The Functional Nurse Academy Podcast

Why Patients Feel Sick Despite "Normal" Labs: What Every Functional Nurse Should Know

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This episode is brought to you by The Functional Nurse Academy

In this episode, I explain why "normal" lab results do not always mean optimal health and how a functional medicine approach can identify dysfunction long before chronic disease develops. I walk through some of the most important functional lab markers for thyroid health, blood sugar regulation, and immune function, while sharing my personal journey with Hashimoto's disease and chronic Lyme disease to illustrate the limitations of conventional testing. I also discuss how functional nurses can help identify patterns, educate clients, and collaborate with healthcare providers to uncover root causes and support lasting healing. 

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

SPEAKER_00

Hello and welcome to the Functional Nurse Academy podcast. This is your host, Melissa Schreibwetter, owner and founder of the Functional Nurse Academy. And the Christian Functional Medicine Academy. Welcome everyone. As always, it's so great to be here with you all today. Today is another one of my solo episodes because I just really wanted to talk about functional medicine testing. You know, functional medicine testing is actually one of the reasons why I got my health back. Because again, if I went the conventional route, I would have never been properly diagnosed with chronic Lyme disease. And another reason that I'm so passionate about this is even before my Lyme disease diagnosis. For 10 years, I went through the system with all of these random symptoms being told by medical providers that nothing was wrong with me and that my labs were normal. And I had to just be making up symptoms in my head. But what is actually wrong in the system? It wasn't that I was just imagining my symptoms. It is the fact that in the United States, the conventional medical model is using what is considered a statistical average of the US population for what is considered to be normal lab results. But that model, that method does not work in a country with a significantly high chronic disease rate. So I do want to start off just by explaining that I cannot tell you how many individuals that I have worked with professionally in my practice, personal experiences, experiences with family members and friends. I hear it all the time where people are saying, My doctor says all my labs are normal, but I know that something is wrong. I know something's not right. So these people may be exhausted, you know, unexplained fatigue. They may be gaining weight. They may have difficulty remembering things. They may explain that they have brain fog. They may have anxiety, depression, joint pain, hair loss, you name it. There are a multitude of symptoms. So something is wrong in the body. They know it in the gut, but then around and around and around in the system, they continue to hear consistently. Everything looks normal. And so I really wanted to use this show today to just take the opportunity to explain why this is happening in detail. I want to talk in more depth about some must-have lab testing and how to look at it functionally. And I also just want to mention, just real quick, very quickly, for this episode, it absolutely is educational only. And it is not about self-diagnosing. It's about understanding how to look for functional medicine patterns and to catch things earlier. So uh the first part of this show, just really diving into the content here, I want to talk about why normal doesn't mean optimal. I rushed over this in my intro, but I did want to mention that we know good and well that Americans are becoming increasingly unhealthy. And I hate to quote CDC statistics. I really hate to quote the CDC, but we know that they actually do collect good data. So even the CDC is reporting that over 40% of US Americans are struggling with obesity. And in particular, this this was really interesting. So there was a study coming out. Uh, this is an analysis from Tufts researchers published in the American College of Cardiology back in 2022. And they found that less than 7% of American adults have optimal cardiometabolic health. So, I mean, can you imagine this? Okay, this is how bad off the US population is. So we should have this very, you know, kind of narrow reference range because we don't want to just look at what you need to survive. We want to look at what you need to thrive, but instead they are pulling statistics from lambs from a very sick population of people. And no wonder why we have all of these people that may be in the beginning stages of a disease process and they're not getting help until they eventually break. It's really sad. And again, this is why I am such a believer in functional medicine. When it is done properly and with integrity, because as I rant all the time, I know that it's unfortunate. You know, there are individuals saying that they are practicing functional medicine, but they're not doing it appropriately and they're just pushing products, you know? So when uh functional medicine is done appropriately with a qualified professional and practice with integrity, functional medicine can really help to identify dysfunctions that can then, if they're not addressed, contribute to developing disease processes. So there's so many things that we can do to help people. And I also wanted to give another example here, guys. I've mentioned about how this happened to me on my thyroids. Even though I don't have any symptoms today, I feel good. Thank the Lord, I feel good today and I'm no longer sick. But I do have to take medicine. I actually have to take thyroid hormone because, oh gosh, we're about 10 years of being extremely symptomatic, many, many symptoms. I just could not get a provider to do a thorough thyroid panel. And so what had happened and in functional medicine, we understand that over 90% of these hypothyroid cases are actually caused by the autoimmune condition, fastest autoimmune condition in the country called Hashimoto's. Now, many providers still in nurse practitioner school and in med school and in PA school, they are still to this day being told that with autoimmune conditions, there's just not much we can do about it, but managing them with medications. They're not teaching providers that there's things that we can do naturally to modulate the immune system, to calm down the immune system. And we also know that things like infections, toxins, intestinal permeability, genetic variations, stress, there are so many of these known identified factors that we know can trigger autoimmune conditions. So, but again, that's not being taught in the vast majority of medical schools. So a lot of these providers get out of school and they just think that with autoimmune conditions, we just need to wait until it gets so bad that that person needs to go on an immune suppressant medication. And anyway, so the lab that I needed to diagnose my Hashimoto's, which I no one would order this for me in 10 years. And again, back then I was very trusting of the system. So, you know, my providers, I thought they were ordering all of the tests that they should be ordering. They did not for 10 years order a thyroid antibody test, which is a test that would be used in the diagnosis of Hashimoto's. Many of them do not order that test because it's not a standard recommendation for the guidelines because the guidelines are outdated and then don't recognize that autoimmune conditions, there are many, many ways that we can reduce the autoimmune attack. So, anyway, um that was a $14 test out of pocket that I could not get for 10 years. So I had this just really significant out-of-control case of Hashimoto's causing all of these symptoms. And by the time that I got diagnosed, I did not get diagnosed, guys, until it was so bad that it caused me to have a goiter. And it caused me to just gain weight out of nowhere and start losing my hair. And I was so sick they couldn't deny that there was something wrong with me. And by the way, while I'm speaking to you all today, I no longer have a goiter. That was temporary. Again, very thankful for that. And I have a full head of hair now and I got all of those things under control. But anyway, after I learned I had Hashimoto's and my antibodies were sky high, they were 7,000, which is very, very high. Once I started really taking care of my diet, gluten-free, anti-inflammatory diet, taking things like selenium, which we know that selenium has been shown in clinical studies to reduce thyroid antibodies up to 40 to 50% within three to four months of use. So I did multiple targeted interventions. And then I got my antibodies down from 7,000 to 100. And the medical providers don't, they don't know that that is something that's possible. A lot of them don't believe that it's even, you know, important or necessary to test for something like Hashimoto's because they are not learning these things in school. But anyway, because I went through that and my thyroid is so severely damaged on an ultrasound. And this is a weird reason why I don't want to go back to an endocrinologist. Last time I went to an endocrinologist and I do not cry often, guys. I cry maybe like once a year. I left their office crying because they thought it would be appropriate after I told them that I did not want to see what my thyroid looked like on an ultrasound. Because again, I was very upset that I was going to be medication dependent. I was very upset that this is a condition that went undiagnosed for 10 years because nobody would listen to me or order the appropriate testing. The endocrinologist, after hearing me say all of that, still thought that she should just be pointing out to me on the ultrasound all of these gaping holes that I had in my thyroid. So again, because of that situation, um, I've I have gotten my health under control, but I must take thyroid hormone. My thyroid is incapable of producing thyroid hormone. So I am in a situation where I am medication dependent. And anyway, uh, and I remember when I went through all of this just thinking, and I was like, I have been gaslit by so many medical providers. And I actually thought to myself, this is like way before the Functional Nurse Academy. I thought, if only I just had a nurse, you know, somebody on my side that could, you know, look at the labs that the provider is ordering and make sure that I was getting the right labs. If only I had that person to help me when I was going through all of these things and I was sick and I was overwhelmed, I could have prevented lifelong medication usage. So anyway, um, and and again, like I just can't tell you. Like it's um I did have to go through all of this, but I really do think it's a situation where, you know, I don't really feel like, oh, all this bad stuff happened to me. I feel like, in a way, it happened for me that way I can use this really negative experience to help so many people around the country. And uh yeah, and I just think it's great how God can use these unfortunate circumstances to just build something beautiful out of it. But uh, but yeah, no, I'm really excited about the work that I am doing today and kind of breaching over into labs that are really, really important. I want to talk about thyroid dysfunction because it is not normal. Like when God designed the miraculous human body, our bodies are amazing, guys. I am just, I learn things every single day. And God did not design our thyroid glands to just crap out on us uh in, I don't know, 20, 30, 40 years. They are supposed to last for a lifetime. And the thyroid is responsible. We actually have thyroid hormone receptors all over the body. The thyroid is responsible for so many functions. The thyroid helps, it basically helps with the temperature control of the body. The thyroid helps with digestion, with our metabolism. Fluggish thyroid means sluggish everything. Okay, so when the thyroid is not functioning properly, we can just see multi-system issues that then can contribute to other diseases. So it really is, it's so incredibly important. And hypothyroidism is becoming very common. It's it's extremely common in our country. And what's interesting is around 20 million Americans have some form of thyroid disease, with hypothyroidism being the most common disease. But I would really challenge those guys because I think that there are so many undiagnosed thyroid disorders. Because when we talk about outdated reference ranges, I truly believe that the thyroid reference ranges are some of the worst reference ranges. And I also believe that the standard of care for thyroid disease also is among one of the worst because there are so many individuals with thyroid issues that are either undiagnosed or they're not treated properly. And I'm not gonna name off all of these uh reference ranges here for you guys. Um, but I do want to give you guys a reference for anything and everything thyroid. So, Dr. Isabella Wentz, I am going to post her episode in the show notes, but she also suffered with Hashimoto's disease, and she's also known as the thyroid pharmacist. And she has a just plethora of information on thyroid. And you can go to her website and you know find ranges for optimal lab ranges. You also can find references on her website about the different types of thyroid medication. But anyway, so I want to give you guys a couple of examples. So, what I like to teach individuals when we are helping to screen people for thyroid dysfunction, I recommend a full thyroid panel, which is typically a TSH T4-free, T3 free, reverse T3 is a lab that's very important if they are on thyroid hormone because you want to look to see how that's converting. And then, of course, TPO and TGA antibodies, which that can test for the, again, fastest growing autoimmune condition called Hashimoto's disease. Now, there is another autoimmune thyroid condition called Graves disease. However, that is a pretty rare condition, but the antibody test for that is called TSI. Now, that's a more expensive test. So that's something why I certainly wouldn't just recommend ordering that on everyone. But again, you know, the thyroid panels are really affordable, even if you're not using your insurance. This is something that functional nurses absolutely can order. The functional nurses who are not nurse practitioners can order this panel through a partnering laboratory. But to give you just a little example, I mentioned the full thyroid panel that I like to use. Now, the standard ranges and the standard testing that is typically recommended is usually just a TSH and a T for free. Now, um the TSH is basically the brain telling the thyroid to work. It's not actually a thyroid marker in itself. However, if the thyroid is becoming sluggish for some reason, usually there's an immune system issue, the brain then will send more signaling to the thyroid to work harder. So when we see the TSH increasing, it's kind of like the brain from the pituitary gland is starting to raise its voice at the thyroid. Hey, thyroid, wake up, produce more hormone. Our hormones are getting low. And uh, so that is a marker that is, it's a great marker. Um, it is part of the standard recommendation guidelines. However, the standard range for that is ridiculous. It is 0.5 to 5. And that is way too broad of a range. An optimal range is actually gonna be more around a one. Now, um, we know that uh another there, another marker that is part of that standard testing is the T4 free. Now, when we talk about the T4 free, this is our thyroid gland is gonna produce approximately 80% T4 and approximately 20% T3. Now, T4 is the less biologically active thyroid hormone. So the T4 is then going to get converted to T3. Now, T3 is the most biologically active thyroid hormone. When you hear T3, and again, T3 is not something that is usually ordered on standard testing. And again, a very affordable thyroid hormone to order. But when you guys think about T3, I want you to think about your good hair hormone, your energy, your weight loss. And there is even evidence in the scientific literature of women experiencing depression. And then when they are given T3, that starts to improve. And that is actually exactly what happened to me when I had first developed hypothyroidism and I was treated only on T4 thyroid hormone. So again, when we just look at the TSH and the T4 free and we are looking at these reference ranges that are ridiculously too broad, we are missing a lot. And something else that is uh unique about how they got to be ranges for the thyroid handles. Now, because thyroid disease is so common, the pool of people that they use to determine the standard ranges, some of those individuals already had thyroid disease. And then some of those individuals were elderly. Is someone who is uh say an elderly man is his, you think his thyroid hormone production is gonna look the same as a woman in their 20s, you know? So um there's just there's so much evidence that this needs to be revised. And I will say I do think functional medicine providers are actually really good at. They uh this is well, well known among functional medicine that this is an area that is very undertreated. So a good general rule of thumb, TSH around one, and then ordering both of the free thyroid hormones, T4 free, T3, three, and then that may be around the top half of the reference range or around the top third. But I want you guys to remember when you see those free thyroid hormones and they are hovering around the bottom of the reference range, and that person is symptomatic, that is something that is going to be worth further evaluation. And uh something else I wanted to mention. Now, the standard of care guidelines, I remember when I was a nurse working in the hospital. I also like to call those days when I used to work in the pits of hell. But anyway, when I used to work in the hospital, every time I had an individual who had a hypothyroidism diagnosis, they were typically on levothyroxine. So levothhyroxine is the generic drug for synthroid, and it is a synthetic T4. However, we know that the vast majority of people that have hypothyroidism have autoimmune condition. And we know that individuals with autoimmune conditions, well, the pre precursor to even developing an autoimmune condition, is intestinal permeability an issue in the gut. And if we know for a fact that the thyroid hormone T4 is converted in the gut, and these individuals who have thyroid disease also have gut issues, why in the world are we just giving them T4 only medications and then they go on T4 and they still feel bad? So what does the provider do? Well, the provider then is gonna prescribe them a PPI for their reflex. Because again, you need sufficient thyroid hormone to produce stomach acid. And then the person may also start feeling depressed. You need sufficient thyroid hormone for your brain health. So then they usually end up on PPIs and antidepressants such as SSRIs. And we all know that those cause more issues, more nutrient deficiencies, and more symptoms. And another thing, I have heard this myth over and over within conventional medical spaces that there's no reason to even test for thyroid antibodies because if someone has Hashimoto's, there's nothing that we can do about it. We know that's not true, but I also want to just shed light that uh thyroid antibodies, and I'm reading from the title of a study here that I'm gonna post in the show notes. But anyway, um, we have we have the evidence here. Um, one of the studies titled The Relationship Between Thyroid and Human Associated Microbiota. And uh that kind of goes to show that there is a gut thyroid connection. The one about the antibodies, thyroid antibodies and Hashimoto's thyroiditis patients are positively associated with inflammation and multiple symptoms. So when my antibodies were high, I cannot tell you how many symptoms that I had. I mean, I had everything from chest pain to breathing issues to brain fog to anxiety. And now that I have my health under control, my antibodies hover around. I still test positive for it, but they're around 100 and they're no longer 7,000. I don't have any of those symptoms anymore. And so again, the just more evidence that we should be testing for these markers. And this is something that a functional nurse can help with. There are so many things we can do in regards to functional nursing to help individuals get the appropriate lab testing. Receive the education about potential root causes and triggers to dysfunction in the body, to properly screen people for things like environmental toxins, for infections, and then also to abdicate so individuals can actually get the proper medical care. And when I mentioned that, you know, it's usually the standard of care to give, like the, in my opinion, the lowest quality thyroid medicine on the market, there are higher quality medications available. To give you an example, when I was on T4 only, I had issues with depression. My baseline, I am so bubbly, it's annoying. And I mentioned in the beginning of the show, I cry like once a year. Like I'm just not a depressive person. But I was depressed on T4 only medication. And then as soon as I started getting T3, I felt like someone turned the lights on and my personality came back. But the thing is, if I had just gone to a regular conventional doctor and I was like, oh, I'm depressed, I'm having these issues, they would have put me on PsychMez. So anyway, um, to give you guys some ideas of some other thyroid medication options. So I find that for me, what and again, I this is what I usually recommend to providers. So when someone's on T4 only, usually the easiest transition from there is putting them on a higher quality form of T4, such as Tyresint or even name brand Synthroid, in addition to T3. So T3 generic is called Cytamel. Now, for me, um, I am not a fan of the uh little extra ingredients that are in a lot of medications. Okay, I always read like every additional ingredient. So for me, I do the best on tyresint, which is basically the cleanest form of T4 that you can find, in addition to sustained release compounded T3. So, but again, I feel the best on that. And but that's something that uh insurance, even when we we were covered by my husband's insurance and he had like supposedly really great insurance through his company. I could not get that covered because our insurance would only cover basically the bare minimum, which was the generic levothyroxine, and then maybe some generic T3. So this is something that I have had to pay out of pocket for. But again, for me, it is worth it because I feel better. Now, um, there are also other options, such as NDT, which is natural desiccated thyroid hormone. One of the reasons, like say I'm collaborating with the provider, I usually wouldn't jump right over to like, let's just immediately switch to NDT, is because it's not like an even conversion. Like you're on 100 micrograms of levothyroxine that converts evenly to one grain of NDT, natural desiccated thyroid hormone. Uh, usually it is a bit, you you've you've got to start low and then titrate very slowly. And some providers are not comfortable prescribing NDT because in the past there have been some issues with some of the formulations, some of the formulations being a bit higher than what was on the label. And when that happens, individuals can end up with things like chest pain. So um, for that reason, it may be the easiest transition to just do a clean version of T4 and T3. And then if they're still not feeling well, then try the natural desiccated thyroid hormone. I would say the brand that I believe has been the most stable on the market is Armor Thyroid. Now, we are about halfway through the show, so we're gonna pause just for a moment to take a break. If you are a fed up nurse, I do want to just remind you that I absolutely can train you at the Functional Nurse Academy. We are the leading and the most comprehensive functional nurse training program in the country. All of our students receive 90 nursing CEs, eligibility for multiple functional medicine board certification titles, and they also get business mentorship. They also get live business mentorship with me. So if you are interested in that program, be sure that you meet with me live at our next informational webinar. I will be dropping that link in the comments. You can also check out our website at functional nurseacademy.com. I do want to pause for a moment to remind our listeners. This show is also syndicated on America Out Loud Talk Radio on the Nurses Report Radio show and podcast. So you can also find me there on any major app. Oh, and welcome back. Today I am talking about one of my favorite topics, which is functional medicine testing. And you know, the first part of the show, I went over why standard reference ranges, they're not sufficient. And I also talked about my personal experience with autoimmune and thyroid. And I went into the thyroid reference ranges and why it's so important to look at those functionally. And I do want to chat about blood sugar dysfunction. Because again, in the first part of the show, I mentioned that we have data showing that only 7% of the US population is considered metabolically healthy. And we know that over 40% of US Americans are struggling with obesity. And we know that type 2 diabetes is climbing like crazy in our country. So what is going on here? Now, I uh did want to mention that we do have a range that we look at in our standard laboratory testing that uh will show us if an individual is developing prediabetes. But what happens before then? You know, so there are many, many times where someone is having some dysregulation in their blood sugar, okay, but it gets missed. And I did want to mention that sometimes uh the body can maintain a normal blood sugar for years. And it does this because the body is always seeking to get the body and homeostasis. The body has so many brilliant protective mechanisms. So, what happens is say that an individual is eating the standard American diet, which is this like ridiculous amount of carbohydrates and sugar. And we have seen some statistics where um with in America, 70% of the diet may be from processed and packaged foods, which are extremely high uh in the glycemic index. So, again, if the body is taking this hit over and over and over, and then it's having to produce more and more and more insulin to deal with this just insane influx of elevated blood sugar, the body just gets exhausted because it has to release so much insulin into the bloodstream to then move the glucose out of the bloodstream and into the cells that that system becomes dysfunctional over time. So, what can happen with what we like to call insulin resistance is it's kind of like insulin is a key. And after you eat, the food is broken down into glucose, which enters your bloodstream and then your pancreas releases insulin, and insulin unlocks the door to your cells. So glucose can get inside and be used for energy. But when the body is extremely unhealthy, when they have nutrient deficiencies, a diet very high in processed carbohydrates and sugar, what can happen is it's almost like the locks on the doors get rusty. So the pancreas, of course, it's still making insulin, it's popping out all of this insulin, but the cells are not responding as well because the key is no longer working efficiently. So then what happens? Um, you may see uh batching insulin levels that are elevated or suboptimal high, but again, it's not working efficiently anymore. The system is dysfunctional. So then glucose stays in the bloodstream longer and you're gonna have higher blood sugar readings. And then the pancreas starts making more and more and more insulin to try to force these doors open. And then eventually the pancreas just can't keep up anymore. And then blood sugar starts to rise, and this can progress into pre-diabetes and type 2 diabetes. So um, there are so many things we can do to catch this early. And this is one of my pet peeves, guys. I mean, we will see people that come in and their blood sugar, you know, it looks okay. Their hemoglobin A1C, which is a marker that can give us insight on what is the average blood glucose over the past three months. Sometimes that can look okay too. But a marker that is not getting checked in the conventional model is a fasting insulin. Guys, a fasting insulin, no insurance, that costs about $5. We can get so much information from a fasting insulin. And it's just crazy that it's not something that is being ordered with how much metabolic dysfunction we have in our country. However, when we talk about fasting insulin, okay, say that you go to a conventional provider and you're like, hey, Doc, can you order a fasting insulin? And say maybe the doctor agrees to order it, then um on their paperwork that they will get, as far as standard reference ranges, standard reference ranges say that a fasting insulin of 20 is normal. That is absolutely not okay. And we have plenty of evidence showing that an optimal fasting insulin really is around two to five. So say that even if these people are asking to get these markers ordered, they are still being told it's normal. But again, um, it just showcases the importance of using up-to-date functional reference ranges. Now, with things like uh, you know, type 2 diabetes, somebody is heading in this way, so you can actually catch the early stages of this in many individuals if you start screening for a fasting insulin. I think it is a really important, insightful marker. And I also wanted to mention so when individuals first start experiencing this kind of dysfunction, sometimes those initial symptoms may actually be symptoms of reactive hypophysemia, which is also something I used to have. But anyway, um, this is when individuals, if they skip a meal, they start feeling hangry. And that is a sign of early dysfunction because, again, blood sugar may dip down too low. You may also see these people that are um craving sugar, especially in the afternoon. Their fatigue may also be relieved by eating. And then again, you know, as fasting insulin begins to increase, we're not effectively moving that glucose into the cells, we're going to see more weight gain. So I've seen many of these individuals that they say they're like, I just look at food and I gain weight. And no one has checked a fasting insulin on them. So say that, you know, fasting insulin is starting to increase. There are things we can do. And I also want to mention that nutrients absolutely matter. Okay. Um, again, another brilliant design of the body is when God created our bodies, He created our bodies. We have all of these metabolic and enzymatic processes that go in, go on throughout the body. But these amazing processes require essential nutrients, minerals, antioxidants. We actually know that magnesium, chromium, zinc, and vitamin D all play very important roles in the metabolism of glucose and also in insulin signaling. And then deficiencies in these nutrients have been associated with impaired insulin function and increased risk of insulin resistance. And just to give you an example, so we know that chromium supplementation at a dosage uh between 200 and 400 micrograms helps to improve blood sugar levels. We also know that there are many other tools that we have available. That many individuals are just not being told about. So, for an example, if someone has uh prediabetes or type 2 diabetes, they usually are going to be prescribed the medication that we know depletes B12, an essential vitamin, right? They're usually going to be prescribed metformin, but they're not going to be given the information that there is an herbal alternative. Berberine is an herb that has been used medicinally for thousands of years. And it actually has been shown in clinical studies to be just as effective at reducing blood sugar as the drug metformin. But some other things that are interesting about berberine is it is actually also not only does it help with hyperglycemia, it also helps with lipid metabolism. It's anti-inflammatory, it's neuroprotective. And then so many individuals, and I've seen this over and over again, where individuals may choose to go on bergerine instead of metformin. And then I will see sometimes within just a couple of months, their fasting insulin decreased by over 50%. I had um one individual that lost 20 pounds after going on bergerine for a few months. But again, you know, when we are working with individuals and we're providing this type of education and support to them, you know, it's never just, okay, well, just keep eating what you just keep doing everything you're doing and, you know, just take this magic supplement, it's gonna fix everything. No. Now, nutrients absolutely, um, nutrient supplementation absolutely can be a tool. But again, you know, say that someone is just chronically low in D, why are they low in D? Are they not getting healthy sunshine exposure? The sun is good for us. Sun damage is not good for you, okay? But healthy sun exposure is good for you. If you are low in magnesium, why are you low in magnesium? What's going on with your diet? How is your gut looking? Is are you not properly absorbing minerals and nutrients from your food because your gut is a mess. So we need to look at all of those different factors. But but berberine um can absolutely, um, there's so many medicinal benefits to this. And um, I also wanted to mention I have a few minutes left. The show went by so fast. But anyway, I talked about how important these metabolic markers are. I talked about the fasting insulin, and then how, you know, usually um at like a standard visit with a PCP, you'll get a fasting glucose, which is part of the complete metabolic panel. You may also get the hemoglobin A1C, but a really important test is that fasting insulin and to make sure it's an optimal range. So moving on, I want to talk about immune system dysfunction. So I mentioned before I had a chronic Lyme disease, felt like deaf, desperately tried to get help. Uh, it took me three years in functional medicine to get a diagnosis. But when I was looking through my old medical records, okay, I saw something that got missed by many, many functional providers. And just in my basic CBC with diff, okay, this is like the, you know, the complete blood cap that's going to show your white blood cells, your neutrophils, your lynhocytes. You know, we can get a lot of information for this from this really inexpensive test. So with chronic stealth infections, such as, for example, Lyme disease or reactivated EBV, we know that the white blood cells and the neutrophils, they can be hovering towards the bottom of the reference range. Now we see this, like nurses see this in the hospital, that if someone has an acute infection, say someone has sepsis or tuberculosis or something like that, we're gonna see the white blood cells go after that infection. The white blood cells are gonna be working real hard to get that under control. So you'll see a spike in the white blood cells. But what happens in these situations where people are suffering with these lingering chronic infections for several years? It's almost like the white blood cells get worn out trying so hard to get the infection under control that they just hover around the bottom of the reference range. Now, again, like a pattern that I like to point out is looking at not only like what is optimal, but you know, what are some other patterns that could signal that there could be immune insufficiency or a chronic self-infection? And also if someone has a chronic self-infection like Lyme, we also want to think what is going on with your immune system that this got so out of control. So usually if there is a chronic self-infection, there is also a factor of immune system dysregulation. But anyway, I had my WBCs, my white blood cells, my neutrophils at the very bottom of the range. And something else was at the bottom of the reference range. It was alkaline phosphatase, which is an enzyme. It's actually a zinc-dependent enzyme. And we know that these chronic infections can deplete zinc sores. Something else interesting about that is when I was really sick, I had these very faint white spots on my nails. And I just I had I had all the symptoms that went along with it too. You know, I mean, I had swollen lymph nodes, I had chronic fatigue, I had autoimmune activation, I had brain fog, I had sensitivities to like chemical sensitivities, food sensitivity. Just I we would be here all day if I named off all of my symptoms. But for some reason, it took three years for a provider to connect the dots to this. And there Are so many people that have these symptoms and they don't get any help in conventional medicine. They get gaslit and then they go to functional medicine and then they are just put on all of these leaky gut protocols and given a food sensitivity test and given all of these other expensive functional medicine tests and protocols, but no one's actually sitting down to figure out what's going on here. And, you know, um this work is so rewarding. Um I actually have an example here of a young woman who was extremely sick, you know, before she came to see me, she was actually paying, uh, I believe it was $600 an hour for a naturopathic physician who was seeing her. And she mentioned that she thought that this person was just giving her very restrictive diets and was just, you know, sending her emails, trying to sell supplements and things like that. And the first time I saw her, and another reason why I just think that functional nursing is just such a good complement to healthcare, because we can set up our businesses in a way to where we can do a proper review of their medical history and we can do a comprehensive assessment. So I'm going through her medical history. I went through what the functional medicine doctor was doing with her. I went through all of her symptoms, and then I'm looking at her labs because she brought over labs to me from her provider, and I saw this clear pattern. I was like, you've got this pattern here. And then this pattern of a chronic self-infection also really synced up to the symptoms of chronic Lyme disease and mold illness. So, what did we do? I offered to test her and she tested positive, very high numbers for mold illness and positive for Lyme. And again, I do not have a prescription pad. I cannot help to diagnose or treat, but the work that I do, it's kind of like a health investigator, a coach, a case manager. There's so many things we can do to help to really connect the dots to what is actually causing this and how can we get new help? And anyway, I was able to give her some resources and provide support for her. And I remember getting a text message, it was like a year later, saying to me, like how grateful she was and how she didn't even really get answers until she worked with me. And then again, after I helped her to discover what was going on, she was able to heal. And um, we have a few minutes left, but I also just wanted to mention something else I like to teach because lab testing, it can be really, really important. But say that, and I know that I have individuals that listen to the show from all over the country. I know I have a lot of nurses that listen to this. I also have a lot of individuals that are not in healthcare, but they are struggling with their health. So I really want to make sure that I am giving resources and help to both sides. But say, for an example, that you are someone that you're just not getting the proper care. Some things that you can start today. I teach this at Functional Nurse Academy and at Christian Functional Medicine Academy, the eight foundations of wellness. Lab testing, yes, it's really important, but there are things that you can start doing today to help to facilitate healing. Now, those things are stress, sleep, nutrition, digestionslash gut health, detoxification, movement, emotional and spiritual health, and making sure that you are in a healing community. So um just kind of imagine that like in a wheel. And um, those there are so many things that you can do, honestly, just for free to support those areas. So again, um, I usually when I work with a client, I will actually start with them on stress and sleep because stress and sleep go together. If you are in an upregulated stress response all day, do you think you're gonna get good restorative sleep at night? No, you are not. So those go together. And there are so many ways to just downregulate the fight or flight response that so many people live in. And again, just getting those two things under control can be so key because the body heals when we are in parasympathetic nervous system mode and the body heals when we are in deep restorative sleep. And there are simple interventions, guys, to you know, deep breathing exercises, making sure that you go and you get sun exposure first thing in the morning can help to retrain your circadian rhythm. Also, if you are a religious person, if you have a connection with God, if you have a religious practice, I cannot, and again, like in my opinion as a Christian, I think that our relationship with Jesus Christ is like the most important thing ever. But if you have a faith base, incorporating whatever you are doing, incorporating that into whatever you are doing is so incredibly powerful. So if you are a religious person, incorporating prayer whenever you are feeling stressed, whenever you are feeling overwhelmed and giving that to the Lord, I think is the best thing that you can do. Well, we are about out of time here. And I do want to remind you all if you are looking to work with a functional medicine nurse, you can go to the Functional Nurse Academy directory. I'm gonna drop that link in the show notes as well. But I have trained nurses all over the country. And the vast majority of the nurses that I have trained have virtual access, have multi-state licensure, and even if they're in a different state from you, can order lab testing. And if those nurses are not nurse practitioners and say you have a medical need, you need a medical treatment, they can advocate and collaborate with your medical provider to help you get what you need. But they also have all of these tools and resources about natural things that can be done to help to support the body and to really help to support those God-given healing mechanisms because the body can heal. So many times individuals become just sick because they're just chronically stressed. They have high toxic exposure or they have significant mineral and nutrient depletions. There's so many things we can do to help people. So be sure that you check that out. That is all the time that we have today. If you want to learn more about the Functional Nurse Academy, please feel free to register for our next live webinar, and you will see that link in the show notes. You can also check out Functional Nurse Academy on our social media platforms or on our website at functional nurseacademy.com. Until next time, be safe, be well, and not bless.