I’ve been on this whole kick about medicine in general ever since I received my cancer diagnosis. It was frustrating to find out I had cancer, but this launched me into a whole new world of medicine and care for my body. I’ve learned a ton about different things my body needs and lots of things my body doesn’t need. 

I’ve “loosely known” the basics for years. I mean, things like:

• Avoid Dyes
• Shop the outer aisles
• Go organic
• Grow your own food
• Read the ingredients
• If you can’t pronounce it, don’t eat it
• Fake sugar is worse than real sugar

What I didn’t know was what those things meant.

For example, Red40. I know, don’t let your eyes glaze over yet because I’m not about to get into some judgy crazy moment because you eat food with Red40 or natural flavors or sucralose vs. sugar. Honestly, I don’t care what you eat. (Rude, I know.)

Anyway, I know food dyes are bad. I mean, anything man-made in food is likely bad, right? But I didn’t know how bad until I started digging into its link and cancer. Just so I’m clear here, too…the information IS NOT easy to find. You would think there would be a master list from a reputable source that says “These are poison, you should not eat these.” However, depending on the website, the slant, the agenda, whatever – or even their own affiliate marketing strategy/income, the response can change. For now, I just go to places like the National Library of Medicine – and then I go into the deeper parts of the internet to see if I can get that information to change (and a lot of times it does).

Even as I look at affiliate marketing myself I keep asking “How can I honestly promote products that I don’t believe in?” Good question, right?

Anyway, getting off topic here. Back to functional medicine. 

Right now, I take a LOT of stuff. Pills, powders, liquid extracts. I take things often every 3-4 hours depending on dosage or if I can mix it with something else I’m taking of whether it’s supposed to be taken with meals or without. It’s incredibly complicated. Enter, functional medicine.

I found a sweet practitioner by way of my primary doctor in Frisco. At first, we drew like 15 vials of blood to check all sorts of things. We got the results, then we went to town developing a plan.  I ordered a bunch of stuff she recommended and then recently, I got my blood drawn again to see how we were doing. 

Some levels went up, but a lot didn’t go up as much. We started to realize my absorption is SUCKING (gut related), so now we’re focusing on that and trying to clean that up, too. That almost sent me off in a tail-spin because I started thinking about all the marketing stuff out there about “heal your gut, lose weight” ads that sucked me in for years. They drained my bank account. Not my waistline. But, to be fair, that was my fault for a lack of consistency (and funding). 

So we’re back at it. 

I’ve noticed I feel loads better. I’m working on my thyroid, which has been a nightmare because I have an intolerance to the medicine, so we keep switching it around trying to find the right one. I’m working on my gut health to try and fix absorption (and I’m not doing it with fancy marketing products. I’m doing it under the care of my functional doctor).

But, if you’re feeling like crap, I’m here to tell you…find a functional doctor. They are not cheap and often times, not covered by insurance. The bloodwork is covered, but the expensive consultations are not covered. The supplements are not covered. And they aren’t cheap. But there are some brands/websites I trust more than others!

• Branch Basics
• Primally Pure
• Hippevoshop.com
• Seekinghealth.com
• Thrive Market

I’m not sure where to take all of this. One day at a time mostly, but do your research and don’t believe all the marketing schemes/telegram posts/babylon bee posts you read. There’s truth out there somewhere.