Speaker 1: 0:30

I'm Cameron Olderog. I am a functional medicine physician and my business is Horizon Functional Medicine, and we're in Warrington, okay great and explain functional medicine to me for those who don't know.

Speaker 1: 0:43

Yeah, so functional medicine, I like to explain it as root cause medicine, and so what we're really looking at is the reason behind the symptoms, and so in conventional medicine, I trained to identify a disease and treat it based on what the diagnosis was, and sometimes people have symptoms that don't make a disease, or they get some testing and they just don't end up finding a diagnosis, and so they're told, well, everything's okay, you're normal and they're like, but then why am I feeling this way?

Speaker 2: 1:15

Yeah, and it's happened over and over yeah.

Speaker 1: 1:17

And so I feel like, especially women go in and they're like I'm tired and I'm gaining weight and I just don't feel good and they're like, well, everything's normal. And you're like okay, well, what am I supposed to do? I've had that answer before but it works fine.

Speaker 1: 1:29

So functional medicine really takes the next step and says okay, well, what's going on cellularly, what's really going on deep, to try to come up with how we can help someone using nutrition, movement and exercise, sleep, stress, community really, those are the pillars that we use to treat what's going on. So, if somebody is really tired, I start thinking about things like well, in the cell, your mitochondria generate energy, so what's going on there that might be affecting your ability to have enough energy and what can we use nutritionally and with movement and exercise and things to really help heal what's going on? And it's just, it's a little bit of a different way to think about it and address things that maybe aren't either being helped in conventional medicine or you're not getting the kind of answers that you're really hoping for.

Speaker 2: 2:24

Yeah, for sure, how did you get into functional medicine?

Speaker 1: 2:28

It's. You know, it's always a journey and I feel like for every patient I've ever had it's always a journey. So for me it really started with food. So I was pregnant with my first son and I think when you're pregnant you just think more about what you're eating and how are you going to nourish this baby growing inside of you?

Speaker 1: 2:45

And so started really digging into it. My husband at the same time, you know, was also reading a book by a regenerative farmer, joel Salatin, who does Polyface, and so we're both kind of on this similar path of like what do we really need to do? And start looking at where our food's coming from and how food matters in how your body works. And so for us that process kind of started, I guess 11 years ago now, and led to us eventually moving from Alexandria to outside of Warrington, virginia, to a 50-acre farm. My husband now does regenerative farming and with that like saying, okay, if we're going to.

Speaker 1: 3:24

Can you explain the?

Speaker 2: 3:26

farming.

Speaker 1: 3:26

Regenerative farming. So regenerative farming is using the animals to improve the land as kind of a cycle, and so it's grass fed, grass, finished beef, where we rotate the cows to help improve both the grass and the climate and the cow's health. We have pigs that are in a woodlot that get to eat and forage, as well as feed that we give them this is like my husband's dream, by the way give them.

Speaker 1: 3:56

Um, it's like my husband's dream it really. I mean, and it's it's been a gradual process, but it's really been like a way for us to live out what feels like where we're supposed to be. Um, and that's really the goal right. Like people need to find what they can do to live their dream, and that looks differently for everybody, but for us it kind of led to us changing our lifestyle. Doing that, so my husband's at home with the kids, he does all the farming, and as we've made that, it felt more natural for me to get into functional medicine as a career and not just use it for me and my family but to offer it to other people, to offer it to everybody.

Speaker 2: 4:36

So do you guys have chickens?

Speaker 1: 4:38

We have a little bit of chickens. We've done chickens where we'll do pasture poultry. We work with another farmer locally in the community and he does a lot more chickens and we do work on the beef together because we've got just we've got enough acreage to really kind of have the cows and then I think my husband's favorites, the pigs, to be, honest, they've got a lot of personality and so, and bacon, it just tastes really good Of course, yeah.

Speaker 2: 5:06

Who doesn't like having bacon in the freezer all the time, straight from your backyard? It's amazing. What differences did you see in your health once you guys started making those changes?

Speaker 1: 5:13

I think how you feel energetically is one of the first ones that people start to realize. And so having that energy when you get up in the morning and I think both having the purpose and then the nutrients makes a big difference. We always talk about the difference. We always talk about the difference. So we've got three kids and we can feed our family on like a chicken and a different kind of say we're at a friend's house or something. They'll have three, four or five pieces. They just get fuller. And I think it's your body's natural sense of how nutrient dense a meal is to really so. So you can sense how this affects your body differently and your body's feedback mechanisms.

Speaker 2: 6:13

Yeah, so interesting, yeah, yeah, so that kind of led you down the path to functional medicine, yes, and then so you were practicing conventional medicine and then decided to open up your own practice. Tell me a little bit about that process.

Speaker 1: 6:25

Yeah and um, and still kind of in the the in between, doing both. So, um, with emergency medicine, um, which is what my, my specialty is um, we, I work shifts right, which really enables me to be able to also do the clinic, and so to be able to have shifts on different days and in the evenings and fit the clinic in um to really serve. It really started with well, let's see how this goes. Let's start with just a couple of um of days and like, and it really has, you know, filled up my days. No longer Do I have a day that doesn't end up getting full, um, and so really, making that yeah, no, absolutely.

Speaker 1: 7:09

And looking at how to balance that is really been a huge growth portion, but also really great Like so you know the transition and it's never perfect of like, where do you, because I still love emergency medicine, but how much time in each place and where is that jump?

Speaker 2: 7:34

Because this is relatively new right.

Speaker 1: 7:36

Yeah, about 18 months.

Speaker 2: 7:37

Yeah, yeah.

Speaker 1: 7:38

So that's a baby, right, it's a toddler, and it's really been exciting to see, right, I'm now at the point so I do a year-long membership for people who really want to dig into their health, and to see people who've now finished that year-long membership and the difference between when they started and when they finished. There's always this like is it really going to work? Question, right, like, you go into it and especially coming out of conventional medicine, you're like well, this is how I was trained and really seeing people who had autoimmune disease and now the antibodies are undetectable and they're off medication and have put things into remission, or I mean teenagers who will come to me with all sorts of gut issues and six weeks later feel like they can eat anything and feel great, right, like the ability to see that transition and that change in healing has been really amazing, yeah, and so that's kind of the point where I'm at now, where it's like this is great when you're starting to see some of the results.

Speaker 1: 8:39

Yeah, and things are really kind of starting to fill up and trying to figure out how do I do a little bit more in functional, you know, and starting to think about things like when do you hire help right, when do you hire people to do some of the administrative tasks that maybe aren't my wheelhouse?

Speaker 2: 8:59

That have to be done.

Speaker 1: 9:00

Yes, Well, and they're important, right, Like everybody loves getting the newsletter where they can read about and learn about different topics, and so having somebody that can put that together for me is probably the next big step.

Speaker 2: 9:13

Yeah, I was going to ask you about growth. Where do you see it all going?

Speaker 1: 9:16

Yeah, I would really love, you know, to shift to where the vast majority of my time is in the clinic doing functional medicine, and so, as I do that over the next, you know, however long it takes, right, I really want it to feel organic and grow organically. And so to do that, you know, really adding someone who can be kind of an office manager, somebody who can guide patients through the process, respond to emails and questions and help folks get stuff sorted out and do some of the social media and the newsletter, and so that's probably the next big step, um, and then I mean one day being able to have, you know, a nurse who maybe can do some, um, uh, iv therapy and those sorts of things.

Speaker 1: 10:10

Yeah, and I think that there can be advantages for some people. I don't. I think that some of it is probably a little oversold. I would agree um but I think that there are people who do benefit from certain therapies that way, um, but really being able to expand offerings as we go forward.

Speaker 1: 10:28

I think long-term goal, like big picture goal, I'd love to have a building full of, like, wellness providers. I work with a wellness coach, so she's a functional nutritionist who can help my patients that do the membership. So they meet with her four times over the year so that she has touch points in between when I see them and really helps with the implementation of specific things. Like I tell you here, I want you to eat this way and she's the one that can really give you here's a new recipe and here's what that looks like and here's how to do this, yeah, and how your body's going to process this.

Speaker 1: 11:10

Yeah, so to have physical therapists and nutritionists and counselor and a functional medicine provider and all the people together, you know, with an infrared sauna and with some other, you know, things that can be beneficial.

Speaker 2: 11:25

Yeah, get a cold plunge in there. Maybe, maybe.

Speaker 1: 11:28

I love the sauna. There's people who hate saunas and love cold plunges. I really feel like it's like pick what you enjoy.

Speaker 2: 11:35

Yeah, I know people that do both. Yes, Do the cold plunge and then get in the sauna. I've tried it.

Speaker 1: 11:40

I'm like that's a little. It's really hard, but yeah. So I mean I think, big picture I'd love to see like a full wellness center, full growth, yeah.

Speaker 2: 11:51

Yeah, I want to talk about your subscription plan for a minute, um, cause it sounds so interesting to me that you get, I think you said, four or five visits included, so you're really checking in with people. I mean my normal, like my primary caregiver I see once a year and it is a quick 15 minute appointment in and out, yeah.

Speaker 1: 12:12

And that's about it.

Speaker 2: 12:13

So tell me about the level of care that you're able to give with the subscription.

Speaker 1: 12:17

Absolutely so. My initial visit is a 90 minute visit and with that visit it can be used like that. I'm otherwise healthy. I just want to fine tune my health and I really want to kind of dial things in, or I don't even know what's going on. Help, right, and so that's that initial visit, and before that we do an extensive questionnaire and blood work. So we're sitting down with all of the information to create a plan at once, and so that is is super helpful, because it's not come see me, then I'll order labs, then somebody will call you and give your lab work results.

Speaker 2: 12:51

Right and then they're like so what do I do with that Right?

Speaker 1: 12:55

So we really come up with a plan and for some healthy people that's great and they can move on. But sometimes we uncover autoimmune disease or we uncover some things we need to work on and we're like, okay, let's really dig into your hormones, your mitochondrial health. And so for those patients there's what I call the health restoration membership and it's really people who want to spend like a year really working on their health, and so with that membership it's five visits with me, four visits with my health coach, so over the course of the year you're looking at nine visits, so about every six weeks, yeah, and full access with you know, emails and stuff in between. Questions. All of that Um, it's um really enables us to one if we want to do some functional testing. So there's some different testing that we can really dig into things like hormone health, what, what's going on inside nutrient status, uh, things that are a little bit, take a little bit more time to kind of heal and we can monitor the ups and downs and we can really dig into.

Speaker 1: 14:01

Well, this worked a little bit, but I still am having this symptom and what else can we do? When I approach something, I like to kind of tell people that we're going to start at the base level, which is almost always the gut. Like so many people have the gut playing a big role in their health and so if you have hormone problems, if your gut's not fixed, I can't fix your hormones until your gut's fixed right, because it's how your body gets rid of excess hormones. And so, really focusing on you know a six-week gut and then okay, so we've got that. You're feeling better, you're pooping every day, like let's move on and work on some hormones, and then we kind of go to that level and really kind of continue to build to really get someone at the point that they are feeling their best and able to do all the things and live the life that they want.

Speaker 2: 14:52

That they want to live.

Speaker 1: 14:53

Yeah.

Speaker 2: 14:54

I was looking at your site and saw that you have supplements and stuff available on your site. Tell me a little bit about how you recommend certain things for different clients.

Speaker 1: 15:05

Yeah, so so I use. Fullscript is an online dispensary, and so that's what's on my website. It's the link to join. I have a couple of protocols out there that are pretty much open to people who you know. There's a general wellness right, a multivitamin, an omega-3, a magnesium and a probiotic right. That's what probably everybody needs Everybody a magnesium and a probiotic, right?

Speaker 1: 15:25

That's what probably everybody needs. When I do my initial, like that functional assessment, a lot of times we'll uncover vitamin D deficiency or people who need B vitamins, or we'll look at you know, do we need to do a gut protocol? And when we do that, I will use supplements as a bridge. And that's really what I explain to people. Like ideally, you're not just exchanging a pharmaceutical pill for a supplement, right? If you're getting like, hey, here's how we're going to manage your symptoms with a supplement instead of a pill, I don't feel like that's true healing. That's like the same, Just swapping one thing for another thing.

Speaker 1: 16:01

And it may be safer Like there may be some advantage to doing that, but I really think that, looking at healing, you sometimes need that supplement to help with that, and so we use changes in nutrition. We use supplements as needed with the goal of pulling you off the supplement eventually. So again, there's some things that I think probably people all can take things like B12, right A B complex, something like vitamin D right, Particularly in the winter. There's a lot of things that we can continue, but you shouldn't always need to be on glutamine to heal your gut, or you shouldn't always need to be on um, you know, extra digestive enzymes right, Like we should be able to to address the issue that's causing your digestive enzymes to be low, so that we can heal that. But sometimes you need to feel better in order to get to the point that we can do that?

Speaker 1: 16:59

Yeah, and sometimes when you change too much at once, it's like well, I switched five of my supplements and I have no idea what's really working, but I feel better, yeah, and I get a lot of people who come to me and they bring me this like huge, long list of supplements and they're like, look at all these things I take and I don't know what's working and what's not. Well cause, you go online and you're like, well, that sounds like me, let me try that. And I do the same thing, like I and then something new comes out, or something.

Speaker 1: 17:26

And you're like this sounds good and so, so a lot of times I'll take people off stuff and they're like, but what if it's helping? And I'm like then we'll find out. Like, let's, let's target what we're looking at. Yeah, what's helpful is some of the testing. I do we have you stop supplements for four or five days prior to doing any of the testing, so we get a good baseline.

Speaker 2: 17:46

That's smart. And then um, do you guys do testing on food sensitivities too, when you talk?

Speaker 1: 17:51

about gut healing. So, depending on the person, um, we either will do some food sensitivity testing, which there's some caveats with that Like, if you haven't ever eaten gluten in the last three months, you're not going to get positive on a food sensitivity testing because it's not in your body, and so I think you have to know that.

Speaker 2: 18:10

But does that?

Speaker 1: 18:11

typically show up.

Speaker 1: 18:12

If it is so, if you have a sensitivity to it and you are eating it, then it may show up, yeah, and so you can see different sensitivities, but it's not necessarily telling you the whole picture, so you just have to know how to interpret it.

Speaker 1: 18:28

So that's why I'm always careful with people like I sent this in and this is what I got back and now I don't know what to do with it, because now I've been off 30 different foods for four months and I still don't feel any better, because really, what those 40 foods were telling you is your gut's leaky Not that those food were the problem, but really that the gut was the problem. And so I focus a lot on adding foods back in once we heal your gut. So a food sensitivity test can be helpful in showing you what we might need to eliminate for a month you know, anywhere from three to six weeks and then let's add them back in and see how you feel. Because I think in functional medicine there is a place where people can end up too restrictive, where it can be kind of a place where you can see some orthorexia, where people are so focused on fitness that it's impacting their life that they're so focused on nutrition that like right, like there's always an extreme and really functional medicine is all about balance.

Speaker 1: 19:29

It's getting balanced in all the systems of your body and it's about balance in your life, right. We talk about stress and sleep and community, all of that, all the balance.

Speaker 2: 19:39

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, men, and pause seems to be such a hot topic right now that people are actually just finally talking about and saying you know, yes, I'm in it. I am currently going through it right now. What's your take on? Not take on menopause, but how are you helping people with menopause? These? Days and do you see a lot of patients coming in in their fortiess and 50s going through menopause, being like I just don't feel myself.

Speaker 1: 20:07

Yeah, no, it's a really great topic and I think it is good that we're talking about it more. I spoke at Love and Be Well, which is a skincare boutique in Old Town, warrington, recently about menopause. It was 20 women sitting down in the garden and we were just having a conversation about how do we navigate it, and I think everybody wants to navigate it differently and really it's about knowing what your goals are and how you want to navigate it. So I have some people who really want to use hormone replacement therapy and some people who don't, and so really being able to tailor how someone's going to be able to get through menopause is what's important. Right Again, I want to give someone the kind of life that they want.

Speaker 1: 20:56

And so talking through risks and benefits and looking specifically at somebody's specific health, right. Do you have risk factors for osteoporosis or dementia that might benefit from estrogen replacement? Do you have risk factors that might make it less likely that we want to use it? Right, and really having that discussion, and what can you do instead? What can you do in addition? Right Cause I don't think again. It's not a one pill, right?

Speaker 2: 21:25

And one thing doesn't work for everybody, right.

Speaker 1: 21:29

And so if you want to use this, great, let's use it, but let's also talk about what nutrition and exercise needs to look like. Right, we want to keep your bones strong, right, if you aren't getting enough protein and weightlifting as a postmenopausal woman like you're just not going to have, as you know, high of a metabolism and your bones aren't going to be as strong, right, that's, that's the goal, regardless of whether we use estrogen or not.

Speaker 1: 21:54

Um, and, and I like to use bioidentical hormones and I use a compounding pharmacy and all those things when I use hormones, but I don't think you have to use them to get through menopause in a way that honors your body Right Like but if you want to and if that's right for you, we can do that too, and I really think that it really women need to be empowered to take care of their health in a way that honors what feels right to them.

Speaker 2: 22:20

Right, Absolutely. I'd love to hear that as we kind of wrap up here. Are there any last parting words you'd like to leave us with? In regards to medicine, health, no, I mean.

Speaker 1: 22:31

I think it's been exciting for me to see how many people really do want to make changes in their life. I think it's kind of it feels in conventional medicine like people don't trust anybody to truly make lifestyle changes and so it's easier just to hand somebody a prescription, Right, but to see-.

Speaker 2: 22:51

Which is far overdone.

Speaker 1: 22:54

Yeah, and it's just, you're just like, okay, I guess I'll take this and I'll see you, and then we just keep increasing prescriptions or then you have a new symptom that we give you another prescription for. But people really will change what they're doing right when they have the right motivation, when they understand and have the right level of education. I mean, I spend an hour with people at every follow-up visit and we talk, right, I listen to how they're feeling.

Speaker 2: 23:20

I feel like it takes that time to actually really get to know. I mean, my last doctor's appointment was so fast. I was like wait, I didn't get to finish and so I think it takes that time to really dive in.

Speaker 1: 23:31

Yeah, no, absolutely. And to listen, and sometimes I was talking to somebody yesterday Sometimes it's simply like I can recognize a pattern of what's going on in your health and when I say it back, it just seems to make so much sense to who I'm working with and they're like oh yeah, so if I fix this, then that's what I need to do. Right, where, if I didn't spend the 30 minutes listening to their whole story, then I wouldn't have gotten that. And so then there's buy-in to okay, so let's fix that in that. And so then there's buy-in to okay, so let's fix that. And then they will make those changes. They will see the value in getting out for a walk in the sun every day, spending time gardening or whatever fills them up, taking time to make sure they're sleeping well, changing the foods they're eating, and they're baby steps. Right, we focus on little things at a time, but now they have a purpose, now they have a why, they know what they're going to do and they will make changes.

Speaker 1: 24:34

And I think that I wish more physicians understood that people really do want to be healthy. We do, and that's what is driving them. That's why they come see us. Is they want to be healthy. They don't just want to feel better, right, and sometimes feeling better on the way to being healthy is important, and so sometimes we do need medication as a bridge right, just like a supplement, to get to where we can get to be healthy. But just feeling better sometimes doesn't fix the problem and it just makes people more and more frustrated.

Speaker 2: 25:08

Absolutely Frustrated with the whole system. Yeah, now do you treat adults and pediatrics?

Speaker 1: 25:13

Yeah, I will see and I tell people I don't see kids for like general wellness exams, like, but if your kid has stomach problems or you want to look at, you know, concentration problems or brain health or or any of that, I do see kids for that. They actually are amazing and tend to get better so much faster than adults.

Speaker 2: 25:32

We just have so much more going on Um and so um.

Speaker 1: 25:37

Usually they don't need the membership. Usually it's a couple of follow-up visits and that's it. That must feel good. Yes, and parents are just so happy.

Speaker 2: 25:48

Yeah, right, and relieved probably to get answers.

Speaker 1: 25:56

You know, and it's you know, they get all the testing done, or nobody will do any testing, and they're just like. I just want to know.

Speaker 2: 25:59

So Well, thank you for coming in today. Thank you for sharing your story. I loved hearing about functional health and how we can all do a little bit better each day and make some changes.

Speaker 1: 26:10

Yeah, well, thank you for having me. I really appreciate it and I'm excited to see kind of a revolution in people's health.

Speaker 2: 26:16

Yeah, I'm excited for it too. I feel like things are going more this direction. Yeah, absolutely, thank you so much. Thank you, yeah, that was great.