The Foundations of Functional Medicine

Do you remember the story of the 3 little pigs? If we build our houses out of straw or sticks, they won’t stay standing when the big bad wolf comes around. But if we have a sturdy foundation, using bricks and mortar, then the big bad wolf doesn’t stand a chance at blowing our house down! I love to use this as an analogy for good health. The stronger our foundation - by focusing on plenty of sleep, managing our stress, good nutrition, and regular movement - the better we can handle some strong winds coming our way! 

If I could share the most potent health tip I have, it would be how to help us all strengthen our foundations. It’s not necessarily easy, but it is so powerful! Let’s walk through each pillar of a strong foundation to break it down into some actionable steps.

Sleep

As a society we are far too casual about the importance of sleep. Sleep is just about the cheapest medicine out there! And trust me, I understand what a challenge getting quality rest can be – kids, stress, pets, your favorite television show, racing thoughts, and scrolling through social media come between you and your 8 hours. 

When we are asleep, our bodies are repairing damaged tissues and detoxifying our brains and bodies to be ready for the next day. A sleepless night or two isn’t the end of the world, but chronic sleep deprivation begins to deteriorate our health and we’re not as resilient as we should be. 

Here are a few more things to consider (starting right now) to improve your quality of sleep. 

💤 Aim for 7-9 hours of sleep. And if you are tired when you wake up, I would say you need a bit more than what you are getting. Deciding that something else is more important at this time (netflix, social media, sending one more email, etc) makes tomorrow quite a bit harder. So please protect this time as a gift for yourself. Your body will thank you for it!

💤 Perfect your environment. Sleeping in a completely dark room, between 65 and 67 degrees, and with little to no noise is ideal. Maybe try an eye mask or some ear plugs. They can be invaluable.

💤 Create a bedtime routine. Our bodies love routine, and creating a routine for the hour or so before bedtime does wonders. Blue light interrupts our circadian rhythm, so we want to turn off the TV and phone about 1-2 hours before bed and switch to something more relaxing, like reading, prayer, journaling, or talking with loved ones.

Stress Management

Did you know that we have between 60-70,000 thoughts each day! Most of them are repetitive and not that helpful.

We often have trouble slowing down our thoughts and not letting them take us over. We imagine all kinds of scenarios that could happen in the future or ruminate on negative experiences from our past. This kicks us into a stressed out state where we are not at our best.

Experiencing overwhelm, irritation, inability to focus or relax, sleep problems, and brain fog can all be indicators of stress-related symptoms. And the stress also triggers leaky gut which can result in gut symptoms as well as autoimmunity, mood disorders and so much more.. 

Here are some quick tips to reduce stress throughout the day:

☀️ Take a microbreak - a 3-5 minute break in our busy day to stop what we are doing and relax. Maybe we practice deep breathing. Or try a guided meditation or listen to some relaxing music. If we don't think you have 3-5 minutes in our day for this, then we probably need to take 10 minutes!

☀️ Get up and move! If we get the chance, step away from work to stretch, do a few yoga poses or go on a quick walk. The change of scenery and fresh air can do wonders for our energy and mental clarity. 

☀️ Mindful meals. It’s too easy to bring our lunch in front of the computer, watch tv, or scroll through our phones. Let’s try sitting down to simply eat our food, being mindful of each bite and the energy it will provide for us. 

Stress can be difficult to identify and manage in our day to day life.  With some small changes in this area, we might just be surprised how much better we feel!

Nutrition

What is something that each of us does often more than 3 times per day, 7 days per week, 52 weeks per year for our entire lives? Eating food! Food brings people together, elicits joy and pleasure, and provides us with energy to get through the day.

But food is also medicine, and what we eat has the power to regulate how our body functions (all the way down to a cellular level!). Nutritional advice can feel confusing with all of the diets out there – keto, vegetarian, paleo, carnivore, vegan, high fat, low fat, high protein, low carb and so on.

In reality, there is no singular diet that works for everyone. This leaves a lot of room to feel unsure when we’re roaming the aisles at the grocery store.

What we consume on a day to day basis is constantly influencing how our genes are expressed, how hormones are balanced, and the landscape of our gut microbiome. Food is usually a significant part of what we need to adjust to fully optimize our health, and improvements in symptoms from diet changes alone can be quite dramatic!

Although there isn’t a perfect answer, there are certain things we can do to optimize our health through food.

🍎🥗🥕 Look for whole foods - things that do not have long ingredient lists but are just eaten in their natural state. This includes fruits and veggies, nuts and seeds, beans and legumes, whole grains, and healthy proteins like wild caught fish, organic poultry and grass fed beef or bison. Author Michael Pollan has a great quote on this: "Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognize as food."

🍎🥗🥕 If we notice that every time we have dairy it causes a runny nose, then maybe we try cutting out dairy for a while because it seems to be problematic. It might be surprising what else improves as we remove that for a bit. The body knows best, it's talking to us through these symptoms, and it’s time to listen.

🍎🥗🥕 Cooking at home is always a better option than going out to eat. It can be so hard at the end of a long day to take the time to cook but a little prep work goes a long way. Can we plan our meals on the weekend so we know what to make and have the ingredients available? That’s half the battle. Or maybe we put something in the crockpot in the morning (I am always so grateful when 5 pm rolls around and there's nothing to do but eat!). A little planning goes a long way.

Food is fuel but also information for our bodies and even medicine if we choose wisely. 

Movement. 

Imagine our bodies are sports cars, like a ferari. Would you leave that high powered race car in the garage? Hell no! You would take it out for a spin and use it for what it was made for.

We live in a phenomenal masterpiece that was built for movement. Yet, over half of Americans lead a sedentary lifestyle. Our bodies weren’t meant to sit at a desk all day. 

The benefits associated with regular exercise are countless. I’m sure you’ve experienced the stress relief associated with doing some exercise. Exercise reduces cortisol levels, which is our stress hormone. Other benefits include improved memory, weight management, improved sleep quality, reduction of anxiety and depression, and reduced inflammation.

If you need ideas on how to fit movement into your day, here are a few tips:

🏃 Start small – Walking to the end of your block and back is so much better than nothing. Even taking breaks to walk away from our desk and get a drink of water or go to the bathroom is so beneficial for our brains and bodies. No movement is too small. 

🏃 Spend time in the morning – I know we’ve talked about the importance of sleep, but if there is no other time in the day, it’s probably worth waking up just 10 minutes earlier to move around.  

🏃 Get other people involved – Just like scheduling a class, scheduling a walk or activity with someone else holds us accountable. It’s easy to cancel on ourselves, but exercising with a friend or family member will help keep us on track. 

The Glue that Holds it All Together…

Now that we’ve covered the 4 main pillars in the foundation of our health – Sleep, Stress, Nutrition, and Movement – I’d like to talk about the glue that holds that foundation together. That’s how I see vitamin and nutrient supplementation. These are things we need in small amounts to help our bodies work optimally and allow those pillars to do their thing. 

While lifestyle practices are incredibly important, the unfortunate reality is that modern food production, processing, and storage along with our busy, on the go lives leave us with nutrient deficiencies. 

And what’s so bad about deficiencies? Well, let’s look at magnesium for an example. Magnesium is required for over 300 chemical reactions in the body, yet up to 80% of the population is deficient. When those reactions can’t run optimally, it can lead to sleep problems, anxiety, headaches and brain fog. And that’s just one mineral! 

So, with targeted supplementation, we can truly support our foundation and promote optimal health and wellness. But how do we know which ones to choose? 

My goal is to save time, energy and money by breaking down the basic supplement recommendations that will help most people have a strong foundation. 

I am so excited to share my Foundational Supplement Bundle. I have partnered with my favorite and most trusted supplement company to create this line of supplements knowing that they are of the utmost quality and potency. They are tested for purity and quality at the same standards as pharmaceuticals are. These are the supplements that I use personally and recommend to my family and patients.  

The bundle includes a potent multivitamin, high quality fish oil, magnesium, and a comprehensive probiotic. You can check out the new collection here. And for your first order, you can receive 10% off my foundational bundle with the coupon WELCOME10. 

Supplementation alone will not do it. But add in a strong foundation with sleep, nutrition, movement and stress management and you’ve got a great recipe for a long, healthy, thriving life. And we all deserve that!

In health,

Dr. Emily