The Wellness Industry has Missed the Plot

Wellness became its own version of the exact system it claims to be fighting - there's a supplement for every symptom. There's a gadget for better optimization. There's a "cleaner" product - but it's incredibly expensive. 

And now you're scared of everything, because fear sells. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Hey girls, welcome back to Healthy Period. And I am in my luteal phase. And if you know me, my luteal phase self just doesn't care. I'm gonna say what I want to say because somebody has to tell you what's up. And today, the spice. The a lot of you love this spicy Kate version of me, and like I'm totally embracing that. And this podcast episode, I'm so excited to record, guys, because the wellness industry has completely missed the plot. And I'm so excited to talk about it. So, right, we have questioned big pharma for years, and okay, rightfully so. We've questioned the symptom management model. We've questioned why so many women are handed a prescription, told their labs are normal, and sent on their way without anyone asking why their body's struggling in the first place. Literally, why I have a job, literally, why I coach women, is because of big pharma and my experience with the conventional medicine system. So I created a practice where women who, like me, had a lot of problems with that could go and figure out the full picture. So the criticism is valid, but somewhere along the way, wellness became its own version of the exact system it claims to be fighting. Because now, instead of a medication for every symptom, there's a supplement for every symptom. You're tired, take this adrenal supplement. You're bloated, digestive enzymes, probiotics, antimicrobials, and binders. You have acne, must be your liver, buy this detox tea. You have anxiety, it's mold, it's parasites, it's heavy metals, it's histamine, it's your vagus nerve, it's your cortisol. And before you know it, you have a cabinet full of supplements, a cart full of clean products, and a 20-step protocol, and more fear than you had when you started and you're still sick. Not because you're failing, not because you didn't take the protocol seriously, not because you didn't try, but because the wellness industry has sold women the idea that healing is something you can buy rather than something that has to be built. So when I say big wellness is bigger than big pharma, one, I am absolutely talking about market capitalization. Like actually go look at those numbers. It's crazy. But I'm also talking about cultural reach. Big pharma might show up at your doctor's appointment, but big wellness is in your phone before you even get out of bed. It's in your Instagram feed, it's your TikTok algorithm, it's your podcast cue, your targeted ads, your grocery store, your water bottle, your workout routine, your skin's skincare shelf, your kitchen cabinets. It's telling you that your symptoms are because your toothpaste is toxic, your deodorant is toxic, your cookware is toxic, your water is toxic, your food is toxic, your shampoo is toxic, your couch is toxic, your air is toxic. And listen, I'm not saying that environmental exposures do not matter. They absolutely do. And these are real, very real things I do talk about with my clients. Food quality matters, products matter, environment matters, but there's a massive difference between being informed and being terrified. Because what happens when women are told that literally everything around them is dangerous, they become scared of food, scared of food sources, scared of ingredients, scared of restaurants, scared of travel, scared of their homes, scared of their bodies, and scared that one quote unquote wrong decision will ruin everything. And now your nervous system is living in a constant state of threat. That's not wellness, that's chronic stress with a green juice and an affiliate link. So there's a very real problem in wellness right now. Fear is profitable. Fear gets clicks, fear gets shares, fear sells courses, sells supplements, fear sells testing, fear sells expensive water filters, air purifiers, gadgets, detox kits, and protocols. And if I convince you that your symptoms are caused by a hidden toxin you cannot see, cannot test for easily, and cannot escape without buying my solution, then I've created a customer for life. And women are especially vulnerable to this because so many of us have already spent years not being listened to. We've been told our fatigue is normal, painful periods are normal, anxiety is normal, bloating is normal, weight changes are normal, our hair loss is normal, our exhaustion is normal. So when someone finally says, no, I believe you, there's a reason you feel this way, that is incredibly validating. And it is. It is so validating. Your symptoms are not random, your body's communicating. You hear me talk about this constantly. But validation should not be used as a gateway into fear. It should not become your body's broken. It should not become you're living in toxins, it should not become you need to eliminate 47 foods, throw away everything in your house, stop eating at restaurants, and spend $800 a month on supplements if you want to get better. That's not empowerment. That is outsourcing your safety to a protocol. And when your nervous system is already dysregulated, when you are already exhausted, inflamed, anxious, underfed, overworked, overwhelmed, the last thing you need is another person telling you that every bite of food is a threat. The wellness industry has literally created a supplement for every single symptom. Every time I'm talking to girls in my DMs, my clients, hey, what do you think about this supplement? I should be taking this. Why are you not recommending this? And again, supplements absolutely have a place. I use supplements when they're appropriate. Nutrients matter. Targeted support can be absolutely useful. Herbs are powerful. There are times when a supplement helps fill a gap, supports a deficiency, or assists in a specific clinical picture, right? But supplements are supposed to be supportive tools. They're not supposed to become the entire foundation of your health. You cannot out-supplement five hours of sleep. You cannot out-supplement chronic under-eating. You can't out-supplement a nervous system that ever feels safe or a sedentary lifestyle, or not having any muscle mass, or unstable blood sugar. You can't out-supplement living indoors under artificial light all day and scrolling under blue light all night. You cannot out-supplement a chaotic relationship with food. And yet that is exactly what women are being sold. Magnesium for sleep. Now, I love magnesium. I am absolutely a big magnesium fan, but hear me out. Do you need magnesium if you're under-eating, if your nervous system is dysregulated, if you are super sedentary, if you have no muscle, right? We want to do all those things first. But you're also being sold that to have this beautiful adrenal blend for energy, a probiotic for bloating. Sometimes you just need to slow down and stop eating in front of screens and just chew your food. Maybe you need a liver detox for acne. Um, maybe not. Maybe you just need your skin is a mirror of your gut. So maybe if we just take a look at what are the foods that you're eating and change those, we'll see acne disappear. You don't need a cortisol supplement for stress. You don't need a parasite cleanse for fatigue, a binder for brain fog, a peptide for metabolism, a powder for hormones. Sometimes these things are helpful temporarily. Sometimes these things make a very meaningful difference. But if the terrain that created the vulnerability is never addressed, the symptoms often come back, or they just simply change. The bloating improves, but now your anxiety is worse. The acne improves, but now your digestion's a mess. The energy improves for a month and then the crash returns. The detox makes you feel terrible, but you're told that means it's working. No, sometimes feeling worse means your body's overwhelmed. More's not always better, and suffering is not proof that your protocol is effective. And I want to say this so clearly, I can't wait to get in my DMs and see who hates me for this. Functional medicine has missed the plot, too. Not all functional medicine practitioners are thoughtful, ethical, and doing life-changing work. Now, there are absolutely functional med practitioners that are absolutely incredible clinicians that are thoughtful, that are ethical, that are life-changing. But there is a growing corner of functional medicine that has recreated the same symptom-chasing model that it claims to be against. So instead of a prescription pad, it's a supplement dispensary. Instead of asking what medication can suppress the symptom, it becomes, what protocol can we sell for the symptom? 20-step supplement protocols that AI built are things that literal clients are sending me. Parasite cleanses, candida cleanses, detoxes, binders, advanced testing. Some clients aren't even sleeping four to five hours a night, and these functional medicine practitioners have women spending $400-500 on Dutch tests and GI maps. You haven't even asked the foundational questions. You're not even asking about sleep if they're eating enough, if they're eating regularly, if they have a food environment that supports them, or if they're surviving on coffee. Are they strength training? Do you have muscle? Can you deadlift? Or are you being sold a vibration plate before you've learned how to move your body under real load? These are not basic things that we can skip over because they're boring. It's biology. Sleep is biology, so is food, muscle, light, safety, movement, connection, recovery. And if we do not address those things, it is irresponsible to jump straight into a complicated protocol that asks a depleted person to take 14 supplements a day, restrict half their diet, and obsess over every symptom. And here's the issue with treating every finding as the entire root cause. Maybe someone does have H. pyolary, maybe they have SIBO, maybe there is a fungal overgrowth or a parasite exposure, a nutrient deficiency, insulin resistance, thyroid dysfunction, or something else that needs specific medical assessment and treatment. Those things should be taken seriously, they should not be dismissed, and they should not be self-diagnosed from social media. But the question can not only be how do we eradicate that thing? We also have to ask, why was the body vulnerable in the first place? What is the terrain? What are the conditions this body has been trying to survive in? Because if someone is sleeping five hours a night, running on caffeine, under eating protein, afraid of food, never seeing sunlight, you're not, you have no muscle on your frame, you're constantly stressed, and you're taking 17 supplements that are actually irritating your gut, then I'm not acting shocked when your body's not resilient. You can remove something, treat something, or suppress something. But if you do not support the terrain, you may get short-term improvement without long-term stability. And to be very clear, this is not about blaming you for being sick. It's it's the opposite. It's recognizing that your body is not a machine that needs to be bullied into compliance. It's adaptive systems responding to the inputs that it receives every day. Your symptoms are information. And the wellness industry loves to sell women complicated, expensive solutions before teaching them the basics. Why are you buying a vibration plate before you learn how to deadlift, before you do any form of strength training? Why are you wearing a $500 watch before you get to bed at a consistent time? Why are you cold plunging before you learn how to regulate stress without punishing your body? Why are you buying a red light panel before you go outside and see the sun when you first wake up? You don't need a glucose monitor before you eat enough protein, fiber, and consistent meals. You don't need a detox before you address constipation, hydration, nourishment, and sleep. And you do not need a supplement protocol that is 25 steps before asking whether you are chronically underfueled or burnt out. Again, all those tools that I mentioned are not inherently bad. The problem is the order of operations. Fancy modalities are the top 10%. You're at level 90 and you haven't passed level five, right? The foundations are level five. You gotta pass through level five before you hit level 90. And the wellness industry has made women believe they need a $3,000 wellness routine when many of them need support, creating a life where they can sleep, eat, move, rest, and feel safe and safely, consistently. It's not sexy enough to go viral. It's not sexy enough to sell, but it's actually what changes your life. And if you are listening to this with a full cabinet of supplements, a list of foods you're terrified to eat, and the feeling that your health has become a full-time job, I want you to hear me. You do not need to be afraid of everything. You do not need another influencer telling you that your body's toxic. You may need medical care. You may need testing. You may need targeted supplementation. You may need a practitioner who looks deeper than a 10 standard 10-minute appointment. But you also need someone who looks at your foundations. It's not a less advanced approach. It's actually the most advanced approach because it respects how your body actually works. The goal is not perfection. The goal is to stop chasing every symptom with another product and start understanding the pattern your body has been trying to communicate. The wellness industry wants you overwhelmed, scared, and dependent on the next thing. But healing often starts with simplifying. We're not doing more, we're not buying more, we're not fearing more. We need to understand the pattern because your symptoms are not random and you do not need another 20-step protocol before you understand what your body has been trying to tell you. And I hope you love this episode and I hope you share this with another woman in your life who you think is scared and is just trying to optimize and figure everything out. Because you can be symptom free. It just matters. The order that you're going to do this in matters. The modalities are not evil. You're just doing things in the wrong order. We're so quick to buy the next thing because we Instagram promises us it's gonna work. But you're doing things out of order. The red light therapy will work better when you do it in order. The cold plunge will work better when your body can actually handle stress. The vibration plate, I mean, I don't really know much about those things, but I want to see you strength training before I see you on a stupid vibration plate. I want to see you working on your fiber, your protein, your hydration, your food environment before you do a detox. So again, none of these things are bad. It's just you need to do them in the right order. You cannot get to level 90 without passing level five. So I hope you send this episode to another girl who is trying to get to level 90 without passing go. Because you guys really need to know this. You guys really need to know that the wellness industry is not all that it's cracked up to be. Every functional medicine practitioner is not God, not all that what they're cracked up to be either. I constantly am getting emails and DMs about these AI-created supplement protocols that these functional medicine practitioners are charging $500 for. And they literally weren't even asked about their sleep or their movement or anything else. Here's one thing that I'm gonna say that's really, really gonna hurt. If your doctor or your functional medicine practitioner does not lift weights, I would be very careful about the advice that they give you. That's all that I gotta say. I'm gonna end on that. Your muscle is the biggest metabolic organ you have. And most, if not all, of chronic disease starts with a metabolic issue. So if your practitioners are not lifting weights, are not taking care of themselves, just be careful who you listen to. Alright. I'm out, guys. I'll see you in the next one.