Introductory episode of the Five Journeys podcast hosted by Wendie Trubow, MD, MBA, IFMCP, and Ed Levitan. The hosts (an OB/GYN and a family physician) describe their combined functional medicine practice and introduce the "Five Journeys" framework for health: structure, chemistry, emotional, social, and spiritual. They illustrate the approach with two patient anecdotes (a vaginal-itch case linked to gluten sensitivity and a severe eczema case improved after removing toxins) and explain that the show will provide practical tools, expert interviews, and guidance to help listeners improve vitality.
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Welcome to the Five Journeys podcast.
If you've been told that there's nothing wrong with you, but you just don't feel your best, this is a show for you.
We're here to help you crack open a new level of health and vitality.
We're doctors Wendy and Ed, and Wendy's an OB GYN and I'm a family doc.
Together, we have over 25 years of combined functional medicine experience.
Generally speaking, we believe people can and should be vibrant, healthy, happy, alive, at least until 100 years old. And that's the lens from which we.
Look at people through functional medicine. Uses cutting edge tools and testing to get to the root cause. And then we use supplements, herbs, and lifestyle change to do it. Okay, so this is actually how I got into functional medicine. This is the patient who got me into functional medicine at my old job. I was an OB gyn and she used to come in every Friday.
And it's Vaginitis Friday, right?
Yeah.
That's what you used to call it.
Yes, we used to call it Vaginitis Fridays because you had to get it taken care of before your boyfriend came in town for the weekend. So my patient shows up on a Friday, every Friday for, like, six weeks running. And I finally said to her, you had already started doing functional medicine. And I finally said to her, look, we've kind of done everything we can, and I haven't made a difference for you. You still have this itch. I actually think that you have something else going on, and I think, really think that you're allergic to gluten. But I don't really have the ability to test you here. And she looked at me, I forgot to tell you, she's Irish with a thick Irish brogue. And she looks at me and she says, beer or sex? I'll think about it. And I was like, okay, while you think about it, go see Ed. Go see Levitan, and he'll diagnose you. So, yeah, so she goes to see.
You, and she gets flaming celiac and.
Really bad, which is a gluten allergy.
Gluten sensitivity. Yep. And she takes a week or two, get off gluten, but after that, she starts feeling so much better. Not just down there, but she never.
Even told me about the other stuff. She just said that she had an itch and that's why she was seeing me.
So her belly got better, even though she didn't know she had a problem with it. She had energy. She started just feeling better in all parts of her life, and she started absorbing her Nutrients, which she wasn't doing so well before.
Yeah. And she never came back to see me for that itch because that itch went away. But that's actually why we developed five journeys.
Yeah. So in terms of five journeys, we divide health into five unique areas, hence the five journeys. Your structure, your chemistry, emotional, psychological, social and spiritual. So let's start with structure. So first and foremost is, are you having any pain? Then if you're beyond the pain part, the question is, are you empowering yourself? Are you holding your structure strong? And maybe like Amy Cuddy in her TED Talk talks about a Superman pose. And really thank you for the example.
I feel like an airline stewardess.
So are you empowering yourself? Is the way we hold our body actually impacts our biochemistry, which is the coolest thing. So if you think about when you're 80 and if you're hunched over, it's very hard to be vibrant and healthy. And if you're 80 and you have your head up high and you're probably not as, you're not depressed, you're feeling good. So that's structural.
The next is chemistry. That's the fun stuff. Well, for me, that's what functional medicine really focuses on. Hormones, nutrition, minerals, absorption. This is also where toxins come into play, which is one of our sweet spots. And we'll talk about that later. This looking at what are you eating? How are you eating it, how are you absorbing it? What are you doing with that information? And then with the stuff you need to get rid of, are you getting rid of it properly? That's chemistry.
Okay, next part is emotions or emotional. And it's really about a couple of things. One is your general mood. Are you anxious? Are you depressed? What's going on inside your head? And two is your self talk. How are you speaking to yourself about yourself? And most of us are meaner to ourselves than we would ever be to anybody else. And then lastly, we talk about training. We know our body needs training, our physical body needs training, we need to exercise, we need to run, we need to lift weights, we need to pilates, yoga, etc. Now studies are coming out that show that training the mind is just as important, if not more important than training the body. Best way to train the mind is meditation. And you can do that through. There's hundreds, if not thousands, if not tens of thousands of different styles of meditation. But training the mind is vital to having a healthy life.
And then the next part of the five journeys is social. And social picks up where emotional leaves off. So if emotional Is your relationship to yourself and the way you treat your mind. The social is your relationship with others. Do you have deep social relationships? Do you have connections? Do you have friends whom you connect with regularly? If you've ever heard about blue zones, Blue zones are areas in the world where people are more likely to live to 100. And one of the common themes that connects each of these very different areas throughout the world is that every single one of those groups and those different blue zones have connections, deep connections to others that help them age gracefully.
Okay. And lastly, spiritual sense of purpose in life. Do you have a reason to get up? Do you have a reason to exercise, to eat well, do all the things that will make your life productive? And if you don't, that becomes a problem that, that we work with you to actually help you get a surf. Find your purpose of some kind, not necessarily a big purpose. Whether it's religion or not religion, it's really. Do you have a sense of getting up? A reason to get up and a reason to do the work to make yourself healthy and vibrant in life?
I think a patient example would be good here.
Yeah.
Okay, so I have a patient who strolled into my office. I originally thought she was a movie star because she had on a wide brim hat, huge sunglasses, a scarf wrapped around her, and she was covered head to toe. And I was like, oh, maybe she's going incognito. Cause I do not recognize this woman. She sat down, she takes off her sunglasses and her scarf. And what I realize is she's not a movie star, and she's covered head to toe in eczema. And she was so embarrassed about it that she had to wrap up. So because of this, she was kind of hunched over because she didn't want people to see her skin. And we started to get into it. She was a nurse, and that was her purpose in life. But she couldn't execute against it because she wasn't sleeping, she was anxious, her skin was raw and bleeding. Her digestion was off. She was. I mentioned she was anxious, she was depressed, she had stopped dating, she had stopped hanging out with her friends. She had no vaginal itch. And really from head to toe, every one of her five journeys was out of whack. So we started to get to work, and not surprisingly, toxins were a huge issue for her. And we started to peel them off. And as she walked through it, she was able to decrease her anxiety, get her sleep back, start digesting her food, absorbing her minerals. Her rash went away, her eczema went away. Her skin stopped bleeding. She was able to go back to work. And the best part of this, she stroll into my office. It was warm. So she strolled into the office recently wearing short shorts and a tank, like a really skimpy tank. And there was no eczema on her skin. And that was one of those moments where, well, I mean, I'm pretty prone to crying. And she had a history of anxiety, so the two of us were kind of crying, but she was. There was no more eczema. And that's the magic of this work. So you might be wondering what you can expect from this show. You'll be inspired and empowered with practical and usable tools and techniques that help you transform your life.
You'll learn what to do, why, and how. We'll interview experts, industry leaders, and of course, ourselves.
Yeah. Wherever you are in your journey, it's time to start making progress.
Welcome again to the five Journeys podcast.
Don't forget to follow so we can help you keep transforming your health.
