The Functional Nurse Academy Podcast

Healing Autoimmunity Through Christ-Centered Functional Medicine: Anna’s Story

• Melissa Schreibfeder • Episode 16

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This episode is brought to you by Functional Nurse Academy

In this episode, I’m joined by functional nurse Anna Streisselberger, founder of Thresh Mountains Health, a virtual practice serving women nationwide. We explore her journey from an early autoimmune diagnosis and a “wait and see” approach in conventional care to taking her health into her own hands through her Christian faith and functional medicine. Guided by prayer and discernment, Anna implemented the carnivore diet and experienced over 85% improvement in her symptoms. This transformation led her to leave the bedside and pursue training through Functional Nurse Academy, where she now helps women heal from chronic conditions. We also discuss the scientifically supported impact of prayer, along with biblical principles such as fasting, singing, and nourishing the body with God-designed foods. 

Book a free discovery call with Anna https://calendly.com/threshmountainshealth-pm/30min

Website: threshmountainshealth.com

Instagram: @thatcatholicfunctional.rn

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61581318752057

Linkedin: www.linkedin.com/in/anna-streis

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

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

SPEAKER_01

Hello, and welcome to the Functional Nurse Academy podcast. This is your host, Melissa Schreibfetter, founder of the Functional Nurse Academy. And I am joined today by another one of my wonderful graduates, Anna Streiselberger. And Anna is a registered nurse, a board certified functional medicine nurse specialist, and she is the founder of Thresh Mountains Health, which is a virtual functional health nursing practice that serves women across all nursing Licensure Compact states. After graduating from Franciscan University of Stevenville in 2019, she spent six years in critical care. And she also served as a home IV infusion nurse and taught in the nursing skills lab at her alma mater. Her own autoimmune scare changed everything. When conventional care felt short, dietary and lifestyle changes transformed her health. That discovery sparked her passion to help other women achieve similar healing, leading her to the Functional Nurse Academy. And now she empowers women to address the root causes of their autoimmune symptoms through functional testing, personalized wellness planning, dietary and lifestyle guidance, and collaboration with primary care providers. Welcome, Anna. So great to have you here. Thank you. It's so great to be here with you, Melissa. Yes. And I just I love hearing these transformational stories of how, you know, because we do, we become nurses because we want to help people heal, but then we see that there's like not really a lot of that in the, you know, the conventional system we know has just, they've so dropped the ball when it comes to the, you know, chronic health conditions. And they're really just managing them with all of these medications. And then when we're working in the hospital and we see our sick, suffering, sick, sick, sick patients being served junk like chocolate cake and coke. And it's just like, it's unbelievable. So I'm always so interested to hear, you know, what from you working in the critical care setting to then being interested in functional medicine and also having that personal health journey yourself with autoimmune conditions. I would love to hear about, you know, what exactly happened with your health and what led you then to functional medicine.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Thank you. Um, so I graduated from nursing school in 2019 from Franciscan University and immediately started into the ICU. I was about six months into my nursing career when the pandemic hit. So that was a fun time being a new nurse, a new ICU nurse and a worldwide pandemic. Um and I started out in a general ICU, and then about a year after that, I transitioned to a neurotrauma ICU in Pittsburgh. And I worked there for um about five more years until just last August. Um I I really appreciated my time in the ICU. I liked what I did, I found it challenging, I found it fun. But um in 2023, I started to develop some autoimmune type symptoms. Um, and some I would label them mystery symptoms because I couldn't quite pinpoint, you know, what they were related to. Um, but I I developed really bad dry mouth and dry eyes. I started getting um really anxious when I would wake up in the morning, just generalized anxiety. And at that time I didn't have any triggers that I could identify that were causing this anxiety. I started getting really dark floaters in my eyes, and I started having um weird, like pressure kind of feelings in in my head when I would lay a certain way. And all of these things I brought to the conventional care system to my doctor, who is great. Um, but we ran a lot of autoimmune lab work. A lot of things came back negative, some things came back positive. Um, but my doc was considering maybe they were falsely positive. Um, but I was still having these unexplained symptoms that I had never had before, and it was really concerning to me. I saw multiple specialists along the way, um, and they basically told me they couldn't give me a diagnosis because it seemed I was really early in the process. It would just have to be a wait and see if something develops, which I didn't want to do. So um about uh in 2024, my husband and I um were just looking to make a change in our health. And um, by this time, my symptoms were like pretty strong, um, pretty constant. And we actually prayed together and we asked the Lord, like, Lord, show us what we should do. Just show us the right diet for us in this moment. And um we actually he did. He um we came to the carnivore diet, which I'm not saying I would recommend to every person and every situation, but for us specifically, what we needed in that moment, it was the most realistic um and sustainable dietary change that we could make. So within a couple weeks of starting that diet, even within the first week, I noticed significant improvements. I felt like the inflammation was way down, my vision sharpened, my sense of smell even got sharper, um, and I started losing weight. Um, and I think we stayed really strict for about six months, and I really felt like I had a health transformation in that time. Um, I I lost about 25 pounds, and um, and we still maintain a low inflammation diet to this day. But um, that journey really empowered me that, oh, you actually can take charge of your health. Like there is something you can do about it. And um I didn't feel very empowered by the conventional care system because I was early in my symptoms, but I knew something was wrong. Um, I I was offered medications to help with the symptoms, but I just didn't want to take that approach. So I am super excited. Um once once I was able to um take charge of my own health, it kind of sparked something inside of me where I wanted to help other people to do the same thing. And working in the ICU, it was great. It was also a big stressor for me. So my husband actually told me last year, why don't you just hand in your notice and um and do something else? And around that same time, I found the Functional Nurse Academy. I had been doing some research into functional medicine, nursing, how to get into that. And I came across your website and um I just everything clicked for me, and the Lord opened all the right doors, and so I was able to move forward into functional medicine nursing. So that's kind of how I ended up here.

SPEAKER_01

Wonderful. God is so good, He is so good. And I I love to talk about Jesus and faith. It is like my favorite thing to talk about. And I have had several uh guests on on my show, because again, uh for our listeners, um, I've now been on the nurses report for a couple of years now, and I have heard the same thing over and over for people from people who have a very strong connection with God and who are believers that they are really leaning um into God for their discernment and praying for that direction. And I actually heard this before from a mother who had a terminally ill child that is thriving now. And she did the similar thing is her and her husband just started praying and they received guidance to put their daughter on the gaps diet, um, which is also an anti-inflammatory style diet. And this was guidance that was not given to them from the conventional system, and their daughter got better. And I think that praying about our health conditions and going to going to God for this and putting our trust in Jesus can be so in incredibly powerful. And I think that that is a, you know, shortcoming of the conventional system because I will say, after working in the system for so long, I think that the conventional medical model in some cases can become like a false idol to where you put all of your trust and your faith in that system, but that system does not have all of the answers. And I also wanted to touch on something real quick. You said that they were like, oh, we're in the early stages, so we're just gonna, you know, keep an eye on it. They were not going to take any type of action with you. Like, did they even recommend dietary lifestyle anything? Did you get anything from them that was helpful? And again, like I have worked with doctors for a long time. Most of them honestly are very nice people, but they don't have this type of training. But did they give you any insight about things that you could do on your own to help yourself? Or was that all kind of things that you had to venture out and do on your own?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, um, I think my PCP is great, and I think he always promotes like a whole food diet. That's kind of his his guidance, which I think is really good guidance. Um, but as far as any specific direction, I I wasn't given any specific direction. I mean, one of the specialists I saw just told me, like, yeah, it's just you're probably at the beginning of something right now, and we just don't know what that is yet. But you can take this and it might help with your dry eyes, your dry mouth, um, which I know how it goes once you get on the the cycle of pharmaceutical interventions. Um, not that there's anything wrong with needing help with symptom management, but it's just not a solution. And um I think with the uh conventional care model, like you said, sometimes it can become this idol where uh we think it has all the answers, but the truth is it doesn't, and we actually can't outsource our health to that system. We actually have a component where we have to take charge, take responsibility for our own health, doing something about it. And um and and I really I believe, you know, healing can come through the conventional care system, through functional medicine. Um, but I believe ultimately the Lord is the true source of healing. And I think he has to be involved in the process. Um, you mentioned discernment, that's something I'm very passionate about. And I think a lot of times in the conventional system, things can be really fear-based. Um, like, oh, this might happen if you don't do this, or if you don't go down the medicine route, you're definitely gonna die in six months or whatever. Um, but I I think there's a place in I mean, there has to be a place involving the Lord because He created us, He knows us, our biology better than we know ourselves. So um I I definitely think that uh asking the Lord into that process is um the missing piece for a lot of people.

SPEAKER_01

Absolutely. And, you know, something I always think about too, because we are his creation. Uh the human body is so incredibly complex. And I always thought it was just so it's kind of haughty of the conventional medical model to think that they just know it all, that they just have all the answers and just go to the doctor gone. They know everything, right? Um, and and one thing I I you know picture in my mind, uh I think about this very large circle, and then inside that circle, it's like a little dot. And that is what us humans understand. There is so much that we don't understand about the human body. And I talk about um medical miracles a lot, peer-reviewed literature confirming medical miracles that are occurring after proximal intercessory prayer, that is at a global medical research institute. And so there really is so much that the medical community cannot explain. Like they don't know how these things are happening. But then we see that we do live in a secular world and there's always this push for secularism and to remove God out of everything. But then we see what happens when we remove God out of everything and it's not good. It does not bear good fruit when we do that. But um, yeah, I guess I also wanted to ask you so something else with autoimmune conditions. And I I experienced this too, where I was told, like, this is your new baseline. And I got to the point where I got so healthy that I did not have any other symptoms. Um, how are you doing with your autoimmune condition? Like, how much improvement have you had?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I've had a lot of improvement actually, um, since transitioning to a low inflammatory diet, as well as cutting um like toxic exposure out of my life as much as possible, um, which is not an easy process. I think it's something that has to happen over time. Um, it's not something you can do all at once, but um, I have really seen significant improvement in my symptoms. Um, they're not completely resolved 100%, but I would say like 80 to 90 percent improvement in my symptoms. And and some of my symptoms, I mean, I'm talking about the dry mouth and the dry eyes. That's almost like 80 to 90 percent better. Some of my symptoms um that I was having really dark floaters in the eyes, and then weird like pressure feelings inside of my head, those actually completely went away um by by going low inflammation diet. So I was super excited about that. And um, I actually my husband and I visited Austria uh for Christmas a couple of years ago. And so while we were over there, we were just eating all the food, and we had been previously like strict carnivore six months prior. And so it was interesting to see some of the symptoms actually starting to return when I introduced all of these inflammatory foods back, even though the food in Europe is is better in general, but it's still gluten, it's still sugar, you know what I mean. Um, but it was interesting to see those things come back once I switched my diet.

SPEAKER_01

And there's so much conflicting information about what is healthy, you know. And I am seeing these like mainstream dietitians that are like, oh, canola oil, that's from corn, so it's healthy. And and then they say things like, there's no scientific evidence that that's bad for you. And then when I just go to my common sense brain and using simple logic and reasoning, I'm like, hmm, okay, well, if you open up a bottle of canola oil and you smell it and it smells rancid, your nose kind of sends a signal to your brain that, you know, maybe you shouldn't consume that. That doesn't smell like food. So uh, but but yeah, I remember when I was uh when I got diagnosed with my autoimmune condition, I was like, well, I'm a healthy eater because I really truly believed that my whole grain frozen waffles that I was having for breakfast. I was like, well, I'm getting my whole grains, you know, and I had no idea that, you know, ultra-processed seed oils were bad. Like I just didn't know anything about nutrition because uh, yes, I had one nutrition class in school to become a nurse, but it was government nutrition, which again, we've seen improvements. We've seen massive improvements on that recently. But there is just a lot of conflicting information about what is healthy. And one thing, and I think that we would absolutely agree on this, just the biblical wisdom. Eating the foods that God biologically designed for us to consume. And I wanted to ask you, because you had, and I've heard this multiple times about people doing carnivore-style diets, especially with autoimmune, where people have significant success with this. What is your opinion on the pushback about consuming animal products? Like I know that there are institutions and other organizations that say that red meat is bad for you and that we should reduce our consumption of animal products or primarily eat a plant-based diet. Do you have an opinion on that?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I think um, like I said, I don't know that I would necessarily um say the carnivore diet is right for everyone. Um, but just what my husband and I needed at that moment in time, um, we have found it incredibly beneficial. And I think there are people who are starting to study the carnivore diet. I hear things like, oh, there's no long-term studies on the effects of carnivore diet, but is there long-term studies on the effects of the standard American diet? Um, I mean, I don't think so. And we're we're seeing so many health issues. Um I think the testimonies of people who have used carnivore, not just for autoimmune things, but also um for mental health, who have used ketogenic and carnivore diet um for treating mental health issues. I mean, and I can even speak to the anxiety piece of it. I was waking up every single morning with just this impending sense of like anxiety and doom without an emotional or trigger that I could pinpoint in my life. And within a week, two weeks of going carnivore, I woke up in such a calm state. I was like, wow, this is a whole different experience of living. Um, but I think there are, because there are so many testimonies of people who've had so much success with it, I think it warrants further study. Um, and I also I know you teach a lot in your program about, you know, the scientific studies that are out there, I I think they have value, but only insofar as, you know, you look at who they're funded by. And if it's a pharmaceutical study that's funded by a pharmaceutical company, then you have to ask yourself, you know, how unbiased is this research? So I think there's not necessarily a lot of interest in um in studying some of these things, like long-term studies of the carnivore diet. I think the interest is growing. Um, I really like the work of uh Dr. Paul Saladino. He has, he calls it the animal-based diet. Now he's incorporated like fruits and stuff back into it. I just think it's also interesting. I I think I don't have the perfect answer of like what's the perfect way of eating. Um, but I can just kind of speak to for me, it has made uh all the difference in my symptoms, in my autoimmune process and in reversing some of these things.

SPEAKER_01

Yes. And I am such a big advocate of eating real food. And, you know, something else I wanted to mention. I feel like it's kind of calmed down with the push to stop eating animal products. But there was quite a bit of propaganda and documentaries and studies that came out and was like, oh, red meat is bad for you. But the thing is, uh, there are essential nutrients and amino acids, such as things like tyrosine. We get like a lot of our B12 from animal products. God designed us to eat, to consume animal products. Our bodies are fueled by so many of those nutrients. And the thing is, the studies, because again, if you have enough money, you can design a study to say whatever you want it to say. But the thing is, when we look at the quality of these studies that are suggesting that, you know, animal products are bad for you, those studies do not differentiate between, you know, your um beef patty from a Big Mac versus getting like some grass-fed organic steak or something like that. And, you know, it it really is, it's important where we get our animal products from. So, but uh, and another thing with how they designed studies, there was another study, and this is my favorite one when I talk about garbage studies. It was the government funded it. I know that's shocking, but the government funded it, and it was from Tufts University, and they used this very sketchy rating scale. And within this rating scale, they just somehow discovered that lucky charm. Was you know healthier than eggs. And this is another thing that we should not outsource our common sense to experts and studies. And it is so unfortunate when I see people that have all of this education, all of these degrees, and then they believe this kind of stuff, you know. And again, that's why I think that we need to go back to God and common sense and like using our God-given discernment to decide um what are what are the right choices that we need to make for our health. So yeah, yeah. And I also wanted to ask. So um now I have your, I love what you're doing with your business. Now, and I know that you recently graduated from FA and then you launched your business, Thresh Mountains Health. And I love that you say it's a faith-informed root cause approach to wellness. And um, you also mentioned on your website, we align our care with the truth that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit and that Jesus is the source of true healing, which I think that that is so lovely. Um, can you tell me a little bit about um how you are able to integrate faith into the care that you provide?

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. I love talking about this. Um, I think it was last year sometime, I I heard an interview with um, I hope I say his name right, Dr. Roger Seaholt. He is the founder of MedCram and he's an ICU physician. He was giving an interview speaking about um vitamin D and all of the benefits of sunlight and um, you know, visible and invisible spectrums of sunlight and how important it is for our health. And at the very end of the interview, like the last five minutes, he said something that completely um just I feel changed my life. He said he, you know, looks at the Bible and tries to apply a scientific lens to it. And I think science is only starting to discover some of the things that we know to be true from divine revelation. And he he looked at the the temple structure in the Old Testament and he compared it to how the body functions on a cellular level, um, with the interstitial fluid and the the altar of sacrifice being like the blood, and then there's this um there's this fountain that's like the interstitial fluid, and then the temple itself is like the cell. And within the temple, he um he talks about the the nucleus of the cell is like the holy of holies, where you have the two tablets that were written by the hand of God that have the code of life, you know, the Ten Commandments, and that mirrors our bodies functioning on a cellular level. It's like our two strands of DNA that have the code of our life written on it, that was written by the hand of God. And um, that absolutely blew my mind the way he compared those two things. And I've since looked for more um information on that particular subject, and there's not much out there. Um, but I believe that this has big implications for understanding that we are made uh to worship God and that um when we worship God, we align ourselves with how we're created to be. And I believe there's something healing in that, in in cultivating a relationship with our creator and um and also receiving the gift of the creation that he has made. And um so I integrate prayer into my practice as my as my clients are comfortable, you know, I disclose this is my worldview, this is informing how I'm approaching care with you or how I'm walking with you towards healing. Um, I'm work open to work with people who are not of the faith, but I, as long as they understand that that I will not recommend against anything that's against my personal convictions. Um, but I pray with my patients and I also encourage them to take these um health matters to prayer and really ask the Lord to give direction and and to give discernment in these areas. And I think the Lord is always wanting to speak to us if we would just listen. He actually really tries to speak to us and wants to speak to us more than we even want to hear him. Um and I think he will speak to us in a way we can understand if we would just listen. Um, so that's kind of how I integrate my my faith into my practice and um and it that informs everything that I do when I walk with people.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, I that makes you so happy. I I just love that. And you know, something else that I we you started mentioning, that's something that I'm really, really passionate, and I want to create more content about this, and it's about how these biblical truths are actually being verified by modern day science and research. And we know things that are in the Bible, such as prayer, fasting, even things like singing. We know that singing stimulates the vagus nerve, which is like the keying cranial nerve, and then there's other scientific findings, such as this is something I've recently learned about. It's amazing. So um, for our listeners, look up laminin l-a-m-in-in-it's actually a protein found in the body's um extracellular matrix, which is basically like around our cell membranes. This protein holds the cells together, supports the tissue structure, and it also plays a role in healing. And when you look up laminin, it is in the shape of a cross. You know, and there's even other things about how the uh world works and how other things like lightning work. For an example, in Job, it says the path of the lightning bolt. It tells us there's a path to the lightning bolt. And we uh they've actually recently discovered that um when lightning is occurring, there are actually invisible ions that form a path and the lightning follows that path. And there's so many things like that out there. And it's like, okay, if none of this is true, if all of this is just made up and the Bible is just, you know, it's just some storytelling, how how is it able? How does it know about things like that? Like really, how? So, well, anyway, we are about halfway through the show. And I do want to take a moment to remind you all, if you are a fed up nurse, I can absolutely help you at the Functional Nurse Academy. We are the most comprehensive functional training program on the market, specifically designed for nurses. All of our graduates receive 90 nursing CEs, eligibility for multiple board certifications in functional medicine, and they also receive business mentorship. So be sure to check out Functional Nurse Academy at functional nurseacademy.com. If you'd like to come to the next informational webinar, I will be posting that link in the show notes. 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 Schreibfadder, founder of the Functional Nurse Academy. And I have another wonderful guest here with me today. I have Anna Streiselberger, who is the founder of Thresh Mountains Health. And we are talking functional medicine, natural interventions to help with autoimmune conditions, and most importantly, we are talking about faith and how it is possible to integrate Christ into our healing journey. Welcome back, Anna. Thank you. So, um, yeah, before we cut to break, we were talking a little more detail about, you know, all of these truths from the Bible. And I mean, I think it is so I think I think it's so amazing. And for me, I do not think that it is a coincidence that when I am working with a client, and again, this is always permission-based, when they would like to integrate that into their program, I tend to see better results. And I wanted to ask you um if you had any success stories from clients that you have worked with.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. One client that I'm working with right now towards her goals um recently told me that within the first couple weeks of working with me, and just by focusing on whole food, nutrient-dense foods, and cutting out processed foods, she's already lost 10 pounds just in the first couple of weeks. So um a huge congratulations to her. I think that was awesome progress so far.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, that's wonderful. And I bet she feels so much better too. Like is she mentioning that she has more energy?

SPEAKER_00

Yes, she is. Yep. And she she mentioned that she noticed when she ate something um on a one-off occasion that was more processed. She woke up the next day with this brain fog that she had never noticed before in relation to that kind of food. Um, and I think that is so true when you start on um a health journey and you change the way you eat. You don't realize how bad you felt before until you change your diet and you and you realize how good you can feel.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, yes. And, you know, and again, like there really is so much bad nutrition advice out there. And I will say, I think it is like help and I know, okay, some of you are probably learning about this episode through social media. I think some social media is okay, but I have had to like block some of these like mainstream medical accounts because I swear they're making my blood pressure go up. But I am seeing these accounts where nutritionists are actually being funded by big industry and they're over like sitting in the McDonald's drive-thru and they're like, oh, I'm getting fiber from these French fries and I'm getting protein from my double cheeseburger. And I'm like, oh, how can you give any advice that is like, how can you give advice that's that bad? But um, but yeah, I think that people are surrounded by bad advice in America, we are surrounded by the convenience foods. And that is something that's really, really powerful is when we are able to provide support, education, coaching to help people go onto real foods and then say, you know, because they have free will, they have free choice. Um, if they go out and they eat food that's really poor quality, and then they feel it, and then it it really like a light bulb goes off, and they're like, wow, I don't want to do that again, you know. But then again, when people are consuming those foods every day, they may not necessarily put it together because they're not experiencing like an acute symptom from it. It instead is just systemic inflammation that they may not be tying to a certain thing. So um, but yeah, I hear the same thing when I'm working with clients. It's usually, I mean, within that first four to six week time frame that they're like, oh wow, I feel better. And then when they start having that improvement, and especially the weight loss, that gives them the momentum to keep moving forward. So um, yeah, that's amazing that you're having such good progress with the clients that you work with. And I also did want to ask you about your experience with the Functional Nurse Academy.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. Yeah, like I mentioned around the time that I was really um considering leaving the hospital, um, which actually happened very quickly and very providentially, I was researching um functional medicine for nurses. I didn't, I didn't know it was possible as a nurse to have your own functional medicine practice practicing within your your scope of practice. Um and in my research, I found a few different options, some very expensive options, and I did as much as I could to look up reviews of these different programs, and I found your um functional nurse academy in my search. And what really struck me about it was that it was very affordable, that um it was faith-based, and that was huge for me because I I do think with um holistic health, I think it does matter your philosophy that you have behind it. And that really resonated with me that you're coming from a Christian worldview, a Christian perspective. And um, and I also felt like it was so comprehensive. I think I was looking up reviews, I don't remember if it was on Reddit. Um, I I really didn't find much like as far as reviews, but I was looking at reviews for multiple of these different programs. And um, and just in the research I did, yours seemed like the most comprehensive and cost-effective program out there. And um, hearing other people talk about being in these other programs, I'm like, wow, I it really doesn't feel like they got as much as as I got from Functional Nurse Academy. And I just so appreciate that you lay it all out. It it makes sense to my nurse brain, the way everything is organized. And um and I feel like it really gives a comprehensive um outline for approaching um health from a functional perspective. So I'm so grateful that you invented Functional Nurse Academy, that you launched Functional Nurse Academy, and that you continue to make improvements all the time. And also the the extra like freebies, like the mentorship and the toolkit that come along with it, they're just absolutely invaluable, um, all of the resources that you provide in there. It's it's very thorough and very comprehensive.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, well, yay. I'm so glad you had a good experience. And yeah, I noticed that too. Like um before I developed the Functional Nurse Academy, it was so expensive to get functional training, or there were programs where you may invest in a program and not necessarily be prepared. And um, actually, the reason why I'm able to make this so cost effective is because our wonderful graduates refer FA to their friends and then they say nice things about FA online. So, like basically, I don't have to go out and hire this really expensive marketing program because our students are basically, I mean, word of mouth marketing, like word of mouth is king. And I also tell you guys this when you start your own business. I mean, if you like extremely satisfied clients, they'll go do your marketing for you, you know, and you won't have to deal with like like after you, you know, get your initial set of paying clients and then they're satisfied, you know, with social media essentially being the new Google, you know. I mean, when you have your business up and going and people are happy and you are getting good outcomes with people, when they go into those groups and say nice things about you. I mean, we all know, I think everyone does this that's on social media. If I'm looking for any type of service, I am going and I am like searching through the Facebook groups to see what people are saying, you know? So, but I'm so glad that you had a positive experience. And and yeah, like I am such a firm believer that, you know, we've seen all of these crazy things happen in healthcare, especially what happened during COVID. That's a whole nother show. I've done several shows on this, but anyway, we've seen so many just crazy unethical things that happen in healthcare. And I really do believe it's because we're trying to address this chronic disease epidemic, and we're just like removing God from the picture, you know? So I think that that is um really important to have that like view that God is the most important thing, and that is where all of our truth comes from, and we need to um lean on him for um for everything. So, well, anyway, I again like I'm at your website, it does look lovely. And I also really like that you have like it's very clear like what you are offering. And um, okay, for our listeners, because we have listeners actually from all over the world. Um, and uh so now you said that you can um practice in states that fall under the nursing licensure compact for our listeners that are not nurses. Can you explain what that is?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. So uh the nursing licensure compact is basically an agreement between a number of states. More have been added over the years. I think there's about 43 right now states that are covered under it. And um on my website under the services tab, at the very bottom there's a service areas um section. And you can click on the map and see um if your state falls under the nursing licensure compact and if it is um what the status of it is, because some states are um officially have joined the nursing licensure compact, but it's not fully been enacted yet. Um so the the 43 states, I don't have them memorized, but um, but you can easily find that information on my website or just with a a web search, what are the nursing licensure compact states? But it covers most of the states in the US.

SPEAKER_01

So, and I so I I clicked on that and I am thinking, well, this is fantastic because they have added more states. I remember for a while it was like around half the states. So, and for our nurses that are listening, that is the safest way to practice across state lines, is if you have a multi, multi-state lace injure. Now, of course, there are other options if you maybe did work with a healthcare attorney to possibly work under another credential, but you need to make sure you work that out with an attorney. Um, but um, you know, this this is absolutely wonderful that they have added so many states because also I see that you are offering labs as well, which I mean, the vast majority of our graduates that are not nurse practitioners are offering functional medicine testing because we have the ability to order those labs under a medical doctor. So I like that you are offering those labs and your packages too, because I I remember when I was sick as a dog and they would do just like a handful of labs, and they were like, Oh, nope, your labs are normal. And later I learned that my labs were not normal, like they were suboptimal and they're using this outdated reference range, which is why you have these poor suffering patients that have all of these symptoms, and the lab workup appears normal. But in functional medicine, we are ordering more labs, and then we also are looking at what is optimal. So can you tell us, um, you know, from your experience and from what you learned at FNA, um, what labs do you think are incredibly helpful?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I absolutely love the GI map. Um, I have worked with one of my patients on the GI map, and um, and this patient was suffering with histamine intolerance. And we actually found um looking at the gut bacteria, one of the bacteria that he has an overgrowth of um actually involve uh making histamine. So um it's just so interesting when you can start correlating symptoms uh to their root cause and start addressing those imbalances um in the gut. So I I really love the GI map so far. Um, that's one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_01

Well, and really there is an immense amount of research, like microbiome research, but again, it's this is not something, it still is not being properly implemented into the standard of care and the conventional medical model. And even when people um maybe are in a situation where they must take antibiotics, the providers still do not know to recommend probiotics or prebiotics or any type of gut support to help with that intestinal permeability. And for our listeners, um when we're talking about Histamine and intolerance. So when you have a healthy gut, you're able to properly break down histamine. When your gut is not healthy and you may have overgrowths of opportunistic bacteria, that can cause you to increase more, to develop more histamine, and then also have impairments in how you're breaking it down. But with histamine, um, so when you are when you have just too much histamine in your body, that can lead to symptoms that may be able, it may actually mimic an allergic reaction. And so people might see like flushing, hives, itching. But another thing that can happen are things like migraines, chronic fatigue. And um, I know when I had chronic Lyme disease, um, I remember I would go out, like heaven forbid, I would go out to a restaurant. Even if I ate at like a healthy-ish restaurant, I would have this tremendous flare of fatigue. And a factor of that was overload of histamine. And um, I see people a lot of times too that have chronic nasal congestion and sinus issues, and then they're just on these like over-the-counter allergy meds and um and and no one is talking about histamine. So I'm so glad that you brought that up. And um yeah, yeah. And then what are what are some of your favorite things to use to support the gut microbiome? Because again, like talking autoimmune conditions, yeah, the gut is so, so central to working to heal an autoimmune condition.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, absolutely. I think um when I learned that like 70 to 80 percent of your immune system is in your gut, um, I was my mind was blown in the implications of um autoimmune and its connectedness to leaky gut. Um, it it's huge. So I I think it's so interesting. Um, you recommend in your course GI Revive, and I really love that supplement. Um, that has helped one of my clients so much already to improve gut lining and to kind of heal and seal the gut. Um, so that's one of my favorite. And um another uh thing that I learned that's so interesting for acute reactions, actually, vitamin C acts as a natural antihistamine. And um, and one of my clients has found relief in an acute exacerbation by taking a dose of vitamin C and seeing instant, like instant benefits from from taking that. Um, but yeah, addressing overgrowths, I really like biocyden for that. Um, I think that's an amazing botanical blend and um and it's it's very effective as well. Yes, yes.

SPEAKER_01

And and and again, with with supplements, I I talk about supplements a lot because I do have a love-hate relationship with them. I mean, well, I mean, when I went through functional medicine, there were so many people that I really felt like did not have integrity, did not understand the interconnectedness, and they were just pushing supplements. But the appropriate use of supplements for targeted issues can be life-changing. And I hear this a lot. Like, and uh I don't tell people that they need to go on all these different protocols for like, you know, a mystery amount of time. There's just simple things like these blends. There actually are companies that have made blends of, you know, amino acids and herbs and other nutrients and things that actually have scientific evidence to back the support. But something like GI Revive, um, we know that gut issues is the rampant and intestinal permeability, which is basically leaky gut, which is a precursor to things like autoimmune conditions. And GI Revive is so wonderful because it has um herbs that help to form a protective coating in the gut. And it also has L-glutamine, which helps to repair the gut lining. And yeah, I have had um, you know, clients I worked with where we just did some simple interventions to support the gut microbiome. And I mean, I'm talking energy comes back, skin starts to clear up, headaches go away. Like there's so many things that happen when you support the gut. Like it's it's really amazing. And um, so let's see. So I did, and another thing about supplements. So I always like to look at this. And I remember um, again, when I was going through the ringer, the physician that actually diagnosed me with Lyme was not selling supplements. He was the only provider that I went to that was actually offering supplements at cost. This is when a provider is not making a commission off of supplements, and instead they pass off their commission. Instead of taking a commission, they will offer like a 35% discount to their clients. That way it makes the supplements affordable. And I love that you do that in your packages. This is wonderful. So I think that we will have a lot of listeners that will want to work with you. Could you tell me about the services that you're offering?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah. Um, so my my main service is a three-month package where I walk with patients to do a deep dive into their health. We do uh a thorough initial assessment and establish a health timeline. I find that if we can establish a timeline like what preceded what, that actually can give us some really good clues into when symptoms started, what our underlying triggers could be. Um, and then I work on a comprehensive wellness plan that's tailored to the specific patient. And um we do targeted supplementation if needed. And the key word being targeted, I agree. I think it's not good to be on so many supplements. Um, but again, I do pass along my um full script discount, the full 35% to my patients who work with me in one of my packages. Um, and then I have multiple follow-up sessions with them where I coach them through the wellness plan. We do in-depth lab reviews for the comprehensive blood work that we do and the functional testing that we do. And I think that's so empowering for patients when you can actually understand what your own lab results mean, because doctors don't really have the time to do that with you, but to sit down and to go through, okay, wow, this is what these things could be contributing to, or this is what you know it could indicate dysfunction in this particular organ system. Um, I think that education is empowerment for people. So um, and and then collaboration with your primary care provider as needed. I can write letters, um, advocate for you if we need medical management for something. Um, I will get your primary care provider involved. Um and for my for my launch, I am offering a limited amount of mini packages where we will do one functional medicine test and we'll do two meetings. One will be like an intake session, and the next one will be the follow-up where we do an in-depth lab review for that one functional medicine test. So if somebody w wanted just a deep dive into one particular area, um, those are available for a limited time.

SPEAKER_01

Oh, yeah, and that's actually the section that I pulled up on your website because I was all like, oh, this is fantastic. Because sometimes people, you know, especially if they haven't done functional medicine before, they may kind of want to like dip their toes in their water in the water first. And I like that you're also offering the option to bridge into a three-month concierge package. I think that's really amazing. So now um, if our listeners want to find you or they want to work with you, what would be the next step?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, um, please check out my website. It's thhreshmountainshealth.com. And I'm also on Instagram at um that functional or that catholicfunctional.rn. Um, and I'm on Facebook and LinkedIn as well. I think those links will be um somewhere with the podcast.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, see, I do have those links. So I will drop all of those links in the show notes. Yeah. And again, you know, a functional medicine is in high demand. And this is one of the reasons why I developed the Functional Nurse Academy because I felt like there were a lot of holistic health practitioners, a lot of functional practitioners, but I didn't feel like there were enough practitioners that were practicing with integrity and that were fully qualified. And that's why I really do believe that like blending nursing practice and working with a practitioner, such as a nurse who has a legitimate legal scope of practice. And as nurses, you know, we have been exposed. We have seen so much human suffering. We have seen what happens with the chronic disease process. And we went into this field to help people. So I love seeing more and more nurses open up these concierge practices. And also, you know, a lot of people who want to use functional medicine to address their chronic symptoms. A lot of these people don't want to go on the pharma wheel. They don't want to go and be prescribed all of these medications, but it is really helpful to work with a nurse who um can then collaborate with your primary care provider, you know, because again, I do think that it is so important to have a prescribing provider in case you need it and still have the primary care, but then also have a functional nurse that you can work on, work with on the side.

SPEAKER_00

Absolutely. And I just wanted to quickly say it it speaks so highly to you, Melissa, that you have developed this program with such a high degree of integrity and passing that along. Um, that also really spoke to me when I was going through the program, how you pass along those discounts to your clients and the lab testing discounts, all of that. Um, I I just think that is so beautiful. And I think that there are um enough people out there who are starting to wake up to the reality of the healthcare system that we're in who are seeking things like functional medicine. And I think there's enough people out there who need to be seen and heard for all of the nurses that you could train. I think that there's enough people out there for all of us to help and who need our help.

SPEAKER_01

Well, yes, absolutely. And and you know, with nurses, there's kind of like five million of us. I mean, there's enough of us to where we can really make a difference. But uh, but yeah, yeah, I think that to me it's like this is this is like my mission work, you know? And I also think that people are, I really do believe that God all gives us special gifts and talents. And there are so many people that are having a hard time living out their God-given purpose because they're chronically ill, you know, and it is the most rewarding thing ever, like especially stepping out of conventional medicine and you're working in functional medicine and you actually see people getting better. It's it's amazing. So I'm so glad that you're doing this work and thank you for coming on the show. And again, to our listeners. Um, check out Anna's links before. You can reach her at Thresh Mountains Health. And if you are interested in working with her, she does offer a 30-minute free discovery call. So you can get on like a zero-risk call with her to see if this could be a right fit for you. But I know that there really are, you know, so many people who who are suffering, you know. I mean, I hear from um our listeners frequently that have mystery illness and no one is helping them. So I really wanted to train more and more nurses with this high-level skill set that can help other people and just produce change. Well, thank you for tuning in to the Functional Nurse Academy podcast. And again, if you are a nurse and you are interested in training at FNA, please check out the link below. You can join me live for our next informational webinar. Also, if you are enjoying this podcast, I would so appreciate it if you would subscribe and leave a review because that can really help other nurses find this podcast and learn more about functional medicine. Until next time, be well and God bless.