.

But the good news is it may be possible if you're interested in measuring your blood glucose, to do it another way.

So a couple of things that you might think about: ask your doctor if you're interested in tracking blood glucose-- see if it's something that they would be willing to write a script for you. But if you're interested in studying blood glucose levels on your own, they actually do have individual glucose monitors that you can just get over the counter in the grocery store. And as we were working and designing this trial, we actually used those. It's the one where you just have the little finger stick and you have a little monitor that can read your blood glucose.

And we measured our blood glucose before we ate, after we ate, and then two hours after we ate and a few times throughout the day in the morning and in the night. And we started to see these patterns emerge. So you could do the same thing if you're interested. It's very interesting, I think, to start to understand what your blood glucose levels are doing.

But another way and even easier way, if you go to your doctor for an annual physical, you might also consider checking some of your regular blood labs--things like your triglycerides and your other measurements of metabolism. When you're making positive changes—for example, if you're using MetaPWR, if you're habit-stacking, a few of the things that we talked about at convention--these positive changes are very likely to show up in your blood labs as well.

So, a couple of ways, if you're interested in tracking, yourself, your progress, there are some very interesting things that you can do.

doTERRA

Yes, expanding on that a little bit: if I am interested in measuring my progress as I take the MetaPWR System, as I make these habit changes in my life, what kind of measurement should I be paying attention to?

Dr. Stevens

Yeah, this is great. And it kind of goes along with if you've heard about the 30-Day Challenge for MetaPWR, I know that that was something that has been a couple of waves of it.

Again, at the beginning of the year, as people were doing their New Year's resolutions, and looking to kind of overhaul their habits. I would recommend checking the doTERRA website and getting involved in the challenge if you're interested in trying this.

Now, these sheets that go along with the MetaPWR Challenge, they are a great way to start tracking. Now, we think about it in terms of what we call a baseline. You got to have a place to start, right? Your starting line there, and that's what you're going to measure against as you go through any kind of challenge, whether it's the MetaPWR Challenge or something else that you're just trying for yourself.

What we recommended for people to do was measurements of your waist, your hips, your upper arms, your upper thighs, the circumference around those--because as you start better handling your metabolic systems, your fat management systems, these are likely to change if they're going to your weight and your height, allow you to be able to calculate BMI.

This is something that can change, too, even with just a little bit of weight loss, for example. Some other things you might think about tracking: sleep, this actually has a really big effect on metabolism. Your VO2 max, your body composition . . .

I actually, for Christmas, just got one of those scales that can tell me a little bit about muscle mass and bone mass and water composition of my body. They're not too expensive, but boy, they're really interesting. So something like that, if you maybe $50 or so, it's something that's very interesting. But yeah, if you're just looking at a measuring tape and a piece of paper, I would just say, take your circumferences 30 days or 60 or 90 if you're willing to kind of commit yourself for a little while, you might be surprised about the before and after kinds of measurements.

Now, one thing I will say, though, don't be alarmed if you find natural fluctuations that happen in your weight. You know, this is really common, especially for women. We are very influenced by our fluid levels, our hormones, stress, sleep, things like this. So don't worry if you do see some spikes--some up and downs.

But as we mentioned before, using the MetaPWR System, along with other healthy habits, you know, you've heard it before, your diet, your exercise, your eating whole foods, taking your doTERRA Lifelong Vitality®, managing your stress, all of these things--you put them together and you have got one powerhouse way to be able to take care of your health.

So, all that being said, if you do decide to do the MetaPWR Challenge, we would love to be able to have your data if you're willing to share it with the clinical research team. We are doing a large scale analysis of this data for MetaPWR as a system, so let us know. We would love to have you participate.

doTERRA

And Nicole, what if someone is looking for more information, if they want to read these studies, if they want to participate in clinical research, where can they go for that information?

Dr. Stevens

Yes, we are actually overhauling our website and we're going to make it a lot more functional to where it can offer you information about past studies that we've done, current studies that are open, Some of them you may be able to enroll in even. We are working to get more of our studies to where they are fully remote so you don't have to live anywhere near doTERRA. You can be wherever you are and hopefully we can be able to get you information and ways to participate in our studies.

So, that overhaul of our website should be coming within the next few months. We hope to be able to announce something official, maybe at convention. So, if you want to stay up to date one of the best ways is going to be to join our email list. The clinical research team loves to put out some information about current studies, past studies. We're sometimes able to link to publications or other interesting research that is kind of dovetailing with what we're doing here. We'll do announcements and even fun giveaways, so we'd love to have you come join the email list. You can find the link in the information of this podcast.

doTERRA

Absolutely.

And we will have that link in there because I think that is a wonderful resource for people to have to stay up to date on all of this incredible information you and your team is producing.

Nicole, thank you so much for sitting down with us today and for teaching us so much more about the research being done on MetaPWR.

Dr. Stevens

Thank you.

If you can't tell, we're very passionate about what we do and we appreciate you guys so much.

Thanks for joining us and congratulations on living a healthier lifestyle with essential oils. If you want to try any of the products you learned about, click on the link in the episode description or find a Wellness Advocate near you to place an order today.

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