What Even Is Functional Medicine?

In this episode of Softcore Wellness, we’re diving into the world of functional medicine — what it is, how it works, and why so many people are turning to it for a more personalized approach to their health.

We’re joined by a functional medicine PA who walks us through how this model looks at the body as an interconnected system, rather than a set of isolated symptoms. We talk about the kinds of testing often used in functional medicine, how practitioners “connect the dots,” and why two people with the same symptoms might need completely different approaches to care.

This conversation is especially relevant if you’ve ever felt like something is “off” but haven’t gotten clear answers — or if you’re looking to better understand your body and optimize your health in a more holistic, individualized way.

We also explore how functional medicine can work alongside your existing care team, including primary care providers and specialists, to create a more complete picture of your health.

Disclaimer:

This episode is for informational and educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Our guest is not your healthcare provider, and nothing discussed in this episode should be taken as personalized recommendations. Always consult with a qualified medical professional before making decisions about your health or treatment. Every individual is different, and care should be tailored to your specific needs.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:03

Welcome to Softcore Wellness. I'm Savannah. I'm Chelsea. This is a space to explore without pressure, perfectionism, or performance. Softness, strength, and being human. That's the vibe. Let's get into it. Let's do it. Welcome back to Softcore Wellness. Today we're here with my friend Mel. I'm so excited you decided to join us here today. Thank you. She is a functional medicine practitioner, and I'm gonna have her explain a little bit about what that means, and we'll get into some good questions. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_03 0:42

Yeah, so I'm a physician assistant, which is a medical provider that has a degree in a master's degree in medicine. And then functional medicine is a niche that a lot of different people can be in. And when we talk about functional medicine, we are just talking about looking at the systems of the body and how they interconnect. So really trying to figure out the why behind the reason someone has something. For example, why do they have hypothyroidism? Why do they have acne? Why do they have weight loss resistance? Why are they fatigued? Why do they have depression? So it's a different way of thinking than how I trained in the regular medical system. Um I am board certified as a PA nationally, and so that's like the typical Western medicine training. And then the functional medicine came later. And a lot of us medical providers who are in functional medicine got into it because of our own health journey. Yeah. Because the Western medicine approach wasn't helping us. And then most of the patients that I help currently also have been able to unable to find success with Western medicine, which is what leads them searching for more, right? People have, you know, so many people with chronic illnesses or chronic symptoms go even 10, 20 years before finding answers. So those are the usually the people that, you know, most people start with the regular medical system. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:12

Um, so yeah. This is probably a huge oversimplification, but is it safe to say that like the traditional Western medicine is like looking at symptoms and solving for the symptoms, whereas functional is more like looking for the root and solving for the root of where the symptoms are coming from?

SPEAKER_03 2:30

I think that's a great simplification. Okay. Right. Um, it's funny how things have changed over the years. I'd say when I first got into functional medicine professionally, um, I first started practicing was five years ago. I was very focused on saying like root cause, root cause, root cause. Sure, sure. I'm a little more careful now about saying the word root cause because it can be an oversimplification. Yeah. Because sometimes things aren't fixable, right? And so sometimes what what I've noticed in the past five years is that functional medicine and the wellness trends have trended towards everybody's gonna have perfect health if we figure it out. And that's not the reality, yeah, right. People have genetic defects, people have anatomical anomalies, people have, you know, diseases that aren't curable. Right. And so we have to acknowledge that, right? And then obviously, yeah, but but I think if we were to just simplify it down, I still I still would say that's true. That might trigger some people. Yeah. Sure. You know, things trigger people. Um, and I've noticed it's more triggering to people. Um, but Western medicine is it's a little more algorithmic, right? So when when I learned in school, and a lot of us, it's always like, well, what does the research say? What is the, what is the what does the study say? What is the organization, right? Like for gynecology, what does ACOG show? What are what are all these organizations that we can trust to tell us exactly how to treat this? And you can literally log on to a database and like uh, you know, you have to have an NPI, um, which is a number, yeah, a national number like providers can have, but you can log on and literally see exactly how to treat something. It's almost like a PowerPoint of like you have this, then you do this test. If that test is negative, then you can do this one. If that one, then you can do this. And if that's nothing, well, okay, well, I guess there's just no answer. Go to the next specialist.

SPEAKER_00 4:21

Wait, so I'm assuming then like insurance is tied to that as well. So, like, if you want to do something outside of this process with these symptoms, insurance is gonna be like, mm.

SPEAKER_03 4:32

Yeah. So functional medicine is more of approach.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 4:37

So people can use that approach. Practitioners can use that approach in the insurance field. Sure. So like let's say I wanted to go get a job at Piedmont or Emery. Yeah, I could do that. And I that's I'm not gonna lose my approach to functional. Sure, sure. But I'm not gonna be able to practice with the same style that I do at my own my own clinic right now, my own business, because what I do would never fly with insurance because it doesn't fit the model, it doesn't fit the payment structure. It's it's totally like breaks the system. Right.

SPEAKER_04 5:10

Right.

SPEAKER_03 5:11

But it doesn't mean those people you can't work in the tr traditional route and like understand it. It's just for example, like time. I'll spend hours, several hours with a patient face to face, diving deep into like their entire life history. Like, where was your mom living when she got pregnant? What happened to you when you were a baby? What happened to you? You know, did you have a tongue tie? How did you swallow when you were a kid? Like, what were you hospitalized in elementary school? Like what date was that surgery? And I go through, you know, somebody might be 30, 40, 50 years old, and I'm going through an entire life story, and I'm making like a puzzle of like how does this all interconnect, right? Somebody might have chronic gut issues in their 40s. And I'm like, all right. Like, let's say they had a tongue tie when they were born, and then their jaw didn't develop correctly, and now they are they they do more mouth breathing, and then that puts them more in a parasympathetic state. And so now they're not digesting as well, and that's slowing down their digestion, which is leading to motility issues, which then causes them to have bacteria overgrow and maybe they get something like SIBO, and now they're bloated all the time. And it's like you might go out and do all these gut protocols, which are famous, or go to a bunch of peptides, that there's a lot of quick fixes, even in the alternative space right now. So, even in we've got your standard, and then we've got like med spas, and then we've got like holistic, right? And a lot of people think those are like like they might see like a med spa and functional medicine is the same thing, or we're very different. Yeah, no. But some of the things overlap, right? They do hormones, we do hormones. A lot of us like peptides, they do peptides. Like it's not that we don't use the same thing, just like I actually prescribe normal medicines that could go to CVS. Yeah, that's gonna overlap with my, you know, Western medicine training. Like there's a time and a place for everything, yeah, right. And it all depends on what the patient wants and what they like and how what's their approach, right? And what risks are they comfortable with and what timeline do they prefer, right? Because medicine, I guess at the end of the day, medicine really is an art. And what I feel like is functional medicine pulls it back to it to medicine being an art. Right. It's like I'm looking at the patient in front of me, and what does this person need? Because I could have 10 people with the exact same diagnosis, or I might even diagnose them with the same diagnosis, and they would need a different treatment plan based on so many different things, right? Yeah. And so that's the tricky part with like just traditional Western medicine, is it's again like I said, it's very algorithmic, which is good for training the mass populations. Right. But just like any of us know, even Western medicine, you go to school, you take your boards, you start seeing patients, and then you're like, oh, this is different than I thought. Why doesn't this match up to the textbook? And then I feel like I've just gotten deeper and deeper and deeper over the years into understanding, like, oh, even what I learned in school doesn't give me all the answers. Right. And the reality is we never stop learning. Any good clinician, wherever they're at, even you know, surgeons, they're gonna keep looking for new approaches. They're gonna keep, you know, stu you know, people have long careers. You can't just learn it all at once.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Well, and the research changes as we learn. So something that people were like, oh, everyone has to do this 30 years ago is now like I I think about like creatine. Like 30 years ago, people would be like, and now everyone is like, everyone has to take creatine every day, right now. And I don't know if that's good or not bad, but like I just as an example.

SPEAKER_03 8:46

I'm laughing because there's so many supplements on the market that the wellness industry, yeah, and so you have to think there's like medicine, there's funk there's the wellness industry and there's functional medicine. A lot of people on like Instagram and TikTok take functional medicine and wellness and put it into one.

SPEAKER_01 9:01

Yeah, absolutely, because if you don't know the difference, right?

SPEAKER_03 9:04

Or like holistic and natural medicine, and they'll put it all in one. Like in my mind, there's like the holistic lifestyle approach is like, are you sleeping? Do you have good community? Are you going to bed on time? You know, the basics, which so much of our bodies, so much of our life and healing, we just need the basics, right? Absolutely. But then there's like very complex science and autoimmune disease and really niche labs and like all sorts of stuff. And so I think the difference between the holistic approach is looking at somebody holistically and functional medicine. As functional medicine, we train in very unique, in-depth, different kinds of tests that like it does most of these people, even if they have the lifestyle down, it doesn't matter. Or maybe they're not even ever going to be able to get that lifestyle down because their body is so dysfunctional, they can't do all those things. That's unrealistic. We have to figure out why is their body not even letting them sleep. You can't just say diet, sleep, and exercise. They're not able to diet, sleep, and exercise. I that's a lot of the people I see is like they're like, I'm too fatigued to walk around my apartment. I had a patient recently who was too fatigued to even like go on a walk in their neighborhood. Like, I'm like, can you we're not talking go to the gym or lift weights? We're talking, can you go down the elevator and walk around the parking lot and come back up? Doesn't have the energy for that, right? And so some of these things are unrealistic. We need to look, why is this person so chronically ill? Let's give them the energy so that they can actually like do basics. So it's a it's it's very gaslighty to be just like, oh, die, sleep, and exercise. It's like, don't you think they've heard that a thousand times?

SPEAKER_01 10:33

Yes, that's what Google's gonna tell them. Step one.

SPEAKER_03 10:35

But I wanted a rabbit trail because you asked about creatine. Yeah. So I think the wellness industry has good intentions. Um, supplements can be dangerous, supplements can be incredible. I use supplements with almost every one of my patients, high grade, high quality. There's a ton on the market that I are trusting.

SPEAKER_01 10:51

I would be very concerned about that you would be like, I trust. Yeah. Yeah. Shout out to the brands. No, just because like I know that is true. Like you don't know what you're buying, and you're buying off Amazon, all these things. So it's like, who would you trust as a provider? Absolutely. Or there are a few top brands where it's like, I I this is what I tell my patients to buy.

SPEAKER_03 11:12

Absolutely. So my patients, I I give them all their most of their supplements through Full Scripts, which is like a an account where people can buy the supplements through a provider, a practice. Full scripts has like different standards of like shipment and like warning you this needs to be on ice and you know, just different quality measures that like Amazon, for example, is not gonna have. Right. And more third-party testing versus it's just more stringent. So it's there's less risk associated with it. Um, that's not a brand though, that's just like a like supplement company. Yeah, right. So I use that because it's got hundreds of brands. Yeah, I won't, I won't say every single brand on there is my favorite. Yeah, sorry. But you know, I do have that. I would say I have specific brands that I love. And then I also have accounts with many other companies like Troscriptions, um, Cellcore, I love. Um trying to think which ones are not on full scripts. I think I can't, oh, um my microbiome balance, I think, is on full scripts. Basically, there's a ton of brands on full scripts. If if I were to say what are my favorite brands, like I'll say I have one favorite brand. My all-time favorite brand is Designs for Health.

SPEAKER_04 12:26

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 12:27

I think it has incredible quality control. I have used the supplements for years myself. I seen them work. I have been a guinea pig and tried the exact same dose of a supplement that I know works for me and I can feel, and I'm like in tune with my body. I've tried the exact same dose in another brand. And I've come back to and I'm like, designs for health literally works better. I've done it with patients. I love that. They have great, they just one of they're one of, in my opinion, the best supplements on the market. I would say though, if you're gonna get it, get it from a medical provider or get it through full scripts because all you can almost always get literally everything on Amazon, but who's fulfilling it? Like who's whose house is it going to in between the manufacturer and your house? Right. Because that matters. What are they doing with it? I mean, there are there's been some things come out recently where people are like opening supplements that are like filled with something fake on off of Amazon. Right. And I'm not like anti-Amazon. No, I use Amazon.

SPEAKER_00 13:24

No, but I mean quality, but they that happens with another radical. Like shampoos and conditioners and stuff on Amazon too. Like it might not actually be the product that's correct. It's the same thing with supplements. For sure.

SPEAKER_03 13:34

And a lot of supplements are expensive. So there's a I do love designs for health. It does have creatine, of course. I will I will laugh about creatine. Some people shouldn't take creatine, right? If they have kidney disease, or if they have severe kidney issues, a lot of a lot of people that go out there and buy a bunch of supplements or gym rats don't even get their labs checked. And then they're they're pounding hot, they're taking all these supplements from some or peptides from some random website, pounding supplements, and they have no idea that their liver and kidneys are like extremely stressed out or even like have are starting to get like signs of kidney damage. So I would say it's it's a creatine's a pretty safe supplement, but there are some people that shouldn't take it.

SPEAKER_04 14:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 14:15

And then you know, there's lots of supplements on the right. It's like everybody should take glutamine. I don't glutamine's amino acid that helps that build muscle. Um a lot of people will take glutamine to grow muscle mass. Yeah, right. Um, but glutamine can actually produce more glutamate in your brain. And if you're somebody who's prone to anxiety or OCD or obsessive ruminative thoughts, glutamate makes you more obsessive. It can make you anxious, it can trigger panic attacks. And so people will think, wow, this amino acid is like great. I'm gonna take it for muscle building. Some people that can trigger extreme anxiety and OCD and mental health issues. So it's not glutamate, glutamine isn't bad. Yeah, but it should you be taking yeah, every person's different. Yeah. And so I just, you know, that's the reality of it. And so, like, even for me, like everyone's every patient's supplement plan looks different based on their history and their labs and their goals and their symptoms. And some of these things aren't it, it isn't data. It really is the hours I spent with them trying to understand the patterns of their mental health. And then can I go test their neurotransmitters and look at like dopamine and serotonin and all these different levels? I can.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:23

But it at some point we decide how much testing do we want to do because these are gonna cost you money. Or do you know you've taken this medicine in the past, therefore I know you'll probably respond well to the supplement, like a 5 HTP because of the psych med you're on. So let's try it. A $40 supplement versus like a $400 test. Sure.

SPEAKER_04 15:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:41

Um, it's up to the patient if they'd rather test before they know. I mean, most psychiatrists, because I specialize in mental health, they don't go testing you before they put you on psych meds. That's not even the standard of care. No, it's like it's all a conversation. But there, I don't even like that. I from my mental health patients, I test. There's so many things I can look at. Right. Including even like nutrient levels and gut dysfunction and nutrient deficiencies and has such a huge impact on your mental health.

SPEAKER_00 16:08

Yes. The research is finally like coming out and saying for the last I mean 20 years, but it takes that long to get into clinician practice.

SPEAKER_03 16:17

Well, it's still only really in the functional holistic space. Yes. It's certainly not in like the standard psych psychiatry. It's not. Yeah. Yeah. But we have psychiatrists or primary cares even that are open-minded to it. Absolutely. I'm collaborating with some local Atlanta PCPs now who are very open-minded. That's awesome. Um, I recently had a meeting with a local primary care and I've been networking with him who he's like, I didn't learn any of this stuff in residency, but every single one of my patients is asking me about it. So, like, I want to learn. Like, can you how did you learn? How did you learn all this? Why did you learn all this? What is the alternative approach I can use? Yeah. Because he knows he he wants to give his patients good care and he has no idea. He's never even heard of happy supplements, let alone understand how they work. Right. Right.

SPEAKER_00 17:07

Um barely cover nutrition in medical school. That's true, too.

SPEAKER_01 17:11

Like certain body chemistry things. Like I dated someone in pharmacy school, and it's like certain medical programs aren't getting into as much as like the pharmacists even know about like the chemistry behind things. So it's just very interesting, the little lasses and disconnects between methods of education.

SPEAKER_03 17:28

I think the most important thing is being willing to admit that you don't know. Yes. And I think the hard part is so many patients that come to me are like, no one's been able to help me. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 17:39

I have somebody asked too like how do people why do people come to function?

SPEAKER_03 17:44

Yeah, yeah. I'd say most people come because they're desperate. Yeah. They're like, I've tried everything. Yeah. I was recently reviewing hundreds of pages of paperwork from Piedmont Hospital. And it's been like four years of tests, no, you know, no results or improvements. And I'm like, that's great data for me to look at. And because of my Western medicine training, I know how to interpret it. Yeah, you are. You know, I'm not like a I'm not a coach or like those are great too. They have everyone has a place in the wellness space. Um, but like I I think like functional medicine really is like the combination of holistic regular medicine and like these complex labs that really like oftentimes find the answer that nothing else was able to find. But the people that come to me, again, they're usually like, I I'm I'm willing to do this because nothing else has worked. Yeah. Right. Um, but not always. Sometimes people find me just because they're like, I don't really like medicine or like, yeah, you know, everyone's different. Sometimes it's people who just want to optimize things. They're like, I want to be as optimal as possible. I want, I want to do screenings that like insurance won't cover. And yeah, like it's worth it for them to invest their money because they see their health and their mental health and their body and their physique, right? Whatever it is as an investment. And so there's there's I have a whole nother like kind of patient who's not chronically ill, who's not desperate, but they're just maybe more enlightened of like I am I already invest all this money in trainers and the gym and you know, all sorts of stuff. Why am I not investing it in like true health that could could be missed with my normal medical care? Yeah. I have those people too.

SPEAKER_04 19:26

Right.

SPEAKER_03 19:27

Right. But though that's very optional. It's hard that that's gonna be people who are really like bought in to this like alternative lifestyle. And it's almost like their whole life revolves around wellness usually for somebody to be willing to invest in their health and not be sick, right? Because that's how it kind of works with everything. Why do we put our money anywhere? Most people, you have to, your your motivation has to be high enough. Sure. Right. The only reason I'm in functional medicine is because I got sick. Right. Yeah. Right. Or else I would have never questioned. Yeah. You know, like I had thinking about it. I had an excess uh I had an existential crisis when I got into functional medicine. Like once I started getting results back that were explaining my symptoms and everything, I was like, well, I didn't learn this in school. This must be quackery. I don't think this is real. I started doing the treatment, not even believing it would work. I'm like, this is crazy. What are these supplements? What is this? Wow. You know? I was like, for a year I didn't talk to anyone about it. And then a lot of things started getting better. And I started researching it on my own. And I was like, well, I'm almost like, well, how can I not believe it worked on me? So then I started trying it with patients, and I'm like, you know, low risk. It's not like they're not my experiments. It's like, you know, I'm like, hey, this supplement is like really low risk. This is the risks that I know of. Um, nothing else has worked. Do you want to try it? And it's like, it worked. Yeah. You know? And the cool thing is a lot of these things are so low risk. Right. And I'm not necessarily, I'm not, you know, with at being a medical provider, it's like if somebody is on a chronic medication for an autoimmune disease, I'm not telling them, come off your autoimmune. No, I'm not going to do something dangerous.

SPEAKER_04 20:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:56

But if we get it in their remission, which which I've done, I've helped patients do multiple times, then we might talk to their GI physician or something about like, hey, do they need to stay on this biologic? And then they'll check and they might taper them off, right? Like it's all about collaborating. Yes. Um, especially for the chronically ill. Yeah. You know, there's different categories of people, right? There's like the what I feel like this could the functional medicine can help a multitude of people, right? Yeah. Um, but it's got, it has, like I said, the chronically ill people. How I'm gonna treat them is very different than like the biohacker optimizers. Yeah. And I feel like the wellness community, specifically in Atlanta, is very focused on optimizing and wellness like Jimmy stuff, which is great. That's all like I love it. It's fun. I'm I try to be part of it too. Like I like it. Um, but that's not necessarily like the place for the people who have chronic illness. It can be, but they might need some sort of modification or like there's got it depends on what they're dealing with.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

I think it's really interesting that you brought up like collaborating with someone else's other care providers. I am a type one diabetic, so someone who's considered chronically ill spent 30 years, and I am always fascinated in like my care that there's no one person who's overseeing it all. So I have one doctor telling you to do this by PCP who doesn't really understand my diabetes, and then I have an endocrinologist who also barely sees me and doesn't understand me as a whole person telling me to do like something totally conflicting. And I'm like, shouldn't there be someone other than me? Because I only know what I know about my own body and not like medicine as a whole, like overseeing all of this. And I feel like kind of overseeing it, but you're connecting all the things and stuff like that.

SPEAKER_03 22:46

Absolutely. I do connect it all. Like I track everything. Sometimes people have like 50 concerns. It's like fungal toenails, rash on my back, like hair loss, hair's been thinning, skin is cracking. Um, you know, it the list goes on and on and on. And I will literally track every single thing. Three months later, I'll be like, How's this? How is that? And they're like, oh my word, wait a second, that rash is gone. Oh, actually, like people who are like, I didn't think I've had this for 20 years, I didn't know this could improve. No one's helped them with it. I'm like, it all matters. Because, like I said in the beginning, functional medicine, more than just saying it's root cause medicine, it's understanding the systems. So it's understanding how everything interconnects. So, how do the things you go to your endocrinologist for, how do those connect to the things you might see your neurologist for? And you might see the autoimmune physician for, right, and you might see um dermatology for, and how do they all interconnect? Right, right. Because they're not thinking about it that way.

SPEAKER_00 23:42

They're thinking about like, I was thinking when you were giving the examples, like a dermatologist only. Your PC and P might send you to a dermatologist for your rash or whatever, but you're seeing the whole picture in a different way.

SPEAKER_03 23:54

And your body isn't compartmentalized.

SPEAKER_00 23:55

No.

SPEAKER_03 23:56

I love I love dermatologists for sure. I definitely send patients there for like cancer screenings, biopsies, um, whatever. Of course, if they just want that approach, it's always the patient's choice. Um, but I've found I've helped so many people heal. I've had people who failed out who did accutane multiple times and still have who it temporarily gets better and then the acne comes back.

SPEAKER_04 24:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:17

And I've been able to help them now for years now be in remission from acne by looking at like, why did you have it to begin with? Right. And so, like the accutane worked. Right. The acne went away, but it came back. And then what are the risks of accutane?

SPEAKER_00 24:32

The acutane's brutal. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 24:33

It's brutal, right? And so, same thing with like, you know, people can go on steroids and they can end up having a severe reaction, right? And then, you know, there's systemic conditions, like one that's really hard, mast cell activation syndrome. That can cause so mast cell activation syndrome is something that is often missed in traditional medicine, but it can affect everybody's system. So your body is gonna overproduce some mast cells, which can cause hives, rashes, headaches, GI issues, blood pressure issues. Like it can really affect every system. Yeah. So we think about that. That might be something that I treat and help people work, and I do, that affects every system. But the cardiologist is like, I don't know, all your scans look clear. I'm not really sure why you're dizzy all the time and you can't stand up and your heart is racing and you have palpitations. I don't really know. Cardiology workup is negative, right? The dermatologist is like, I don't know why the antibiotics aren't really working. Um, antibiotics aren't gonna work for MCAS, right? Or I don't know why the antifungals aren't working. I don't know why these things aren't working. But, you know, we can try this, we can try that, we can try that. So now you've gone to two specialists, and now the GI physician, it's like, I don't know why you're getting diarrhea and bloating. Your colonoscopy was negative. Like you go to the hospital, get a colonoscopy, maybe get an endoscopy. Like they can't find anything. They're like, Well, you have IBS, classic, right, right? And so it's like, well, I wonder why I have IBS. Right, you know, I didn't used to have diarrhea 12 times a day, and now do I just have to live with this? Right. You know, you know, or vice versa. Yeah. We're alternating. Um, so like your specialists are stacking up, yeah. But really, those people that come to me, it's like, wait a second, you might have something like MCAST that's affecting every system. And if we can stabilize your mast cells, then we can actually usually get most of your symptoms to go away. And I've had that happen. I've I've had patients, you know, feel like, wow, I haven't been symptom-free in seven years. And, you know, stabilizing my mast cells changed my life. Yeah. Yeah. And yeah. So it can be really life-changing. And it's not to say that there can't be something else going on.

SPEAKER_04 26:38

Totally.

SPEAKER_03 26:39

One of those specialists might catch something, but then they'd be like, it's still not causing all these other things. Right. So we can't say either that just because we found the answer to most of their symptoms, that therefore they don't need the other screenings. Right. Because there could be something else going on. Our bodies are very complex. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 26:56

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 26:56

You know, during all of this, you could somehow get a mole that's like, you know, looks like melanoma. And yeah. So if you don't, you it's that's the thing is that at the end of the day, it's all about collaborating. Yes. We all have something to learn. My you know what? My patients teach me stuff. Oh, I bet. When my patients say, I know, I don't want to be like, you know, whatever. Uh um, they'll uplo upload whatever they want, you know, their own documents. They'll write a five-page explanation document. I mean, I have patients bring me binders with hundreds of patients. I have people upload two, three, four hundred pages. I mean, I gotta like balance time management. Yeah, absolutely. But oftentimes I'll learn something. You know, patients have shown me supplements, studies, whatever. So, like I can learn from anyone, even my own patient.

SPEAKER_04 27:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 27:45

Right. And like, I think sometimes not all physicians and not all PAs or nurse practitioners or whoever you're seeing, they're not all gonna be like that. But sometimes, and and again, to defend providers, I don't think it is because the providers don't care. I think it's a systemic issue. Yes. It's they're rushed, they're extremely stressed, they're burnt out, they've got a million notes to do, they've got 15 minutes, they don't have the time. And then you think they're gonna go study at night? They got to finish 30 notes. Right. And they have kids and they're trying to barely be healthy themselves and probably surviving off of caffeine. Yeah, and then they gotta go to go to bed and get up and do it again. How do you think they're gonna study your case? 100%. Like they've got 20 more the next day.

SPEAKER_04 28:25

No, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 28:25

So they're just trying to like, what do I have to make sure I do so this person isn't like missing something extremely serious? And like, you know, what's the standard of care? Like high cholesterol, let's see, do they need a statin? Okay, like I covered that base. I'll see you again. Not like we're gonna look at why you have high cholesterol. Like, you know, what's going on with your liver? Is your gut, how's your gut dysfunction? How's your body processing cholesterol? Like, they don't have time to get into all that.

SPEAKER_00 28:50

So what do you expect? Right. So it's interesting with everything that you're talking about, and something we talk about on the podcast a lot is helping people listen to their bodies more and trust what your body is telling you. Do you find you have a lot of experience? Like people realize when they're working with you, like, oh my God. Yes, I knew this. Yes, and I just didn't trust myself.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

And I think the longer people work with me, the more I see that, you know. I like the people who are a year or two in, yeah, start to realize what they need and what they don't need. They they realize, wow, this supplement makes a huge difference. Right. Maybe I have this genetic defect, and therefore I probably always need this supplement. And they'll go on and off of it, as most of us do, to see, you know, it and everyone's different, you know, it depends on personality type. And some people like supplements, some people hate them. And I don't know, everyone's different. But they'll start to see what are the things that actually work based on my plan. Um, and how do I integrate this into like a long-term life? They start to realize what is unique to their bioindividuality and what they need to do. And with that, they understand how to listen better. Like for me, I have to do this, or like, oh, this actually alcohol is horrible for me because you know, X, Y, Z. And so I now I, if I am gonna choose to drink, right, socially or whatever someone's gonna do, maybe I do need to do all these things Melanie told me to do that will help me, you know, recover quickly. Yeah. Um, and they're like, I can like you can once they try it, it's like, oh, I feel the difference. Like I said, most people believe because it worked for them, right?

SPEAKER_01 30:19

And it's a trust building process with your body too. I think, especially if you've come from like not listening and maybe ignoring certain things, or you've had a lack of trust because nothing's worked for you until now that there is that trust building moment in like time period with the success that you're giving them as a provider and listening and tuning into their bodies.

SPEAKER_03 30:39

Well, and things change, right? Yeah. Sometimes food sensitivities are off the charts and you're reacting to everything, and then we work on your gut and we heal your gut lining and we regulate your nervous system, and most of the sensitivities go away. So it's like there's a time and a place for restriction, and there's a time and a place for more freedom. And that all that also comes down to people's values, right? Yes. So some, you know, sometimes patients tell me, like, I am not willing to cut anything out because I have a history of an eating disorder. I just want you to know that right off the bat. And I'm like, okay, you know yourself. And when I tell I tell almost every patient at that new patient visit is you know your body better than anybody. You're the only one who's lived in it. Let's say someone's 35. I'm like, you literally lived in your body every single day for 35 years. You know, right? Like some people have paradoxical reactions to medications. They might take a Benadryl and it makes them hyper. Okay. So I use every single piece of data to to, and that's not something that's gonna it to think about what is this person's physiology based on this is how they've reacted to this and this and this and this, to how do I think they'll react to something I try? And that's gonna be different than the other person, even if they have the same symptoms on paper. Like the paperwork might look the same. But once we start digging into like, have you ever taken this for that or this or that? And what happens to you? And so if the patients tell me this about themselves, it's not a test, it's not like a laboratory result. It is their history and them knowing themselves and me listening, that really improves care. Yeah. And it really changes things. Like, for example, with the condition mCAS, you could have 10 people with MCAS and they're gonna react to something differently. One thing that calms somebody down and makes them feel better can make the other person react. Yeah. That's why it's so hard to treat, it's so tricky. And I think the people who get better with that the most listen to their body, trust their body, really tap in and have a provider who's really listening to them. Yeah. Because it's not cookie cutter.

SPEAKER_00 32:35

Right. I mean, when you're trying to find a fix for something and for folks who haven't experienced like a medical mystery in their body, um this may not be something you've ever thought about, but like you really do, like you have to take notes, you have to pay attention. Like, am I sleeping better? What what differences am I experiencing? Cause I think a lot of us are on autopilot so much that unless you're being really intentional about paying attention to the changes, because like I'll add a supplement and then people will be like, Oh my god, do you love it? Is it working? And I'm like, I wasn't paying attention. I don't know. Like, or I'll start multiple things at the same time, and it's just like which things working or not working. Like, I want to be smarter about and more intentional about adding those things in. But I think, like I said, most people are so on autopilot every day that like, yeah unless it's a dramatic shift, you're not noticing. Right. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:29

But and I will say, like, our society conditions us to be kind of dissociated from our bodies. Yes. Like the USA to live here and keep up with that. I mean, we're talking about midtown Atlanta, right? It's a hustle bustle. Yeah. There is a, I love Atlanta. I absolutely love the vibrancy, the culture, the people. I just, I love it. And it is that vibrancy can sometimes be like depending on, you know, there's all these little nooks of Atlanta, and every single little pocket is different, right? Buckhead versus Midtown versus Grant Park versus Reynolds Town. They're all different. Yeah. And they feel different to your nervous system, right?

SPEAKER_01 34:14

Definitely.

SPEAKER_03 34:15

So, like being in Midtown, I think it kind of a higher buzz. It's a more of a hustle, right? To survive long term in a lot of these hustle cultures, right? Which it doesn't even compare to like in New York City or whatever. That's a whole nother level. Yeah. Um, you're sometimes, depending on what your responsibilities are and what your job is, you have to live a little bit dissociated from your body. And people who have chronic illness or chronic pain or chronic symptoms, if you're always tapped in, how are you gonna function? Yeah, right. Like sometimes people will be very functional at a job and somebody would be like, Yeah, I have this kind of chronic condition, or yeah, I have chronic pain or I have this. And other people are like, What? I had no idea. You're so good at your job. And and those people are like, Well, yeah, and what do you expect me to do? Right. Like I was laying in bed all day. Like, I want to live a live my life. So I think the reason I bring it up is because, you know, there is a protective mechanism to sometimes people not noticing what's helping and what's not helping is almost because your body's slightly dissociated, because that's your body's trying to protect itself. Just like people have a lot of childhood trauma will have gaps in their memory. Yes. There's nothing wrong with their bot memory. There's nothing wrong with them. Their body's trying to protect them. Yeah. You know what I mean? So our body's really wise. But the more we can tap into what helps and what doesn't, and like have self-compassion and self-love and acceptance, I find, you know, the better it is. But you know, it's it's all a journey. Healing is not healing is not, you know, a straight track up. Um, it's not linear. That's the word I was looking for. And, you know, specifically with the mystery diagnoses and stuff like that or the complex things. Yeah. It's not. Um, what I've found is that people who have not experienced some sort of mystery or chronic illness oftentimes just don't get it. And just accepting the reality of like they just don't get it. Yeah. And that's okay. Right? I know you guys talked about this on one of your other podcasts that I was listening to the other day. Like, I think you were talking about how like there's friends who have kids and they're like, I need to fall off the map for 18 years. And then there's other ones who are like, hey, bring me, invite me dancing for their entire childhood. And I and I don't remember who said it, but somebody said, and that's okay. Right. There's two different approaches. There's different approaches to having relationships, to living your life, lifestyle. And so, but to the person who has a chronic illness or something that is like chronically bothering them or a chronic symptom, it can feel disheartening to feel misunderstood.

SPEAKER_04 36:49

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 36:50

Um, and to feel like nobody really gets this. And so it is helpful when people validate, like, yeah, I know how much extra work this takes. Like for you to have type one diabetes, how much that the extra mental load that you have that somebody else doesn't have.

unknown 37:05

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 37:05

Like it's not a quick little thing. It's it's every day for the rest of my life. I'm always going to have to be thinking about this.

SPEAKER_00 37:13

An average of 250 more decisions a day than the average person. Thank you for that fact. Yeah. It's crazy. And a lot of math.

SPEAKER_03 37:20

Right. So it's it's all that math, it's all that extra decision making, it's the extra finances of the medicine, it's the time, it's the anxiety of like when you go on a trip, like, did I bring my meds? Are things the right temperature? Where are they? What have I run out? What if the pharmacy runs out? Is my insurance going to cover the next refill? It's constant. Not to mention the way that it actually affects your body and how you feel. Yeah, right. We're just talking about the mental load. Right. That's just the mental load. And that's a great example. People don't realize how that affects them, right? Like we talk about like in relationships, there can be a one person who ha carries more of the mental load. Yeah. And it's like you're checking on is the house clean? Is the, you know, do we have the appointments? When's your next dentist appointment? When's the kids' recital? When's the kids like, you know, whatever? And that weighs on people after years. Chronic illness is a lot like that. Yeah. And the reality is you might be in a room with 50 people and you're the only one that has that mental load. And so I love specializing and working with people because I not only have I have my own things that I've had to deal with, which has taught me, right? I you learn from experience. It's easier to empathize when you've been there, done that yourself. But, you know, those people need it. And so that that's what lights me up. That's what I love doing. I love helping people feel seen, heard, validated, and then get better. And I feel like they happen together. Because if you don't have a provider who understands, like also the mental load, and what mental load can this person handle? Some people, people are in seasons where they're ready to go all in. They want to buy all the labs, they want to do all the testing, they want to make all the lifestyle changes. And then other patients are like, listen, I can barely make, I can barely survive. I am in beyond survival mode. Yeah. I can do one thing, and that's okay. Right. And that's okay because that those men, that mental load, two you said 215 decisions.

SPEAKER_04 39:06

50.

SPEAKER_03 39:07

250. 250 decisions, like that's gonna, you know, I feel like it's probably more than that.

SPEAKER_00 39:13

It could be. It depends on the day. But it's interesting too. Like, sometimes I even forget as the person who has it, and because I've been doing it for 30 years. So, like, in some ways, yes, it's second nature, but then I remember, like, oh no, that's why I'm so tired, or that's why that's so much harder for me, or that's why I can't keep up with whatever. And then like letting myself have that moment, just being like, okay, like this is just who I am in my body right now. Right. Um, and I don't have to keep up and I don't have to.

SPEAKER_03 39:44

Do you feel like you ever have to think about like self-comparison? Like, why can't I keep up or why, you know, or are you past that?

SPEAKER_00 39:53

I think I'm past like the why question. It's just reminding myself that like it's okay. Um also in my like mental spiritual health practice, like I really believe in human design. And so I also found out I'm a projector, which is a non-energy type for anyone who knows about that or is interested. And it does mean that I don't have the same kind of motors that like Savannah has. So when I hear her schedule, like that makes just hearing her schedule makes me want to take a nap. I could never do that. Like, are you a generator? Yes, I would burn out so fast and like it would show on my body. Um, so like knowing I'm a projector and I need more rest and I need like to take breaks and be in nature more than someone who's not a projector has helped me balance that too. And I think both kind of go hand in hand.

SPEAKER_03 40:44

I think that's really beautiful. Yeah. Because we need all kinds of people, right? Yeah. Ever in a business, you know, think about like a C-suite, even. You need people who are good at the finance, who are good at the big picture, who are good at the dreaming, who are good at the implementing, who are good at, you know, whatever. Think of a CPA, which businesses need versus like, you know, the CFO versus which those might overlap, but like a CEO or a marketing marketing for sure. And there's finance and the marketing people are and the thing that lights up, the thing that lights up one or the thing that somebody might be able to willing, you know, to focus on. Um, yeah, we all have different strengths, we all have different weaknesses, and they're all beautiful, like they all weave together.

SPEAKER_04 41:27

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 41:28

Um, I think what's interesting based on what you just said is like you're past that point long time ago, right? Lots of self-acceptance. However, it's not a one and done thing. No. When it's a chronic thing, it's a I have you're gonna have phases where things come up. And I've been experiencing that myself, right? So one of the things I have is like hypermobility. And so like my connective tissue, like having a connective tissue disorder. Yeah, it's not a one and done thing. No, and it does affect every system in your body and it does it affects how I react to things compared to, you know, I will, you know, because I am an I was an athlete growing up. Um, I do like to be active. I like to be in the wellness scene. I do get that, like, come what was I saying? Do you have the comparison? I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 42:15

But yeah, but like comparing to other people and can I keep up or why can't I do what they're doing?

SPEAKER_03 42:20

I feel like for me, I do always have to remind myself, like it's not a one and done thing. I wish it was. I've noticed it coming back up more with recent injuries and stuff of just like uh like and having a hard time tapping into the acceptance and compassion and self-love. Yeah, because it's an invisible thing. Nobody, most people, unless they have a trained eye. Right. Because some people can spot it, but not everyone can if they're not like a specialist in it. Um reminding myself, like this is invisible, and so this is something I deal with. So people might not get why I can't do XYZ, why this injury is taking me longer, why that one thing that happened to me caused an injury, that if it happened to 10 other people in the room, they would be fine with no injury. Yeah. And that can get frustrating, but it's like this isn't a one and done acceptance. Yeah. I've learned over the years, but that can, again, that the mental load of it all. The mental load of like, okay, now I have to do this cognitive thought process and like I have to like work on this. Is my it's my responsibility to work on, right? And other people might not even realize behind the scenes, like I'm going through another one of those phases where I have to like work through self-compassion because I have this chronic thing. True.

SPEAKER_00 43:34

Oh, absolutely. I mean, with diabetes, like I'll get halfway through a workout, then my blood sugar crashes, and like it's not just I drink a juice and come back. Like I'm I'm done. The workout is done now, and maybe I can try again tomorrow. Like, she's seen me. I take her classes all the time, and a lot of times I make it about halfway through, and then I'm sitting in the corner eating my snacks.

SPEAKER_01 43:53

Get the box, yeah. And I have like panic disorder and PTSD and stuff, so like that was one thing that I really have. To work on having self-compassion with like the panic attacks coming. And it's kind of one of those things where it's like once a train leaves the station, you gotta ride it out instead of fight it. And like I've done a lot better, like managing those things over the last years and finding what works best for me. But I still have some days where it's like I'm super stressed. I it comes down to the foundations. I didn't sleep well. I'm probably not eating the best. I'm probably not hydrated. That then triggers my nervous system and my body to be like, oh, we're gonna panic today. And then I just cancel the day. And I'm like, you know what? I'm feeling it. I'm gonna make sure I eat a good meal. I'm gonna sleep. I'm gonna watch a movie and be in my little safe space. But it is a journey and learning self-compassion.

SPEAKER_03 44:40

And someone like we all have chronic things, right? We might need more of the foundations than somebody else. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 44:47

Oh, I definitely need more sleep. Absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 44:49

But yet we're expected to live in the same society. I know. Yep. And so it's tricky. And that's why inevitably triggers are going to happen. Because it's the way it is. Right. And there's an extra cost associated with that too. Yeah. Like more money towards therapy. Right. Bringing up, thank you for sharing things that you struggle with. Yeah, absolutely. You know, anxiety, PTSD, panic disorder. Like, okay, so now you probably have to invest more money in therapy, more money into counseling, you know, whatever it is. Yeah. And that's good. That's beautiful. I love counseling. I've been in and out of it myself for like six, seven years. Love it. Changed my life. Truly.

SPEAKER_04 45:28

Changed my life.

SPEAKER_03 45:30

But I'm sure at times, because I felt this myself, um, it's like, I don't want to spend my money on this. I know. We can add up. I'd rather go spend my money on a trip to Europe or something. It's a lot of money. Yeah. It's a lot. The investment in chronic things is And then it's finding someone you're compatible with.

SPEAKER_01 45:48

Like for therapy, it's like dating.

SPEAKER_02 45:51

You know, when you said compatible with, I thought you were going to transition to the dating scene. And I was going to say, amen. I was going to say exactly.

SPEAKER_03 46:01

Because it plays into that too. Yeah. Oh, absolutely. So much. Understanding a good day versus a bad day. Understanding, you know, if your mood crashes because your blood sugar is unstable, has really nothing to do with them. And it's not because they said anything wrong, it's going to say they did anything wrong. And so it's your responsibility to take care of it. And you need somebody, I'm sure, to feel safe and loved. Yeah. Who is there for you, who's compassionate about it, who has the capacity. Yeah. Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, that's bare minimum.

SPEAKER_00 46:29

Oh, I have dated people who were like, I don't know what's going on. This is freaking me out. I'm out of here.

SPEAKER_03 46:33

And I'm like, Yeah, they're not, we just need to like cross them off.

SPEAKER_02 46:36

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 46:38

All right. So we have a couple. I know some of these questions are like fun silly. And some of them are just uh something I think our audience would be interested in. I know we talked a lot about bioindividuality. So these questions, these first two might be a little challenging. But if there were like three tests you could recommend for just like anyone off the street that you're like everyone should have these three things tested. Oh, okay. What would they be?

SPEAKER_03 47:05

Okay, well, first of all, I would say like baseline blood work, which is gonna be way more than three. Like, you know.

SPEAKER_00 47:12

That can count as one, but what's included in baseline blood work?

SPEAKER_03 47:15

Oh man. Well, if you go to your regular primary care, they're gonna do a CBC, CB, CMP, lipid panel, and maybe a TSH, maybe a hemoglobin A1C. That's pretty typical. That's what's gonna be covered by your insurance. It's cash pay labs, maybe 50, 70 bucks. It's not even expensive. But why am I gonna bring that up as the first thing? Is because that's basics. We need to look at your blood panel. We need to look at your kidney function, liver function, we need to go get your thyroid function. But what something I could really touch on with that is like primary cares will just screen a TSH, thyroid stimulating hormone. Um with the basic blood work panel I would get. It's actually not basic at all. It's like tons of tubes of blood and very extensive. I would, for example, with thyroid, instead of just doing TSH, I would do TSH plus T4 plus free T4 plus free T3, what your liver has to convert T4 to T3 for active energy. I would do reverse T3 and I would test your antibodies. So TPO antibodies and thyroglobulin antibodies. I would get a thorough thyroid workup. So, you know, think about that if we're gonna test thyroid TSH versus like that panel. Again, not a huge price difference if you're paying cash, pretty basic. It that's not even expensive. Like one of my companies for that's like 60 bucks for like a thorough thyroid panel. But insurance is, I don't know, sometimes they might deny it and then you get a big bill. So this is the whole frustrating thing. But that's like, you know, basics there. I like everyone to know what their copper is, their zinc is, histamine, because I specialize in mental health. So I want to know what's the ratio between copper, zinc, and ceruloplasm because that can affect histamine. It can it can affect how your body metabolizes estrogen, it can affect mess mass cells, which all of these things then affect PMDD. I do a lot of women's health, hormones, mental health stuff, like how they all connect. So those are pretty basic things that you can get tested really anywhere if you ask. Like zinc plasma and copper plasma. Um, there's different ways to test it. And then I would say, like, for example, with lipids, um, it's good screening to just test your lipid profile to look at LDL, HDL, total cholesterol, the ratio. But if you do have high cholesterol, and even for anybody, I like to screen it. I do more testing, like lipoprotein A, apolipoprotein B, things that actually look at cardiovascular inflammation related to high cholesterol. And then things like inflammatory markers, like set sed, um, homocysteine, different markers that actually show inflammation. So, like all of these are not going to be in like a typical basic annual screening, but in my mind, those are annual screenings. Like in Melanie's world, all that stuff is basic, basic annual screenings. And there's more to it, right? Um what else would I think somebody needs? I mean, it can it depends. I would say for the normal person, kit CBC, CMP, um, lipid panel, and then all those other things, a full thyroid panel, some minerals, you know, depending on what you have. We already know you have hypothyroidism, you know, vitamin D, vitamin B12, those are good nutrients to test in the blood. Sometimes your vitamin B12 could be off. It could be super low, or it could be high. And there's other things we need to look at, right? Like an MTHFR genetic mutation, or we need to look at an MMA marker, but you could wait on testing that to see if the result, um, how the result is. Like I look, I interpret even a CVC differently now as a functional medicine provider than I interpreted it when I was in school. Of course, there's the basics we're looking for, like anemia, is your hemoglobin low, right? And if your hemoglobin's low, do we need to make sure you don't have like a colon cancer? Or like, you know, um, we can't just say, oh, you've got low iron, you're gonna put you on an iron supplement. It's like, no, we could be missing something really serious. Let's rule that out first. Right. Let's go. Maybe you need a colonoscopy, maybe you need an ultrasound, maybe you need a CT. Let's make sure this is like a functional nutritional deficiency and not from like a bleed. Right. So, like I think why am I bringing all this up? Because you said what I didn't know we were gonna talk about labs, but I like it.

SPEAKER_00 51:22

Well, like I the idea popped in my head based on everything else we talked about. I was like, I bet you have to get excited about it.

SPEAKER_03 51:27

So um the labs, the first thing I would say is like blood work. And so we're counting all that as one, right? Okay, yeah. Basic. Well, it's funny because like function plus it's function, funny because like you know, like function health labs. Have you guys heard of it? Really? It's like super popular all over the country right now. So function health labs, uh, it's all blood work. And in my mind, it's all just basic blood work. Like people are like, this is like top of the line, extensive, like life-changing functional medicine. And I'm like, that's literally all blood work through Quest. Like that your primary care can order. Now, granted, maybe you don't have good insurance, and so it's gonna get denied. But like any of us, functional medicine provide, like, it's like, I'm not saying it's bad, it's good. I've interpreted many functional function health lab results. Like, I have patients come to me and like I got this and I still don't really know what to do. Right. Um, it's data, it's blood work, it's labs, but it's not what I think of necessarily when I think of functional medicine. I, but I will say, like, that function health panel and all these companies that are coming out are much more thorough than what you're gonna get at your primary care. But they're all you're just going to Quest or that, I pretty sure, yeah, it's Quest with function. Some of them are lab corp and it's just like regular serum blood work from your blood. They're not like actual functional. It's just, again, it's a different way of thinking about the same thing. Yeah. Like if you go to a cardiologist, they might test, you know, a lot of extensive blood markers for a lipid panel versus just cholesterol. They're gonna start looking at all these other things. But if you go to function or like a functional health practitioner, we might order that stuff right off the bat. Right. Even if we don't even know if your cholesterol is off. But a lot of times you're gonna be paying cash because that's not necessarily clinically indicated yet if we don't know if you have high cholesterol, insurance might deny it. But some people are like, I don't really care. I don't want to go back a thousand times. Let's just do it now. Yeah, get it. And then we'll know. Or they have a family history of high lipoprotein A and their mom and dad are already on medications and they're like, I don't want to develop heart, you know, I want to know. Um, so I would say the first thing is blood work, which is gonna be bioindividual, but you can also go to companies like myself. I sell lots of lab panels um through my company, Astoria Wellness, but there's also lots of companies out there where you could just go buy a lab panel. Um, the next thing I would say, just for the general population, I'd probably say a stool test. And there's a lot of different companies I use, but I love, I like that, I like uh, well, I won't get into all the different labs, but I love stool tests because it gives me an idea of what's going on with your microbiome, what's going on? Do you have bacterial overgrowth? Does it indicate maybe you have um small intestinal bacterial overgrowth? Do I need to go do a breath test for SIBO? That affects how I treat you. Do you have any parasites? Do you have markers that are high that are going to be red flag markers? Like, do you have blood in your stol? That's a red flag. Do you have cow protectin high? That can be a red flag, right? That can indicate an inflammatory bowel disease, like Crohn's or all sort of colitis. Um, and it also shows like IgA markers and different markers for inflammation. It might indicate whether or not I think it's worth it to do food sensitivity testing. Because as a mental health practitioner, I have to weigh the risk versus benefit of telling of telling someone you're sensitive to 25 foods. That can be a real trigger. So I have to think, how worth it is it? What's this person's capacity? Do they had have they had an eating disorder? Is restriction gonna because if your mental health goes down, it's like nothing else is really gonna matter. And so even if you are sensitive, it might not be worth even finding out because it could make things worse. Right. Yeah. Um, but and and some people it's life-changing. It's like literally, oh, you're sensitive to this one thing, cut it out, everything goes away. And they're like, oh my gosh, I'm healed. Now I just don't have to eat this. Great. Yeah, I can handle that. Yeah. Um, so yeah, stool testing is wonderful. I'll give you an example just because I think GLPs are super popular. Um, acromantia is a um bacteria in the gut that if that's non-existent, um, and some people stool test it shows up as like non-detectable. Those people oftentimes have blood sugar issues and they are and maybe won't produce as much GLP one. I found in my clinical practice anecdotally, when I when I work on people's guts, help them heal their gut, of course I'm doing a bunch of things, right? Not just this. If I put those people on acromancia, they oftentimes again, it's hard to say because we're doing many things at once, but they oftentimes clinically their blood sugar regulation improves. I've been able to get pre-diabetes to go from, you know, some people to be pre-diabetic to in a normal, yeah, you know, their insulin. And I'm even tracking blood sugar with CGMs and everything, and it it really improves. Yeah. And that's how would I ever know that? I mean, it tests their stool. You cannot magically know someone's acromancy is low. Because just because you have blood sugar regulation does not mean you have low acromancia.

SPEAKER_04 56:23

Right.

SPEAKER_03 56:24

Plenty of people have blood sugar issues that when I test them, have off-the-charts acromancia where it's too high. And so that person I would never put on it because actually it's dangerous. That's a sub there are some things that shows it can possibly cause neurological issues if you put yourself on acromancia when you don't need it. Yeah. And so testing is really cool because it keeps people safe. With that, and you know, there's some things that it's like you don't really need testing to go on. Right. And then, you know, like for nutrients, for example, KAD and E are all fat soluble. So I test those before I put people on then. Because fat-soluble, you can, it's dangerous if you oversupplement. Versus like a water-soluble vitamin, you'll notice when you take water soluble vitamins, like a bunch of B vitamins, your urine changes colors because your body can't absorb it. It's too much. You're just gonna pee it out. Yeah, fat soluble, it will be stored and can end up hurting you. Yeah, right. And so, you know, I don't ever put somebody on vitamin D if I don't test their vitamin D level because it's fat soluble.

SPEAKER_00 57:20

So I didn't realize that with fat-soluble. Like I thought it was just like, oh, I need to take this with peanut butter.

SPEAKER_03 57:27

Not that it could like an overdose store up in the street. Yeah, and especially in the wellness industry where people get really excited and they take mega doses of things. You know, people have injured themselves. Yeah, they really have. I've seen it. And so that's the other thing about the wellness industry is they don't always talk about these things. Um, so yeah, I would say like blood work, basic blood work, and then stool test. If I had to pick two, and then I mean, there's thousands of tests out there. So for me, usually the third test, I don't know, the uh one I really like, you know, and we we were chatting about this earlier when we took a break, but um the like I love uh the total toxin test with vibrant health, which looks at it's a combination test. You can test each of these individually, and so see, I'm finding a way to make it weigh more than three.

SPEAKER_00 58:18

You said three, and I'm like, how can I say how can I turn this into a dozen?

SPEAKER_03 58:23

So total toxin actually test environmental toxins, things like pesticides, BPA, plastics, all sorts of things like that.

SPEAKER_04 58:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 58:32

And then the mycotoxin test tests the toxins from molds, which, you know, we can have mold toxicity. There's mold, there's always gonna be mold in the environment and in our world, right? Some of the life-changing medications we're very grateful to science for were created from molds. Yeah. So it's not that all molds are bad, but everything, you know, there are mycotoxins produced by some molds can make people severely ill. And even develop something called systemic inflammatory response syndrome, which I have to save for another day. But that total toxin test, it's by vibrant health, it's a called total toxin test. It has the environmental toxins, the mycotoxins, and then it has heavy metals. Yeah. Which I love treating heavy metals because I usually see a huge difference. I have had people reverse their high blood pressure and completely calm off blood pressure medication just from treating their heavy metals, which is not even that hard. Yeah. I usually treat it with supplements. Oh, it's pretty basic. Wow. Yeah. It's really not even that hard. I pick a binder that works for that specific heavy metal. Yeah. Right? Like there, there's these binders, right? Like a charcoal is a binder, but there's so many different out there. Yeah. And everyone's case by case, right? Because I have to make sure they're ready for it. I have to make sure their detox pathways are open. What's their kidney function? What's their liver function? Is there contraindication? Binders can bind to some medications and make them ineffective, which is very problematic. Let's say you have a virus that you take a medication for every day. You better not take that binder at the same time as your medication because they're gonna like. So again, there it there is a there, but it's in my opinion, treating heavy metals is fairly simple. It doesn't stress patients out that much. If they're ready for it, it's like, all right, we're gonna do this every single day for three to six months and retest. And then sometimes it really changes their life. Like I I've reversed people's, I had somebody who had like a skin disorder for like 18 years, and she'd done all the gut healing and all sorts of stuff. She had chronic fungal issues. And I think after a year of detoxing, because detoxing isn't fast, unfortunately, especially if it's stored in your fat and heavy metals, because a lot of toxins are um lipophilic, meaning they like fat, which is good. It's our body protecting us, right? It's actually your body's trying to keep the heavy metals and fat instead of your organs. We'd rather that. Right, right. So again, all these things, it's like the body knows what it's doing, it's just trying to survive in a toxic world. Yeah. But ultimately, we'd prefer to get it out. I mean, I have people's, if we want to talk about aesthetics, I have people who have a lot of cellulite and they're very upset about it. And we test toxins and I find toxins that can be like correlated to like causing lymphatic issues, and really their cellulite isn't from fat, it's from their lymphatic system being congested. So if we work on lymphatics and detox and detoxing their specific things, they'll come back to me and be like, oh my gosh, my cellulite's gone.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:17

That's wild. I love that.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:18

And so I'm like, I do aesthetics in a natural way. Yeah. Now, if people want like real aesthetics, I gotta find my med spa friends. Like, yeah, I mean, I will say, like, going from acne rash skin that you feel completely self-conscious into vibrant, glowing skin, to my in my mind, all naturally in my mind, that is aesthetics. Yeah, yeah, it is. But like genes, we know what I mean, like with all the injectables and stuff like that. That's a different category.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:45

So yeah, I would say comprehensive blood work. You can get it at your primary care, you can have a conversation with them, and usually have to ask and advocate for yourself. And then the question is, how are they gonna interpret it? Because the same two providers can interpret the same data differently. And then a stole test. Um, there's a many different companies that I like, um, like three or four top that I like. And then I brought up the total toxic because it really looks at like a wide variety of toxins that can be really enlightening. And it can actually give a lot of answers. And for me, over the years, treating these toxins oftentimes is the missing link, especially for the people who are like, I'm doing everything right. Right, yeah. You know, it's like, well, you can't just like wish your way or die, healthy eat your way out of like gadolinium that you got injected to you, or like, you know, there's all sorts of things. There's thallium is in a lot of our soil. A lot a lot of kale in the US has thallium in it, which is a heavy metal, and that can cause like neurotoxicity and like tingling sensations. There's all sorts of different things.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:47

Fascinating.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:47

It is fascinating.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:48

Yeah. No, I want to have all of them done.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:50

I just have I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:53

Okay. My next question for you is I know you love trying all the things. So I want to one, the weirdest thing you've ever tried in the name of wellness, and the other one would just be like your latest new thing that you've tried and loved.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:07

Oh, okay. Well, so the weirdest thing that I think will be fun for listeners and people who are watching is probably like a coffee enema. Yeah. So, you know, people do enemas and they drip coffee to their butt.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:22

Did you feel so energized afterwards?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:24

I did. Yeah. I felt great. This is not me medically advising this for anybody watching it. I'm a human who can try my own wellness. Yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:33

Not medical advice.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:34

There's lots of lots of things out there. We I could go on about this for a long time, but I think that's probably like, you know, the if somebody's listening, like, what in the world? Yeah, literally, you're dripping coffee into your butt like an enema. Um the wellness world, you know, especially out there in Austin, Texas, they got lots of things going on. So many ideas. Yeah. So I love it.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:57

I feel like we've talked about coffee enemas maybe.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:59

It came up.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:00

I think maybe with the chiropractor, which we haven't shared yet. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:03

But yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:05

That was the craze like 15 years ago. I feel like I heard about coffee enemas all the time. But yeah. 10, 15, yeah. Yeah. Crazy. And what's the next question? What's the like the newest thing you've tried and loved?

SPEAKER_02 1:04:18

Oh. Have I tried anything new lately?

SPEAKER_00 1:04:21

I mean, this could be even like I know you do IVs sometimes.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:24

Yeah, that's not new.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:25

Um, but is there anything new in the IVs? What? Is there anything new in the IVs? No.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:30

I'd say I do less new IVs lately. I've I I think I I probably do a little less now than I used to. Yeah. Depends on access too, right? I've I've worked at some pretty cool places. I worked at a place in Texas that had like everything under the sun, everything at my fingertips. Right. It's like a big wellness place with like, you know, everybody in there is trying coffee animals. Like it's like the culture. Yeah. Yeah. Um, and that's just the tip of the iceberg. I mean, let's talk about things up your butt, like endless suppositories. I mean, there's like a fridge full of suppositories you can do. Right. Which work. It's great, right? Like, like, uh, like, for example, like a glutathione suppository. It's like gonna glutathione's your master and oxidant of your liver. Drinking alcohol drops your glutathione. Most people need more glutathione for many different reasons. Even taking Tylenol drops your glutathione. So if you do like a suppository of glutathione, it's gonna go to your bloodstream and it's very effective. Yeah. Again, talk with your provider if you're listening to today. There's definitely no like evidence-based studies for the genomus.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:37

I heard something the other day, which again, take this with a grain of salt. It was not um necessarily a medical professional, it might have been. But they're talking about like cannabinoid receptors in your vagina, and but that it like helps with inflammation throughout your whole body because of like the way it's set up. So, like, I'm sure also this there's lots of vaginal suppositories you can do too.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:00

Compounded medications and things over the counter. There's all sorts of stuff. I mean, it's kind of like an endless thing. So I I definitely think I used to try more cutting edge IBs when I lived in Austin, Texas. Okay. I'm not saying they don't exist and it's like it's just, you know, that's like the biohacking capital. And that was definitely like the most cutting edge clinic that I worked at. I'm pro and educated on a lot of that stuff. Um, I obviously, so I have my own functional medicine clinic here where I see patients in Georgia and Florida, but it I'm I'm pretty small. I'm more concierish, so I might refer out for like extra things. Like I want you to go get ozone IV, which is like a whole thing or whatever. That'd be, I don't offer those services yet. Maybe I will one day. But yeah, I'd have to think. This is a good question. What is the thing that I've tried recently that I loved? You know, I might have to think on that. Okay. I don't know the circle back. Yeah. I don't know the answer. I don't know.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:57

The post once she texts it to me.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:01

So that will okay. Yeah. I mean, I'm all about lasers for like neuro rehab. Oh, interesting.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:08

Yeah, aesthetics. Okay, tongue.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:11

Yeah, I'm like, I could go down so many rabbit holes. Because I was a woman's health PA. So I've been an OBGYN, I've done thousands of pelvic exams and pap smears and all sorts of stuff. So you said vagina. I was like, we could really go down a rabbit hole here. I'm like, there's so many. I'm like, huh, and I I get lost excited about it. So I'm like, hmm, stay on topic. But what have I actually been doing? I think like that what I put my energy into personally is things that address musculoskeletal and like neuro rehab and stuff like that, just with the hypermobility. I'm always having something I'm having to deal with because the way that the hypermobility affects like the nervous system. And like it's your nervous system has to work harder even to hold your body up and to respond to the stimuli of the world. And so I'm always curious about that. I recently connected with a um chiropractor here in Atlanta, and he's also a functional medicine nurse practitioner who uses lasers for neurorehab. Um, and they put like targeted lasers in different parts of your brain or on your body to help neuro rehab. He was just telling me yesterday about somebody he got um to go from who had had a TBI and went from being unable to speak to coming to the clinic and doing their like process of treatment and within four days was able to speak again. Wow. Wow. Yeah. And a lot of these people have been, you know, they're they're finding, so they're finding functional neurology, we'll call it, because nothing has worked for their chronic neurosymptoms. It's similar to functional medicine, which is why we're always connected, right? Actually, that clinic in Texas I used to work at, um, we had a functional neurologist who worked on site and she that she has, she's um practicing now in Austin, Texas, and she's truly like changed so many people's lives. That's incredible. Um, by addressing, you know, chronic symptoms things by really cool off the wall stuff, right? And I think for her, if she heard this, she'd be like, it's all basic. Like it all comes back to foundations and your body feeling safe. Like she very much values community and safety. And but there are, you know, she's so smart and has so much extra education that I think sometimes people forget how much they know and like want to tell people. Um, and so she would use lasers and stuff to like help people, like, and and that can improve mental health drastically and stop panic attacks that people have been in panic, you know, treatment for panic attacks for years and nothing's worked. And now they've got a laser on their brain that's like you know, whatever. I'd have to let them speak on that. I'm not an expert in like neuro rehab, yeah. Um, but yeah, it's really cool. I've tried I've done all sorts of things, hyperbaric chambers. I, you know, I you know, I've put methylene IV, methylene glue IVs in my arm, like all sorts of different things, but yeah, it's fun. I like it. Yeah, I love that. We like to be guinea pigs too. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's that's the funny thing. I say I I get a little nervous talking about this because I know this is gonna be public, and I'm like, I might let myself be a guinea pig, but I don't I try not like I'm not saying that I'm advising everyone to do this. Yes, and I think we all have our own autonomy.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:22

No, and you've made such a good point. I think even with the supplements and like the wellness trends and stuff, to just be like, oh, I hear this and whatever, but it is so important, like the ones that I just started taking after getting my hormones tested, like it was after getting tested and speaking to a medical professional that was like these could be a natural way to help with these things. And then I got my photo done.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:44

Well, even in like the functional space, right?

SPEAKER_01 1:10:46

So, like professional is key.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:48

Yeah. It is, and it depends, you know, are they an expert in what they're doing? Like, don't come to me for neurorehab. I'm not gonna like I don't have training in that, but I I am aware of it. I know how to screen for it, just like I know how, you know. Um, but like even in the functional alternative holistic space, right? We'll do like super high dose vitamin C IVs, which Western medicine would be like, that's useless or whatever. So there's a lot of research to show that vitamin CIVs can be helpful. Like it's what, you know, but even that for some people, it's great. But uh, I was just talking to a patient yesterday about this. Um, like super high dose can be extremely dangerous if we don't know your G6 PD level. So I'm like, you can't just go get like 25, 50 grams of IV, you know, vitamin C, not to mention that most people would not be ready for that. It could cause severe GI distress, their detox pathase might not be open. But like you have to know what, like, is that a risk of causing hemolysis, which is extremely dangerous? Um, but even at a lower dose, right? Like you just go to like a like a local little IV clinic. For some people, vitamin C can trigger histamines, and now they're getting a rash and feel horrible, and they're like, I wanted to feel better and I feel worse.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:57

Yeah, it's a great point.

SPEAKER_03 1:11:59

You know, so uh everybody it really is everyone is bioindividual. But yeah, yeah, maybe my answer to the question is like it's not necessarily new to me, but I recently connected with some people in Atlanta. Yeah. And that was exciting for me because my only connection with like neuro rehab has been in Texas and Florida. I'm licensed to practice medicine in all three of those states. Um, and I'm still learning about Atlanta, right? Um, even though I did practice here years ago at a clinic in town, my approach to medicine has completely changed since then. Uh or not completely, because it was functional medicine. It was here, you know, I practiced functional medicine. I think it just you're you learn and you change. And, you know, going to another clinic and working with other providers and going to more courses and seeing more patients. At the end of the day, the patients are what teaches you, not them coming in and teaching you what to do, learning, watching the people respond, seeing how people respond, seeing like I know that the evidence shows to start at this dose, but even let's say I'm gonna give a psych med, if I give a baby micro dose, actually that could work great. And now we don't have the issues of weight gain and low libido and you know, all this other stuff. So it's off label and CVS won't make it, but I'm gonna compound it in like a smaller dose with the patient's consent and them understanding and la la la, all that stuff. Right. But you know, there's you learn that from experience, right? Or like people tapering off psych meds, like that looks different on everybody, yeah, right. And it could people can have a poor reaction and feel like they're never able to taper because they didn't do it slow enough. Right, right. And you learn that with experience, right? So, anyways, all that being said, I look forward to continuing to connect with all the wellness gurus, all the coaches, therapists, nutritionists. Like I love every educational I like it when people are in the wellness space, even when they have no formal training and they're just interested, all the way to like I've got a PhD, MD, extra training, and I'm going back for more learning and I'm at Mory. I think we all belong and we all just need to know, like, hopefully, including myself, like where our place and like like I need to know when I get I need to get a specialist involved who has much more training than me, like a board certified like physician who like has done like you know, multiple residencies and fellowships. Like I can't be naive. Absolutely, yeah. I love that.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:21

So we like to end on one final question, and I'm sure it was in the list that you just gave us, but um at Softcore Wellness, we believe wellness needs to fit into your life. Um, and so we approach it a little bit softer, right? So it doesn't necessarily mean like only doing really gentle yoga and taking naps all day, although we love that.

SPEAKER_05 1:14:42

I love a nap.

SPEAKER_00 1:14:43

Softness to us just means it fits and you can do it, and it's not hardcore. Um, so what is your current softest wellness practice?

SPEAKER_03 1:14:51

Yeah. I think for me it's it's in to this kind of piggybacks off what I was just talking about, probably because I just love the sun. I'm from Florida, I'm a Florida girl. My logo for my business is a shell, which has a lot of yeah, it's a Nautilus shell, and it's very much like there's a lot of symbolism, and I could go on about that forever. Um, but I love so much of my branding, my company and everything comes to me because it's all based on nature, right? The logo being a shell, the colors being water, it being like sand. I think so much of that is for me my favorite way to heal. Like, even no, I'm sitting here and telling you, like, I love all the little tools and I love a little, I love a spa, I love all that stuff, I love all that. Like at the end of the day, my favorite thing is actually just walking on the beach and just like being on the earth and being in the sand. And so if I'm in Florida, because I'm in Florida and Georgia, if I'm in Florida, it's literally walk on the beach or like sit on the sand and play with shells, like the beach, like in Daytona and Norman Beach, like the areas that I'm from, there's a lot of different shells, and you can just like sort through and feel the shells. Um, and then like in in Atlanta, there is lots of little nature spots here. And so for me, it's being in nature, like my soft wellness thing that I love that brings me so much joy, makes me happy. If it's a sunny day and I can be in nature, like be near the Chattahoochee, go on a walk through Piedmont Park, um, listen to the water running. To me, like if I could like my epitome of happiness is being my running water. It's a creek in Georgia and it's the ocean in Florida. You know, I just I love it. Nothing can beat that. I'll I'll take that over a a day at a wellness thing, unless it's cold and rainy, then I gotta go to the wellness place. I take that a sunny day with nature is gonna talk my and it is it's great because it is soft, right? It costs usually costs nothing. It's just like you're just there. Unless you're in Atlanta, you have to pay to go to the beach because you're not in Florida. Right. Um, but in Atlanta, there's so many good places where you can beautiful running water um not far from the city, right? A quick drive or Uber.

SPEAKER_00 1:17:00

There's so many waterfalls. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:17:02

Yeah, or even Piedmont Park. You can walk right over, there's water there. You can see the sun, you can put your feet in the grass or sit on the grass. So that's definitely my favorite thing. I was thinking more about like if you can't go in nature, right? It's the time of the year the weather's been pretty crappy in Atlanta. Crappy, in my opinion, it's all subjective. I don't like the cold winter. Um seasons are part of life, though. Um, I think for me, another thing that's like a soft way that I like tap into my body and actually love myself is I get overstimulated a lot. I'm neurodivergent, we haven't even talked about that, but I'm like super neurodivergent. I get really overstimulated. Um is just actually intentionally doing something really slowly. So like I'll go over to the kitchen and I'm like, I'm like kind of like really amped up. Maybe I'm anxious about something or something I have to do, and I'm like, I'm feeling my body like, oh, I can feel my stress hormones. Oh my god, this isn't good. If I literally start to wash the dishes and just slowly, it's like I'm forcing my almost to like go in slow motion. I'm gonna be in the shower and I'll be kind of like anxious, and I'm like, oh my gosh, gotta get the shower, I gotta go get ready, I have to go to this next thing. I'm like, hang on a second. I can like slowly massage my own scalp. Of like, I don't have to wash my hair fast. Yeah, yeah. Like this is another couple minutes. Yeah, I love that. I'll notice that'll regulate my nervous system and it makes me feel more in control of my body, which autonomy is important to me. And so I'll feel like, okay, like, you know, and then I'll notice it's gonna calm down a little bit. Yeah, it's free, it's easy, you can literally do it anywhere. Even if you can't go in the go to the creek, you can't drive, you can't get an Uber, you can just be in your house. You could have like, I don't know if you guys have ever heard of this chronic illness. People sometimes talk about couch days or whatever. You could be on a couch day or you could be in a Netflix chill day and still be anxious. Yeah, no, put your sandwich together, slow motion, and just listen to a song. It can really feel like self-love of like, I'm here, I don't have to go anywhere, I don't have to rush. I'll find myself rushing, and I'm like, why am I rushing? Yeah, yeah. Like it's because I was late to something last night, and now I'm like, oh, I gotta rush, and it's wait a second. Like, nobody's rushing me as I put this sandwich together from my Gilmer Girls episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:19

I had a startling Gilmer girls.

SPEAKER_03 1:19:21

I love Gilmer Girls.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:22

Right.

SPEAKER_02 1:19:23

I feel like it matches the vibe. That's a great point.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:26

Yeah, I love that. I want to do that more. I also get overstimulated, so I understand. Thank you so much for being here today. I feel like I learned I learned so much, and I want to get all the tests done.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:39

I loved it.

SPEAKER_00 1:19:40

Yeah, so we end every episode by in chorus saying, in softness we thrive. Thank you for listening to Softcore Wellness. We'd like to thank our team at Focal Point Narrative, Soul Flow Studios, the Union Fit Hub, Stella at Star Medals in West Midtown, Atlanta, Georgia. And don't forget to like and subscribe on YouTube and anywhere else that you listen.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:07

You can find us on our socials at WeAre Softcore Wellness. Thanks for tuning in and we'll catch you next time.