Modern Functional Medicine: Challenges, Insights, and Transformations with Kelly and Lori

Welcome synergy listeners. We're gonna have an interesting conversation all about modern functional medicine practices. Right, Kelly, and what are our challenges?

I know we often get the question, like, what are your three top challenges with functional medicine? You know, in this modern day world, running a practice. I've had my practice 20 years now, and Lori's practice is what, 17? Yes, yeah, 17 years. So we've lived a little bit. Just a little bit, We've learned a lot. And so we really started this discussion together. You know, three things kind of stood out to us as like ongoing challenges that just weren't temporary. But these are things we face on a day to day, week to week, month to month, year to year basis, regardless of the climate and functional medicine.

Yeah, and I think it's an important conversation too, because there are a lot of functional medicine practices popping up everywhere. And we get the question all the time from them and some of them. Right. Reaching out to us of what are you guys experiencing? You know, what are those challenges and what are some hurdles we won't have to. To overcome? There's gonna be enough of them that they can't predict and they can't plan. So what are they? So let's start out. Let's talk about number one. I think the number one for both of us in chatting was the implementation piece is how do you implement? I mean, we go to these classes, we hear about all the new research, and it's just, it's how do you implement? And implementation's a real struggle. So tell us a little bit more about that.

Yeah, so. And these are not ranked in any particular order. You know, when we really wrote them down, we're like, we can't really say this the number one, but implementation is huge. And, you know, for my functional medicine practice in Jackson, Mississippi, I always run things through the filter. As Lori mentioned. We go to classes, we spend hours and hours learning, studying, researching, fact checking. And I always run whatever I'm trying to implement into the practice through a filter. Is it regenerative? Is it allowing the body to repair itself? Or is it just a quick fix? And so that's kind of number one with me. I go through that thought process of am I helping the body repair itself? Because the body's constantly trying to repair.

So it's constantly really sifting it through that filter because there's so many things that you can put in the practice. And I think one of the things that, you know, I have encountered in my practice in Florida is that although there are a lot of things I could be doing that would be fantastic. At the end of the day, what should we be doing?

Right.

And sifting through that's not always easy. And I've made my mistakes.

Yes.

We have spent a lot of money on a lot of tools and a lot of devices and a lot of things that at the end of the day, they just didn't align.

Right. They didn't align.

So. And that was costly on many levels from a staffing standpoint, from a financial standpoint. But it's. You have to know ultimately what it is in your practice that you want to focus on. What's your niche, you know, who is it that you want to treat? So. And then when it's time to decide to implement, then I think that brings us to.

Yeah. The biggest challenge with implementation really is communication. What it is you're trying to accomplish with that tool or resource, number one, to your team so that they can help you execute that, and then number two to your patient base, your audience, your followers. And that's a big undertaking. Right. We have all these ideas. We come back from conference so excited about the things we're gonna implement. And in the early days, oh, my gosh, we would try to implement five things at one time. We did. And we would blow back the hair of our clinic managers, and they would just be like, oh, my God, not another conference. Right. Because they know we're coming back with tools and strategies to implement. But what we learned from that was really slowing the pace down. You know, spending the time training your team is essential. It will save you a lot of time, effort, energy, and they feel more engaged with the process. Your patients can feel that. And so really taking the time to make sure you have your policies, procedures, and training in place.

Right. Which kind of falls into the. The second challenge is keeping pace with the environment of functional medicine. Because this arena is changing so fast. I mean, inundated with research. We should be doing this is this. Right? That's the conversation forever. This particular nutrient or this particular device, what is it? So keeping pace and slowing ourselves down sometimes in that implementation process and making sure that we are staying ahead, too. Right. We are pioneers in the field, and we are out there chartering ahead of the rest. So we gotta take some risks, too. And in that, you wanna make sure that we're taking those risks that we need to be taking, but not necessarily as quick. Right. It's that cautiousness that we have to apply to it, too.

So keeping pace. We do that a lot through going to conferences. We have key conferences that we do attend yearly. We have people that we follow and that we trust that are really digging into the research that have mentored us over. But it still can be overwhelming. You know, I think we feel the. We have FOMO a lot. When we can't go to every conference, it's like, are you going to this one? I can't go to that one. You know, as life gets busy, sometimes we can't always go to everything we want to attend. But there's a lot out there, and we have to pick and choose what we choose to invest our time and energy into learning and then bringing it back to the community and that. That comes with it. That's a fast pace. It's a pretty hard, fast pace to run, honestly.

Yeah, it is. And I think that that kind of takes us into number three. Right. Keeping a healthy ecosystem around our health and our team's health, because we do want to make a difference, and we are committed to helping our patients feel their very best. But at the end of the day, if our cup is not full and we're not well, then how can we help others? So how do we keep that ecosystem in the course of very fast change?

Yeah. And so, you know, to Lori's point, we can't help other people if we can't take care of ourselves. And so really making sure that we're. We're creating life balance in the workplace and modeling that for ourselves, our teams and the patients that we serve, they need to see that that's a possible way of living life. You know, we're in this for the long game, not the short game.

Right. 100%.

We can do the short game pretty hard and fast, but in the long game, we have to really think about when to push, when to pull back. There's a time to reap and there's a time to sow, and we have to kind of learn what that rhythm and pace feels like and be willing to say, okay, it's okay to take.

A pause for sure. And there are seasons with that. Right? So there are seasons. I mean, when you've had practices as long as we've had, there are seasons that are harder than others. And in those seasons, recognizing that, we may have to do more to buffer and really protect that ecosystem. And, you know, so that's an ongoing. So those are the three that we're trying. So implementation, keeping your head, keeping your head around creating that healthy ecosystem and then keeping pace with the ever evolving environment.

So let's talk about the fun parts of doing medicine. Okay. Let's do it. Modern practice in today's world, there's so many. We had a hard time limiting this to like the top three. We did, but we're gonna dig into the top three and they're just so, so powerful.

So I wanna start because I think one that tops the most for me, and this is just my heart, my soul is just seeing the difference that helping people achieve optimal health, the difference that it makes in their life. The stories change, the relationships that are healed, marriages, life healing and spiritual change, physical change, nutritional change. It's that for me, that is my favorite.

Yes. And it's interesting the way that God works because I think that oftentimes after a really hard day, the next day you get to witness that and it's like, okay, God, thank you for that little wink. I am doing the right thing. I am making an impact. And to your point, being able to see life change on a consistent basis, it's just incredible to be part of that. And that's really what keeps me in the game and keeps me wanting to interface with patients directly on a day to day basis. Because I feel like that's where I'm supposed to be. I don't question where I'm supposed to be when I'm in that seat. And I take that very seriously. I know Lori does too. It's an honor and a privilege to be able to sit in that seat. And I get to hear a lot of things and I hold those very sacred in those conversations because it's okay to have those hard conversations. And I want to provide a safe space to do that for sure.

Yeah. And in doing that, you know, that leads to our favorite number too. Right. It's building a wellness community. And that community isn't just in our individual localities, like in, you know, central Florida or Mississippi. Right. It's been really, really cool to watch the ripple effect. And I've always said I really wanted to create a tsunami effect to better health. And it's such a joy and an honor not only to change the lives of those locally, those ripples go to, you know, their children and then their grandchildren and then their grandchildren to their, maybe their teachers or their pastors. And so it is. And it's, it's really cool to hear stories too, when you all share them with us.

Yeah. And even, even seeing the wellness community grow in the way of tools, resources, and honestly, in the way of food access. You know, I think back to 20 years ago, there were certain things we just didn't have in the grocery store. You Know, people weren't thinking about organic, they weren't thinking about the variety and diversity of foods that we really need in our diet on a daily basis. So even seeing that aspect grow, to see our local farmers being supported by local restaurants. Right. I mean, that's just such a blessing to see that blossom and see that right here in central Mississippi we do have access to good quality food and resources.

And we do too in our community, which is like you said, it's really cool to go to a restaurant and see them supporting local farmers and having good quality food that's fresh from the farm to the plate.

And then our number three favorite thing was the challenges. We love the challenges. I think we would be completely and utterly bored with the same conversations and the same things on a day to day basis. But the challenges that functional medicine brings, the questions, the curiosity, the insights, is really what keeps us going back to those conferences and keeps us implementing things. And I think that's the fun part and that's been the really fun part with Lori and I doing that together. Being able to bounce things off of each other, being able to experience things and share stories and protocols. I mean, I can't say enough about how comforting it is to have someone else in the game that you can have those kind of conversations with.

Yep. And challenges are definitely opportunities to grow. And you know, as we're talking to each and every one of our patients, that we get an opportunity and a privilege. Right. To work with your questions like you're allowed to question. And in those questions, it forces us to grow. And I think those sometimes are challenges, but they're challenges that have grown us. So I think, you know, in our modern functional medicine practices, particularly in that conversation that we get a chance to cause we're spending an hour. Right. With our patients, we get to go deeper. So I really am thankful for, as you said, us too in doing this together and then the communities that we get a chance to share with Lori.

When we talk about our clinics and we talk about creating a healthy ecosystem within that clinic, what does that look like for you when people are, when we're talking about that?

Yeah, well, you know, the team is, that's who does the magic. Right. It's not just leadership, it's not ownership, it's the team, it's our health coaches, it's the behind the scenes, those out there marketing. And so once a week we have the opportunity to and we make it a priority. It's a non negotiable in our clinic. And I know you do that too, yes.

Right.

On a weekly basis. I just firmly believe, and I have since the start, that I have an obligation to make sure that we are cultivating an environment that provides personal and professional development. And so that's education, that's learning. We're learning at the same time, they're on their journeys too. And so we spend a little time kind of just connecting with each other. Like we do like a little check in, check in of emotion. Where are you today?

Yeah, we do that too.

And then dig into the learning. And maybe we have a topic, we have a coach's corner. So whatever our coaches are actually teaching community, they're coaching us too. And then we have an opportunity to just share with each other some of our, maybe our frustrations, our challenges, and go through this schedule. But to me, it means that we spend time together and we are cultivating an environment that we're growing at the same time as we're helping our clients grow and learn.

Absolutely. That time, it can seem like a huge chunk of time out of your clinic day, but that time is the time to create cohesion within the team. It's the time to give them a voice, letting them speak up, letting them talk about their challenges, and then pouring into them, you know, letting them know that we understand you're on your journey too. We want to support your journey. And these are the things that we think are important to learn. And when we're talking that you're doing that with your team as well, and.

When we're talking to other clinics that we get a chance to. With synergy, to work with, one of the things we tell them is make this a non negotiable. Yeah, make it a non negotiable. And we've seen the difference between the two. When they haven't done that for whatever reason. I mean, in the very beginning, you know, we did make it a non negotiable from the very beginning. And that was just great advice from a business consultant to us. But there are weeks that it's kind of like. But this week we have fill in the blank, and it could be very, very easy to just let them fall off the schedule easily. And so I do think it's extremely important if we're gonna be keeping pace, right? And that's what we've talked about today, keeping pace. Then our team members have to keep pace, and we're responsible for that.

So just this week, I had a patient come in and she was there for her lab review, which means that she had had labs collected, she had walked through a 21 day metabolic reset. So she was there to see her response from the reset, and she was there to get all of her lab results. So that's a big day. That's a big visit.

It is a big visit.

And I kind of had some intuition about her that perhaps, perhaps reset wasn't her favorite thing in the world to do. Right.

And that was at your initial visit with her?

Yeah, I kind of just got some intuition that perhaps it was gonna be a challenge for her just to get started. I felt like if she got started, she would be fine, but just getting started. And so I just asked her casually, I said, well, tell me, you know, how did you. I said, actually, I said, I think I asked her, did you. When did you finish your 21 day reset? And she told me, and she went on to say, you know, I've never been able to tolerate a protein powder before. I've never been able to tolerate a multivitamin before. And I fel. This was amazing. And I just kind of took a deep breath and I said, I'm so proud of you. Like, I was really concerned that you wouldn't even take the first step because of your concerns about tolerability to your supplementation. And she said, well, funny thing, she said I wasn't going to start it. She said I had made my mind up. I was just going to do my labs and then kind of change my diet and start working on some things, but not really go full force with the reset. And she said, I was laying in bed and I heard God speak to me. And God said, if you will follow what she's telling you, I will heal you. And I was just like, ugh. That got me, like, really, really deep. And it was just a really good discussion around just obedience. And it's not about me, right. It's about her journey and what she's able to do and what her body's able to do in the way of healing. But it was just one of those heartwarming, like a godwink, that, yeah, you're doing the right thing, you're encouraging the right behaviors, and it was just awesome.

And you used your intuition too, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it led you to those quality questions to gain some more insight and really help her connect. I think those dots too, you know, you're right, you know, so that's cool stuff.

That's cool. And you shared a story with me earlier this morning that I would really love for you to share, because one of my passions is preconception medicine. I feel like if we can affect these ladies that are having babies now, then we're affecting probably three generations out. And so you had a really cool story this past week, too. I did.

It gives me chills even telling you about it. It was a cool story. So I've been treating a young girl for quite some time, about six months. I mean, it's not a long period of time, but she came to me. She's getting ready to get married. She was getting ready to start her life together with her boyfriend. They have been together for quite some time. And she had been really frightened or fearful, I is probably the word, that she wouldn't be able to get pregnant. And some would say, you know, already wanting to get pregnant. Well, yes. You know, this was very important to them as a couple. And so she came to the clinic going, you know, I want to get my life right. I want to get back on track. I want to make sure that I'm eating and drinking and doing the things that I need to do. And so as we were sitting through this week's. Actually, last week's consult, she was coming to the end of phase one, which phase one for our clinic is they've done the reset thing. I really spent some time digging into the foundational what to eat, what to drink and all of that. And she was treating her gut, and she was feeling a lot better. She's dropped a lot of weight, offloaded body fat, has a lot of energy, but still is living with quite a bit of fear. And anyway, long story short, she converted into phase two. And I got a phone call this week, and she is pregnant. And I got so excited, you know, I got an opportunity to pray with her in her last. And that doesn't happen often, but I had a nudge, just a nudge that it was the thing to do. And we had an opportunity to just spend some time together and got that call, you know, this week, and it was just a reminder again, you know, you're in the right place. You're doing what you need to do, you're listening. And not that prayer alone. It's a combination of so many things, but we get the chance to see lives change. I mean, who couldn't love that?

Absolutely.

Who couldn't love that? So, Kelly, why, you know, today we really wanted to talk a little bit about the challenges and the awesomeness, if you will, our favorite parts of a modern functional medicine practice. Why did we choose the word modern?

I know, right? So as I thought about that, so much has changed in the way of functional medicine in the last 20 years. And I can think back in the very beginning when I first started doing gut protocol. And gut protocol is all centered around really trying to change the ecosystem of our gut Microbiome. And back 20 years ago, we didn't have a whole lot of language around that. Honestly, we didn't. And our tools to do that were very challenging as well. And so the very first probiotic I had access to, this was before probiotics were in a pill. This is 20 years ago.

It's hard.

I mean, I'm old. Okay. I guess I'm. Whatever. We had this probiotic powder, and we affectionately called it pond water. And we would have patients drink it for 14 days, and it really did taste like pond water. And I was just amazed that patients would actually do it. Like, when they would come back, like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah. I got through it. And I was like, God, they really trust me. Like, this is a big deal. It worked. It was just very challenging because of the way that it tastes and the way that it smelled and all the things that go along with drinking pond water. But thank goodness that modern advancements in creating stability with those bacteria, being able to get them into a probiotic capsule. And most of our probiotics don't even have to be in the refrigerator today.

Yeah, that's true.

You know, in the past, they had to be refrigerated. It was just very complicated to get a probiotic in someone and to effectively change that gut microbiome. Like we can do with much more elegance today.

Yes. And when I think about modern, I think about when I started, I don't know that I really knew that I was practicing functional medicine, to be honest.

Yeah, that wasn't a word either 20 years ago. That was not something that you talked about. It wasn't really. I mean, true enough. Naturopaths have been doing functional medicine from day one. That's kind of how they were birthed. But we didn't have the language around functional medicine.

Right. So. And I think about where I started was weight loss.

Right, Right.

Calories in, calories out. I had a major life change as a result of, you know, just figuring out, if you will, that the symptoms that I was having were in relationship to my blood sugar being completely messed up. So I went into this going, I want to help people offload body fat. That's what I did. And in offloading body fat, my blood sugar got control because that's what I did. So in that time, that was all about. It wasn't described as functional medicine. So started there and then six years in, wasn't even a part of anti aging and restorative medicine, regenerative medicine, you know, the A4M fellowship, if you will, met you years later and then realized that I wanted to do more and go deeper. And so I think that the terminology of functional medicine, to your point, what do we even call it? Functional medicine, integrative medicine, regenerative medicine, restorative medicine, anti aging medicine? I mean, so I think modern is the movement towards more of that root cause approach and then modern meaning. We have tools and resources available to us now that are very, very different. And it's as they say in the movies, come a long way, baby. I think we've come a long way. The Synergy Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor patient relationship is formed. The content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their healthcare professionals for any such conditions.