Episode 35: How To Treat Diabetes and IBD without drugs? with Dr. Lara May

Prepare to be enlightened as we journey with Dr. Lara May through the transformative world of functional medicine. Dr. May expertly unveils how addressing the root causes of illness and understanding the body's interconnected systems can lead to lasting wellness instead of merely treating symptoms. 

Navigating the complexities of clinical studies, this conversation is an eye-opener about the challenges in evidencing the effectiveness of less conventional treatments, which often escape the grasp of randomized, placebo-controlled trials. Dr. May and I dissect the reasons behind these limitations, particularly the financial disincentives associated with studying non-patentable treatments like lifestyle changes. We also confront the need for a more nuanced approach to patient care that considers the individuality of each person's health journey and the intrinsic value in therapies that mainstream research may overlook.

This episode calls on you to take the reins of your health by integrating mindfulness, movement, and sleep into your daily routine. It isn't just good advice; it's a pathway to transforming your life. Together, we lay out a blueprint for a health narrative that's hopeful and actionable, urging you to embark on a 90-day challenge that could radically shift your path to vitality. For anyone ready to author their own health story, this episode is your invitation to a community that champions proactive living and self-empowerment.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:05

Welcome to the your Lifestyle is your Medicine podcast, where we do deep dives into the topics of mind, body and spirit. Through these conversations, you'll hear practical advice and effective strategies to improve your health and ultimately add healthspan to your lifespan. I'm Ed Padgett. I'm an osteopath and exercise physiologist with a special interest in longevity. Today, my guest is Dr Lara May.

Speaker 1: 0:27

She is an Amazon number one bestselling author, an advanced practice clinical pharmacist and a functional medicine health coach who specializes in functional medicine. As a clinical pharmacist, she spent a decade working in emergency rooms and adult acute care, counseling nurses, doctors, patients and families on medication regimes and treatment outcomes. But as she struggled with her own health, dr Lara started to explore functional medicine, and this has been the basis of her practice since 2017. Now she takes a particular interest in helping individuals with type 2 diabetes. This is particularly important now as, due to the pandemic, there is an alarming surge in the number of people with diabetes. She has a great podcast which really can help you understand how the mind, body and spirit work together, and she offers online coaching, which we'll talk more about at the end of this podcast, and so wait till the end to get the details. Dr May, welcome to the show.

Speaker 2: 1:26

Hi, thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.

Speaker 1: 1:28

Excellent, so I thought we'd start with getting the lay of the land. I mentioned functional medicine in the introduction there, and some people may not be sure of what the difference between functional medicine, allopathic or regular medicine or even alternative medicine is. Can you tell us about those three or even more different branches of medicine?

Speaker 2: 1:48

Sure. So allopathic or, as it's also termed, Western medicine. The typical quote, unquote traditional Western medicine is a I call it a band-aid approach. So you have an illness, you go to the doctor, you have a complaint, they give you a prescription and it treats the symptom, but very rarely the actual root cause of what is causing the problem. And functional medicine is a root cause based approach. It's a systems based approach.

Speaker 2: 2:18

So we look at the whole body. We know that our kidneys or our pancreas or our lungs or our liver don't exist in a vacuum. They're all connected, they all work together, they all feed back off of each other. And so that's how functional medicine approaches the evaluation of health. So if we take even, you know, the example of type two diabetes or even insulin resistance, we can talk about insulin resistance. Before it gets to type two diabetes, you know.

Speaker 2: 2:46

So we think of oh, am I eating too much sugar? Or, you know, that's usually the first thing that we go to and that's also the first thing. If you go to your Western medicine practitioner, that'll tell you you know, down on that sugar, move more, have some exercise. And it should get better, you know it should. Your numbers should go down. But the reality is is that stress drives our blood sugar up, and not only what we eat. But you know, inflammation may be from toxic sources. So we look at functional medicine practitioners look at a variety of factors that could be contributing inflammation, to really find out for each individual person what is that source and how do we nip it in the bud, so to speak, create it, reverse it to reestablish homeostasis in the body, Because that's what our body wants to be is in a state of balance. It's constant. No matter how sick we are, our body is constantly trying to rebalance us.

Speaker 1: 3:50

Okay, so how does functional medicine differ from alternative medicine Like, for example, chinese medicine would be considered alternative to Western medicine, but they seem to be looking for the root cause most of the time as well.

Speaker 2: 4:09

So I would say you know traditions like Chinese medicine, ayurveda, acupuncture, those types of things. They're. They're very valid. They also, like you said, look for a root cause. They have their own different approach though. So, like Chinese medicine will be looking through your meridians and trying to figure out where your meridians are blocked and open up those lines and that flow of chi. And in the Ayurvedic tradition, we're looking at your doshas and we're sort of assigning you, you know, a doshik picture or presentation of how you are now versus what your that doshik combination is that you were born with and then trying to rebalance based on that.

Speaker 2: 4:58

So functional medicine uses food as medicine and then we complement with supplements. Ideally the supplements should be short term, not lifelong. And also we're using deep dive testing. But Western medicine also doesn't use. So, like, if I'm looking at a thyroid imbalance, then there's an entire panel of tests that I'm going to run that most Western medicine physicians will not. They'll look at a fraction of what I'm going to look at. Same with cholesterol, the same with diabetes. So I can also run tests to find out if you're struggling with, you know, a mycotoxin, so a mold, toxic burden of the metals. You know lots of things. So even there's even tests that you can like map your entire GI trunct and figure out you know how balanced or what is the picture of your microbiome and sort of. We associate that, just like Western medicine does, with the symptomatic picture that you bring you present to us, and then again we come up with a protocol and a path to restoring balance.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Some of my listeners might be familiar with naturopathic medicine and it sounds similar to naturopathic medicine in that there's a food component, there's a more holistic look at a person's health and then there's a supplement component with Western medicine tests. Are they naturopathic medicine and functional medicine? Similar or different?

Speaker 2: 6:31

I think they're similar, I don't. I will just be plainly honest. I'm not sure how much testing a naturopath employs, but and that's sort of the thing that functional medicine stand out. So we have a whole you know closet full of tests we can choose from to help sort of tease out and get to that root cause of inflammation. So each person is, you know, very unique. It's very bio individual as a term that you might hear a lot in the functional medicine world is bio individuality. So we definitely never look at anything as a you know size. One person fits all things, you know. So just because you come to me with a thyroid, that doesn't mean I'm going to treat you the same way as my other client with a thyroid dysfunction, for example.

Speaker 1: 7:26

If someone's listening to this, they might be like oh, this will make sense. Why doesn't my standard primary care physician or my general practitioner work like this?

Speaker 2: 7:34

It's just not how they're trained. I'm a clinical pharmacist, trained in the Western Medicine Allopathic tradition, so I understand how we're trained. We're trained to look at the body a certain way and to find a solution with this list of medications or treatments or, you know, a certain approach that has been researched for sure but also sanctioned by certain governing agencies that do have financial and other fingers in the pot.

Speaker 1: 8:10

I'll just say that way. Okay, so yeah, now I understand that there's some financial kickbacks to the way our medical system works for the people who produce the medicines and the people who prescribe the medicines. That makes sense. I think most people understand that. But here's something that gets leveled at osteopathy, chiropractic, physical therapy, naturopathy a lot and I'm an osteopath is, they say, where's the evidence? And in this world of evidence-based medicine, people like to see a double blind, randomized, placebo-controlled study showing that this intervention, whatever it is medication or whatever it is, causes X results. But in the world of bio-individuality, how is it possible to say that what you do actually helps people if there's no clinical study to show that? Or are there clinical studies to show that?

Speaker 2: 9:06

There are more and more clinical studies that have delved into the aspects of functional medicine and the treatment approaches, more and more. But you're right In terms of the bio-individuality studies are a great way to bring that information forward and to you know if we're going to talk about primary literature and evidence-based. So you know, a case study is usually an N of one, meaning there's one subject in the study. You can also do meta-analyses and meta-analyses, you know, will bring a lot of different studies together on one topic, which they're retrospective yes, that's, you know, a big quote, unquote drawback or flaw to them. But at the same time they allow you to look at something on a broader scale and, with statistical analysis, maybe control for some of those confounders.

Speaker 2: 10:07

So it's optional, it's available, I will say that, and I think it's discounted more than it really should be. Because, let's be honest, the whole point of doing randomized placebo control, double-blind, you know all of these qualifiers that we give to the highest esteemed primary literature and research is still based on what's the financial outcome that's going to give us. It's really expensive to do a study that way. So where's that money coming from? And even if it's coming from university, the university is getting the money from somewhere or you know the government, so it's still.

Speaker 2: 10:49

nothing is without strings these days. And so, like you know, where's the money in doing research for like food, for example, like there's? If you did a research study and you found that a certain amount of spinach could completely cure and reverse cancer, well that's there's. No, you can't patent spinach, so like no, one's going to do that study.

Speaker 1: 11:11

Exactly, and it's the same in the world of osteopathy at least, where we might do spinal manipulation, so similar to what a chiropractor might do, and they say well, osteoporosis do that and chiropractors do that. Let's see how effective a manipulation is in back pain compared to exercise or analgesics or whatever, whatever their test to go for, and one that's very hard to raise money for, because if we find out that exercise is the best thing for back pain, no one makes any money. If we find out that chiropractic or osteopathy is the best thing for exercise, no one makes any money, and so people aren't really interested in that. But here's the thing for me is that as an osteopath, chiropractor, physiotherapist, you would look at the person in their entirety, and even if they have back pain, manipulation might not be the best thing to do. And so we end up with a situation where you parcel out different pieces of the therapy and then you test them and they don't really do much because or they're not proved to do much, because the people you're doing them on aren't the right people, and so the case studies, you know the end of one.

Speaker 1: 12:24

Yes, when you compare it to the way we do testing on drugs, the two things aren't comparable. We don't have hundreds of thousands of people who have this, you know double-blind random side control study, but we have an individual treatment for an individual. That's made a big difference. And it's interesting to ask you that question because I always find interesting how medical practitioners sort of answer to do with what's their standard, where's the evidence question to untreating people as individuals, because the two can't really marry together.

Speaker 2: 13:03

Yes, well, and also, too, I think that it's really important, like you said, to realize that when we're doing the highest standard of research, we have to get so specific with who we choose to be in that study, to control for all these variables, that then we make a lot of conclusions, but are those conclusions really valid? I mean, like we could even pick apart the highest standard of our evidence base and argue that it's so specific, and then we make conclusions based on this data. But is that an actual representation of real life of the patient that you're going to see every day? And so I think that's also why you know when you have a drug that comes to market or you have a treatment protocol, even within Western medicine, obviously not everyone's going to fit into that, and they're going to have reactions and they're going to have adverse effects or adverse events. And, like you said, just because you have back pain doesn't mean manipulation is the best thing for you. So all, I think, all of us practitioners, regardless of what modality we practice, we come to this because we want to help people, and so, western medicine physicians, practitioners, nps, pas, we all want to help. It's just how do we find within how we're trained and what we've learned and what we've experienced, the best way to go about that.

Speaker 2: 14:36

And so that's one of the reasons that I chose to sort of, you know, diverge off the main path as a clinical pharmacist, because I myself, as a patient, realized the limits that my physicians were able to do for me at one point.

Speaker 2: 14:54

But I knew there were more options out there and I, you know, I think, like many of us, we're tired of being told well, you know, in some respects, depending on what the complaint was, you're fine, it's only in your mind Go home, you know, leave us alone. Essentially, you're bothering us with this, you're fine. But on the other hand, when it like, like, say for like my IBS and my migraines, I had essentially reached the pinnacle of treatment options. There was nothing else to do except start playing with the medications, and those already weren't working. So, you know, there had to be something more. I knew that a life of pain and discomfort, in a vermin of ways, was not the life that I was meant to live and I kind of refused to like this is, I'm not okay with this. So, but I don't think anyone out there of any practice modality is, goes into it thinking well, you know, this is what I'm going to practice, and to hell with anyone that isn't fit in this.

Speaker 1: 15:57

You know little little mold here, so so tell me a little bit more about that. So you personally had IBS and migraines and you got to the end of how far Western medicine can help you, and then you went into the functional medicine world. Is that correct?

Speaker 2: 16:15

Yes, that is correct. I started having migraines when I was 19. By the time I was 23,. I was diagnosed with IBD At the time is called IBS. Now we call it IBD, which is now considered an autoimmune dysfunction.

Speaker 2: 16:31

I think within that realm, though you know, western medicine gives a lot of labels to autoimmune meaning. We don't know why it's happening. We can call it nitrogenic if you want to, but we do know that the immune system is inflamed and it is working against the body the natural course of the healing mechanism of the body because that's what the immune system is there for. It's supposed to be our healing mechanism but if it's constantly turned on, then it can actually be damaging and inflammatory. So so, yeah, so I started.

Speaker 2: 17:05

I found a functional medicine practitioner locally. She was also a chiropractor and she's so one of the first ones that took the time to really investigate again everything in one big picture. So you know, because migraines and IBD are both inflammatory, but they're just presenting in two different parts of the body. So it was sort of and it seems so like it should be logical, especially those of us that we've gone through all this schooling. We understand the human body is one big organism, but we just don't look at it or treat it that way in the allopathic tradition. And so that whole concept of okay, let's look at the hormone pathways, let's look at the inflammatory pathways, the neurotransmitters, all of those things. And now we even know that you know the gut brain connection and how powerful that is in terms of you know, when our mind is going a million miles a minute, that can really lead to inflammation in the gut. So anxiety, depression, emotional struggles they can lead to very real physical consequences.

Speaker 1: 18:18

So it goes both ways between the gut and the brain, like people talk about it going from the gut to the brain. But you just said I think you can go from the brain to the gut. Is that right? Yes, that's what I said. Yes, tell me, I haven't really heard that before. Tell me about that.

Speaker 2: 18:31

Well, if you think about you know when I think this has been coming up a lot just within these discussions, but also with my science too is that we all have a million thoughts running through our brains at any one moment and a lot of us struggle with anxiety or sort of like being turned on all the time, like our brains are just racing with thoughts, whether we want to label it anxiousness or anxiety or not. And when we're doing that, those thoughts, if they are Demulating that fight or flight, the worry, the anxiousness, then that is cranking up the cortisol, it's cranking up the norepinephrine, the epinephrine, which is our stress response. That stress response downstream of the body, you know, it affects the motility of our gut. It affects, you know, the pH balance, and when that happens, most of our neurotransmitters are made in our GI tract. So if what we're thinking is herning up our inflammatory response and then thereby affecting how we're able to even make neurotransmitters in our gut which are then transported to the brain, you can see that cycle and that connectivity.

Speaker 1: 19:55

You know, if you're nervous you can get out sort of an upset stomach, but I hadn't really thought about it's the brain creating the upset stomach and it is your thoughts and thought patterns. Okay, so I want to take this approach for functional medicine and sort of work it through for someone who might have type two diabetes. And so in the normal Western medicine they would, like you mentioned earlier in the forecast, they go to the GP there or their physician and they say look, your blood sugar is a little bit too high, make some adjustments, bring that back down, maybe lose some weight, something like that. If it doesn't, no problem, we'll give you some drugs to take care of it. So that's the normal medical model in a nutshell. How would a functional medicine practitioner deal with this?

Speaker 2: 20:45

So when one comes to me they say my doctor told me that I'm an early stage diabetic or have insulin resistance, what do I do? How do I get these numbers to go in the right direction? Or even I did what my doctor said I have eliminated some things that I know are bad for me, but my numbers are still going up. What's going on? So the first thing that I do as I test for food sensitivities, nutrient deficiencies and toxic burden load because we talked a little bit about that earlier looking for that source of inflammation. And again, everyone's different. So the first line approach is always in functional medicine, food is the medicine. So what are you eating? Let's get detailed. Let's get specific. When are you eating? Are you eating around the clock? Are you eating every two hours? Are you only eating one meal a day? Are you eating standing up? Are you eating right before you go to sleep? Are you eating on the run, always in the car? What is? I want the whole picture, because all of these things matter.

Speaker 2: 21:56

If, even if you're eating, let's say, a super clean, grain-free, low carb, high nutrient content style, if you're always eating on the go, if you're never given your body the chance to rest and digest, then it's probably not absorbing the nutrients that you're ingesting. And you're keeping that fight or flight, that inflammatory cortisol-seeking system, turned on all the time and that is going to pump more glucose out of your liver, which then goes into the bloodstream. It exhausts the pancreas, which the pancreas is the organ that's supposed to pump out the insulin and that insulin is supposed to grab on to that glucose. Well, when it does that glucose, insulin is the storage molecule. So the more you do this, the more you have this cycle going and going, going, turned on and on and on.

Speaker 2: 22:53

You're going to gain weight because your body is constantly pumping out insulin, because it's constantly pumping out glucose. And then if you add on any extra sugar that you're eating, then that's where we have these numbers that just don't seem to go down. So when I think this is really awakening for a lot of my clients because I get a lot most of my clients I'm obviously not their first practitioner so they've been to the GP, they've done the things, or they've at least tried, and it hasn't worked. And sometimes they're like, well, you know, screw it, I'm going to go back to what I was doing, because at least then I was happier than yeah.

Speaker 2: 23:39

So so that's sort of the first piece is we look at those food sensitivities to get that very personalized picture of what's inflammatory for you, the individual, and what is the picture of anti-inflammatory. So again, maybe you've been doing a paleo or keto anti-inflammatory approach based on a book or an article or something, but if you're eating a whole bunch of nightshade vegetables, peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, avocado, all of these things that do have nutritional value, but nightshades are notoriously inflammatory and it's possible you could be adding more inflammation to your quote, unquote healing protocol than you actually mean to and sort of you know, shooting yourself in the foot along the way. So it's important to look at these things and and I think that's one of the real values of working with a functional medicine practitioner is we take that deeper dive to come up with something that's very personalized to you. And so then the next step is that nutrient deficiency test, and so I want to see you know how what's your B vitamin balance, what's your vitamin D level, what's your iodine level, vitamin C, all these things, so that we know we're going to supplement smart, we're not just going to like carpet bomb you with supplements. That's a waste of money and a waste of time, and so we need to help the body exactly where it needs it.

Speaker 2: 25:08

So very precision based medicine I would say to is that functional medicine approach. And then, of course, looking at where's the body holding toxicity, and what kind of toxicity is it so? Is it mold? Is it heavy metals, you know? Is it a small intestinal bacterial overgrowth? S, I, b, o? And of course this is all correlated back with the symptomatic picture that you present to me. So that's sort of the long winded answer.

Speaker 1: 25:37

So let's say you're testing someone and you find out that they are lacking in certain vitamins. Let's say that the B, the B vitamins, what's a common reason that someone wouldn't have high levels or high enough levels of B vitamin?

Speaker 2: 25:51

There can be a variety of reasons. The first issue could just be nutrient deficient food, which unfortunately in the Western world we have completely depleted our soils of all the micro flora that lives in the soil that helps bring the vitamins up through the roots into whatever you're eating. But it could also be lifestyle. How much alcohol are we drinking? We know that alcohol completely depletes the body of B vitamins. And then I I really love my patients that come to me having done a little bit of genetic testing and honestly, not a lot of people have. But if I'd like to know if they have that MTHFR snip. And so because if they have that, then it's harder to absorb and digest those B vitamins and assimilate them into where they're needed. And say if you are deficient in some B vitamins, I'm going to suggest that you take a methylated formulation anyway, just because even if you don't have the snip, it's easier for your body to assimilate that. It's like one less step of digestion in order for those vitamins to get to where they need to be, and just so we're all clear. So your audience is clear.

Speaker 2: 27:04

The whole point of vitamins is that throughout our entire body functions off enzymatic reactions, and enzymatic reactions require what we call co-factors, so little little bits that help the reaction actually take place. So that's what a B vitamin or zinc, or iodine or any of these micronutrients or vitamins do in the body. They are the link to the reaction which is, you know, very much integral in our proper function. So when we are deficient in these tiny little micronutrients and vitamins that's why it has such big consequences is because these are, you know, chemical reactions that take place in order to help us again maintain homeostasis and balance.

Speaker 1: 27:57

And can you explain the methylation aspects? Why would it be advantageous to have a vitamin that's methylated?

Speaker 2: 28:06

In the world of organic chemistry we have, there's a group that's called a methyl group, and it's sort of hanging out here at the edge of our big, long, beautiful organic molecule. And in order for that molecule to and in this case we'll call it a B vitamin to be assimilated, let's say, through the liver and into the bloodstream, that methyl has to be taken off in order for it to go in, for it to be transported into the cell. And so if you have a product that's not methylated but make sure I'm explaining this in the correct order of operations then in order for your body to be able to take that nutrient into the cell, it's going to have to go through an extra step of chemical process, chemical reaction, in order for that to happen. So that's, and so for those of us that have that MTHFR SNP, whether you have one or two of them, the heterozygous or homozygous you could be predisposed to having trouble making that chemical reaction, which makes you at a higher risk for being nutrient deficient in this case, but it also affects your detox pathways.

Speaker 2: 29:27

So how readily able are you to get rid of all these toxins that we're exposed to on a daily basis? And so that's really where the NTHFR and I think the big implications are is are those detox pathways, and so I found that, for those of us, and by myself, have one of the two SNPs, so we just have to be much more cognizant of what are those detox mechanisms that we're utilizing to help our body. Are we sauna-ing? Are we dry brushing? Are we having regular bowel movements? Anything and everything to help your body unload the toxins that we're bombarded with every day?

Speaker 1: 30:13

So if you have this methyl SNP on your DNA, you're hit with a bit of a double whammy, in that you have trouble absorbing the nutrients that are going to help also get the nutrients into the right places. Plus, you might have problems breaking down some of the toxins to get them out. Is that right?

Speaker 2: 30:33

Right, yes, and it's not just toxins too. It's also, you know, our natural hormone byproducts. So if we were to talk about, you know, women's health, when we, when our body makes testosterone, progesterone and estrogen from cortisol, it, there's different pathways and when we get to the estrogen piece, there's E1, 2, and 3. Only one of those types of estrogen is anti-inflammatory. The other two are pro-inflammatory, and if our body can't get rid of those other two, then that can increase your risk for developing certain types of cancer experiencing estrogen-dominant symptoms. So it has significant consequences throughout the body, but even for hormone health as well.

Speaker 1: 31:28

Let's go back to potentially women's health and inflammation. You mentioned that you had this IBD that was is now categorized as autoimmune condition, but you also have migraines and you you must have done something to get rid of these symptoms or get them under control, but you never told us what it was. What happened in the end?

Speaker 2: 31:50

So it was a stepwise approach. I my first step was eliminating gluten, and this was before I did any testing. But it was during that time it was probably about 15 years ago now where I thought, well, there's this whole fad of gluten-free, I'm going to try it to see, we want to see if it'll help me feel better. So I and I was the beginning of my health coach training, and so I was learning more and getting curious and I thought, well, I'll, you know, experiment on myself. What have I got to lose? I'm already feeling like crap those days anyway. So I eliminated gluten, excuse me, and at about, you know, a week felt better. Two weeks felt even better. Three weeks I just kept feeling better and better the further out I got. From that, you know, day one of elimination. And so then the next step for me was dairy house products, and that for me, was life changing.

Speaker 2: 32:55

My skin cleared up, the migraines, which had decreased a little bit with the eliminating gluten, really took a step back once I got rid of the dairy. And and again, I think it's important to remember that when you're going through this process there are benefits that you will feel right away, but the longer you go, the more your body heals, the better you feel. So it's definitely an additive, cumulative effect. So you know, I would encourage anyone out there, just stick with it, you know, just tell yourself one more day and one more day and hopefully, each day you start feeling better and better.

Speaker 2: 33:38

And then, after the dairy, then I went on, so which now I've, I've wrote, I can. So again, like some of these eliminations this is what I'll tell my clients too, depending on their food results is, some of these eliminations don't have to be permanent, but let's give your body that rest time, that recovery time, that container to to heal and to make more healthy cells and and all that good stuff, and then we can reintroduce and see how your body reacts. And so, like for me with I tried reintroducing dairy and immediately, like, my throat was getting scratchy, you know, my sinuses were starting to become all inflamed again. So that to me was pretty blaring association of inflammation and triggering, if you will.

Speaker 1: 34:50

And do you feel like that for you would be a permanent state that the reaction to dairy or even gluten is there forever? Or is there a way to change your gut microbiome or the way you you prepare the dairy so that you could eat it in the future?

Speaker 2: 35:09

For me with dairy, I know now, because I've done the testing, that I have a casein allergy. So I can have sheep and goat product no problem. But anything with whey, casein, any of those cow proteins just, my body does not agree with, so I pretty much stay away from it. As you know, 90%, 99%. Every now and then, you know, I'll eat out or be at a party or something. You know something, and I'll succumb to the weakness of cheese, Right, right.

Speaker 1: 35:44

But I believe there's casein A. I think it's called A1 and A2. And one of those is commonly more sort of allergy producing than the other. Have you heard of that?

Speaker 2: 35:56

I haven't, but I don't doubt it because we know that there's different structures of these proteins and I could totally see how one would be more allergenic than another. And I'm sure it could also depend on the animal and how the animal was raised Exactly.

Speaker 1: 36:15

So just for our listeners, as I understand it, there's different types of proteins and milk and the ones that the milk that's commercially produced in the US comes from a type of cow that predominantly produces A1, casein protein. But cheese, sorry, milk from sheep, camel, yak, whatever they all have A2. But there are cows that produce A2. They're kind of smaller cows. They are less commercially solutive for farmers, but apparently and this is an apparently, it's a rumor in Whole Foods you can now buy milk that has the type of casein protein written on it. So A1 or A2 protein in Whole Foods, oh and so the idea is that you probably pay an arm and a leg for it, but the A2 protein is less allergenic.

Speaker 2: 37:07

Well, and I do, you know, for my clients that don't have a casein allergy, I still encourage them to trial an elimination phase of dairy. Just again because, if you're, most of us do not have the luxury of having unpasteurized, happy cow raised, organic dairy right next door, and even some states in the US it's illegal to sell unpasteurized dairy. And the reason I say unpasteurized is because that's where all the good stuff is Like. Really, cow's milk from a good, healthy cow has a lot of Omega's and a lot of good things in it good fat, which is really great for your health, good fat, which is really great for our brain. So so I'm not like anti-dairy, but I'm very picky about how it's raised. What's the source of, you know, of meat dairy, that sort of thing All right.

Speaker 1: 38:03

So let's bring it back to we were going down to the road of the functional medicine practitioner how they would work with someone who had typed you diabetes, differently from a Western medical practitioner, and you did a great job of outlying how you would do that. But what else would they do with regards to a wider look at their lives? You mentioned, for example, the deep testing. You mentioned nutrition. What else could a functional medical practitioner, or even yourself, recommend for someone who wants to change their lives?

Speaker 2: 38:40

One of the things we haven't talked about I mean I talked about a little was the stress you know. What kind of daily stress are you carrying and dealing with? You know, every day, and getting real about that and getting honest, because a lot of us exist at a level that we think is normal and is no big deal, but is actually wreaking havoc in our lives and in our body. So so I look at that. I would look at sleep how well are you sleeping? How long are you sleeping? What time of day or night are you sleeping? I used to be a shift worker. I worked a graveyard shift in a hospital for over a decade, so I understand the implications of shift work on the body.

Speaker 2: 39:24

I was in denial for a really long time because I called myself a champion sleeper. Yes, I can sleep during the day, but that doesn't mean it's good for my body, Right? So so, sleep, stress, movement how? How are you moving? How often? How long are you enjoying it? Because even if you're hitting the gym, but hating every minute of it, you're not getting the full benefit and I would argue that you're possibly causing your body more inflammation. So, finding something that you love to do, building those endorphins while moving, getting out in nature.

Speaker 2: 40:01

And then you know, I'm a big fan of meditation and so I do encourage my clients to build some sort of meditation and mindfulness Mindfulness practice. And and I say those two things separately because meditation is the act of calming the breath, calming the mind, calming the body. Sitting. You can do it walking, but typically it's sitting, still becoming quiet and calm, coming into your heart space, even if it's just listening to yourself breathe. That's meditation.

Speaker 2: 40:32

But mindfulness is becoming aware of our thoughts and how we respond to those thoughts.

Speaker 2: 40:40

So those worrying thoughts that we talked about earlier, that can cause your stomach to be upset, that whole mind, body, you know brain, gut connection, really starting to become aware of what am I thinking, or how am I feeling today, and identifying that feeling. And then, once you've identified the feeling, OK, well, what am I thinking at this time that I'm having this feeling, whether it's good or bad or indifferent, just starting to associate those two things and understanding that our thoughts create our feelings, our feelings create our actions and our actions create the results. So that's how I incorporate the coaching aspect into this is, you know, because a lot of my clients come to me very frustrated frustrated with the healthcare system, frustrated with themselves, thinking that they must be doing something wrong or not doing something right. So you have this result, and so it's important, I think, to bring light and awareness to those thoughts, Because it really brings empowerment back into the individual and realizing that you can change anything with your thoughts about it.

Speaker 1: 41:55

So when a patient comes to see you, they might go on this journey from the initial. I've got this problem. I'm frustrated with the medical system, to the medical tests, to the results, to the life, the nutritional changes, to lifestyle modifications, to meditation. How long does this normally take?

Speaker 2: 42:18

I usually work with clients one-on-one in a container of 90 days. That doesn't mean it's going to change their life in 90 days.

Speaker 2: 42:28

Oh, absolutely, they're dedicated and committed, absolutely, yeah, yeah, and I will even say I've seen clients have big turnarounds in just the first 30 days. Again, motivation and commitment and very ready and willing to do whatever it takes. Yes, for those that might need a little bit more accountability or steering, maybe like holding along the way, no big deal, we're all different, we all have our own journey and path of discovery to go on. But, yeah, so it doesn't even have to take 90 days to start to feel better. Like I said, just a few little augmentations of your diet, lifestyle, just those two things can have huge impacts. Then I find that once people are feeling better, then they have the capacity to start filling in with some more of these less physical aspects of the healing journey.

Speaker 1: 43:36

If someone's appetite has been whetted for this functional medicine approach, what should they look for in a functional medicine doctor before they start working with someone?

Speaker 2: 43:50

I think that it's really important for anyone out there to be able to talk to your practitioner and also for your practitioner to be a good listener. It's not just about slapping a label on someone and throwing a protocol at them and saying, okay, good luck, let me know how it goes. It's more about are they listening? Do they ask questions? Do they create something that is personalized to you? If something's not feeling right or working or going in the right direction along the way, are they willing to change it and try something else, try something new? I think all of those things are really important.

Speaker 2: 44:35

I would say any of your practitioners, whether it's your GP or your functional medicine practitioner, don't be afraid to interview them. When we get on these in the industry, sometimes called the discovery call or health history call or whatever we get into this dynamic of oh, you're the practitioner, so you're up here, and I'm the client or the patient, so I'm down here. You know more than me, so I'm going to give you all my power. That's not the way I like to practice. I encourage patients and clients to really take that power back and empower yourself. This is your health, this is your journey. Ask questions, be involved, be an advocate for yourself and know that you're the creator of this journey and your practitioner is a guide along the way.

Speaker 1: 45:28

And how would someone contact you if they were interested in working with you a little bit more?

Speaker 2: 45:33

So I am at DrOleromacom that's D-R-L-A-R-A-M-A-Ycom, and there is a tab right on the front of my website where you can call me directly, and if I'm unavailable, you can definitely leave a message and I will call you back. You can also go ahead and sign up for a session directly on my website if you go to DrOleromacom, and that's where all of my sessions live. So functional medicine, intuitive healing sessions and life coaching sessions. So I have three different options and if you're looking for, again, a customized package maybe you want an aspect of all three of those things then I love creating custom healing plans with my clients.

Speaker 1: 46:23

Well, DrMay, thank you so much for being on the show. I think that was super enlightening and you gave a lot of value to my audience.

Speaker 2: 46:30

Well, thank you so much for having me, and I really do wish the best for all of your listeners. And again, just remember that you guys are the creator of your health, and so it can be so much fun and so powerful when you really step into that power.

Speaker 1: 46:47

Thank you for joining me in my conversation with Laura May. Now, if you've enjoyed listening to and learning from this podcast, please leave me a comment, and you can also leave a suggestion for future podcast guests that you would like us to feature. Now, if you're an apple, you can leave us a comment and a five star review if you're so inclined. Now remember, if you're my direct help, you can send me an email at edpagetcom or visit my website edpagetcom, and while you're there, you can learn a little bit more about how I can help you and hopefully we can work together to make your lifestyle your medicine.