The MEN1 Mosaic

#42 Why Fixing the Gut Changes EVERYTHING! (Dr Pinelopi Chrysikou, Functional Medicine Doctor & Lifestyle Medicine Specialist)

• Lizzie Dunn • Season 1 • Episode 42

Share episode

Could your gut be the missing piece in your MEN1 health journey? 

Dr. Pinelopi Chrysikou, a Functional Medicine and Lifestyle Medicine Specialist, shares groundbreaking insights into the gut’s role in immunity, inflammation, hormone balance, and overall health. We dive into why gut health is crucial for chronic conditions, the real impact of food intolerances, and practical steps to start healing from within.

00:00 Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:42 Understanding Functional Medicine
03:37 The Importance of Gut Health
04:19 Identifying Deficiencies and Their Causes
05:44 The Role of Stress and Nutrition
10:20 Autoimmunity and Gut Health
15:18 Functional Medicine in Practice
15:30 Consultation and Costs
18:31 Patient Experiences and Success Stories
27:21 Conclusion and Contact Information

ABOUT OUR GUEST:
Dr Pinelopi Chrysikou is a highly regarded lifestyle medicine specialist with a focus on integrating holistic, science-based approaches to optimise health and well-being. Her main areas of expertise include sleep disorders, anxiety management, lifestyle medicine, functional medicine, nutrition, as well as homeopathy. 

With extensive training and experience in both conventional medicine and lifestyle medicine, she takes a comprehensive approach to healthcare, emphasising prevention, disease management, and overall wellness through lifestyle interventions. Dr Chrysikou is deeply committed to the belief that the root causes of many chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and obesity, can be addressed and even reversed by adopting healthier lifestyle habits.

Her practice revolves around educating and empowering patients to make meaningful changes in areas such as nutrition, physical activity, stress management, sleep quality, and emotional well-being. By combining medical expertise with practical, sustainable lifestyle strategies, Dr Chrysikou offers patients a personalized pathway to improved health. Her expertise in nutrition is one of the cornerstones of her practice.

Dr Chrysikou provides tailored dietary plans that focus on whole, nutrient-dense foods, helping patients improve their metabolic health, manage weight, and reduce the risk of lifestyle-related diseases. She is an advocate for plant-based nutrition, recognizing its potential in reducing inflammation, improving cardiovascular health, and supporting overall vitality.

https://www.holistichealthplus.gr/cv/

Join my MEN1 community & receive the free guide that helps keep me out of surgery, off medication and asymptomatic. Click here.

*Here I share my personal experience as a MEN1 patient. Nothing is intended to provide medical or holistic health advice. All opinions are personal, including those of my podcast guests. Always consultant a qualified medical professional.*

 Hello and welcome back to another episode of the MEN1 Mosaic podcast. Today I have with me Dr. Penelope Chrysikou, who is a functional medicine doctor and Lifestyle Medicine Specialist. She is amazing. She has agreed to come on and share with us, share with me and you a lot of her wisdom around the gut, diet, nutrition, everything that I know is a bit of a buzzword at the moment in MEN1.

So I'm super excited to have you here. Welcome Penelope. It's amazing that you've been able to join us. 

Thank you so much for inviting me. I'm very honored to be here and, uh, speak with you and, um, well, from where do you want me to start with? 

Well, let me jump in with, um, the question that I think I would have probably asked you all those years ago when we met, which was, as an MEM1 patient, it feels though, as though sometimes the traditional way of looking at, um, disease is kind of, Symptoms and, um, a diagnosis label and not necessarily at the person, if that makes sense, so what might be happening in the person's life.

I know that when I first, um, came and found functional medicine, I had all of these problems going on in my gut, but no one Um, could relate them back to MEM1 and they said, it's not our problem. We can't help you. What is it about functional medicine that now means that I have had success with my gut which is then helping me in MEM1?

Why is it that functional medicine is able to look at things differently? 

Okay, let me answer this slowly, slowly. So first thing is that luckily things have changed through the years and I believe really, really strongly that nowadays doctors and other kinds of therapists and practitioners have a more thorough view in towards different diseases and circumstances.

And, um, personally, I have, uh, joined an NHS program two years ago that was really beneficial about lifestyle medicine as well. And I mean, It is time that everyone should look at the things very much differently like it used to. On the same time, I'm not here to judge anyone and of course classical medicine as we, all of us know about it.

But I believe that functional medicine can go together on the same path with classical medicine as well. Because it's nothing that is impossible. Uh, endangered. Endangered. If I let you understand what I'm saying. Functional medicine is a very, very thorough medicine and I strongly be believe that I'm very fond of it.

I really love my job and I will continue as long as God provides me, um, in viably to serve my patients. I believe that me and my patients are. a very big family. I cannot live without them. Maybe they can live without me. I hope that they can live without me, but we are in a, you know, continuous connection all the time via emails, texts.

I supply my personal phone number with my patients. So they're all the time able to contact me if they wish to. So. I go back now to the functional medicine path. So functional medicine, what is it about? Yes, of course it starts with the gut. And I would say it ends with the gut on the same time, because if you can imagine our gut on an average person, is about 400 square meters if we take it out of our tummy, but it's not out of our tummy.

It's inside of our tummy. We don't see it, but it is quite big. It's our biggest organ of the body. So our aim is number one to see in our body what is missing. So After that, we need to address the reason of the deficiencies. And when we are aware of the reasons of the deficiencies, then we are able to restore and rebalance the whole body function.

I try to explain it very simply because it's quite simple, but on the same time, it is quite, uh, comprehensive and It's very difficult to know, just like by looking at you, what are your deficiencies. I need to do some analysis for that. I need to do blood works, urine tests, maybe stool tests, depends on the case every time.

Every patient is different. And um, that's the fascinating thing about functional medicine. You are never. ever bored because all the time something new comes up and it's a challenge on the same time and it's fascinating and I find it extremely, extremely fabulous that way of approaching patients, people.

you know, human beings, everything plays its part. Our, um, psychology, of course, our nutrition, our lifestyle. If we exercise, if we don't exercise, I need to tell you just that, that The moment we start to feel stressed, the blood supply in our gut reduces. That means that the environment in our gut becomes very friendly to inflammation when we have lack of oxygen that is getting there.

So we need to see the stress levels, nutritional levels, what is missing, vitamins, minerals, antioxidants. There's a full bundle of all the nutrients that we need to, uh, assess and see what is missing and what, uh, and how much is the deficiency because in functional medicine, we don't believe that once you have the results just above their average, you are fine.

No, we need. optimum results. We need them to be in the very green area where it's not too high, not too low. And that's another reason why I find it really fascinating and never being bored about it. Uh, we need to chase the excellence. It's not very easy, but it's not very hard. And sometimes it's very simple.

Like I have so many patients, which are pre-diabetic. And if, They don't follow functional medicine guidance. They can very easily become diabetics. And that's a very, it's a, it's quite big incidence nowadays, the diabetes. I mean, it's very, very common and most of the people tend to become diabetic, even children.

So the earlier one gets against it, there are very high possibilities that you can avoid being a diabetic or even a pre-diabetic. Uh, so I go back to the functional medicine and to the 400 square meters of our gut. We need to take care of. Number one, I said to find out exactly what is missing and how much is missing.

So to identify the deficiencies, then we need to identify the reasons for the deficiencies. That could be inflammation, lack of oxygen, um, insufficient lubrication of the gut because the gut makes, not makes, provides two main functions. The one is to absorb the nutrients that we eat and the other is to get rid of the toxins that our body doesn't need and we don't want them to accumulate.

I'll, I'll bring you an example for that. We don't want Estrogen in women to be reabsorbed through the gut because so many tumors are related to hormones and especially estrogen. So, especially in women, we take care of estrogen levels and we do specific tests to see if the estrogen can be easily reabsorbed through the gut.

And if that happens, we have ways to avoid that. Now I'm going to align another subject to that, that every woman that desires to have HRT, functional medicine, can provide that very safely because I do not give HRT just by looking at a lady that wants it. I need to do blood work first to see the exact hormone levels.

I need to do a extra test to see if her body is able to get rid of the chemical estrogen that the HRT provides and then to support her through her HRT and always monitor the HRT, uh, module and whatever. That means why I suggest that functional medicine, lifestyle medicine can go together with the classical medicine that everyone knows.

Um, now what else? Autoimmunity. Why not? Everyone knows if you pick up a big stone outside somewhere, the stone will know that autoimmunity and autoimmune disorders are highly related with the gut. Because our gut, the 400 square meter one, is producing antibodies and is responsible 90% for our immunity.

Can you imagine that? It's huge. So we need, by taking care of our gut, not only we take care of our absorption of the nutrients that we are receiving from our food and detoxifying the toxins from the gut, but on the same time, by taking care of our gut, we take care of our emotional health. psychological health, our immunity, and then comes the absorption of the nutrients.

So, first, I would put the emotion, second, I would put, uh, the nutrition, and third, I would put the, second, I would put the immunity, and third, I would put the, uh, um, emotional support. Is it too complicated? No. 

No, it's, it's absolutely not at all. And as you were explaining all those things, I could see the links taking place and it makes so much logical sense.

And I think the irony is that one of the blocks I think in traditional medicine is this, um, belief that it's not backed up by Science or by evidence. It's not logical. It's we can't see it happening. And actually, it couldn't be more the opposite. You know, there is so much logic in what you're telling me.

It makes so much sense. It's in my head and I'm now sitting here and I'm thinking, how did I not find this out before? How did I go the first nearly 20 years, 20 years of my life, not realizing the link between my gut and my health. And what is so scary is that most people are in that position. They have absolutely no idea.

That's the problem. It's the unawareness. People need to get aware of and need to know. I don't know how this can happen. Maybe what we're doing now might help a lot. And I'll give you another highlight about the gap, the 400 square meter one, is that we don't know what it agrees with it and what it doesn't.

That means if we do a blood work together and I check all your food intolerances, you might be surprised to find out what is bothering your gut and what is not. And when your gut is bothered by certain food, like Lactose or casein or I don't know what peanuts or something. That means that it doesn't let it do the job correctly.

So we need to exclude that from your diet for a particular period of time and then start to reintroduce it and see how that works and how that feels. Um. Many, many people are very much intolerant to gluten and lactose, and they have no idea at all. And they continue having gluten and lactose forever and ever, and then the gut, that poor 400 square meters thing, suddenly decides to reveal his strength by producing auto antibodies against Towards the thyroid gland, towards the pineal gland, towards skin, I mean anywhere, it can be just anywhere.

So the autoimmunity, it's a kind of expression of our gut that something, it doesn't really agree with it. That's a very important reason why one should rely on functional medicine and see exactly what's going on. And only that is the way to help yourself. 

So it's, it's very, it's an amazing medicine, as you said, and it goes very, very deep.

It's very thorough. Is it very expensive? It sounds to me like all this blood work, the monitoring, the appointments. 

Yeah, 

Does everyone need to see a functional medicine doctor? Do they need to be paying lots of money to see one, do you think? 

Well, look, personally, I haven't raised my fees since, since 2018.

I keep it the same. Maybe for another year. So my fees for one hour consultation if you want me to get into these details is 290 pounds and for half an hour consultation is 190 pounds. I oh, I suggest that for a first time patient I really need this one hour. It might be more than one hour. It might be one hour and a half.

I never charge more than an hour, but I really need for the first time appointment more time and I need it because I need to get all the information that are relevant to the patient and Usually the patient as well needs to let me know everything and that's my job, to learn about everything. So, uh, after the first consultation and the first follow up, it's pretty fine if one goes on with the half an hour consultations now and then.

I would suggest that Once per year is a good rate to have a functional medicine appointment, uh, and see mainly the first one is very diagnostic and you need to find out everything. The next appointments can be very targeted towards only what is missing and what you need to restore. And that makes the life of everyone much easier, but it's a good insight.

And everyone, um, most of my patients are very much relieved after the first consultation because they have an answer, you know, it's really, uh, you get a phew, I know what's happening finally. And you know what to avoid, you know what to reinforce and how we reinforce and rebalance both naturally. So I suggest natural sources of foods.

And if the deficiencies are quite strong, then I might suggest some supplements on the same time. for a while, until it becomes, uh, in the normal range, uh, or close to the normal range. But we want optimum results. We are not perfectionists in functional medicine, but we try our best. We want the best function of the body, and that is feasible.

It's a really, a really important thing you've said, I think, because it's so easy to settle for feeling Just about okay or less than okay and we get used to that being normal And it's suddenly like I know when I first found function of medicine and I started working on my gut And I that those first six months where I felt absolutely amazing and I was thinking oh my goodness me How did I not find this before and I look back on that and I think actually You know, maybe amazing is normal is what we should be aiming for and or maybe not amazing, but you know, optimum as you said, and actually we are so easily settling for just about okay, which, you know, is not really, it's not acceptable.

We shouldn't have to do that when we have all of these resources and all of this knowledge. 

Exactly. And I strongly believe that nowadays. Science has proved so much and we can rely on the analysis and know what we and what and how we can improve and preserve this better function of ourselves because life is really nice, but it's really hard on the same time.

So in order to be able to survive this life for as long as We have to, we really need to take care of ourselves as much as possible. 

It's so important. It's so important to take care of ourselves. I wanted to ask you a question. You said before when you were talking about, um, when the gut is sensitive to certain foods and sometimes patients are very surprised by what their results bring back.

Why is it that certain people will have symptoms to gluten or lactose or whatever it might be? And some people won't, but. They, they might both have intolerances according to their blood work. How, and if they don't have any symptoms, how do they know that something is wrong? 

Yeah. Usually, they do have symptoms.

Symptoms can be light symptoms, like bloating or kind of discomfort after consuming certain foods, and symptoms can be very hard to deal with, like autoimmunity or skin conditions, eczema, psoriasis, something that is show off. Um, when something does that show off, it's more likely that the patient will reach out for some help.

If there is not showing, then is the difficult part of that situation. The patient will not know soon enough, and that might lead to autoimmunity in the end, or some other kind of dysfunction like malabsorption, like irritable bowel syndrome, and again, no one will know. Now, why one shows the symptoms and why the other doesn't show the symptoms?

That has to do mainly to the fact that some people can hide their symptoms. Some other people don't pay that much attention. Some people may relate their symptoms to something that might be completely relevant and time goes by. So we need a small alarm bell telling that you have to take care of this.

as soon as you can. It won't harm anyone to detect the food intolerances. And I have patients that have been off certain foods for a very long time. And still the blood analysis show that they are still intolerant because the gut has memory. It needs very, very long time to forget about a certain food that It doesn't like to, and it takes time to restore, but it happens.

That's the positive outcome of functional medicine. It actually happens, and it actually, the gut can restore, and can rebalance, and everything can be improved. 

And have you seen cases where improvement in the gut has then led to improvement in other areas of health, and, you know, chronic diseases, inflammation, all sorts?

Definitely, definitely. The major, um, positive outcome that I have seen personally in my practice has to do with skin conditions that patients have been suffering for years and years and, uh, with, uh, very little changes. and very small, um, changes regarding the timings of the, of the meals and how we should consume sugar because we live from sugar in the end, but it's good to know when to have it because we, you can get sugar from desserts.

Obviously, from fruits, from alcohol, from carbohydrates. So all these are sugar sources as well. We need to take care of our sugar. Sugar feeds inflammation. I don't want to tell you any more details for now, but I'm very glad if, uh, I could help anyone and, uh, for anything. available all the time, all year long.

I never stopped working. I go for holidays. Yes. I cannot avoid going to Greece. I'm Greek, obviously. Um, but I still work on my holidays. I'm addicted to my job. And, um, as the doctor said that we used to work together in the past. Medicine is limitless

and that's what we serve. And that's why I think the doctors cannot stop working. I don't believe in, um, pension. I'm not sure if I get it, but I don't, I don't feel the reason for it. I mean, as long as one can be able to work and, uh, uh, provide and serve the humanity. Then why?

As long as, uh, we are needed in this life, we need to continue. And that's the fascinating bit. 

It is. And I think it's so, it's so lovely when you talk about your work because I know you love it, you light up, um, you radiate, and I think that is so important for patients to see, to know that their, their practitioners, these, these professionals, anyone who's looking after them is really driven by a mission to help them, and there is such a confused narrative at the moment in healthcare, particularly under, you know, services like the NHS, which are struggling, where it feels like it's a constant battle between a, You know, um, patients trying to get themselves heard and practitioners trying to do their job with so few resources.

And I think to listen to, um, individuals like yourself, who obviously you have found your path and you are so, you know, brightened by it is, is absolutely amazing. And some of the information you've shared here, I think is, is so valuable because MEM1 patients, and I can speak because I am one, don't get to listen to this stuff.

There is no talk about the gut in MEM1. You know, we understand why that is. It's not, you know, it's not typically a thing under endocrinology at the moment. We hope that's going to change, but I really hope that in the meantime, anyone listening or anyone who comes and finds your work, you know, is able to Um, you know, go down a different path like, like I did and, and find, um, something remarkable that might be able to help them.

And I wanted to end by asking you, if anyone listening does want to come and work with you, how is it best that they can find you? 

Well, if you put my name at Google, easily you can find my phone number. My website is holistichealth. gr Which I'm gonna turn to a blog very soon as well because I need to be in Constant contact with my patients.

I mean, this is my I'm obsessed a bit about this I'm just a bit obsessed. I want my patients to get better and better, and it's not a wish, but it is good to say, if you are a doctor, that you don't want to see your patients again, as a patient at least. No, it's, it's a good thing to say, although I don't, uh, have a bad intention to mention something like that.

It's good for a patient to stop, be a patient. And that can be feasible. And that's my mission in this life, at least. I don't know if there's another life or what, that I will inviolably serve my patients. And I'm very happy to do so. 

It's a beautiful thing to hear. Such a lovely mission to have. And yeah, an amazing note to end on.

Um, Penelope, thank you so much for coming on and sharing your time so generously and your wisdom. I have heard things from you in this past half an hour that I haven't heard before. And that for me just is, is amazing. And yeah, I continue to grow so much in my own healthcare journey. Bye. I could speak for days.

I could never stop speaking about functional medicine and the ways that I have, uh, helped people and continue to help. And I really love to, to do so. Yeah. I'm very glad. 

Thank you so much. And we look forward to having you back on again at some point in the future. If that is what it's meant to be.

Bye bye. Take care. Bye bye.