Specializing in Complex Pediatric Cases as a Functional Nurse: Danielle’s Story

This episode is brought to you by Functional Nurse Academy

Melissa is joined by functional nurse Danielle Friend, who shares how her children’s complex health challenges led her to uncover the root causes of neuroinflammation and pursue a career in functional medicine. Together, they explore how immune dysfunction, toxicity, nutrient deficiencies, and gut imbalances contribute to chronic childhood conditions that are often misunderstood or misdiagnosed. Danielle walks through practical, evidence-informed strategies she uses in her practice, including circadian rhythm support, targeted nutrition, and detoxification. This is a powerful and hope-filled conversation for parents and practitioners seeking deeper answers beyond symptom management.

Danielle’s practice

www.daniellefriend.com

 Danielle’contact 

support@daniellefriend.com

• Interested in becoming a functional medicine nurse?  Join Melissa live at the next webinar www.functionalnurseacademy.com/webinar-registration
• Learn more about the Functional Nurse Academy https://www.functionalnurseacademy.com

Functional medicine training for all other healthcare specialties and health and wellness coaches:

• https://www.christianfma.com

This show is also syndicated every Tuesday at 10am EST on The Nurses Report on America Out Loud Talk Radio 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:03

Hello, and welcome to the Functional Nurse Academy podcast. This is your host, Melissa Schreibvetter, owner and founder of the Functional Nurse Academy. Welcome everyone. I am so happy to be here with you all, and I have a topic and a guest today that I think is just going to be able to help so many people because, as we all know, America is struggling with a chronic disease crisis, and we've never seen children this sick before. So I am so honored to be joined today by one of the Functional Nurse Academy graduates. Her name is Danielle Friend, and she is specializing in complex pediatric cases, which is what we so need right now. She is a master prepared registered nurse, board certified functional wellness practitioner, and she specializes in conditions such as PANS, pandas, ADHD, autoimmune disorders, chronic inflammation, metabolic dysfunction, so many areas of expertise. And she is the founder of Friend Functional Wellness. She blends advanced functional testing with holistic protocols and practical education to support families who feel stuck, dismissed, or overwhelmed by traditional medicine. Her work is deeply personal, rooted in her journey as a mother to multiple children with autoimmune conditions, brain inflammation, chronic health challenges. And she is very passionate in this area. Welcome, Danielle. So great to have you here. I'm excited to be here. Yes, I get asked frequently about referrals for functional nurses that are specializing in pediatrics, because as you know, all of these pediatric conditions, especially the neuropsychiatric conditions, these families are not being served well in the system. So I'm so glad that you have really like used your experience to take up this work. But I did want to ask you, because I know a lot of our listeners are wondering, you know, what exactly is this like neuroinflammation that we're hearing about?

SPEAKER_00 2:27

Well, neuroinflammation is when the brain is triggered by an activated immune system and it causes the brain to be inflamed. And so um a lot of times people think that it could be like a mental illness or like a psychological psychological imbalance, but truly it's just the immune system creating chaos in the brain and the signaling pathways. And then it's a psych a physiological process that kind of sometimes look like bad behavior in kids.

SPEAKER_01 2:57

Yes. And you know, I remember when I was a kid, and and and again, I I do, I'm I'm like, I don't want to reveal my age, but maybe I will. But anyway, when I was born in the 80s, the mid-80s, but and and I do know that there is a factor of we are diagnosing more, but we know that this explosion of these behavioral disorders and other chronic disorders in children, it has significantly increased. It's not just like being diagnosed more. But I wanted to ask you, so um, what do you think is causable? What do you think is causing all of this?

SPEAKER_00 3:36

So I think it's a variety of different things. Um there is some predisposed genetic kids that are predisposed to developing these conditions, you know, there's some genetic triggers that, you know, may or may not manifest in children depending on, you know, how their life goes. Um there's also um, I believe it's, you know, there's always the big debate against um, you know, is it nature versus nurture? And I kind of always say that it's both, you know, because the um, like I said, you have the uh opportunity for things to get expressed that may develop. And then what triggers that is, you know, do you have some kind of um virus that may bring it out in kids or even in adults? Do you have some kind of mold or mycotoxin exposure, which is interesting because a lot of people don't even realize that that's a thing. It's like an invisible thing that can affect children. Um and it sends them into, you know, like they may have anxiety, they may feel like they're have OCD, even some autism spectrum um symptoms can be traced back to mold and mycotoxin. So a mycotoxin is actually like the um the uh toxin that is released by the mold and then it disrupts the um nervous system. So um other infections like Lyme disease, um, Bartonella, and Babesia, you know, people get bit by a tick or they know it or they don't know it sometimes, and it can be a silent um infection that crosses the blood-brain barrier and causes all kinds of symptoms in kids. A big one that is really overlooked is uh leaky gut or gut imbalances. And so uh this is one of the major causes in terms of children that is really not explored in the traditional medical realm. Um, and they can develop food sensitivities if they have a leaky gut. So one day they might be eating a banana and they're perfectly fine, and then the next day now they've all of a sudden got some kind of sensitivity and you know, they're reacting to different foods. And, you know, um they could go on and develop something we called mast cell activation syndrome, which is when your body just starts to get overloaded and will respond to everything, you know. Some kids can even respond to, you know, certain um sounds and lights and touch. It's just, you know, their body gets so stressed that it stays in this fight or fight. So, really, actually, in the um, in the fight, you know, they weren't always on the um guard to fight because they're being bombarded by things in pollution and you know, microplastics and all the other things, environmental toxins. So, um, and one thing that we really don't even kind of consider is like trauma. You know, there's a lot of research coming about how trauma affects you and affects kids. And when you have especially long-term childhood trauma, it can pair up with your physiological symptoms you're having. And then now your neurosystem is just really inflamed and and you know, it just doesn't calm down ever. So you start seeing these um behavioral things in kids. And it's interesting because uh, you know, in an adult, you might see, you know, some brain fog, some chronic fatigue, low motivation, a little bit of irritability. But once you start seeing it in a kid, it you know, changes completely. You know, you get um all kinds of different symptoms that are overlooked and just like dismissed as behavior.

SPEAKER_01 6:58

And it really is, it's so multifactorial, guys. And I love that you mentioned mold. And I'm like like so many of the things that you mentioned: mold, Lyme disease, cell activation. I'm like, oh yeah, I had all of those things, you know. But these are real conditions that people are affected by. But again, we understand as functional medicine nurses that there is on average a 17-year time lag between when we discover something in the scientific literature to when that actually can get implemented into the standard of care and things like that. And I was so excited when I saw this published case study of a little boy who was in remission from all of his autism symptoms after he was treated for mycotoxins. We know that with the studies of epigenetics, if you ever are going to a provider and the provider's like, oh, it's just genetic, you can't do anything about it. Not true. So we have studied this extensively. We know that genetics are about 25%. There may be a genetic susceptibility, but something must turn turn on that genetic factor, you know, the um genetics are the gun, the environment is the trigger. So we know over 75% of these chronic disease processes are environmental. And unfortunately, um, this is why these families are just suffering so much because our conventional system is not set up to address root causes. So could you tell me? And and I think that this is I when I saw what you were doing, so Danielle posted in the uh Functional Nurse Academy Facebook group where you put together this like wonderful flyer explaining exactly what you do and how you're able to help work in collaboration with healthcare providers and your specialties. And I was like, oh, I've got to have you on the show because so many people need this service and it's gonna help so many families. But can you tell us a little bit about, you know, with these severe behavioral disorders or the neuropsychiatric and things like that going on with children, you know, what is the go-to standard of care? For an example, um, something like ADHD or PANS. Like how would how would those conditions usually be addressed in the conventional system?

SPEAKER_00 9:32

So I was just as I was listening to you speak about um how like how long it takes to get, you know, um traditional medicine to recognize certain things and start treating them, you know, appropriately. Um it makes me think of my uh son. I have a 33-year-old son who was diagnosed as ADHD, then having anxiety, then bipolar, all by the age of nine. And he was actually um I went sent to a behavioral psych ward because he was talking about killing himself and he was very um distressed and um destructive and angry, and we never really could, you know, figure out what was going on with him because it's not like his environment was an you know something that would provoke these things. And so um the go-to then, and and actually still is the go-to now, all of these years later, is to put them on psychiatric medications and give them medicines for ADHD and you know, have them go to therapy and you know, tell the parents they need to discipline more and they have to have more boundaries and you know, um, and that, and even if the same with pans. And and unfortunately, um I pandas and pans are not even hardly recognized in your major healthcare systems. You know, um, when I when my daughter was hospitalized and I mentioned pandas, you know, uh she was diagnosed with pandas, they told me that's not real. And this was just like three years ago, you know, and there's so much research that shows that it is real. And I was really kind of hoping that, you know, one of the side effects of COVID may being that people are seeing that, you know, COVID has triggered long COVID, that they would start to realize that other infections also are being triggered in children, you know, and that the research would start to, you know, um catch up to where we are in terms of, you know, seeing that it's a holistic problem and it even affects kids. But it seems like they just kind of push it off to behavioral or parenting or something they can fix with medications, uh, which is not always the case.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

Yeah. And you know, what just irks me so much is and and and with children, oh my goodness, like seeing a suffering child, especially with these issues that are so misunderstood, is that the medical system is treating these symptoms of the neuroinflammation. I cannot tell you how many times I have seen this, where these, and I'm not, I would never shame a parent for using a medication therapy because again, you know, there may be a time and place for certain things, risk versus benefit analysis and whatnot. But I see so many of these pediatricians and other physicians go straight to prescribing a drug and there's no conversation about the gut health, your micronutrient status. They don't even recognize that there's neuroinflammation and there's so much research out there. And again, um, you know, I think so many of these parents, they're so overwhelmed. They don't know what to do, they may have limited resources, but then also, you know, what the dietary intake is also really important, you know. Um, you know, when we have these foods that are really high in processed food intake, high in synthetic chemicals, petroleum-based food dyes, and all these other things, these are all things that further increase inflammation. And um, I also, you know, it also reminds me so much of what I went through with Lyme disease, which I, you know, and I like thank the Lord all the time for this. Because I I'm healed from this to the point where I was like, yeah, let's have back-to-back babies. It's fine, you know? And I think back to how miserable I felt. And I I know that people that have this condition, it's the same type of gaslighting for these families with, you know, pans and pandas, where so much of the medical community doesn't recognize it's a real thing. So people go without treatment and suffer. And I also know I have a lot of people that are probably thinking, what is pans and pandas? So what what is that, what does that stand for? And like what are the uh what are the symptoms associated with that? Uh okay.

SPEAKER_00 13:54

So pandas is or well, pans is pediatric, acute, neuropsychiatric um onset of like uh, you know, the inflammation. And so if you say pandas, then that is just because it is, it was um triggered by strep, a strep infection. So, and so many kids get strep, you know. My daughter had strep so many times, you know, and then sometimes we've been told, oh, she doesn't have strep because her throat's not sore and she doesn't, you know, and then she ended up getting scarlet fever and you know, multiple things down the road. So uh pandas is just something that is is triggered by strep infection. Uh, and then it causes a sudden onset of OCD. Uh, you can have rage, you know, some food restrictions, developmental regression. Uh, I remember when this kind of started happening with my daughter um severely. So a little bit about, you know, my son being diagnosed originally with some bipolar ADHD, you know, and so all his life growing up, he um has been, we've looked at it as like a mental health condition, you know, because mental health really hasn't gotten a look at a functional aspect until recently in, you know, functional medicine. And so um he he's been on multiple medications and things. So when my daughter first decided um looked like she was starting to have symptoms, the first thing I thought was she's got bipolar. It's the same thing that's happened to my son, you know, and so I took her to counseling and I, you know, took her to multiple doctors and they started her on anxiety medication and she's like five and six years old, you know. And at the time I didn't know any better because I um had a son that was going through the same thing. And I, you know, I wasn't in the medical field at the time, and I was just one of those parents that was, you know, thought the doctor knew everything that they, you know, said they knew. And I just led, you know, blindly followed the doctors and everything. So um, but I kept, she kept having other symptoms and I just kept taking her back to the doctor and taking her back to the doctor, and they would just be like, oh, she has, you know, seasonal allergies, and oh, she has, you know, different things. And actually she was born with um sepsis. So I really kind of think it it started there and it just kind of progressed as our years went by, you know. And one of the things that is um a little bit about pandas is, and I think that they're gonna be changing the criteria for it in pands is you know, they say it's a sudden onset, but we're seeing a lot more kids that it's not really a sudden onset, it's a gradual onset. So you may have been experiencing mild symptoms that have gotten worse over the years of your child's life versus the child that just wakes up one day and they're like a completely different child, and you're like, who is this? You know, and you don't know what's going on. So those are two different ways that it can present, you know. So I think sometimes that maybe people don't look at it because it wasn't a sudden, you know, acute onset. So, but I think that they're gonna be changing that, you know, shortly in the definition of it, you know. So, but when it got really bad was my daughter started having seizures and we were in the hospital. Uh, she was hospitalized six times one year with like 25 visits to the ER, and we had no idea what was going on. And that was when I started to think like something else was going on, and they're just not fixing it. She's on eight different medications, nothing's helping. You know, I need to do something different, you know.

SPEAKER_01 17:01

Oh my goodness, bless you. I cannot imagine having a child that is having seizures and is needing to be on so many different medications. And another thing that I wanted to mention about, because we do know that things like strap can, you know, trigger pandas and uh, you know, other infections and things like that can trigger these neuropsychiatric issues. But again, one of the things at the root of this is having a healthy immune system. And, you know, what we're seeing and what we recognize in functional medicine is there is so much immune dysregulation, guys. And I also talk about with functional medicine to simplify. Why are people so sick? Okay, and it's just to make it simple crap food, stress, and toxins. And and again, with things like toxic exposure, we talked about the mycotoxins earlier. Heavy metals are also an issue. You know, it's really important that we are assessing what goes into the body and we are assessing the health of our environment. But there's a lot of things that people just aren't naturally looking at. But uh, you know, a dysregulated immune system cannot handle things like a strep infection. A dysregulated immune system can start having autoimmune activation and reactivation of Lyme disease and things like that. So there's so many things to look into with that. And then there's also a lot of ways that we can holistically support the body. And I did want to ask you as I feel like you kind of went through the boot camp of all of these pediatric issues. So when you were going through the system as a mom and your children are suffering, did they ever recommend any like holistic-based strategies, or was it mainly like therapy, medications, things like that?

SPEAKER_00 19:01

It was medications and therapy. And even a doctor, one time when my daughter was hospitalized, um, recommended that she be admitted to the behavioral health unit because he thought it was all psychological. And I was like, well, then we're leaving because I know this isn't psychological and that isn't gonna help us, you know. So we ended up, you know, leaving at the time. Now, I do want to say that there are times when, you know, medications, as you mentioned, are necessary. Like if your child is in in crisis and suicidal and self-harming, those are times when you're gonna look at, you know, your medical uh community to help you to um control those symptoms because they could be detrimental to your child's health and you know, the acute condition, you know, but then in the long turn, look and see like what's causing that. So nobody ever recommended anything for me. Um, I started thinking, you know, back I have a 30-year-old who was diagnosed with celiac disease when she was two. And that was a long time ago before celiac was a thing. So I kind of feel like in my life that like God has put people and things in my path that have helped me to move forward and figure out what was going on to maybe prepare me for where I am today. Because, you know, my son, uh, you mentioned back, you know, um met heavy metals and things. He was diagnosed when he was like three with lead toxicity. You know, we were living in a house that had paint and, you know, that was causing him to have lead issues, which probably contributed to, you know, his mental health down the road, which, you know, I was young at that time and I didn't know anything, and doctors didn't know anything. And then when my other daughter was born, around one and a half to two, she was, you know, constantly vomiting, having an explosive diarrhea, couldn't keep anything down, not growing, you know, failure to thrive. And um, I met a girl who was the um wife to a uh co-worker of my husband who told me about celiac. And I started looking into it and I was like, you know what? This sounds like it could be this, you know. So I took her to the doctor, and we had a at the time it was you had to have a biopsy, go off of gluten for six months, have another biopsy, go back on gluten for six months. They didn't have the tests that they have now for celiac disease. And so it was a long, drawn-out process. So what I did was just remove all of gluten, you know, anything gluten in her diet. And then she was fine, like all her symptoms went away. She started growing, life was great, you know. And they had wanted us to come back and do like another biopsy. And I was like, well, I don't want to put her under for something that I know is working. Obviously, it's the diet, you know. So she went on to be a healthy, happy, productive, you know, individual. And so then when my daughter started having all of these seizures and I started doing my own research because nothing was helping us. And we even had a um a neurologist who kind of just dropped us mid flare because he was like, You're too complicated and I can't help you anymore. And then I'm like, well, what am I supposed to do? You know, like I can't take care of this. I don't know what's happening. You know, so I went to like a larger hospital, but that was the one that told me they didn't believe in pandas. But um, we did see some um, some of their physicians there. And I just said to the doctor, you know what? I have found in the literature the Connection between seizures and gluten and celiac. And an average it taking about seven years to realize the connection when people were having seizures that they did have celiac. And I already have a daughter that I know has celiac confirmed on taking the gluten out of the diet. And he was like, whatever, go ahead. That's fine. Not that it's going to do anything because it's psychological, you know. And lo and behold, my girl was having seizures three or four times a day. And um, the first two weeks we went off of gluten, she was having seizures once a day, then once a week. And then uh I went on and did some further testing. I'm like, okay, obviously she's got an issue with gluten. Is there anything else that's affecting? We did some food sensitivity testing and we found out she was highly allergic to corn and citric acid. Corn and citric acid are in everything, you know. So taking that out of the diet was not as uh easy as I thought it was gonna be because at the time I was like, oh, we don't eat a lot of corn. So we have some tacos every once in a while, you know. I know corn is in everything. And um, so we took that out of the diet. Her seizures completely stopped. You know, she was having episodes of uh syncope, just passing out randomly, you know, they in the hospital, they're like, it's part of whatever's going on with her mentally. And I did not believe that. So I continued to take her to the cardiologist who um, you know, had diagnosed her with POTS, you know, which is postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome. So every time she would stand up, her heart rate would go super fast, and then she it would just drop down really slow. So kind of like when you're exercising, you know how your um heart rate gradually goes up as you're exercising, and then it gradually comes down when you're done exercising? Well, it would just shoot up and shoot down, and that would cause her to pass out. And so we figured out that we could control that without medication, but we increased her electrolytes, increased her water intake, made sure she had enough salt, you know, controlled it through diet. So all of these things, um, you know, her mast cell uh she was diagnosed with mast cell activation syndrome that came under control when we started taking this, the things that she was sensitive out of the diet, removing them from our environment, going to the more holistic facial products, and you know, because people don't really think, especially with kids, they have all these cute little paints and things they can put on their skin and you know, tattoos and all the fun things that's great when you're a kid to do, but that gets into your skin, which is your largest organ, gets into your system and can cause, you know, dysregulation in the system. So once we started making all of these changes, none of which were supported by the traditional medical system, you know, um, we saw an improvement.

SPEAKER_01 24:26

And it makes sense too, because you know, when you are highly sensitive to certain foods, and again, I I could do a whole show on gluten. Guys, the gluten we are eating today, it is not the same gluten that Jesus was eating. It has been super hybridized. And then they are spraying it heavily with glyphosate, and that also is another show. But when you are eating things that you are highly sensitive or allergic to, that's gonna cause a significant gut disruption. It's gonna cause significant leaky gut, which is gonna then further activate your immune response and then inhibit your body's ability to properly absorb nutrients and minerals. And, you know, just thinking about these things, it seems like common sense, right? Like when we're struggling with something, what are we putting in the body? You know? And it's it's just it is so frustrating to me that the conventional medical model is this far behind. I mean, they really don't even know to tell patients to filter their water. I mean, it is so unbelievable. But there are a lot of changes that parents can, you know, that parents can make at home. And even if you don't have any type of like medical degree or background in healthcare, there's so much we can do as parents to help our children. And also that intuitive feeling when you know that the doctor is not right, you know, God gives us that intuition. It's like that like mommy intuition when we just have that inner knowing. And, you know, I remember I was actually a psych nurse for several years. This drove me crazy when the physicians, because I would also do psychiatric consults in the medical center when the physicians cannot find something wrong with someone medically, or if they don't know, they are then like, it's in your head, it's a psych ish, you go to psych. And I I remember we had a patient, he was hospitalized because he had recurring vomiting. They couldn't figure it out again. Um, they probably weren't doing the correct testing or didn't have the test available. But they went and told this patient it was in his head and go to psych. And I'm like, how that doesn't even make any logical sense. So, but anyway, it is about time to cut for break. And when we come back from break, we're gonna talk more about where functional medicine comes in and strategies that can really help. I do want to pause for a moment to remind our listeners. This show is also syndicated on America Out Loud Talk Radio on the Nurses Report radio show and podcast. So you can also find me there on any major app. Hello and welcome back. This is Melissa Schreibe, and I am joined today by one of my Functional Nurse Academy graduates, Danielle Friend, who is an extremely experienced master-prepared nurse. She's also board certified in functional medicine and is the founder of Friend Functional Wellness, where she is doing God's work in this world and she is helping pediatric patients with complex conditions. Welcome back, Danielle. Thank you. I am so excited to go over this topic today because I really do think that there are so many families that are going to benefit from this information. And again, like we were talking before about how uh there's just not a lot of help in the conventional medical model and people need to seek out other resources and other services. And I do think, you know, we talked a little bit about the silver lining of COVID. I'm like, this is totally a silver lining of COVID as people are starting to see. Okay, a lot of things don't make sense in that system. What is this thing about functional medicine? Whereas I feel like pre-COVID, a lot of people didn't really know what functional medicine is. And now like everyone knows what it is. So can you tell us? I I know we we were just chatting about how helpful um diet can be and you reducing toxic burden. But what are some other just like functional wellness strategies that can help in these cases?

SPEAKER_00 28:55

So I do want to mention something before I forget because I was thinking about it at the break that um just be I I want parents to know that just because their child doesn't have like severe features of you know neuroinflammation, kind of like my dad, my daughter had, you know, the seizures and the fainting and the, you know, other things like that. But if their kids are experiencing like um anxiety that doesn't go away, you know, some kind of um, you know, they're chronically anxious, they feel overwhelmed all the time, maybe they're struggling to sleep or to focus or they're having sensitivities. You know, my daughter started out with this little bit of sensitivity to some clothing and you know, sensitivities and sounds and light, things like that, that their bait their child could still be suffering from, you know, brain inflammation. And it doesn't always become as extreme as my daughter had. Um, and so I don't want anybody to be think, oh, that's not my child because you know, my daughter was such a um extreme complex case, you know, for this. So I just wanted to make sure everybody knows that there are other things. It doesn't have to be so extreme, you know. So um, so other things that can be we can focus on um other than diet um and um is like well, we talk about sleep. A lot of these kids have issues, you know, with their sleeping. Um, so sometimes it's really hard. I I have found that sleep is one of the hardest things to fix in these kids because um the immune system is so active, especially at night when they sit down to go to sleep and the histamines pop up and everything's going on and their mind starts racing and stuff, you know. So just kind of like trying to get together, you know, they say sleep hygiene, which is kind of hard with these kids, you know. So, but you know, a routine that kind of gets the kids ready for sleep, you know. Maybe um we we have done a lot of um like um baths in the night that we use Epsom salts with, which is great to help the little bodies detox, you know, at night. So we do an Epsom salt bath. Um, we also use a magnesium lotion because that can help you to relax. And a lot of people, especially kids, are uh deficient in magnesium, you know. So we use a magnesium lotion. Uh, we try to put the lights down rather early, kind of around the sunset. And I actually have purchased uh some light bulbs in the house that um are like they um mimic your circadian rhythm. So to kind of help us get in the mood to go to sleep and stuff, because you know, prior to this, my daughter would be going to sleep at two or three in the morning, you know, and uh and then she wouldn't stay asleep, you know. So um a lot of these things kind of um calmed down when we started treating things like she was she was very deficient in minerals and um vitamins because she had uh restricted eating, you know, which they just said was anxiety, you know, and she had sensory issues, so she didn't eat a lot of different things. So she was missing a lot of nutrients that were that her body needed. So um we did some testing, some functional testing to find out what she was missing so that we could target those areas so that she's now getting the nutrition that she needs. And, you know, a lot of people don't realize that your vitamins and your minerals, they also um affect your mood uh and your hormones and everything. So if you're lacking them, then it's gonna, you know, be expressed in these uh also in these ways that could be uh considered behavioral problems, you know, in kids. So something as easy as taking a multivitamin can be, you know, work well for these kids. And so unless you don't know exactly what, you know, you're dealing with, but everybody's lacking some type of nutrients.

SPEAKER_01 32:15

Yeah. And uh guys, everything is so it is so interconnected, guys. Uh and this is one thing I I like to tell my students, um, like when you're working with a case, you will never be able to identify every little thing that is going wrong. But one of the biggest things is focusing on those foundations of wellness. Our body heals when we are sleeping. If your system, if your nervous system is too upregulated to sleep, you do want to start looking at environmental things and also nutrients and minerals because things like melatonin that that is a potent antioxidant also helps you sleep. There are nutrient and mineral precursors to these things. And a lot of times we see these kids that they go through puberty and they do not do well with these hormonal transitions and they start having all of these nude disorders and other hormonal issues. Well, nutrients and minerals are precursors to your hormones and then also are amazing detoxification pathways. I feel like detox has become kind of like a buzzword because it is correct that there are people out there trying to sell detox crap. However, um, there are massive detoxification impairments due to nutrient mineral um deficiencies, genetic variations, infections. We know that like infections like Lyme disease can slow down your detoxification processes. And then toxins in general can slow down your detox processes. And one of the most common nutrient deficiencies, I'm so glad you brought up magnesium. Magnesium is an essential mineral. Magnesium is not in our crops like it used to be, because we are no longer remineralizing the soils. I mean, my grandparents lived on a farm and they were eating off of the vine. They were eating fresh food. Um, we're not really eating like that anymore. You know, I mean, even if you are eating an organic diet, which is so expensive right now, when you go to the local health food store, those crops, uh, those, those, you know, those foods have been on the shelf for a long time and they lose more of their, you know, nutrient and mineral quality the longer since they've been harvested. There's so many different factors. And again, you know, some of these interventions that you're mentioning are are like simple interventions. I mean, getting um a high quality um mineral and um a high quality, high-quality multivitamin. And then um, I like that you mentioned the light bulbs because again, if we just go back to common sense, okay? I know so many families. Everyone is busy, busy, busy. And then all of this access to electronics, it's not good for us, guys. It constantly upregulates the nervous system. And in nature, when the sun goes down, they're signaling to our circadian rhythm. The sun is going down, okay. Start ramping up production of melatonin so you can go to sleep. But what happens when you are just surrounded by all of this artificial blue light and all of these screens in your home? And then you can't sleep. Um, I wanted to ask you, Danielle, have you have you seen this where these kids, uh, so it's an adult too, right? Where they can't sleep at night and then they're being prescribed habit-forming sleep aids, and no one is assessing what's going on with the circadian rhythm.

SPEAKER_00 35:52

Well, yes, I have seen that over and over again. And I have actually experienced that with my own daughter, you know, putting her trying to put her on sleeping meds at age six, you know, seven, eight, nine and stuff. So um, we did at one point supplement with melatonin when she wasn't able to sleep, but at least it was a natural, you know, supplementation, you know, for her. So um, and I do find a lot of these kids that are in these flare states, you know, when they're really upregulated, you know, they spend a lot of time on their iPads and their computers and their things. And uh I noticed that when my daughter um was going through the most severe case of that. Um, but as she got better, she spent less time on those things. Like they weren't her constant focus. You know, I could see like it was really interesting because um it was like during the really the five-year period of crisis that we were in, she missed out on a lot of childhood. And when she started to get better, I could see little glimpses of that little girl coming back where she wanted to play with dolls, even though she was a little bit older to be playing with dolls. You know, she had missed that part of her childhood, you know. She got really super into art. The most uh interesting thing I saw, and we had um been in one of our um hospitalizations uh before we figured out what was going on, and she would paint. She loved to paint. So she painted this crazy, like, like masterpiece of just mixed colors and whatever. Uh, and then the next day it got a little bit better. There was kind of some shapes and some figures and things. And then the third day, by the time her brain had calmed down, because she was in a seizure process at that time, she did a unicorn with a rainbow in it. It was like, and to see, like the I mean, that was the most defining look at brain inflammation that I could see uh produced by a child to go in three days from just crazy chaos to this beautiful picture masterpiece, you know, just was a reflection of what's going on in their crazy little brains, you know, when they're, you know, just being so overwhelmed, you know. So another thing that we also like to do and that I um recommend to a lot of parents is trying to um bring down the nerve, the sympathetic nervous system and put them to parasympathetic, you know. Um we like to do like just rebounding, jumping on the little trampoline, you know, that's helpful for uh toxic drainage and to recalibrate your nervous system, you know. We have a vibration plate that we use that some of the kids really like, you know, and that helps also with drainage and bringing their um parasympathetic nervous system, you know, back into alignment. So um there's all kind of just like little things that you can do. Singing, little kids love, no wonder my daughter loved to sing, you know, it brings her, you know, um her sympathetic nervous system down. And then um another thing, and this is like so interesting because we don't really see a lot of this anymore, but one of the um things that you see in like kids with autism is like the shaking and the rocking and the, you know, and that actually is calming to the nervous system. So to me, that tells me that something is going on that their brain and their nervous system need to calm down. So why is that? What is triggering this upregulation in their brain and their nervous system? And what can we do about it rather than just say, oh, that's normal for someone who has autism? You know, like at the time I I had had my daughter evaluated for autism because I just did not know what was going on, you know. And the girl told me, but she had already received a pandas diagnosis. Like we'd been to a specialist who at that time recognized it and whatever. But she is like, okay, well, yeah, she could have autism, but it could just be all the symptoms from pants and pandas, you know, and she's like, So do you want me to say she's autistic? Do you want and I was like, no, I want to work on whatever the cause is, you know, I don't want you to say she's autistic, you know. So we did find some practitioners that were willing to try to help us with kind of mixing traditional medicines like IVIG antibiotics and things, you know, for pandas treatment is usually long-term antibiotics and like IVIG therapy. Um, but uh she also wanted to try to include, you know, some detoxification products and some vitamins and supplements. And but the it was just so overwhelming that we didn't know where to start or how to follow up. Who, you know, and then we were never seen for like six weeks and we couldn't get a hold of the office. And so it was really hard to implement those things when nobody was there to guide us. It was just like, here you go, here's your stuff, move on. So that's really one of the things that I'm trying to do by pair by um pairing up with physicians' offices is to be able to help them implement, you know, the holistic approach that they want to also include with their traditional treatments as well.

SPEAKER_01 40:15

Yeah, yeah, I really love that. And, you know, I think that there is that there's so much that registered nurses can do in the area of functional medicine. And I I remember when I was really sick myself, that was like a huge, huge obstacle is, you know, you may get a diagnosis from a functional provider and they may tell you what to do, but then you go home and you don't know how to do it and you don't have any support. And nurses are so good at that. So, um, and and we can really fill in the gaps there because again, the number one reason why people are not successful with functional medicine plans and programs is the provider is giving them way too much to do too fast, and they're not getting support. And nurses can come in and really fill in those areas. And then we also have the capability to run testing and can use that data to collaborate with the healthcare team. So now um I did want to um ask you, since you know we're gonna be uh we're going to be um featuring you for FA this month. I like to feature a graduate every month and the wonderful work that they're doing. Would love to hear from you about your experience with FA.

SPEAKER_00 41:28

Um, so I really enjoyed FA. It was, it was my first um was when I decided I wanted to go on and be able to pull some all of my knowledge together and use it to help families like mine. Then I found your program. I looked at all kinds of different other programs and yours just kind of spoke to me. So um I signed up for it. I really love the fact that I could work at my own pace because I'm like a go-getter and I'm just like, let's learn, let's do, let's whatever. And then the case studies that we do, they're great. I mean, I learned so many things. And, you know, I was constantly taking notes and I was like, oh my gosh, I never really realized that. And I was able to start taking like, because I'd been a nurse for a long time, you know, prior to even getting into this space. And I always felt like I was kind of like struggling between meshing the two together, you know. And so taking your course was able to give me like um the clinical depth and mentorship that I needed to pull them both together and to see that uh think in more of a root-caused way, before of like, like, let's just fix the problem, like to go more about beyond the why. I feel like in in regular nursing, like we never ask why this happened. We just like this is happening, let's fix it by doing this, you know. So being it, you know, going through your course and learning so much about, you know, the gut system and the different things, you know, and and then how to um take all that information and put it into a plan that's gonna help somebody was just amazing. I I really enjoyed it. I learned so much. Oh, I'm so glad. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 42:52

And and I don't think I would have even ever been able to put something like that together if I had not been so sick myself for years going to because I, you know, I think that when you go through chronic illness yourself and then you go through the system going through conventional and functional, you it really opens your eyes to a lot of things that are being done incorrectly. But then you also see things that are done correctly and you can kind of incorporate those things to help other people. And well, I'm so excited that you like have started your business. So now tell me. So it's so it's friend functional wellness. Before we started the show, I was like, your name is so much easier than Shrive Fatter. I would love to incorporate my last name into my business, but I can't for obvious reasons. But um, so tell me about your your practice. Now, are you able to are you seeing clients out of state or just where you live?

SPEAKER_00 43:53

How does that work? Uh no, I am seeing clients um out of state and I do everything virtually. And you can find me at www.daniellefriend.com. Nice and easy. And my practice has been open for almost two years now, you know, but I've been learning and, you know, incorporating all these things for a much longer time. What else do you want to know?

SPEAKER_01 44:20

Oh, I'm at your website now. And this, I love this. How you have just a picture of your like like big happy family, like right there, you know? So oh, I love it. So yeah. And now what kind of I I did want to ask. So with um working with and and now are you do you just work with um pediatric clients? Are you working with adults as well?

SPEAKER_00 44:46

I do work with adults as well. Um, so what I really like to do is try to work out on the family as a whole, because um, even though the kids are struggling, and you know, once we get the kids healing, then we can focus on the family because what ended up happening to me was that I was so focused on everything that was going on with my daughter and trying to help and heal her that I let myself go, you know, crazy and I didn't know what was happening to me. I ended up in metabolic chaos, you know, like I became insulin resistant, my blood pressure was high, I was pre-diabetic, I, you know, had every single thing wrong, fatty liver, you know, I gained like 60 pounds that I couldn't get rid of and you know, I couldn't figure out why. And so I started, you know, using functional medicine on myself to run the labs and look at the tests and see what was happening and you know, bringing my my own body inflammation down. My inflammation, I was in a constant state of like fight or flight the whole time my daughter was ill, you know, and that has actually started to come down. My um, my CRP level, which is you know, a blood level that we can do, it was supposed to be under one, and mine was like 7.6. So I did some, you know, um my own testing on my um to see if I had any sensitivities, what was happening there. I ended up identifying quite a few food sensitivities. Um, I had already removed gluten because I figure that if everybody else has a problem, I have a problem, you know. But I ended up like removing dairy and certain things that I was eating all the time that were causing me problems. And so what I really want to focus on is the family as a whole, because once you're, you know, when you get into that state where all you're thinking about is your family, and then you start falling apart, and then you don't know how to fix yourself afterwards. So I want to be supportive to the entire family.

SPEAKER_01 46:28

Oh, I love that. And that is something else that is missing, especially with the moms. And I know that like pretty much every woman listening right now is like, yep. Because it's just that female instinct to take care of everyone else. And I've seen this happen where there's someone in the family that's suffering, and then the person who is a primary caregiver then starts having health issues because then their health is getting neglected, you know. And and I've done similar things when I have worked with, say, couples before, you know, uh, you know, if you have someone in the home that's working to heal, you know, you can't have that one person eating this like really healthy diet and doing all these things where the their you know spouse is like eating a piece of pizza and having a milkshake right in front of them, you know. So it really needs to be like whole family wellness. And so, so now with your practice, so I know that you're doing all of like the lifestyle and wellness, coaching and things like that. And um, what kind of um what are some of the tests, like the functional medicine tests that you frequently run?

SPEAKER_00 47:38

So for the kids, what I frequently run is the um, well, I do a food sensitivity test because I feel like that's you know driving so many of these problems, food sensitivities. Uh, we also do like a GI map to look at the stool. I've had a lot of clients that'll come to me and say, Oh, my doctor already did a stool test. But your doctor didn't look at all the things we're looking at in a GI map, you know. Uh when I look when I we got my daughter's first GI map back, you know, we found out uh she had H. pylori. Well, H. pylori grows in your system naturally, but when it overruns and you start to have symptoms, now you have to do something about it. So because my daughter had so many um allergies to like, well, gluten and corn and all that um stuff, we have to have things that are compounded. It's very hard for us to get compounded antibiotics. So I had to learn how to treat these things naturally, you know, to get them under control because she couldn't use antibiotics, you know. I think there's like one antibiotic that she can actually have out of everything when we have to resort to an antibiotic, we tried, you know. And then uh we do um um I can't I sometimes, if they're having issues with sleeping and stuff, we will look at um like a metabolic wellness panel, you know, and it looks at cortisol and like you were talking about melatonin and everything. And you know, a crazy thing that I found out when I had my my when I did my own test that way, my cortisol level was like four times what it's supposed to be when I first woke up in the morning. But then it dropped all the way down and I had no like energy for the rest of the day. And then at 12 o'clock in the afternoon, since my cortisol was so low, it was calling in my melatonin to say, hey, come and help me. So at noon, my melatonin's three times that high, you know, that it's supposed to be. And you know, and I believe this all develops because I was just my body was in so much chaos, you know, having to deal with everything that was going on, you know. So I try to run like tests, you know, like that to check and see if that's you know, enrollment. We do um for moms, I do like do a Dutch, you know, if they need if we're having issues with hormones and things like that. Um, I have all kinds of tests that we do. Um, and I used to, I do, um, depending on the child, work on do different food sensitivity tests. I like the MRT, which is like a blood test that you do, but you do have to go have it drawn by somebody. And if it is a little kid, you know, sometimes it's easier to do the one where you just, you know, stick your finger and put it on the paper. But nice thing about functional wellness tests, most of them can be shipped right to your home. You can do them yourself, just ship them back, the results come in, and then we we get together and go over them, and then we develop a plan together of how we're gonna get you feeling better.

SPEAKER_01 50:04

And and I this is one thing I love so much about functional medicine and being able to work with a qualified professional, is I I do think when people are exhibiting signs and symptoms and things like that, you go to the regular doctor, and there's no, there's not even any curiosity around why is this happening? And and then when you are using, unfortunately, when we're using our health insurance, it really limits what kind of testing we can have access to. And there's so many of these functional medicine tests that are actually affordable. And when you look at just like your return on investment on things like this, when people are like really suffering and you may need to invest a little bit into your health, but it if it helps you resolve chronic issues, I mean, oh my goodness, like you can't like it's um it's absolutely amazing. And I remember, you know, when I started working as a functional nurse in my own practice, I was so used to being in the system. And every time you see your patients, they are worse and it is frustrating. But then when you actually start working with people on the outside of the system and you're on the holistic side, and then every time you see them, they're a little bit better. It is the most, it is just like the most fulfilling work, you know? Well, I am so, I'm just, I really am like truly so excited about all of the good things that you are going to do. And I think that you're gonna help so many families alleviate suffering. Cause, you know, I hear stories all the time about the frustration. And and then I hear about, unfortunately, what some um not so compassionate providers are telling these families. And so I'm glad that you have a heart for this work. And if someone wants to work with you, so how would they go about getting in contact with you?

SPEAKER_00 51:54

Uh so they can visit my website at www.daniellefriend.com and uh you can book a free parent um chaos to calm wellness call. And we, you know, we could do it that way. You can find me on Instagram, I'm at Danielle Friend underscore wellness. Um, or you can find me on my personal page because I leave that open to everybody too at Danielle Lanessa. And then I'm also on Facebook. So, but I would like to throw in one more thing before we wrap up because I feel like it's really important because you really started talking about insurance and stuff. So, what I want parents to know is that when you go to the doctor for traditional testing and evaluation, that the doctor is looking for a disease process and a diagnosis. So by the time that they get to that problem, your, you know, the k your child may have been suffering for for years or a long time before that it's considered a problem by the doctor. But functional wellness testing doesn't look at, you know, what's wrong with the child. It looks at why is this happening and and and how can we make it better? You know, so and you did say that it wasn't, you know, an investment, you know, you're investing in health, you know. So I think just changing, you know, the way people think of, you know, health and insurance and stuff is that, you know, we don't want to fix a disease, you know, that you've already developed and it is, you know, full blown. We want to get you before it's, you know, um, while it's still preventative and you we can make it better. Does that make sense?

SPEAKER_01 53:16

Yeah, yeah. Well, and this is another, you know, so frustrating thing about conventional medicine is they just, you know, just you know, wait and see approach. Let's just wait until it broke, wait until it breaks, okay? And then we're gonna go in and just medically manage you. I mean, this is what happened with my thyroid. And I really believe this is why I now have to be on thyroid medication for because for years they were like, oh, your thyroid's a little off. They never did anything else. And they were like, we're just gonna, you know, wait and see, you know, and it's silly when when you think about these things. But um, I also like to let people know because, you know, because there's so much lack of informed consent, you know, when you go when when you're seeing a provider, you know, in the system, people are not being provided the information and the education about these other options that may be available to them, you know. So a lot of times people don't know when the doctor is like, well, I did your labs and your labs look good, must be in your head. They're not telling them that there are other labs available, like the Dutch test, which is a dried urinary test for comprehensive hormones, which we know is clinically validated. I mean, there's more advanced testing out there, but it just may not be accessible in that insurance model. Well, um, yeah, I mean, like I need to do another show on on insurance companies and all the things they do that that aren't good. But anyway, it was so great to have you here today. And thank you. That is all the time that we have today. Thank you so much for tuning in. And again, if you want to learn more about the Functional Nurse Academy, please feel free to register for our next live webinar. And you will see that link in the show notes. You can also check out Functional Nurse Academy on our social media platforms or on our website at functional nurseacademy.com. Until next time, be safe, be well, and God bless.