You could be spending a lot of money on
organic and all the good things, and it's
not really being broken down and absorbed.
Then you could also look at the
mucosal barrier, which is where
the leaky gut, which is the kind
of the parent of autoimmunity.
And you can also see what stress is
doing and how it's breaking your body
down, how you're aging before your time.
So the functional tests tell you, you
know, how things are working inside.
Welcome back to the Inspired
Living with Autoimmunity podcast.
I'm your host, Julie Michelson.
And today I'm joined by Reid Davis, Board
Certified Holistic Health Practitioner
and Certified Nutritional Therapist.
Reid is an expert in functional lab
testing and holistic lifestyle medicine.
He is the founder of Functional
Diagnostic Nutrition and the FDN
certification course, which has over
4, 000 graduates in 50 countries.
Reed served as the health director at a
wellness center in Southern California
for over 10 years and with over 10, 000
clients, he is known as one of the most
experienced clinicians in his field.
Reed serves on the advisory board of
the American Natural Wellness Coaches
Board and the American Association
of Natural Wellness Coaches.
In today's conversation, we're discussing
the difference between functional
health and the historic medical model.
Reid shares his journey and his
expertise on how we can all shift out
of illness and into vibrant health.
And we also discuss the FDN training
program for those who have a desire to
heal as well as help others do the same.
Reed, welcome to the podcast.
Thank you so much, Julie.
Pleasure to be here.
I have, I'm so excited
about this conversation.
Um, so, but before we even dig into all
the autoimmunity information you can give
us, um, I would love for you to share a
bit of your journey because like so many
of us, this isn't, I don't think this is
what you're doing now is what you imagined
you'd be doing when you were younger.
Um, but unlike most of us, it's
not because of your own wellness
journey that you got here.
So can you just share, you know,
how did you come to create the
functional diagnostic nutrition?
Yeah, there's, there's a story there.
It's been an adventure, you know,
and I have to say, you never know
how it's going to turn out, but, um,
I got my first, uh, help book when
I health book when I was about 19.
And so there may be, and I
wasn't in the health business.
Until I was in my forties.
Matter of fact, I was in
environmental law and conservation.
So in the, in the 1990s, I thought
it was saving the whole planet.
And I actually did very well.
There's lots of ways to
make money in that industry.
Uh, and so we were doing great.
And I started to.
You know, I saw so much damage
done to the flora and fauna of
the planet, and you're trying to,
I started wondering about people.
What about people?
And what about me?
You know, I had relatives that
died at young ages, and I think
you are familiar with that.
Yep.
And so I didn't want that happening to me.
I was already in my 40s.
But by the time, my late 40s, by the
time I got into this field, which
is in 1999, and so I switched jobs.
I just went from Being the CEO
of a, uh, basically a recycling
company to, um, uh, just the
lowest level at a wellness center.
And it was hard to
imagine,
you know, I mean, they, they
brought me in as a businessman,
uh, cause I'd done very well.
And, um, yet.
The owner said, hey Reed,
um, if you want, you can take
this nutrition course with me.
The doctor was getting her diplomat
in nutrition and said, if you go
to these classes with me, I'll let
you work on our patients in between
classes, and you'll get your certified
nutritional therapist certificate.
So I jumped on that opportunity
and my life changed immediately.
I just fell in love with
working with people.
Now I'm saving people instead of birds
and dogs and cats or whatever, whales, and
you have it in the environmental field.
And so it was just a
remarkable experience.
enlightening and joyful experience,
although the people coming in the office
weren't joyful, they were miserable.
Yeah.
But my opportunity to help
them became my mission in life.
And so it's never changed in 25 years.
I, I'm dedicated to helping people find
the underlying causes and conditions.
Because as you know, I'm not
a physician, I couldn't, I
didn't want to start diagnosing.
Me either.
Yeah.
So I didn't want to start diagnosing
and treating, it would have been
inappropriate and maybe even illegal.
You know, I had nothing
to do with medical.
It's what's really wrong.
And all the patients were game to
do what I recommended, which was
run functional laboratory work.
It was called alternative back then.
Right, you know, we didn't call it this
and I've seen functional medicine evolve.
It's not finished evolving.
No
but it went from alternative to to
complementary to Integrative, you know,
which is more it's being accepted to
functional where now it's being championed
by Medical and that's a good thing.
But we so we were there
and All those years ago.
Um, I had a lot to learn,
uh, but I had
nothing to unlearn,
which is lovely.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And I just got to run labs and
look at what's really all these.
And I was trained at amazing mentorship
and I'll wrap this up in just a sec.
So with this incredible mentorship,
scientists, researchers, lab directors,
and lab lab geeks, you know, um, I learned
to find annoying causes and conditions.
And it became my sole modality.
I mean, the nutrition course
that I took didn't work.
It was just basically take this
way, you know, take this for
that supplements and stuff.
So, but it was the lab work that over
10 years, I ran thousands and thousands
of labs, helped thousands of people.
And I recognized patterns.
So, in addition to the training and
the mentorship I was receiving from
physicians and scientists, I was
recognizing my own patterns in the office.
We were a busy office.
Matter of fact, I loved going
out and getting new ones.
I started lecturing.
So I did that for 10 years.
And the patterns that I recognize are
the foundation of the, what we now
call functional diagnostic nutrition.
When I taught my first class,
after 10 years, Uh, they kind of
made me to start teaching other
practitioners, read, you're doing great.
Hey, you're, you can only see so many
people, why don't you deputize a few?
And that, that rang a
bell, um, in my busy mind.
And, um, and so the first class,
and I've never looked back from
then either, just teaching became,
okay, I can teach this methodology.
So it's a way of thinking.
And along with the steps,
methodology means method, steps.
The ology is the way
you have to be thinking.
So it's a methodology and you
have to be thinking that the
body, uh, is pretty smart.
You don't have to teach any
cells what their job is.
The body wants to heal itself.
If you give it everything it needs
to heal and remove the interferences.
So that's what FDN is.
It's that and all of the, uh, protocols.
All drug free, um, lifestyle
medicine, pretty much.
Which is amazing.
And I, I love, um, I ha I just told you
before we started at some point, I want
to go through the FCN course, um, you
know, I'll need CEUs and, and, uh, next
year, so, you know, you'll probably see.
See me on the roster just because we're,
you know, we're all always learning, but
it's already so aligned with what I do.
Um, you know, I'm not a prac.
I'm not a practitioner.
Um, I, I, you know, I, I know.
And we'll, we'll get into it
because I think what you hit on the
beauty of not being a physician.
Um, and I say that with love and respect
for physicians, most of my listeners
know I live with a physician, I work
with a physician, and we love working
together because I still have, I
didn't have anything to unlearn, and
I have the patient mindset, and so I'm
going to prioritize maybe Different
things than a physician would, um,
and I approach helping my clients the
same way, you know, FDM practitioners
do, which is we do a load of labs up
front, um, because there's our roadmap.
Right.
And so, you know, because we are, and
I know, I know you agree with this.
I've heard you speak.
Um, shockingly, we're all individual.
So we have patterns.
I know it's wild.
Um, and, and so, and I go
through the same thing.
I, I just had a call even last week where
somebody was like, that's expensive.
And I'm like, It is, but you're
here at my door because you haven't
had, you know, haven't been helped.
So, you know, do you want to wait
six months and trickle the labs like
you would have done, you know, with
a functional medicine physician?
No, you want to get better.
Um, so I, I love that.
And, and, you know, obviously most
listeners are either have auto immunity or
autoimmune adjacent autoimmune loved ones.
Um, I want to, because Functional
diagnostic nutrition, um, but
you're not a physician and you're
not working with diagnoses.
People kind of look at me like
when I'm crazy, when I say I good,
don't get a diagnosis with them.
We don't have to undo your thinking.
Um, you know, let's talk about
that a little, because I think
you share that view as well.
How can you help somebody if
they don't have a diagnosis?
Well, they could have
one from a physician.
Sure.
It's just not, it's not, um, usually
it's just the, uh, uh, a name or
label for a cluster of symptoms.
Right.
And it, it might have a lab or two
attached to it for confirmation.
So doctors do what's called
a clinical diagnosis.
It sounds like this.
Let's see, hypothyroidism.
Right.
Because in the cluster of symptoms,
that's very, very distinct.
So you list those six or eight
or ten things, um, oh, it
sounds like hypothyroidism.
Let's check.
And they check the thyroid and
pat themselves on the back.
I found your problem.
It's hypothyroidism.
Here's your prescription
to make up the difference.
Right.
And in our world, we call
that treating the paper.
Now it does provide relief.
People will feel better.
They get a little more energy,
or they lose a couple pounds.
But then as soon as something
else occurs, Which it will!
Which it does.
So when you don't treat the underlying,
uh, processes, disease processes, and
malfunctions, and imbalances that are
sometimes very far upstream, well then,
either the symptoms will come back
with a vengeance, and what do you do?
Well, you need more medication.
you know, up your dosage, or they appear
as new, uh, symptoms, which if that
same physician can handle it, uh, then
it would just be, well, that sounds
like low testosterone or something.
So they run the test and
pat themselves on the back.
Yep.
It's well, and now you're
on two medications.
You're on only two and you're in it.
So, so they're still treating
the paper, still using it.
Now, do you get relief?
You might, from the testosterone, get
a little more libido and, uh, build
a little bit of muscle and have some
more energy and things like that.
But, but, um, it doesn't fix
the So, we don't think that way.
So, the answer to your question about
diagnosis is That well, I can't give one.
I want and I don't want to because none
of our patients coming in 25 years ago
wanted another darn diagnosis, right?
Like I already have three.
I don't want another one.
I want to know what's really wrong.
And well, I'm your guy I just I was
a again the open book and I had The
freedom to do this in, in a wellness
center, uh, there was physicians there
and I had no trouble getting all the lab
work that they were willing to pay for.
That's like
me.
Yep.
Yeah, so it was fun.
I had a great time in those 10
years helping people and when
they started to get results.
Like amazing.
Right.
Results.
I, I tell this story all the time.
I hope it's okay.
Please.
You know, it's one of my most popular,
but I could give you a hundred.
But this lady can't, it's just
with your audience, this lady
comes in, she's there for some
chiropractic and massage and stuff.
And I would walk the patients
back to the treatment room.
She had a pretty big place and, um,
and get to know them and all that.
So she's, it was about
her eighth visit, I think.
And I could tell she was sad.
I said, Hey, you know,
first name, what's going on?
Oh, and she just was in a bad day.
Uh, Reed, I'm just so
tired, sick and tired.
I'm 40 pounds overweight and
I just can't stand it anymore.
And it's because of this
medication I'm on for the hives.
And, and right away I'm thinking,
okay, you know, I couldn't get a,
I couldn't
get a word in.
She, she would, she had to be heard out
like, like, and I went to the, so I'm on
this medication for the hives, maybe gain
40 pounds in two years and I'm sick of it.
And it's the, you know, and she said
she had just been for a checkup, told
the physician how sick of it she was.
And he said, according to her, ma'am,
you could be fat or you can have the
hives, you know, you take your pick.
And she said, so she said,
that's very depressing.
The physician said, well,
I'd be happy to write you a
prescription for antidepressants.
Oh, gosh, of course.
And so, so she was, now I understood
why she was presenting so down.
Right.
And, but when I said, by this
time we've walked her back, this
is all going in the hallway back
to the, to the treatment room.
And, and I typically, I would
do some trigger point therapy.
It was a really good myofascial
therapist, among other things, but I'd
do some trigger point therapy, put a
heat pack, and then the chiropractor
would come in and And adjust, uh,
do the adjustments and we were known
for that, really, really good type of
therapies and modalities and things.
But when I said to her, well, first
name, why didn't you ever try to
find out why you get the hives?
Yeah.
So.
As you had mentioned, well, her head
snapped around so hard I thought
she wouldn't need her chiropractic.
I thought I heard the, what?
And, and I said, yeah,
let's, let's run a test.
You can run a test if you want to, maybe,
no guarantees, but maybe find out why.
So we ran some tests.
We found out what she was eating
and things in her environment
that she needed to change.
And she did.
And within nine days.
of my report of findings on the lab work.
Uh, she called her doctor and
said, I'm off this medication.
I found out why I get the hives.
Amazing.
And, and it, you know, it's so
inspiring and also sometimes
frustrating and can spark a little
anger, um, which can feel change.
So that's good.
Doctor was doing what he's
trained to do, which is relief.
Right.
That's never, you know,
like relief is good.
Yeah.
As a side effect for her, the side effect.
Effect became worse than
the problem or is bed.
Was she, uh, another two weeks went
by and I talked to her again and she
said that she was in the gym working
out to a sweat and taking hot showers,
which she hadn't done in two years.
'cause even on the meds, hot showers and
sweating, what triggered and the hives.
And she'd lost some weight, you know,
a respectable amount of weight already,
you know, and, and, man, so underlying
conditions, can you help people without
being a physician and diagnosing?
Oh, heck yeah.
Absolutely.
Absolutely.
And I'll give the disclaimer
I give all the time.
And I've heard you say the same thing.
Western medicine is
fantastic for acute care.
So if you, you know, need surgery,
break a bone, have an infection, like
go to a Western trained medical doctor.
Um, but it's just not designed
to, to handle all of these chronic
conditions, including autoimmunity,
but there's so many of them now.
And they're just, You know, multiplying,
um, you know, probably, well,
not, not just probably, one of the
reasons is, you know, environment,
like you started with, so, um, you
know, it does all tie together.
We are, you know, absolutely
affected by environment.
I want to ask Let me add,
let me add one thing to
it, because you, you touched
on a very important point.
Are we in competition with physicians?
No.
Partnership.
Partnership.
You know, if you have communicable
disease, you get off a plane from
West Africa and your temperature is
105 and you're bleeding from your
eyeballs, you're not going to call
your nutritionist, FDN practitioner, or
health coach.
Yeah, health coach.
Same thing with gunshot wounds.
Sure.
Yeah, and so communicable diseases and you
got to go get checked out because here's
the the definition of back, two backyards,
medical backyard and our backyard.
So when the downward spiral is really
contracted, well, the observations
I would make with my functional lab
testing can't be capitalized on.
You've got to stop the
bleeding, so to speak.
Once the bleeding stop, then we can
Uh, then you're in the next backyard
and we, and, and people were coming
in 25 years ago with that and their
downward spiral wasn't, it was just
some long drawn out, well then the
observations we make and the lifestyle
recommendations and the epigenetic
programs work, you know, because
you have time for the body to heal.
That was our original premise.
The body wants to be healthy.
If it has, if you have enough time, you,
you can get over an awful lot of ills.
Absolutely.
And stop that, that spiral of, especially,
you know, once people have an autoimmune
diagnosis, again, it's the same thing.
If you don't handle that, those root
drivers, you're gonna get a second
and a third and maybe even a fourth.
I had, I had one client who had eight,
eight different autoimmune diagnoses.
And she's well now.
So, you know, it's, I always
say it's never too late and
definitely never too early.
Um, I know you're, uh, you
mentioned patterns, right?
This is how the whole FDN started
was because you were able to say
like, okay, you know, yes, we're
individual, but I see these patterns,
um, and you have fantastic acronyms.
So will you share a little
bit about your approach?
You know, what, what are you looking at?
What do you, you know,
So, in the office, in a 10 year period,
I ran thousands of labs and thousands
of people, and I had great mentorship.
Along the way, I started recognizing
patterns, and most of our, most
of our patients were women.
They seemed to care more about their
health, and they were, Working,
they had kids that were grown,
sometimes even out of the house.
Empty nesters kind of a thing going on.
And some even had younger kids,
but that was the demographic.
Now, I first became a specialist
in hormones because that was a big
thing in the day that the drugs being
used were horrible and there was
stuff going on with research there.
So, and then what I realized was that
you could help someone with their
hormones What about their immune system?
What about digestion?
What about detoxification?
What about energy production?
So I, I ended up over there coming
with this acronym, H-I-D-D-E-N, hidden.
And a lot of it's hidden.
You have to run labs and you look at
hormone balance and the immune system.
So H-I-D-D-E-N is hormone immune
digestion, detoxification, energy
production, and nervous system
balance, you know, the sympathetic
parasympathetic, and there's
tests for everything like that.
Now, here's the other
consideration though.
It's that none of that's
happening in a silo independently.
Yes.
We're so unique and individual.
And so what I learned is that, you
know, you couldn't say, well it
sounds like hormones, or it sounds
like the immune system, or it sounds
like nervous system imbalance, or it
sounds like a parasite, or whatever.
You know, you, you, what became important
was to look at the entire constellation.
of healing opportunities.
Those are not diagnoses.
Healing opportunities are what
really needs to be worked on.
And here's the other thing.
These causal factors, this
whole constellation of, of
causal factors, they're all
having an effect on each other.
And that's why you need
to know about them all.
And you can start sorting it out.
So what I, what I labeled
that was metabolic chaos.
And so that phrase has
become pretty popular too.
It has.
FDN practitioners, my, my graduates
all use it every day because that's the
only problem that a person has to us.
There's metabolic chaos.
Right.
You got all these causal factors,
they're affecting each other.
You can't even singly measure
some of those interactions.
Right.
Um, but we know about them.
And, uh, when you look at the entire
constellation, You can come up with what
a person can do immediately, which is
where the lifestyle acronym comes in.
You know, it's, it's not your genetics.
You can't change your parents, but you,
you, um, you're given some genetics,
and what you want is genetic potential.
You want to realize your fullest
healthy genetic potential, and
we're not all handed the same deck
of cards when it comes to that.
Right.
I, for instance, We'll
never be a NBA star.
Oh, come on, Reed.
Well, you know, at
5'10 you know, I'm not going to make it.
So, so, uh, the idea is that genetic
potential, though, is what you want.
So, if you find all these healing,
Opportunities, you've identified a bunch
of stuff, HIDDEN, and everyone has to
work on it all, and there's also oxidative
stress, there's other things you could
throw into the, the, the, uh, metabolic
chaos, what's creating and what's, what
has resulted in the symptoms and things.
Well, when you have that
approach, and you know that.
It's not genetics that matter, it's
epigenetics, it's your lifestyle.
And I realized that very early on,
I can remember over 20 years ago,
asking, starting to ask every patient,
What's your home program look like?
What are you doing at home?
Right.
You can't just come in here three
times a week and throw it on us.
That's not what we're here for.
We want to, and so it
would became D R E S S.
Diet, rest, exercise, stress
reduction, and supplements.
Now, we could do a whole two
hours just on the stress.
But D R E S S is our, it's the
FDN practitioner formula for
success, dress for health success.
And um, it's funny cause there
was a book in the seventies
about dress for health success.
If you went back and looked at
it and dressed that way today,
you'd be considered a clown.
But it was good back then,
the big white ties and,
uh,
anyway, I had that book, um, uh, but
dress for health success is how you live.
From the time you get up in the
morning to the time you go to bed,
and even in between how you sleep.
Diet, rest, exercise, stress
reduction, supplementation.
It also makes it very easy to be a
health coach and manage that person.
So, in our world, we assess
all the healing opportunities.
You gotta run some labs and do some
intake, get to know the person.
Um, then you can, um, Correlate those
lab results with the person in other
words clinical correlation, you know,
all these things going on You're finally
the first person that ever explained to
a someone why they feel so crappy all
the time When they might have even been
told there's nothing wrong with you.
Yeah
standard blood work and that's your
labs are fine
Come back when you're sick, you
know, like right bad and in the
meantime, here's a chill pill Yeah.
So, so no, we find healing opportunities.
Especially in those cases.
And then you have to recommend and design
the right protocol for that person.
There's no one diet right for everyone.
Thank you.
Rest is highly individualized.
Exercise is highly individualized.
I'll tell you right now it's 70.
I can't do the, I had to you.
Quit kickboxing was too hard on my hips.
You know, I have a torn labrum,
you know, you kind of damn there's
a lot of stuff So even wear and
tear.
Yeah well used body so diet
individualized rest in visualization
exercise The stress reduction is again.
It's a whole The whole conversation
itself, but very quickly, it's mental,
emotional, psycho spiritual stress
that's going on in your head and
your heart and your mind and things.
There's physical trauma, like
I've had a lot of from sports
and motorcycles and things.
And then there's the chemical,
biochemical stressors.
And where did I start?
environmental laws and studying,
uh, how bad the environment is for,
for, um, you know, flora and fauna.
It's bad for us too.
So you have this whole, this whole,
uh, world of stress reduction.
And then the supplements are
important because food just
isn't the quality it used to be.
They can be used therapeutically
to support and stimulate
and things like that.
So D R E S S, but only guided
by investigation of HIDDE.
And that's our basic formula.
We resolve metabolic chaos by getting
people to live themselves out of the
problems they've lived themselves into.
And again, this works perfectly with
medical who work on the, um, you
know, communicable and accidents and,
and, and, and weirdo genetics, like
total people with genetic defects.
And, um, In our sometimes missing
parts, you know, that's really,
uh, we can't grow parts back.
But, um, that's our backyard.
You know, it's the, it's the wall
you need your ladder on if you're
going to, uh, take charge and, um,
live yourself out of it and, um,
live yourself into, um, a really
healthy, vibrant, and joyful backyard.
Life, you know, the last thing I'll
say about doctors and us, why we work
so well together, doctors will save
your life and we'll, we'll put more
vibrancy into it and the longevity
and anti aging that goes with it.
Yeah, which I love that that you brought
up and we're, you know, talking mostly
about and, and this was what drove
your path, you know, chronic illness
and things like autoimmunity, but it's
the same approach for up leveling and,
and, you know, aging with full health.
Um, I, you know, I didn't think I
would live to see 55 and I probably
wouldn't have wanted to if I
had continued to decline anyway.
Now I'm like, Oh, the next few
decades are going to be amazing.
Um, I always say, you know, I, I
want to live well until I'm done.
And so this approach
is a wellness approach.
It doesn't really matter
what you're looking for.
If you think you feel well.
This approach will help you feel better,
Julie.
That's an excellent point.
And a good, good place.
We could move on, um, you know, and
I'll come back anytime you guys want.
I would love it.
I want to throw this in though,
for anybody listening on audio that
doesn't, is not familiar with you.
Cause you just mentioned
that you're 70 check out.
Check out Reed, because you
would not believe he was 70
if you met him in person, and
that's what true wellness can be.
It can be full life,
even with wear and tear.
Wear and tear's fair, you earned it.
Yes.
But
You got it honestly, anyway.
Yeah.
So, sorry, I interrupted you because
I had to, I had to throw that in.
Well, you know, I enjoy speaking about
this so much, but on a podcast it's
limited as to what you're going to.
The one thing we didn't cover is the
science and how robust, like, my program
is, and what I had to learn in those
10 years, The anatomy, the physiology,
the biochemistry is intense, and
that's all in my course that I teach.
So it's a real great
refresher for physicians.
Uh, from a lay perspective, it's quite
unique, but it's a real education for
health coaches and, um, even nurses and
the others who like to take my course
and learn a whole, uh, methodology.
We have thinking, and, um, of course,
it's a great business opportunity, too.
You can become an independent
health entrepreneur by doing this.
And there's no prerequisites
except for that you're willing
to do the work on yourself first.
Yep.
And that alone would be
worth the price of admission.
If you just got really
healthy from it, wow.
You know, but the fact that you could
turn around and help others as a hobby,
just your family, friends, whatever, or
as a profession, which is why I created
the Association of FDM Professionals.
My grads are so numerous.
We've trained over 4, 000 people.
Which is amazing.
And in 50 countries, right?
Yeah.
Yeah.
I didn't even know.
Probably more countries.
Yeah,
I didn't know there was countries
named what, you know, all these,
that's a country, that's a
city
somewhere, but, but, um, uh, mostly
United States, Canada, New Zealand,
Australia and United Kingdom, but,
um, we're, we're all over because
you can do this from, you know, if
you can get the labs, uh, shipped.
Like, here's a lab right here on my desk.
I got to fill this one out.
I
know that one.
Next week.
Yep.
So, and, and I'll, because I, I have every
lab I've ever run in 20 years, and boy,
can you track the, and, and still, it's
part of why, of being healthy, I think.
So, I don't know, maybe last word
to your listeners, to our listeners
today is start getting the data.
You need data.
Yeah.
You can't just be told,
try this, try that.
Yeah.
And physicians are getting data, but
they're really not handing it over
to you, uh, freely in most cases.
And most Beg it, beg for it, you know?
Yeah.
Or demand it.
And you want to start tracking
it, because guess what?
You're going to change doctors.
And the one you're seeing now doesn't
know the one or even know what
the results were five years ago.
That's important information,
and it's your information.
It belongs to you.
And so I recommend getting the data
and making your decisions on it,
and tracking it over time so you can
see that you're on the right track.
I love that you brought that up.
This, this idea of health autonomy,
um, because for years, decades, you
know, that is the old system is that
the, you know, the doctor has the
answer and it's going to fix you and
you already hit on if you don't change
lifestyle and address all these, all
these lifestyle areas, you know, the a,
the data is not going to do any good.
Um, but, but also, you know, it's, we're
in this amazing age where information is
available and, and, you know, I have been
told before, well, you can't have that.
I'm like, it's my body.
These are my labs.
And then I get to know if something's
changing, um, you know, can you touch on.
That like you mentioned, but a
little deeper on the difference
of if somebody, you know, has been
told your labs are fine, you're,
you know, your labs are normal.
Um, you know, I won't get into the whole,
is it in your head and all, but, but
the difference between the labs, you,
you know, you run or an FDN would run
or that I run, how are they different?
Because people always come up
and they're like, Oh, I've had.
So many labs done down to like, Oh, you
know, I, I had, I had a heavy metals
test and it was a blood test, you know,
like there's just so much misinformation
and, and there is a real difference
in the information we can access.
You know, well there's functional tests
that tell you how your body is working,
and then there's other tests that like
tell you what your food sensitivities are,
or what your parasites and bacteria and
funguses and viruses are, or what your
uh, metal toxic levels are and things.
So, you got functional, which is going
to tell you, How are your adrenals?
Are your hormones balanced?
How's your immune system working?
Is it overactive or underactive?
How's digestion working?
Are you actually breaking down
and absorbing food properly?
You could be spending a lot of money on
organic and all the good things, and it's
not really being broken down and absorbed.
Then you could also look at the
mucosal barrier, which is where
the leaky gut, which is the kind
of the parent of autoimmunity.
And you can also see what stress is
doing and how it's breaking your body
down, how you're aging before your time.
So the functional tests tell you, you
know, how things are working inside.
And then there's other tests like,
which is again, they're usually
done on the sounds like method.
Sounds like heavy metals.
Right.
Let's test for those.
And you might even find a couple.
And then you might even look
for the source of those things.
You might find mineral imbalances too.
You might be able to,
well, try to adjust it.
But the functional tests are,
uh, sort of higher level.
It's a, it's a hierarchy
that you need to know about.
And I think that's the real data.
Um, so, so, With respect to the
standard letterwork that doctors
use, it's too generalized.
They're just, the ranges are
so big and where should you be?
Now, because if the range is this
big, maybe your best functional, you
do better here, someone else does
better here, In whatever that thing
might be, and but only when you get
this far out of range off camera.
Oh, yeah.
Now you have a problem.
Okay, well, couldn't you have
told me as I was talking.
10 years ago before I.
You know, if the range is like this
and you, you were here and now, are you
fine, when you're right on that, you
know, borderline, are you really fine?
No, you've, you've lost
function along the way.
And so physicians typically don't
track and don't, they just look,
are you over the line or not?
Right.
And I say that all the time, you know,
if you, we talked about how rampant
chronic illnesses and how unhealthy
our society is, and the labs you're
getting at your doctor, if they're
not flagged, that means you're average
of a horribly unwell population.
I don't want to be.
In the average of this, of the current
population versus what you're saying, the
functional tests are, they're you there.
How is your body doing?
And that's like, you know,
a huge missing piece.
So I, I love that.
You said that.
And, and it's
a good, good discussion.
There's a book called, um,
normal blood test scores.
Aren't good enough by Ellen Cullen.
Um, if I have it right, something
like that, normal blood test
scores aren't good enough.
And so that's a beginning of understanding
of why, what your physicians, when he
only flags this and that, cholesterol and
vitamin D, if they're even testing it.
You know, and then, well, and then each,
Each lab company has a
different range because they see
different kinds of populations.
So it's, it's right.
There's
LabCorp and Quest, the two
biggest referencing things.
So that's standard and it's
not good enough to be normal.
You need to be able to track where
you're in the range and, you know,
before you get over the line.
And, um, the other thing is most positions
aren't sitting down for for any length
of time to explain what each one is.
What are these markers?
Nope, it's just this one's over the
line, this one's under the line,
and here's what you do about it.
That's diagnosing and
treating specific things.
We would look at it more, we would call
it functionally minded, but, so that's
the blood work, but then the saliva
testing, urine testing, stool testing,
hair tissue, mineral analysis, and things
like that, they're much more functional.
And then there is the Uh,
direct contributors to metabolic
chaos testing, like parasites,
bacteria, funguses, viruses.
You have your food
sensitivities, which we look at.
Everyone has some.
It's good to know what the good foods are
and shop there and make your meals out of
that stuff instead, at least for a while.
And there's more, but yeah, and it
usually, the reason why physicians
don't do it is because On one hand
is because it's not covered by
insurance in many cases, right?
It's called an out of pocket and
physicians generally aren't going to
you know They're signing contracts
with insurance companies to send them
patients to stay within their scope
of practice and and The medical model
the algorithms that exist there that
they're bound to it's very quite
limiting actually and so we're not
know even what to do with the results to
Well, they're not changing.
So that's why I have a training program,
uh, by the way, but, um, there's so
much to, to uncover and to unpack here.
I don't know.
We could have 10, 10 conversations.
Let's, let's talk about the
training program briefly.
So the listeners that are peaked and maybe
they're on their healing journey and are
in that place of like, Ooh, I, you know,
a, I either want to learn more because
go through the program, like you The one
prerequisite is, is to work on yourself
and want to help people.
Yeah.
Yeah.
And we are a bunch of, uh, do gooders, you
know, you know, we want to help people,
uh, but we want to work on ourselves.
That was what inspired
me in the beginning was.
Hey, I see what's happening
to the flora and fauna.
What about me?
What about us?
And what about me?
I didn't want something sneaking up on me.
And, you know, so I switched jobs,
and as you know, I ran a lot of labs.
And now I teach a course in it, and what
people would learn is how the dominoes
fall, you know, how it starts with stress.
We look at, you know, we do a saliva test
of the stress hormones, cortisol, DHA.
We see people are in a breakdown
state, they're in a catabolic state,
their bodies are breaking down.
Well, the next thing, it's
due to stress, various kinds.
The body doesn't care what
kind of stress it is, mental,
emotional, physical, chemical.
It reacts with stress.
out of balance.
Right.
And so the next thing to go in
this dominoes is the sex hormones.
You know, your estrogen, your
progesterone, your periods get
funny, your menopause comes early,
you, you get infertile and all these
issues around the sex hormones and
for men it's a little different.
But, um, uh, then the next thing
to fall, believe it or not,
is usually the immune system.
So digestion becomes poor because
It's a big, the gut is a big part of
your immune system, as a matter of
fact, it's most of your immune system.
And so we see secretory IgA going
down, uh, due to chronic stress.
And then if your secretory IgA is
down, that's, that's something in
your gut to, to protect you from bugs.
Um, well, If it's low, big bugs come
along, and they have, and they start to
reside, you have a good host for them.
This is why we say the bugs
aren't the problem, it's the host.
Right.
It's the environment.
So, stress, sex hormone imbalances,
immune system problems, then you
get this, what's called a dysbiosis,
you're not able to, you know, you
have good bad flora issues, and you're
not able to break down food properly.
Now you have a malnourishment issue,
even if you're eating great food.
You're assimilation of
nutrients into the body.
And from there, it gets worse.
These bigger, bigger, badder
bugs, I think is the medical term.
The bigger, the bigger, badder
bugs, They can ruin the lining of
the gut, along with chemicals and
foods you shouldn't be eating and
Medications, just like all, yeah.
Drugs, excuse me, and so now we get
permeability of the lining of the gut.
Oh, then we get autoimmunity.
Well, you know, in, in, in succession,
the, the downward spiral and the,
uh, dominoes would fall such that
the liver would get congested.
Because everything goes through the portal
veins, uh, from the stomach, from the,
from the small intestines into the liver.
Doesn't get directly delivered
into the body, except some
fats that go through the villi.
But, um, you get this, this is
where the science and anatomy and
physiology becomes really important
to understand this downward spiral.
So that's what we teach, is all, where,
how all the dominoes are falling.
And you can point to
people where they're at.
in that progression.
And then you can teach them how
to heal and recover and restore,
uh, back to normal function.
That would be the goal anyway.
And we don't over promise
anything, but very reasonably
expect people who are then, once
we figure out all the malfunctions
and
the influences, you know, the
epigenetic factors, uh, then
you can live yourself out of it.
We can give you the right diet,
rest, exercise, stress reduction.
That could be getting rid of foods,
handling the bugs, a lot of things, and
supplementation becomes very important.
But I would say the overriding
methodology includes, it's the person
taking charge, not me taking charge.
It's like, this is the data.
It's your data.
This is your, it's your saliva,
your blood, your urine, your stool,
your hair, whatever we're analyzing.
And then, and, and so it's you,
you get to control the outcome.
I can't control the outcomes.
But that's where the
health coaching comes in.
I think it's a good point to,
to, um, to summarize is that
yes, I can run all the labs.
Yes, I can correlate it directly
with why you feel so crappy.
Right.
And you will understand and know.
Wow, no one ever showed me this before
and we'll even design the custom dress
program together Individualize that but
then what right do I send you on your way?
It's the how do you do it?
Hey, good luck with that Months you better
have lost 20 pounds and and have more
energy and clear thinking and All that.
No you coach you have a
plan
Regular, uh, follow ups with someone
who knows, uh, why you're doing this,
understands you as a person, and can
help keep you on track and motivated,
and retesting as needed, you know, uh,
and, and correcting course, because the
course corrections is the real goal.
Um, heavy burden of the health
coach to help you correct what,
because things don't always go
exactly the way they're laid out.
Like some, sometimes it does, but
it's like sailing a ship, you know,
we grew up on the great lakes.
Nice.
So
we sailed.
My dad had a sailing this afternoon.
Fantastic.
Yeah.
My uncle was a Commodore of a
yacht club, you know, and so, um,
there's no power boating to health.
Yeah.
No,
those guys love that big potters,
you know, it's a lot of zigzag and a
lot of tacking and coming about and,
you know, heading up falling off, you
know, um, and all the, all the sailor
terms that actually apply your correct
course, there's wind in the sails.
In your life, there's waves slapping up
against the bow, trying to push you off
course, there's currents under the water,
and everyone has a different size hole,
keel, you know, uh, rudder, everything.
Well, and we're never done, right?
It's not like, oh, you know, this is
working and maybe this isn't exactly
what I need to be doing in 10 years.
That's a fantastic point.
There's no one at the
top of the stairs, right?
Yeah, I don't know a
perfectly healthy person.
And I know a lot of people, and this is
what they've done their entire lives, and
everyone can pick something to work on.
Yeah.
So the, the program itself, I mean, it
sounds like it's so rich and so dense.
It's robust.
It's robust.
It is
robust, but it's how, it's
how long is the program?
I could teach
you what took me 10 years to
figure out in 10 months or
less, because it's self paced.
So teach you what I learned in
10 years and have learned since.
Uh, uh, in 10 months or less.
Um, and, uh, if you go to that
uur LI gave you Yep, um, uh,
fdn training.com/autoimmunity,
it'd be a great thing we have a free
gift for, for our listeners and,
um, direction and information and.
Things like that.
Um, Julie.
So wonderful, which is very generous.
Thank you.
Some folks.
Yeah.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I can encourage, you know, wherever you
are in your healing journey, at least
go check it out because whether it's
for your personal healing or you're
at that place where you're already
thinking of, you know, Paying it
forward and, and helping create change.
Um, Reid has done, you've done
what, what we dream about, right?
Like I, I love helping people, um, and
you actually stepped up and, and created
a scale where you shifted from, you
know, working directly with clients to
teaching practitioners and, and whomever
is interested in learning and healing.
And, and that is how we
really create change.
So really, really grateful for the
work that you're putting out there.
There's an evolution in place.
Yes.
I saw alternative.
Um, well, I mean, some people
thought we were kind of quacky.
Yes.
Well, some people probably still do, too.
Yeah, so, but I've seen that
alternative go to, um, complementary
and integrate, because it works.
Yeah.
And it became integrative, and
now it's functional medicine,
and it's still going to evolve.
We're health, everyone has a health coach.
Yeah.
I love it.
I love it.
Now's the point where, because I promised
I'd let you go on time today, which
is very hard for me because I have
so many things to talk to you about.
Um, so we'll pull, you already
offered, we'll pull you back in down
the road to, to talk a little more.
Um, but this is the point listeners
are, are, they know to, to listen
for, which is, and this can be
anything under the sun read.
What is one step listeners can take
today to start to improve their health.
I would say get up in the morning
and Drink a big glass of water,
purified water, and get into a
state of mind that's grateful.
We, we actually talked about this a little
bit before the recording started, like I
get up every day and decide to be happy
that this is going to be a good day.
And look, you know, I live in Southern
California, so when I look outside, yeah,
I see a lot of sunshine and blue skies.
But even when I don't.
You know, you carry the sunshine
with you, and I would say start
there with your point of view,
and have a cup that is half full.
Uh, And maybe one day it will run it over.
Yes.
I'd love it.
Uh, so important and, and that
will expedite all the other healing
work, just really everything else
works faster, better, you know, so
beautiful, beautiful contribution.
Well, good job, Julie.
I want to commend you for all the
fantastic work you're doing, and
for putting these things together.
Uh, and you're, you're doing wonderful.
I appreciate and I'm honored to be here.
Thank you so much.
It has been an absolute pleasure
and, and you've really given
us some wonderful gold today.
Thank you.
Thanks for everyone listening.
Remember, you can get those transcripts
and show notes by visiting inspiredliving.
show.
I hope you enjoyed this
episode as much as I did.
I will see you next week.