Control Blood Sugar, Control Everything

Wellness is a practice, not just a word.

Welcome to the Synergy Podcast where myself, Kelly Engelman and Lori Essery shed light on powerful tools and topics that nourish.

Your body and most importantly, feed your soul.

Welcome, everyone. Welcome to the Synergy Podcast. I'm so excited about this interview today, guys. I get to interview Lori Essery today and we get to talk about something that is so passionate for her that you're gonna hear it. You're gonna hear it in everything she says Today, when we first met, one of the first conversations that we had was about blood sugar. And we're gonna dig into control blood sugar, control everything. So Laurie, tell us your story. Tell us why this is such a passionate topic for you.

So this story goes back years and years and years when I was diagnosed with diabetes, when I was pregnant at 25, 24, 25. So gestational diabetes, Gestational diabetes is where it started. And prior to that that's not where it started.

We're gonna get into that more. But that's where she became aware of the problem. Correct, but we know that's not where it started.

That's right, that's right, exactly. That's where we showed up.

That's why we need this podcast.

Yes, that's where it showed up. Right. So at 24, 25, pregnant, started having blood sugar control issues. And you know, at the time, I don't really think I understood what that really meant. All I knew is that most of my family had diabetes and, and I was already a nurse at the time. I was completing my nurse practitioner degree. I had had a lot of education on diabetes, I knew my family history, but I didn't really understand how that was going to affect me. So during my pregnancy, yes, I was having these elevations of my blood sugar that were concerning to them which then led to preeclampsia. Long story short, I delivered. And after my pregnancy, I continued to feel bad. I didn't feel good. I felt like everything I did, everywhere I went, I was carrying a 10 pound ball and chain with me. The only word I could use to describe myself was the word slug. I just felt like a slug.

Wow.

The going conversation in my house was, Lori's on the couch again, Lori's on the couch again. And I was a marathon runner and I was wanted to exercise. My body said yes and my mind said no. Like I couldn't do it, I just couldn't do it. And sometimes it was my mind saying yes and my body saying no. It was just. And it led me down a path of sadness because I wasn't able to be the parent I wanted to be, the mom I wanted to be. I was going to support groups for new moms. They were really excited and I was excited about my beautiful bundle, but I just wasn't excited about how I felt. So I went on a quest. I was starting to ask doctors like, what can I do? What is this? Why is this? I was diagnosed with depression. I knew I wasn't depressed, I just knew I was sad. I couldn't explain it. And they couldn't explain it either. Which just led my curious mind to start doing some research and on my own began to uncover this relationship of when I ate, after I ate, I felt worse. If I didn't eat, I felt better, but if I didn't eat for extended periods of time, I felt worse. So I just started putting some things together at that time.

So what you're describing is kind of that very familiar blood sugar roller coaster that people can be on when they have unregulated blood sugar, right? You feel bad when you don't eat for a long period of time and then you eat, and then you feel bad after you eat. And it's like you're chasing the food and the symptoms all day long.

And the frustrating part of that story is that my own medical providers, my own peers who I just, I needed them to have an answer. I felt terrible. And they just, the only thing they had for me is, you know, here's a pill, you know? And I knew in my heart of hearts there was more to the story. And so my persistence led me to really educating my, changing my food, pulling carbohydrates out and putting better food in, but again, stumbling, because at the time, what did we know about nutrition?

I was just gonna say, okay, so what year was this? Let's put this into perspective.

1995.

So 1995, and we didn't have necessarily the Internet to go to.

Not so much, not so much.

It was there, but it was very. There wasn't information out there like there is today.

And good nutrition was calories in, calories out to lose weight. Everything was about weight loss.

And diabetics were oftentimes taught just the sugar free versions of what to eat instead of the nutrient dense versions of what to eat.

Right.

And the bigger problem really was that the wrong testing was being done. My fasting blood sugar for the most part was good. You know, I would have periods of time in which my fasting blood sugar was elevated. But standard of care in medicine was an elevated blood sugar over 126 on two separate occasions.

Exactly.

And that's the only tool in their toolbox they had at the time.

Right.

So that, and I do believe that hemoglobin A1C was starting right around that time. But even that. So I didn't meet full on criteria for diabetes. So what were they to do?

Right.

So I think, you know, when I look at that period of time that I walked through was very, very frustrating. I didn't really, quote, unquote, have a disease state, which I'm not necessarily sad about that.

Right.

But my body was in a state of danger. Dysfunction. It was in a state of dysfunction. And how often now, you know, fast forward to what we do now, but how often do we now know that we have to do the right test? So glad to have testing available. Right. That we can do now, but we got to do the right test to really understand what the real problem is, to get to the root of that problem. But that is where it all started. It started from my own, I would like to say, symptoms that I didn't like that really rocked my world, decreased my quality of life. And traditional medicine didn't have an answer for me at the time.

Yeah.

So out of that has birthed a practice.

Yes.

So Total Nutrition and therapeutics in central Florida, where you've been practicing functional medicine for many years. 15 years.

15 years.

And I remember some of the very early conversations that we had as practitioners teaming up to explore functional medicine together centered around blood sugar control, centered around what should we be doing, what should we be eating, how should we be testing, how do we not only improve symptoms but decrease disease risk? Definitely with the patient that doesn't necessarily meet criteria for diabetes.

Yeah.

When people ask me what really did birth, as you just said, to your point, what really birthed at tnt? It was the aha moment when I discovered that if I could just control my blood sugar, I had the ability to control the way I felt. And now I've taken that on to say control blood sugar, control everything. Because now we know that if we can control our blood sugar, we have the ability to control inflammation. And inflammation is the driver of 90% of disease states.

Absolutely, absolutely. And yeah, we used to throw that around. You used to say it all the time. And I kind of picked it up to control blood sugar, control everything. And I believe, believed that, but I had no idea until we had access to continuous glucose monitoring what that really had the impact to do for patients day to day. And I'm talking Not diabetic patients. I'm talking about patients just like me walking around feeling okay, but maybe not my best. Putting a blood sugar monitor on, realizing that there's an element of dysglycemia, dysregulated blood sugar, that's driving stress and driving inflammation and. And really creating a drag on the body, you know, not allowing the body to function at its best. So you mentioned the right testing, so I want to get into that. So what do we do today as we sit here for patients coming in complaining of fatigue and complaining of, you know, I don't feel well after I eat, and if I go long periods without eating, I'm hangry and shaky and I just don't feel well. What does that look like in the way of testing?

The right testing is extremely important. And it starts with blood testing. It really starts, honestly, with an exhaustive history. A qualified healthcare practitioner just sitting with you to really understand what you're experiencing, when you're experiencing it, what symptoms are you having, what does it relate to? So that exhaustive history, you know, I know sometimes we fill out a long history form for our provider of care and we wonder why we're writing it all. Are they really going to look at it? And I just want to tell you that a good quality healthcare provider looks at all of that. So take the time to really do that. So that's the first step is a really good exhaustive history, a timeline. You know, when was the last time you remember feeling good?

Well, that's one of the questions I ask. When is the last time you actually felt well? Tell me about that. Right?

Yes. And then trending. Trending of those labs. You know, there's not any one lab diagnostic test that tells the whole story. We know that.

We say looking at those lab tests, I equate it to, like, looking. You're driving a car and you're looking out your windshield, and then you have your rearview mirror and your side mirrors. So each lab is like looking in a different way, in a different way, looking at a different person.

That's exactly right.

That's right.

Yes.

Yeah.

So not one test.

That's right.

We want to look at a comprehensive way of evaluating inflammation markers. Right?

Yeah. Evaluating sugar. Yep. So fasting sugar is very important. A hemoglobin A1C, that's going to give a look at an overall average six weeks to three months of one's blood sugar. Again, not used to diagnose, but really to treat and evaluate. When you change a variable, how does that number change? So that's hemoglobin A1C.

Yeah.

And you know, hemoglobin A1C is interesting in that it's oftentimes in functional medicine, we use that as a marker for aging. So it's a measurement of cellular stickiness, It's a measurement of your red blood cell. And if that red blood cell is sticky, it's not moving through your body with efficiency, it's clumping together, and it's a sign of aging. And we know that we're just measuring that red blood cell, but we can equate that to any cell in your body that's glycating. You know, it's getting sticky, it's not functioning properly. It's got honey all over it. It's goo.

Right?

It's not good, right?

Not good.

Exactly. So hemoglobin A1C is really, really important. I also like to look at fasting insulin, not just fasting glucose. And look at the relationship, you know, of the fasting insulin to that fasting glucose on the morning that you went to the lab.

Right.

Is it proportional or not exactly.

Does it make sense?

Does it make sense?

Right.

So, and then C, peptide, I like to say that carrier protein, if you will, that bus that carries insulin around. Like to look at glycomark. Glycomark is a great test that looks for periodic spikes in blood sugar in the two weeks prior to. Prior to you having that done. So see, peptide, fasting insulin, fasting glucose, glycomark, those are the standard labs, I would say.

Right, right.

Can you think of anything more?

Yeah, sometimes I like to do a two hour postprandial insulin, you know, because sometimes you don't capture that fasting insulin may look fine, but you're like, there's a problem here. Let's do a two hour postprandial and see what that looks like. So sometimes I'll do that. I don't do that on everyone, but occasionally I will have a situation where I will do that.

Right.

And you raise a, you know, a good point in that when we speak of these labs, it doesn't necessarily mean that you need to have all of these.

Right.

You know, again, your qualified healthcare practitioner needs to look at more than one lab, but specifically create a lab order form for you. And I like to raise that discussion because, you know, oftentimes when you're seeing a new provider of care, you're probably wondering to yourself, shouldn't they order lab work prior to my first visit? And although that may be beneficial in some situations, I'M not going to say across the board that it's not, but I find that it is very important to meet with you first, you know, meet with that prospective patient first, create that relationship, understand what their symptoms are and order tests that are appropriate for the symptoms.

Right.

What I'm looking for, looking for that root cause. I'm looking for that driver. What's causing the problem? You see? Yes, the fluctuation of blood sugar is a problem.

Right.

It does create cellular aging, it does lead to inflammation.

But what's, but at the end of.

The day, what's driving it?

Right.

What is the root cause for that? And you know, that really going back to the 1990s, you know, I think we all knew, I mean, that was when things were coming out. You know, lowering fat, taking sugar out of food, you know, putting other things in.

Well, so the 1990s was on the, of the 1980s, where 1980s we were so fat focused, fat phobic focused, everything was low fat. So all of these products came out that were low fat, but they were very high in sugar.

Right.

So then we rebounded in the 90s, eating all of this sugar, avoiding fat, realizing that what did we create and.

Then calories, calories out.

Right.

From that. So if you go back there, you know, I think a lot of us think that, well, if we eat too many Snickers bars, we know our blood sugar is going to get elevated. But those aren't necessarily the people I'm seeing anymore. You know, we have, we're privy to a lot of information now.

Right, right.

Internet wise, we, we have a lot of that. So the people that I'm seeing are the people now that they know not to eat sugar.

Right.

Whether they're doing it or not.

Right.

We know not to consume a diet that is high in sugar. We know that that is not good for us.

Right.

But what we don't understand is that there are many other food factors that influence blood sugar control.

Yes.

So when we say control your blood sugar, control everything, the question really is for you, what is the driver of that? You know, if it's not too many Snickers bars and bon bons and, you know, sugar laden foods, what is it? Is it poor sleep? Is it stress cortisol? Is it a bad gut microbiome? What is it?

Yeah, I want to stay there for a minute because oftentimes when I bring up the challenges of blood sugar or the potential challenges that someone would be having because of blood sugar, I get the pushback, but I don't eat Sugar. It can't be that I don't eat sugar.

Right.

They dismiss the opportunity to explore that as a problem or a potential problem because they think they're already eating a diet that's lower in carbs and lower in sugar. And to your point, there are many other things that affect blood sugar regulation, like stress levels, how you're sleeping, whether or not you're moving your body, and environmental toxins. Environmental toxins. All of those things contribute to that rollercoaster of dysglycemia that can happen for a person.

So it's that dysfunctional glucose control or dysfunctional glucose regulation really, which is the driver of disease states. So it is really important to dig in with a provider of care on those particular drivers if you want to control your blood sugar.

Right.

So one of the things in functional medicine, you know, oftentimes we're not just doing labs for blood sugar. It's part of the labs that we do.

Right.

But we're looking for drivers of inflammation. Blood sugar is one of the drivers for inflammation. But also other drivers of inflammation create dysregulated blood sugar.

Right.

So we're looking for that at the gut microbome because we know that that's probably 90% of inflammatory drivers come from what's sitting in the gut or perhaps what we're putting in our mouth in the way of food. So, as you know, you dig into your health in functional medicine or from a functional medicine lens, you know, you may go into your provider and they're wanting to do all these different testing, and you're like, is this really necessary? And I have to say, it is. You know, in order for us to really dig deep and think about all of the potential drivers for inflammation and help you work your way out of it, we need to know. We need to know.

So the first step really is kind of going back to the full history we talked about and ordering some diagnostic testing, and then it's really exploring, like you had mentioned, continuous glucose monitoring. Now, you know, we have the ability now to see things point in time.

Yes.

And for many years, and Kelly, you and I spoke about this, we speak about this a lot, is we are privy now to tools in our toolbox that have created this like. Like, in our. Like this wow moment.

Right? Yes.

Because we were seeing things clinically. We were seeing it, but we didn't really have the research.

Right.

We just had the clinical experience, and now we have the ability.

We do.

Right.

I remember one of the first conversations that you and I had regarding blood sugar control. Probably back in 2010. And I had implemented a process for my patients where I'd walk them through a 21 day food elimination modified detox plan. And what I saw in the first 21 days just really was a wow moment.

Right.

Where we saw symptom reduction, we saw improvement in energy, we saw improvement in blood sugar. And I was naive at the time and thinking that if I could just keep them there for 12 weeks, then I could correct the dysfunction that was going on with blood sugar long term. I think I overestimated what 12 weeks could do. Theoretically. You know, the pancreas can reset in 12 weeks if we eat a diet that's rich in nutrients, lower in carbs, and we're moving our body, we're working on stress and eliminating other factors. But once we had access to the continuous glucose monitor, it really opened my eyes to that even more. When we settled for a hemoglobin A1C of 5.3 and a fasting glucose of 85 being okay, that was our standard. As long as your hemoglobin A1C was 5.3 or lower and your fasting blood sugar was 85 or lower, we're good.

As functional medicine experts because in standard of care, in medicine, traditional medicine, it's much higher than that. I mean, they were settled with, you know, 6.6, right? Yeah, 6.5. 6.6 of 6.6.

And a fasting blood sugar around 100.

Right.

Is okay in the traditional sense, but I'm talking functional medicine standards. We were thinking that those parameters were. We were, we were solid gold. And since having the continuous glucose monitor as a tool for the last year, we've been using those in both of our practices, and we've been having a lot of dialogue about what we're seeing. And it's like, wow.

Right?

Well, and also we have to remember that there are points in time. Lab work, right? Yeah. That's point in time. Fasting glucose. That's point in time. Hemoglobin A1c, even though it's an average point in time glycomark over the last two weeks. But with a continuous glucose monitor, we have the ability now to look at when you eat a meal, what was your blood sugar prior to that meal, what was your blood sugar after that? And you get to see the first flux. You get to see the flux when you didn't have a good night's sleep, you know, what happened that morning, comparatively speaking, to another morning. So now we have tools in our toolbox that have created much more of an ability to understand those drivers like we never had before.

So I've had a patient this week that I saw that has had a monitor on for a few months. And she went to Vegas week before last, wore her monitor, thank goodness. And prior to Vegas, she had really flattened her curve. You know, her blood sugars were staying very stable. And this was just with diet alone. Diet, exercise, and, you know, working on her sleep. Sleep was a challenge for her. And when she went to Vegas, obviously the food choices were not that great. And then she had some, you know, fun time too. No shame there. But it wasn't just what her blood sugar did in Vegas. Actually, in Vegas, her blood sugar stayed pretty stable. It was three days after that. Her blood sugar was on this crazy, wicked roller coaster. And it really opened my eyes to people that do really good during the week. And then they go out for date night Friday night and have a couple glasses of wine and a dessert and maybe, you know, continue that through Saturday, Sunday. And then they're really good during the week and they're not seeing any result. They're not losing weight, and they're completely frustrated with their lack of ability to lose, and they may even be gaining. But I think what happens during that weekend time or during that splurge time is they set a roller coaster, in effect that it takes them the rest of the week to get under control and then they start all over again. And I would have never seen that had I not had a continuous glucose monitor to show me that.

Yeah.

You know, the standard American diet we know, is so high in carbohydrates and it's so protein poor. And, you know, many are beginning to make changes in reducing those carbohydrates, but not doing a great job at getting key quality protein and fiber in their diet. So the next step in working, you know, on this, if this is, you know, our listener, if they're like, you know, listen, I've begun to make these changes. A food log is really important.

Right.

Really understanding you can't manage what you don't measure. And I think that's really what we're talking about here.

Right.

We have more ways to measure things than we've ever had. And logging food is really essential to understand what you're currently doing so that you can begin to make those changes.

Yeah.

And I'll have to say I love the. The idea of intuitive eating, you know, and not having to think about.

Right.

Logging everything. But you're not going to learn your body unless you log it. You're just not going to. And we're tricking ourselves or fooling ourselves into thinking we can. But unless you log it and see what you're doing and then see how your body's responding to that, there's no real way to know.

Right.

So that's an important step in the treatment of someone who is experiencing energy, low energy, brain fog, irritability. As you said earlier, hangry.

Right.

When you're not getting your meals in, is really looking not just at your history, not just at labs, looking at your food log, and then maybe considering getting a continuous glucose monitor where you can begin to really look at lifestyle differences. You know, where you're sleeping, how long you're sleeping. Are your blood sugars higher during the week versus on the weekends? I mean, that was an eye opener for me. During my work week of Monday through Friday, my blood sugars run higher than they run on the weekend.

Interesting, interesting. So stress levels greatly impact blood sugar regulation.

Absolutely. So from a passion standpoint, I truly believe that if a person is willing to do the work to understand better what their blood sugar is, is, and not just at any one point in time, but throughout the course of a day, weeks, and maybe even months to understand, and they're willing to do the work of working with a qualified healthcare practitioner to really dig in and somewhat of an intensive.

Right.

They can learn how to reduce their risk of disease. So this past year, I started working on a control blood sugar, control everything boot camp. And I am super excited about it.

I think I'm more excited than you are because I've been able to reap the fruits of your labors in many ways. And I mean, it's just been amazing, the learning process. But I want to back up before we get into the boot camp, because what we know now about dysregulated blood sugar, even in the absence of diabetes, is that if you have dysregulated blood sugar, you have a tremendous increased risk for high blood pressure, for high cholesterol, for cancers. Cancer risk is higher, osteoporosis is higher. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. And so as a listener, if you're sitting here thinking, oh, I don't have a blood sugar issue, if you started developing hypertension at age 50 or so, I would pause you to think, was blood sugar driving that blood pressure? Right. Because that's what we're seeing. That's what we're seeing clinically. So now Lori has taken the time, energy and effort to really put to paper and to visualizations and video all of this powerful content that has the ability to truly change your life. Not just short term, but long term.

It's years and years and years of what we've been seeing in clinical practice and what I had the ability to see firsthand. Seeing is believing.

Yes.

I had to see it, to believe it and then to see it come to fruition, you know, over the past 25 years. It's pretty exciting to take all of that and put it into one place where if someone is looking to explore the relationship of how they feel to what potentially could be the problem, blood sugar dysregulation, this would be it. So spending some time in a 30 day intensive learning week one, all about the relationship between inflammation and blood sugar dysregulation. Week two, talking about the food. All about your food. Understanding carbohydrates, understanding how digestion of those foods affect. So it's not just what you're eating, it's how you digest. Digest those foods or not that can lead to a disturbance in your blood sugar.

Yeah.

Guys, did you know that in your gut microbiome, if you have specific bacterias, you may actually absorb more carbohydrates from your meals than other people?

So good food, but maybe not for you during a certain time because your gut health needs to be restored. Yes, exactly. So maybe, you know, maybe we have some listeners here that have been doing all the right things but fail to really understand the relationship of their gut health. So we cover that in week two, week three, we're going to be talking about supplementation and the value that key nutrients in your food as well as pairing them with supplements in order to improve blood sugar regulation. So medications do play a role for some, some will come to this already being on medicine.

Right.

Because they are a diabetic. But this is for those individuals that are also maybe just wanting to be a fitter version of themselves.

Right.

Optimizing their health. Maybe they are an athlete and they want to increase their performance. Maybe they're already practicing in a functional medicine practice, but really weren't privy to this firsthand. Right. They haven't experienced this. So that would be someone that would really be a great, a great candidate to walk through this process. But then week four, we can't leave week four out. I am a, I love stats, I love numbers. You know, you know that about me on that.

I do know that.

But it's all about your numbers. It's understanding your numbers, looking at these labs a little bit more and you having an opportunity for some of those that choose to do the boot camp, they can pair it with some blood work so that they can see getting these labs at the beginning and then perhaps at the end and really looking at the power of your numbers to guide your optimal health, to guide your goals. Right, to guide your goals. So what's working? What's not working?

Right.

We cannot manage what we do measure.

Right.

So, yeah, I'm super excited about that. I know that the potential to change lives with that information, experiential learning, you know, where we're really digging into what this means for us as individuals. I know for me, putting that glucose monitor on and really seeing what was happening was eye opening in the last year. And being able to flatten that curve has just been a lot of fun, you know, feeling like you're winning the game instead of just trying to keep up with the game.

Right.

But, you know, I do know several patients who, before even coming to my clinic, were beginning to use a continuous glucose monitor and feeling very, very frustrated because they saw the dips and they saw the highs, but they couldn't figure out what was driving that to happen. So, you know, if you're curious, if you're curious and you haven't been able to figure that out, this is the time to really understand there's more to.

It, way more to it than just food.

Right.

Way more to it than just carbs, for sure.

Right.

And that's, you know, if you go back in time, that's really what we thought. Calories in, calories out. Eat less carbs, you'll be fine. Don't eat the sugar, you'll be fine. But perhaps, I mean, in my situation, I had done all that, then I paired that with exercise, but I became a marathon runner.

Right.

So that was creating an element of stress to the body.

Correct? Right.

So I thought I was doing the right thing. So when you look at all of that, there's so many more factors that could be driving a person to have this dysregulation. And to your point earlier, people that have dysregulation of their blood sugar have an increased propensity to cardiovascular disease and diabetes. When diagnosed with diabetes, we know that the. It's fourfold. Fourfold. In addition to that, what I believe is more concerning, at least for me, in regards to quality of life, is there's also a fourfold increase in Alzheimer's disease.

Right.

So that's quality of life. It's very, very important to control your blood sugar. And I just urge everyone that I can talk to that is on A mission to live their best life. If this is one area they haven't opened up before, they haven't looked at this. They've looked at the gut, because that's all over the Internet. They've looked at healing the gut, they've looked at exercise, they've looked at, looked at improving their foods. They've looked at fill in the blank, right? Their food intolerances, we haven't talked about that yet, but food allergies, food intolerance, they've looked at all of that, but they haven't really looked at as a whole, all of those things simultaneously to controlling their blood sugar.

So that point is huge because as I said before, you could be working on all those other elements and feel better and be functioning better, but still have an element of undercurrent of dysglycemia that you're just not aware of. So yeah, if you, if someone wanted to reach out and they wanted to start on their journey with the Blood Sugar Boot Camp, how do they need to do that?

I would have them go to our website, TNT, the number4me.com on that website, there's a contact Us icon. I would ask them to just click that link, send us their information and put under the comment section that they are interested in the Blood Sugar Boot Camp.

Awesome. Awesome. Well, I can't wait to see this come to life. And I'm going to be implementing this also at Enhanced Wellness Living. So guys don't get anxious about not having access to. You guys will have access to it as well. And I think this is, this is going to be an amazing journey.

I'm looking forward to just seeing the outcomes and being able to share maybe in a future podcast and the things that we've learned because this area of science is mounting fast. Really, really fast. And I love being a part of it. Thanks so much for listening to today's episode. You can find more information about Synergy at Synergy for Life. That's S Y N E R G E E the number four life.com and.

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