Transform Your Health: Crystal Felice on Functional Medicine and Gut Health

Discover the transformative power of functional medicine with my guest, Crystal Felice, as she takes us through her incredible journey from a licensed retail pharmacist to a certified functional medicine practitioner. Battling personal health challenges like gut issues, hormone imbalances, and depression, Crystal found that traditional medical approaches were falling short. Her eye-opening exploration of the negative impacts of birth control and nutrient deficiencies led her to embrace functional medicine, resulting in significant health improvements. Now, she passionately integrates functional and Western medicine to help others experience better health outcomes.

CONNECT WITH CRYSTAL FELICE: 
https://www.phunctional-health.com/
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Crystal's 5 Habits for a Healthier Gut guide: 5 tips to start helping your digestion NOW! - https://www.phunctional-health.com/resources

Transcript

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Transition to Functional Medicine Practice

Nika Lawrie 0:24

Welcome to the Inspired with Nika Laurie podcast . Crystal Felice , welcome to the show . I'm so happy to have you here . Thank you , I'm so happy to be here . Yeah , so you were a licensed pharmacist and then you got certified in functional medicine . You're now a functional medicine practitioner with your own practice . Can you tell me how did you get into that ? How did you ? Going from pharmacy to functional medicine is a big shift there to kind of just mentally . So tell me that story . How'd that work out ?

Crystal Felice 0:58

Yeah , so I still keep my pharmacist licenses active because that was definitely a lot of work to get those . So I still keep my pharmacist licenses active because that was definitely a lot of work to get those . So I am licensed in uh , still licensed in Oregon and California . Um , but it was about like five years into being a retail pharmacist , um , the stress was starting to just get to me , not not just emotionally but physically . So it was starting to take a toll on my body . So all throughout school , um , going to pharmacy school , I was still super into fitness and health and working out every day and I had a lot more time on my hands to do that . Um , and then you , I became a pharmacist and I'm like I could still do this . I'll just wake up at four o'clock in the morning , I'll get my workout done and then I'll go work for 12 hours , come home , try to sleep , uh , and then do it all over again .

Crystal Felice 1:46

So I was doing that for years , um , and everything kind of came crashing down . Um , you know , I started having gut issues , um , just like hormone , hormone issues , and I was still on birth control . So when I would go to the doctor they're like oh you know you're on birth control . It's not your hormones something you know . Just take some ibuprofen for that . So I was having these ridiculous three-day migraines that were right before my period . It was like clockwork . So I'm like it has to be hormonal . They're like it's probably stress , it's probably tension . So they gave me ibuprofen , they gave me muscle relaxers assuming it was those . Um , I hated the way it felt on the muscle relaxers , I can literally only take them in the evening , um , because they just made me feel so sleepy . So then there was that Um , and then I was just getting , uh , panic attacks on the way to work . I was getting just this like depression . So I went to the doctor and they gave me something for anxiety and then a longer term like , um , uh , for antidepressant . So I started taking those and you know I gave them like six to eight weeks . I'm like I'm not seeing any difference . I don't like just being put on medications . Um , you know I still was very much into health and fitness . I like these natural ways of healing the body and I'm like there's gotta be something else , like I'm pretty healthy . Something has to be going on .

Crystal Felice 3:10

I had started seeing on Instagram some talks about how birth control can cause these long-term issues . And this was something even as a pharmacist . I was like I was embarrassed to not even know these things , how all of these nutrient depletions were happening in my body , how it was affecting the gut , and I started to learn more and more . I quit birth control cold turkey , which I wouldn't recommend to people doing . I was just like I can't believe this is happening . So I just stopped everything . I gave it a few months .

Crystal Felice 3:40

I wound up ordering my own hormone test because doctors just thought you're crazy , they're like there's something wrong with you . But then I had nobody to read it for me or analyze it for me . So I found a local naturopath . I gave it to him and he's like this is the first time I'm seeing this . So I was like oh no .

Crystal Felice 3:57

So I wound up finding a functional medicine doctor online . She was in Florida , so we just did it virtually and she was able to analyze that test . She also sent me a gut test . Um , and you know she looked at any blood labs I had and gave me protocol and within six weeks pretty much almost all my symptoms were gone and I was like what ? Like this is wild .

Crystal Felice 4:23

So I was just like hooked from that and I was like I need to learn how to do this and help other people , because this is the way that I want to make a difference in people's lives .

Crystal Felice 4:31

Because as a pharmacist you're just like a robot . You're filling scripts , you're on the phone with insurance companies and doctors all day long and you get like 15 seconds with these people to counsel them on everything that this medication can do , which you don't have the time . So this was definitely a way where I could kind of integrate both . A lot of people are on medication so I can let them know what nutrient deficiencies are going on and then also how to naturally heal the body as well . So I went back to school , I got certified in functional medicine and I went into it kind of knowing I wanted to start my own practice , because the way things are right now it's not really a way that you can even really integrate it into pharmacy yet . So I'm hoping that's the future where we can just have this more holistic vibe when it comes to our healthcare , where you absolutely still need Western medicine for many things , but also having these functional practitioners on the side to help with the diet and lifestyle and natural aspects of it too .

Nika Lawrie 5:30

Yeah , man , I love your story . I always hate saying this to a new guest on the show , but it's like I hear this story basically every time . I have women come on the show and talk about how they transitioned into functional health or functional medicine and what really sparked it . And it was their own health issue and they had to figure out how to fix it because doctors weren't listening and you know . And then they get inspired to help other women do it and it's become a common story . But it's such a powerful story because so many of us are struggling . I have the same story too . You know .

Nika Lawrie 6:06

It's different issues and different process , but that's what led me to functional nutrition and functional medicine and so , yeah , it's crazy how many of us are like this , but I think it speaks to one what we're trying to do to help the world , but also the need for change in the medical system to support women where they're at . You know , a big thing that I focus on a lot is informed consent . I really , you know , I think there's places for prescriptions and medication and things like that , but people really need to understand the impact that some of these medications like birth control , hormonal birth control specifically have on our bodies . It's not just take a pill and feel better . There's a lot of repercussions that come for it . So I'm glad that there's a pharmacist out there that can talk about this a little bit too , definitely .

Crystal Felice 6:57

Yeah , yeah . No , I wish I knew you know even just how to support the body , because obviously you know I'm thankful we have birth control . It's something that's needed . It got me through all of my years of school , you know . At the time they put me on it for acne so obviously when I came off of it that was a huge problem because it came back like threefold . So , yeah , if I would have just known more about supporting the body while I was on it , I probably could have avoided a lot of those side effects .

The Impact of Gut Health

Nika Lawrie 7:26

So you mentioned a little bit earlier about gut health specifically and I want to talk a little bit more about that in depth . Can you talk about why gut health is really so crucial kind of to our overall well-being and kind of the impacts on different areas of our life ?

Crystal Felice 7:43

Yeah , so many people just think kind of when it comes to gut , am I bloated , am I constipated , what's going on with those issues ?

Crystal Felice 7:52

And don't realize really how in-depth our gut is related to everything Like so much that they call it the second brain , because we have so many neurons and neurotransmitters just communicating with everything .

Crystal Felice 8:04

So you know we'll have issues where , if there is that disconnect with that communication with the brain and the gut , then we can get issues like anxiety and depression and other mood disorders related to the gut . Or we can have issues with the gut barrier being kind of disrupted and then we'll have inflammation and that can lead to a range of issues like autoimmune conditions , allergies , chronic pain . So people don't really relate things like allergies and joint pain to the gut and it's very much related . And then you know we rely so much on our gut for just absorbing nutrients and vitamins in general . So when we are lacking in those we can get a lot of fatigue and weakness and like a poor immune system . So one of the first things is when somebody is just like I'm always getting sick all the time , then I'm like , yeah , we really need to test your gut and see what's going on in there Because it's all connected .

Nika Lawrie 9:00

Yeah , I mean , I think there's just there's so many common symptoms that relate back to gut health specifically . You mentioned a couple of them , but you know , I think so often you know people , you know they'll blame themselves , like I have this disease or I have this issue , and what really happens is that they've been impacted by something like an environmental factor that's impacting their gut for sure . What are some of the um , like the tests or different things that you do to help people understand if their guts working properly or improperly , or what does that look like ?

Crystal Felice 9:35

Yeah , so I'll definitely get a good idea of what's going on with diet and lifestyle , because that's going to play a huge role . Um , you can definitely learn a lot before doing any tests . Um , I will also analyze just blood labs in general . So when people get annual blood labs of like a CMP and a CBC and um , a lipid panel uh , a lot of that can . That can give us some information on if there's some nutrient deficiencies going on . I can see if there's maybe some sleep apnea going on . So I can get a lot of good value from just blood labs .

Crystal Felice 10:11

But when it comes down to seeing what's going on in the gut , I like to use a GI map . Test is really the one that I'll mostly order and that's really just going to give us the whole rundown of if there's any pathogenic guys growing , if there's a low amount of good bacteria , which we'll see in those people with low immune systems , if there's any inflammation , if there's any reactions to gluten . So all of that . You can get so much information from it . So it's definitely one of my favorites . After learning and seeing that Cause , I had a doctor once order a stool test cause they were testing me for H pylori . I think a long time ago , and literally the test only tested for like three things and they didn't even find H pylori , which come to find out , I did have it , so yeah , so I really love this one . It's really intensive and it really gives such a great overview of everything that's going on in there .

Nika Lawrie 11:06

So you mentioned a little bit earlier about you know you had to order the test for yourself and then you had to track down a physician to help you kind of read and understand those tests before you got into functional medicine and everything . For someone who's kind of new or just trying to figure this out for themselves , do you have any recommendations of like how do we get these tests ? Can we go ask our general practitioner ? Should we find a functional medicine doctor ? What are your thoughts on that ?

Crystal Felice 11:33

Yeah , for the most part . So you do have to be a practitioner to be able to order these tests . I haven't seen many primary care doctors that have been able to order these . Maybe as they get a little more popular or people start to educate themselves a little bit more on it . So , as of right now , you do need a practitioner to order most of them .

Crystal Felice 11:56

The Dutch test you can order on your own for hormones , but that is one that I think now you get hooked up with a practitioner to give you a call , which is really nice , so they kind of include that with it . Maybe at the time I didn't realize that was an option , but that's one that I know you can order on your own . I've ordered a thyroid panel on my own . I know , um , I think LabCorp and Quest , maybe just Quest Diagnostics you are able to order some of your own blood labs . So , um , there is some autonomy out there when it comes to that um as well . But for the most part , to get like really good blood lab panel and to get the Dutch and the GI map , you would need a practitioner of some sort to order that .

Nika Lawrie 12:44

It's . You know , you can like . I know , for me , for years I was finding it from different places and kind of , you know , I could get this test here and that's there . You know , it's like a puzzle pieces .

Crystal Felice 12:54

So you , you know eventually there and you know it's like a puzzle pieces . So you you know , eventually you can put together the whole image , but you gotta work on it . Yeah , it's definitely a lot of work to just DIY it yourself . It's a lot easier . Once I hired that practitioner and she was just able to kind of do it all and have everything in one place and have the online portal . I was like this is much nicer .

Nika Lawrie 13:11

Yeah , definitely , how funny . So talk to me about hormone imbalances and how that relates back to gut health , you know , especially for women . You know there's a lot of us that are kind of moving into premenopause , menopause . Hormones start to change quite a bit during that period of time . What are your thoughts on that ?

Crystal Felice 13:33

Yeah . So a lot of it , you know , is definitely related to just the fact that our hormones are declining . So I had learned through , after learning what perimenopause was , that that was what I was going through and it did happen in my mid 30s for me . So there is definitely that decline of hormones , but there also is the gut relation as well . So , um , it was really cool to learn about that group of bacteria and the gut , called the estrobilome was .

Crystal Felice 14:06

So we have , like our own fancy group of bacteria that are able to metabolize and break down estrogen . But also , if there is an issue with the gut , these guys can produce even more of an enzyme that can actually allow the estrogen to be reabsorbed . So we rely on the gut as one of our main ways to get rid of excess hormones . So if people are constipated , that's a way that the body can just reabsorb things , and if there is this gut imbalance and there's too much of this enzyme being made , then that estrogen is just going to get reabsorbed . So you can get what many people might know as estrogen dominant symptoms . So we'll have people with , like painful periods and PMS and heavy periods experiencing that , and it can actually be a gut relation as well .

Nika Lawrie 15:01

Yeah , yeah , I think you know , so often we think of the body and all these separate little entities , we don't think of them as one big system working together and how , you know how much , you know what we eat will then impact the gut , which then will impact , you know , these enzymes and which will impact hormones , which then impacts our period , like it's a whole thing . It's , you know , and it's such a bigger picture than I think sometimes we think about in our body . Oh , yeah , for sure . Yeah , what are some common disruptions that you see for the gut ? Like , for example , like types of foods or environmental factors , things like that that you see , that are , you know , impacting especially women's health , but people in general .

Crystal Felice 15:47

Yeah . So stress is a big one . People just don't realize the toll that that can take on the gut . You know , when our bodies are stressed out , even if it's just acute or chronic , our digestion is just going to take a backseat . So it's not a priority for the body . The body is just prioritizing getting glucose into the system , keeping you energized and ready to fight off whatever's coming your way . So we can get things like the low stomach acid , and then that's just going to cause a downstream effect because then we don't have that robust stomach acid to help break down food , absorb nutrients and protect from things getting into the GI tract that shouldn't be there certain bacteria . So that's a big one . Just medications in general . So , like the birth control antidepressants , we make a lot of our serotonin in the gut . So people don't realize is that these medications aren't giving you more serotonin . They're just making your body pump out a lot more nutrients to help keep serotonin in the brain synapse . So it help it , help it stay there longer , um , so that takes a toll on the gut . It's using a lot of nutrients to help um keep that going . Um , and then any pain relievers , so ibuprofen all that's gonna definitely um take a toll on the stomach . You know there's always those warnings for stomach bleed for all of those Um . And then when it comes to the things in the diet , I see a lot of people with issues with um . Gluten and dairy seem to be too unfortunate . That will cause some inflammation . Um , some people don't realize it until they remove it from their diet . So they've had it in their diets for so long and it's just become the norm . Um , I really didn't realize dairy was an issue until I took it out of my diet and then I was like , oh , I don't have to get bloated after every meal I got it . I feel great now . Um , so that was um , really a big one .

Crystal Felice 17:51

But anybody can have this gut disruption just from just anything like stress . If you've ever had food poisoning , if you've ever been on an antibiotic , that's really going to mess things up . You know an antibiotic . It can take six or more months for the gut to bounce back after just one stint of an antibiotic . And when I was a kid I was on back-to-back antibiotics . That was like the thing to do in the 90s . So I was like no wonder why my gut was so messed up . So all of these things , you know they just compound on top of each other and it's if you're not really aware of it and aware of how to repair your gut in between these certain experiences , then it can definitely , just you know , down down down the road turn into this craziness where you actually start to feel a lot of these symptoms come out .

Nika Lawrie 18:39

Yeah , I think you know the antibiotics . I mean I know there's an extremely important , you know spot to use antipy . I mean they are game changing , right , but I think there's such a misnomer even today . I think doctors have stopped prescribing them as much , but it's still . People don't understand the long-term impact that antibiotics will have on your gut and overall health too .

Crystal Felice 19:04

Yeah , I'm glad we have them for when they're absolutely needed , but when there's viral infections , don't be giving a Z-Pak or any other antibiotics for that , because it's not going to happen .

Nika Lawrie 19:17

Always I know I know one person specifically that always like they get a viral infection and they have this antibiotic and I was like it doesn't work , like it's not .

Crystal Felice 19:29

Yeah , biotic bacteria Like yeah it doesn't work that way , yeah .

Nika Lawrie 19:34

What are your thoughts on probiotics ? Um and and uh like prebiotics as well , even .

Crystal Felice 19:40

Yeah , I think prebiotics are amazing . So whatever we can do to help feed our gut bugs is going to be great . I think probiotics have a certain kind of time in place when it comes to , uh , taking them in like capsule form . So probiotics , when it comes to taking them in like capsule form , so probiotics when it comes to like fermented foods like kimchi , miso , tempeh , sauerkraut I think those are all amazing . I think anytime we can get anything in our diet , that's always going to be best .

Navigating Probiotics and Supplements

Crystal Felice 20:08

But I do think too many people are just taking probiotics because they think that it's going to be kind of the best way to solve their gut problems . But we can not rely on a capsule to just completely repopulate the gut , um , and there are certain instances where it can do a little bit of harm . So there are certain strains that can produce more histamine and if your body is already having these allergy issues or high histamine getting like rashes , itchiness , just like sneezing all the time , then you're already having some histamine issues where your body is struggling to release that histamine . And if you're just putting a strain in there that's just going to keep pumping out more histamine , you're just going to feel worse . And there are people that were like I can't take a probiotic because I feel worse .

Crystal Felice 20:56

Yeah , so it definitely can be the strains that are in there . So , when it comes down to it , I'm very particular about the different kinds that I will recommend for clients just depending on what their gut tests showed . So when I had done one recently , I had taken a spore-based probiotic for a while and those are a really great , high quality probiotic , but when I tested , my levels were super off the charts and we don't want it super high either , because then you can have issues there . So , yeah , you definitely want this delicate balance and just pumping too much of these strains in there is definitely not going to be the best solution .

Nika Lawrie 21:38

Yeah , I think it's really important for people to understand the impact probiotics can have on your mental health as well . It's not something that's usually talked about , but I know , for me , before I got further into functional medicine and kind of understanding this world , I took probiotics , just the pills , just because that's , you know , it's healthy . That's what you're supposed to do , right . And I was taking these ones and what I I started to have almost like suicidal thoughts , not not to the point where you know it was .

Nika Lawrie 22:09

Um , I was going to act on something , but it was definitely like something that had crossed my mind that I hadn't thought about before and I was like there's something weird , like there's something not okay . And I stopped taking them and those thoughts went away and so I could link it to specifically because I wasn't taking anything else . I hadn't had those thoughts before , and so it's just these things that you have to be really . You need to be really in tune and listen to your body and understand that just you know , popping some pills because you think they're healthy is not necessarily the right thing to do . It's really understand your body before you do them .

Crystal Felice 22:45

Yeah , it's so true and it's getting kind of scary because there's so many influencers that are making good money off of promoting all of these supplements . And it's so specific like you cannot expect that one supplement to work the same in everybody's body , especially if you have issues with digestion and absorption . You might not even be having any benefits . So I like to ask clients like how long have you been on this for and do you feel good ? Are you feel vibrant ? Probably not , cause you're coming to me for help , um , so that's usually a good time to take a supplement vacation . Some people are on dozens , um and spending hundreds of dollars a month , and sometimes that's good just to take four to six weeks off . See how you feel .

Crystal Felice 23:29

Um , most of our bodies . When we have these deficiencies , we need to figure out why our body is not absorbing it . I mean , is your diet like really just crap and you're not getting the nutrients from your diet ? Because then that's problem number one . Yeah , but we can't expect our gut to be able to process all of this beautifully and have all of our vitamins and minerals just come to optimal levels from all of these supplements , especially if there's some gut issues going on .

Nika Lawrie 23:59

I totally agree and I think you know there's two really key things to understand too is is you know the supplement world is not regulated like at all , like it's a free for all , so so there are supplements out there that don't even have the ingredient of whatever the supplement is . So like , say , you know b12 or something right . Like you can buy b12 supplements on the shelf that don't have b12 in it . Like that's how , like dysregulated , yeah , this the industry is , and then you know . The second thing is you know if you really are eating a pretty healthy diet , there's usually maybe a couple supplements or vitamins , depending on what your body's unique needs are , that you may still need to supplement , but for the most part , you can usually get most of your vitamins and minerals and stuff from a healthy diet too .

Crystal Felice 24:49

Yeah , I'd much rather eat food than pump up a bunch of pills .

Nika Lawrie 24:53

Right , yeah , definitely so . The last thing I want to talk about , you know I kind of touched on it a little bit with the kind of mental health piece , but can you talk about anxiety and mental health relating back to gut health ?

Crystal Felice 25:06

Yeah , so that's definitely going to be health . Yeah , so that's definitely going to be um kind of related to a couple of things . So it can be a food sensitivity . Um , people also don't realize that some certain foods can can cause that kind of uh , anxiety or depression effect . Um , gluten is actually one of them . Um , I'll actually see gluten intolerance in some people that have anger issues . So that's a really interesting connection there .

Understanding Gut Health and Functional Medicine

Crystal Felice 25:33

But with all of the things that we were talking about kind of being on chronic medications , being on antibiotics , being super stressed out , if that's leading to this leaky gut and we're having these really tight junctions in our gut not be so tight anymore , then all of these things can come start leaking back into the system and then the body just starts attacking it . Um , so with that , it's going to take a lot of energy for the body to start fighting things off . So you're going to kind of feel run down . Um , you're not going to feel great . The um , you know we can get some blood sugars being thrown off and then that alone can cause people to just get these feelings of when blood sugar sugar's crashing . You feel awful . People can feel , um , like they're depressed . Um , and if they have these ups and downs of their blood sugars , um , and then if the body is just constantly trying to fight off these things that it doesn't recognize cause it's in a place where it shouldn't be , it's a lot for our body to kind of fight in the background and that can absolutely have an effect . And then you know , we're making a lot of this serotonin in the gut , we're doing a lot of the absorption of our vitamins and minerals , like our B vitamins are huge when it comes to mood and energy .

Crystal Felice 26:46

And if you have this stomach acid issue where you have low stomach acid or you have H pylori just kind of hanging out in there , that's where you can get B12 , magnesium , iron or three big ones that you'll be deficient in , and women in general tend to be a little more on the low iron anemic side . So when you have those issues it can absolutely cause issues with just feeling fatigue , feeling rundown , feeling not great . And then you know , with the blood sugar issue also , that can also cause women to start gaining weight and then that's going to lead to a whole other issue with depression . We can see kind of this stress-induced hypothyroid which can lead to weight gain , which can lead to some depression , which just starts to slow things down . You get some constipation , so it all winds up being related somehow to the gut . So that's why that's always one of my favorite places to start , because I feel like you can get so much information just from there .

Nika Lawrie 27:55

And for those who maybe feel , you know , a lot of times I hear people hear about all this stuff and they just feel overwhelmed . They're like , so I have to give up everything and I have to do all these tests and like , oh my gosh , why even bother ? Right , what are some suggestions that you have , just like practical tips for things that people can start doing now that are going to support , you know , their gut health and their overall health , without being totally overwhelming ?

Crystal Felice 28:16

Yeah , I think focusing on diet is always going to be huge , because our gut bugs love fiber . They love a good variety of fruits and veggies . So even if you struggle eating vegetables or things like that , even just starting with maybe making some good smoothies where you can just blend it up and get some nutrients there . I do prefer people chewing just to get kind of that fiber from it . But you got to start with people somewhere and really see how you can get a bigger variety . So I always like to start with whatever's in season . Those are usually going to be the ones that are on sale . So that's a great place to start . Just go into the produce section and get something new that maybe you've never tried before . It's always a great way to help .

Crystal Felice 29:01

But with anything like when it comes to fiber , you definitely want to go slow . So I usually recommend people kind of tracking their meals for a week see where you are when it comes to protein and fiber . Um , because if you increase these too fast , you can definitely feel awful . Um , if you have low stomach acid , you're not going to be breaking down protein very well and you can definitely feel worse after meals . Um , especially with fiber , you're feeding those gut bugs . Um , you're going to make them super happy and they're going to release a lot of gas and you're going to feel awful . Same thing Like people see , like , oh , fermented things are good for you . Like I'm just going to eat a lot of , you know , kimchi and sauerkraut and then they feel terrible , so silly , like kombucha .

Crystal Felice 29:44

The first time I drank that didn't realize that like one bottle was multiple servings and I felt absolutely awful after that . So you just want to take things slow . Just see where you can make simple changes that's really where I started in the very , very beginning , before I knew anything about health and fitness just making small changes . Where can like people people know when they're eating things that aren't healthy for the most part Um , so it's like , where can you swap that out ? Maybe , instead of going for ice cream tonight , you can have some fruit or like I love I always love to have like some high protein yogurt and just put some like fruit on top . You can make it fun . Maybe you put a little granola , drizzle some honey or something and it really winds up being like an amazing dessert and filling Um yeah .

Crystal Felice 30:29

Yeah . So , um , I think , like some people even which I haven't tried it's just taking that yogurt and freezing it and then , um , it kind of turns into like ice cream on its own . Um , I've even just like whipped up frozen bananas with a little bit of like almond milk and then you just have like your own soft serve . So just doing like little changes like that can really make a huge difference . But definitely want to work on increasing that fiber so that we're keeping things moving well and we're feeding the good gut bugs and keeping them happy , and then lots of water with that too , so that we don't get constipated .

Nika Lawrie 31:06

Absolutely , yeah , definitely a key to staying hydrated . Yes , so I have one more question for you . But before I get to that , can you tell the listeners where can we find you , where can we connect with you ? And I'll be sure to link to everything in the show notes too , but share away .

Crystal Felice 31:23

Yeah , I'm definitely most active on Instagram . So I'm at functionalhealth and it's functional with a PH , so that's really where I'm going to be like sharing a ton of my stories , and I post like five to six days a week , so I try to give out as much free information as possible . I do have a newsletter that you can sign up on my website , where I can kind of have a little more space to talk about some more topics instead of cramming it into a little caption , so that has a lot more information in it .

Nika Lawrie 31:52

Awesome . I'll make sure everything's in the show notes , for sure . Awesome . So , crystal , my last question for you today what is something kind of game changing or an experience that you've had that you felt inspired by and that you really want to pass on to the listeners ? Ooh , and that you really want to pass on to the listeners ? Ooh .

Crystal Felice 32:12

Hmm , I will say strength training . Really , my heart always goes back to it .

Power of Exercise for Gut Health

Crystal Felice 32:23

I get a lot of clients that want to lose weight and they think that they have to do a ton of cardio , when I actually moved the needle the most by lifting weights and walking . A lot of people don't realize the power of walking . I mean , I'm lucky that we have a dog , because we have to walk about five miles a day because he needs a lot of walking . But it's just so good for not only your mental health but just getting things moving . It's so good for lymph flow so we can get those toxins out of our body . We can get a good sweat on Um , but when it comes down to aging gracefully , we need to build muscle , we need to strength train .

Crystal Felice 33:04

So just starting um . I've seen a lot of people using like weighted vests now , which I think is great . Um , so just starting somewhere've seen a lot of people using like weighted vests now , which I think is great , so just starting somewhere . There's a ton of free workouts on YouTube , so you know , people don't even have to get a gym membership . I've been working out from home since 2012 and I love it , and you know , you have the privacy of your own home and really knock out that excuse of having to , you know , go to a gym not knowing what you're doing , being embarrassed in front of other people . So for me , home workouts have been my jam , but I think , just starting somewhere with something , exercise is going to be a game changer for gut health , for mood , for just aging , for hormones , for everything . So exercise and add in strength training , is- .

Nika Lawrie 33:48

Absolutely . Yeah , I can't agree enough with you , definitely . Thank you Well , crystal , this has been wonderful . Thank you so much for coming on the show and sharing all your knowledge with us . I really appreciate it .

Crystal Felice 33:59

Yes , thank you for having me . This was awesome .