Hello, ladies and gents. Robert
Sykes, KetoSavage .com. Today I've got special guest,
Risa Gru on the line. She is a functional nutritionist
and she is an expert in all things thyroid health.
So we dive deep into that. We
talk about autoimmune issues. We
talk about inflammation, talk about what some of
the primary drivers for this inflammation and
autoimmune issues could possibly stem from. We
talk about nutrition, fiber, removing excess carbohydrates
and processed foods, all kinds of things nutrition
related and autoimmune and thyroid related. So
very interesting conversation. Learned
quite a bit from her. I've got no doubt that you will
take something from this. So
without further delay, sit back, relax, enjoy the
podcast with Risa Gru. And
we are live. Risa, how are you? I'm
great. How are you? I'm
doing wonderful. Well, myself, I'm excited to be
chatting with you because you are an expert in all
things thyroid and autoimmune. Is
that correct? Yeah, I happen to know a lot
about that. Yeah. I'm excited to learn from
you. I want to kind of get some
backstory because I got your one sheet and it said
that you had, you know, dealt with some autoimmune
issues yourself and that was kind of the catalyst
for you embarking on this journey. Give
me some backstory on what those issues were for you
in the beginning. Yeah. So, you know, I was, you
know, merrily rolling along and I got married and had
a baby and no problem. They
conceived like first shot, you know, no, no issue.
And then I was trying to
conceive my second and kept trying and kept trying and
kept trying and I got pregnant a couple of times,
but couldn't hold the baby. So
I started to just think something's up, right? So
I went to a fertility specialist and they did a
whole blood panel on me and turns out that I
needed some thyroid medication. My
thyroid was an underachiever. So
I see him made a script and I said, well, how long
do I take this for? And he said every day and I
said, no, no, for how long? And
he said, oh, you know, for the rest of your life. And
I walked out of that appointment. I
remember it vividly and I'm thinking, why is it that I
now have a prescription for a synthetic that is
supposed to do something my body does and nobody's
asking why? Why is it not doing what it's
supposed to do? So that sort of started my
search and I realized that I needed to look into why
my thyroid was an underachiever and figure out
what it needed to become active and a full
contributor. So that started my health
journey. I love it. I
feel like I had actually
before you and I started recording out a podcast
yesterday with a functional medicine practitioner and he
was talking about toxins in the environment and
autoimmune issues and inflammation, systemic
inflammation. And I've had so many of these
podcasts recently. I feel like the narrative is
just trending the wrong direction as a society.
Like we're getting unhealthier
and unhealthier and people are struggling with more
and more autoimmune issues, thyroid issues, hormonal
issues. Like this is the norm right
now, it seems. It's unfortunately, it is on the
rise. And a big part of it is our
environment and our toxins that we have and we're way
overloaded. And there's no sign of that
decreasing. We're approved about 2 ,000 to 5
,000 chemicals by the FDA each year regardless of
who's in the White House. So
yeah, we're getting sicker and we have to be more
diligent about taking care of our own health and
decreasing our toxic load for sure. This
is kind of an unrelated question. It's
related, but I don't normally ask this question,
but where do you think this tipping point started?
Like at what point did we start
getting unhealthier as opposed to healthier as a
species? Oh, I'm so sorry, you broke up
a little bit. Can you repeat that question?
What do you think the tipping
point was for this downward trend in health? Like
what was the catalyst for that starting in the first
place, you think? Well, I think there's a few
contributors. One is the use of glyphosate,
which is ready roundup, what we use to kill weeds
and what we use in conventional medicine. Once
we started saturating our soils with glyphosate, I
think we started to trend downwards as far as our
health was concerned. We started having more
endocrine issues because it is a major endocrine
disruptor. So that's your thyroid, sex
hormones, and adrenals, your adrenal glands that produce
cortisol and anxiety, things like that. And
it takes years to get glyphosate out of soil. So
if you take a conventional farm and you're going to
turn it into an organic farm, it takes at least
two years. And our soils have really,
really been depleted. I believe the statistic is
we're at 40 % less nutrients in our soil from
the 1950s. So, and that's a fairly, not
super recent statistic, but it's very sad. Our
soils are really the root of all the problems, I
think, and really one of the easiest things to fix.
Also affects climate control. But
so glyphosate is in our, unfortunately, it's in our
rain water. It's everywhere. It's
in everything. And it's really very damaging
to human life and plant life. So
that is a huge contributor. In
addition, when you go, I don't know if you ever
travel out of the United States, and you go to the
supermarket or the market, I should say, in, like I
was in Italy, and went into the market, and their
freezer section is like maybe five doors. Our
freezer section are two full aisles all the way on
both sides. And it's crazy how many frozen
pizzas, even in Italy, they had like two frozen pizzas.
And they have maybe four ice
creams, we have like 25, at least, you know, then
we have bars and popsicles. And,
you know, there are our options are endless. And
most of our food choices are processed and lacking
nutrients, right? They're empty calories, they're
empty carbs and void of any nutrients. So
we're hungrier and we're eating. When
I grew up, I don't ever remember really snacking. It
wasn't a thing. And, you know, we wouldn't drive
through anywhere. And you went to a meal, you're
hungry. And I feel like eating is much
more of a sport now. We go to Starbucks, we get
our coffee, and we get our scone or our pastry or our
muffin with that. And then, you know, of course,
Frappuccinos, well, you know, those are 65 grams
of sugar. And then we put some whipped
cream on top. And that's a suitable breakfast.
I mean, I can't tell you how
many kids I see walking into schools, elementary
schools, middle schools, high schools with a
Frappuccino. And they'll have a master's
school, you know, sometimes. So
it's, we are not eating real food. We
are eating processed baked food. Yeah,
I completely agree with you there. I
feel like, you know, with me being in the Keto
space, it's like, I've tried to prioritize just
simply real food. And I've plugged in a lot more
to the regenerative agriculture movement, the
homesteading movement and just procuring your own
food, raising your own food, doing it through
organic means, plugging more into the local community.
And as I've dove deeper into
that, it just seemed like the right natural thing to
do, like how we're supposed to live as a species. But
that is so far removed from what the general
population is doing. Which is so sad. It's
really, it's just, it's so sad to me, how many kids
don't cook, how many adults don't cook. So
it's, we, it's cooking as a life skill. So
I made sure my kids left my house, they were, they
knew how to cook my son cooks. So
it's really, it's an important life skill. And
it is sad. And it's not that hard to get
real food. Yeah, 100%. So
what is your primary, you know, client patient
demographic? Like, who are these people that
are coming to you? What, what do they typically
struggling with? Gosh, I work with so many
different people. I work with professional
athletes. I work with regular adults. I
work with a fair amount of teens. 15 and up, who are
really struggling with anxiety, I get a lot of
anxiety. And some other, a lot of
metabolic dysregulation. So a lot of insulin
resistance, a lot of diabetes, I deal with a
lot of blood sugar, dysregulation, and I deal
with a lot of autoimmune, a thyroid, we do a lot of
thyroid and gut stuff. A lot of people you'd be
amazed at how many people live day to day with bowel
issues, whether it's chronic diarrhea or chronic
constipation or blood in their stool or bloating,
stomach pain. I do a lot of skin issues.
And really, you name it, I do
it. I'm curious about this teen
demographic. Are they mostly coming? Like,
are the majority of the teens coming from an
anxiety standpoint, or is it pretty big myriad of
things there as well? I would say that the majority
of the teens I get are anxiety. I'd
say about 50 to 60%. A lot, maybe even more. And
the other ones are, I had one yesterday who was put
on Ozympic for blood sugar dysregulation, insulin
resistance years ago. And so he wants to get off of
that. And he really, he's a great
example because he really changed his eating and he
got to the gym and he works out every day. And
he really changed his life. And
I'm still helping him get off the chemicals. But
yeah, so most people, I think, and then a lot of
girls, teenage girls seem to really want to lose
weight. I think Instagram, social
media has really affected them and their image. And
so they're very concerned about their weight. Do
you think the social media is likely one of the
primary drivers behind their issues with anxiety as
well? Sure. It's, you know, there's
several primary drivers. I mean, it depends what your
home environment is like and what the value is
there. But also your peers are
certainly very influential at that age. But
social media and a lot of people change their, you
know, they fix their photos to make them thinner and
do all kinds of altercations to that. So
I think there's a lot of pressure for teenagers when
they see, when they're on Instagram all day long, and
they see these really thin girls and it's, you know,
they come in, they want to lose weight. So
I focus on wellness and I believe that weight loss is
a side effect of wellness. So
we focus on wellness in my office and people will lose
weight. Absolutely. Everybody who wants to lose
weight loses weight, but I focus on wellness. Yeah,
that's key. It is unfortunate. I
mean, I was actually speaking, I got invited to
speak at a high school the other day and I was just
talking to these students and it's such an
impressionable age. Like I forget what it was like
when I was in school, but it's like you talk to
these people, you see them and they, more often than
not, they're just not sure of themselves yet. They
don't know who they are, they don't have the
confidence, they haven't been tested in a lot of
ways. So they're very malleable as
people, which is good, but not when all the inputs in
their life are negative, which is what a lot of
them are getting right now. Right,
which is really, really sad, but it is, you know,
somebody like you would be a great influence because
I've read somewhere that the influence changes, you
know, when you hit adolescence instead of your
parents being the number one influence for you, it's
your friends. So, you know, changes. So
it depends on, you know, who you're hanging out with
is really very critical to what your values are and
where you're going and what you're doing. Completely
agree. I would imagine with the type
of patients that you're seeing, you know, a lot of
these that are dealing with chronic inflammation,
autoimmune issues, hormone dysregulation as a result
of, you know, living a long life filled with these
toxins and environmental factors. When
you're getting younger people coming in, in their
teens, that have the anxiety issues, but then
also a lot of the physical implications that have come
from these poor environments and just the foods that
they're eating, like seeing that kind of negative
effect take hold in such a young individual, like
having hormonal issues at such an early age, having
type 2 diabetes before you've hit double digits in
age, like this is not a good thing. No,
it's terrible and our numbers are increasing
rapidly. We are a very, very sick
nation and an obese nation and, you know,
unfortunately, conventional and allopathic medicine says
there's a pill for that. So
now we have pills for that and they're giving it, they
just got approval to give it to 12 year olds, semi
-glutide. So it's, if that's not the
answer, it's not the root cause. It
is, we've got to teach people to eat better. We've
got to take, make sure these big food companies
are not advertising to kids over and over and over
again and, you know, all these big soda companies
are in schools and, you know, they're subsidizing
our education. It's, it's, it's a very crooked,
broken system. I'm about to get my megaphone
out and start screaming because it's bad. So
we need to be very diligent on our own bodies
and our loved ones and educate people as much as
we possibly can. Completely agree. Out
of curiosity, you know what the parameters are or the,
the criteria that has to be met in order for them
to prescribe semi -glutide to a 12 year old? Like
what, what markers do they have to be showing in
order for that to be warranted? They
just have to show insulin resistance is my
understanding. So insulin resistance is, you
know, when, when, when the cell, it has receptors on
each cell. We have trillions of cells in
the body and those cells are, are those, those
receptors are, are hindered, they're damaged and we
can't put it in, we can't take glucose or glycogen
into the cell and used for energy. So
inside the cell, every cell has what we call
mitochondria and mitochondria is our energy factory,
right? It makes ATP our energy and
their fuel source, if you're not on ketosis is
carbohydrates. And so when we eat a carb or
a sugar, anything that turns into sugar, the
pancreas pumps out insulin and it converts it into
glycogen and then it escorts it into each cell.
Mass will use for energy.
There's two very effective ways to
gain weight. One is to get the cell more
than it needs. So it just parks the excess
in fat cells and fat storage. And
the other is to break off those, those receptors so
that we can't even penetrate the cell. And
then we just park it in fat cells and fat tissues.
So the most effective way to
lose weight is when your receptors are open and you
give the cell less than it needs, so that it has no
choice but to pull from the storage unit and take
that excess energy so that it can use it for its
production of ATP. I'm curious with, with so many
kids battling with this obesity crisis and, you
know, being in some resistance at such a young
age, like, where do you think that trajectory
shifts? Because I mean, in your one sheet
you were talking about you making your own child's
baby food at an early age because you saw that the
trajectory things were going was just not a good one.
And that's unfortunately like
when you go down and talk about grocery store aisles,
like when you go down the kids grocery store aisle,
all the baby food is, is totally nutritionally void.
Like it's a bunch of heavily
processed foods and squeeze packets that are so far
removed from what real food is and should be. And
that's just what people are weaning their kids off of,
or they're going straight to formula fed and then
using these, you know, nutritionally void filler
foods. It's just starting them off on
a complete wrong path. Correct.
Yeah. And we're, we're, we're
consuming more carbohydrates than we ever have. So
think about the pizzas and the sandwiches and the
crackers and the croissants and the pastries that were
consuming all day long. So I focus on protein, fat
and fiber. And if you, when I look at
people's food log, when they come into my office
initially, I'm like, where's the fiber? Right.
So somebody could be eating, you know, a lot of
protein and maybe low carb, but they're not eating very
much fiber. So we need fiber, fiber is
really essential and a lot of bad fat. So
any restaurant you typically go to unless it's a really
a health food restaurant, they usually use bad oils
because they are less expensive and they're more
shelf, shelf stable, stable. And
so they will have these bad oils day in and day
out. If they're eating out twice a
day, every day, those bad oils like canola oil,
soybean oil, vegetable oil, all cottonseed oil, all
those oils are highly inflammatory. So
we will see people with a lot of systemic inflammation
just from eating out like that. They're
not getting those good fats like olive oil and avocado
oil and coconut oil. They're
probably not eating many much avocado or nuts and
seeds and eggs and getting an olives, right? Those
are really good oils for us for brain development.
You know, when my kids were in
elementary school, they were in a private school and I
was horrified by the food service. And
I actually had a meeting, I went to the founder of
the school and I said, this, this food that you're
feeding these kids is not helping with brain
development. It was a very academic school
and you're so cutting edge about all the academics.
But this is a really big area
that you're not really even talking about or focusing
on. But this food that they eat is
critical for the brain development. So
I had a meeting with them and they, I sat down and
I said, tell me about what the foods that you serve.
I know everybody loved the
popcorn chicken and and I said, where are the
vegetables? And they said, Oh, nobody
orders that so we don't serve it. So
when we ended up changing that system out, and we
got somebody else and then we ended up growing a
garden at the school, and we would use that as well.
But still the food services
that schools use are just horrific. The
state run schools are usually pizza and hot dogs.
And I mean, if you go to
Costco and you just look at people are eating at
Costco, there's no vegetables there, there's no
good fats there, it's just, it's just sugar and carbs.
So it's a little bit of
protein, but I wouldn't say that is a good source of
protein. And it's that's how
unfortunately Americans are eating. And
that's why we're obese and sick. Yeah,
the school lunches is definitely a horrendous
situation for sure. Like I, we've got a two year
old now, and I'm thinking about, you know, he eats
nothing but the best right now. And
I'm trying to figure out how I want to parent him
as he, you know, goes places outside the home,
how he's going to eat there. If
he goes to school, like what, what type of food
he'll have available to him then. And
it's like, that's where I get scared, because I don't
have control over that and everything that's offered to
him is horrendous to begin with. So
I'm just going to be packing a lot of lunches,
I guess. Exactly. That's what I did. I
packed a lot of lunches and I educated and when
their, their friends came over, I mean, I remember
having kids come over and they never had tried
cauliflower before. So I always gave good food
and it was delicious. It was, you know, I would, I
would make good food, but so and even now when I
see my kids friends all grown up, they'll say, Oh,
I eat, I eat asparagus because of you now. And
so a little bit goes a long way. And
I think schools that that is something that really,
really needs to change. And also hospitals. I'm
horrified, horrified at what they serve people in
hospitals. It's just unconscionable to me.
This is supposed to be a place
where you're supposed to heal. You
know, apple juice and cottage cheese and, you
know, donuts and pancakes are not going to make you
heal. It just aren't. So
it's, and it's so common sense to me. And,
you know, I remember my local hospital, they, I was
working with a lot of people there and one of
the doctors, the chief of staff, and he just went in
and said, you have got to take out this air fryer.
It's just crazy that we have
French fries in the hospital. So
eventually it took a while, but they eventually took
out the air fryer. So it's, it seems so common
sense to you and I, but it really isn't to
mainstream institutions. And that's where I think we
can make a big impact is that shift there. Well,
I think, like you were saying earlier, the art of
cooking is key. But so many people are opposed
to spending any time in the kitchen, any time
preparing food, especially food that is raw or
minimally processed, that they didn't have to
process. Like there's been such an
emphasis placed on convenience that it's come
at the, you know, absolute exclusion of health. That's
why you see all these vending machines. I
was at a hospital the day for a dexa scan and there
was just vending machines on every floor and there's
nothing good in those vending machines. And
they're just catering to people that are already
sick and unwell. So it's just, you know, like
a compounding effect that takes place. It's
good for business. Yeah, good for business.
Somebody's getting their, their pockets
filled for sure. You mentioned, you know, the
importance of fats, proteins and fiber. And
I'm 100 % on board with fats and proteins, the
fiber, I mean, I eat fiber, but that just for
the sake of playing devil's advocate, what is your take
on like a carnivore approach where they pretty
much totally exclude fiber, but seem to improve their
health quite a bit? Yeah, so it's interesting because
that does happen. It doesn't happen for everyone,
but it does happen. And I would say that is a
short term fix for sure. I don't think it's a
lifestyle, but it does seem to work in a short term
setting. But we all need fiber. It's
just, it's, it's like making, creating garbage and
never taking it out. So if you don't take out your
trash, you start to putre -pie your foods and your
system, right? You have to take your, you
have to clean out your intestines because it
affects your absorption of nutrients and your
inflammation and your intestinal lining and gosh,
I'm married to things. And so if we don't have fiber,
how are we going to take the trash out that that
fiber binds with the waste and scorch it out of the
system. So, and water is super
important as well, but fiber is just critical. And
in addition, all fiber foods have tons of
nutrients. It's amazing that that happened,
but it's true. So I'm specifically talking
about vegetables and greens and, and, you know, it
doesn't have to be, you don't have to go and get
switch chart and make a whole thing, but, you know,
it could be just celery sticks and celery is these
crystals that help break down your acid. So
there's, it could be carrots or, or Higama,
which is high in fiber. It could be artichoke hearts.
And I always encourage people
trying something new, trying, trying new
vegetables you've never had before. And
you don't have to have them steamed or raw, but
you can stir fry them. Now you can air fry them. You
can roast them and saute them. And
there's so many ways to eat vegetables that are
delicious. You know, I make like mashed
cauliflower with horseradish and coconut cream. It's
delicious. Or, you know, I do a lot of
roasted cauliflower, but roasted, I do a lot of
roasted vegetables, period, because they're just so
much more tasty that way. I've
been on a kimchi kick lately. So
I've been eating a lot of pre fermented, you know,
sauerkraut, kimchi, things of that nature. I
feel like my, my GI handles that a little bit
better as well. Awesome. Yeah. That's
a natural probiotic. So we do a lot of kimchi and
sauerkraut in my house too, and some kombucha. Yeah.
Kombucha is good. Kombucha is really good. Yeah.
Yeah, I've got, you know, I'm kind of jaded with, or
not jaded, but I'm torn because I've, I've gone
periods, pretty significant periods with zero fiber and
I felt fine. There's been periods where I've had
a lot more fiber and I also felt fine. I
think my body is pretty adaptable. Like
it tolerates whatever I give it as long as giving
it quality stuff. And whenever I don't eat fiber,
I do so in the context of not really, like when I'm
in a cut, for instance, I'm dropping calories, my
body's using everything that I am giving it. So
there's not really any waste accumulation in the
first place. But, but yeah, I think as long
as you are consuming quality fats and proteins,
one's need for removing any putrifying foods is likely
diminished as well. Yeah, sure. It'll
be diminished a little bit, but you still have waste
that needs to get escorted out. So
yeah, how long did you do the carnivore diet for? I
mean, I've gone periods, you know, in excess of
years. I mean, I could totally go
the rest of my life without ever consuming it
green again. And I feel like I would feel
fine and function fine. And there's some people that
have gone, you know, 10 years on a carnivore
approach. And it works seemingly very
well for them. I feel like a lot of people
deviate from that because they just simply want more
food variety, which I can totally understand in
respect as well, in which case having a healthy green
is probably your best option without a doubt.
Yeah, there's nothing better than
a big green leafy salad. You're
going to get all your calcium and tons of
nutrients and minerals that we need. We
need for brain health and for gut health and for
thyroid and for cardiovascular health. And
so it's just in general bone building. So
we, and protein is huge, but fiber is really, really
important as well. I think the main thing that
people just need to simply avoid is the processed
foods, the carbohydrates. I mean, nobody needs the
amount of carbohydrates that are consumed on average
these days. Like the notion that you have
to have carbohydrates for energy is pretty much
dispelled with anybody listening to this podcast,
ketogenic approach. But people that are even
following, you know, traditional diets that
assume they need, you know, 200 plus grams of
carbohydrates. Like, that is not evident
anywhere in the literature. Exactly.
Yeah. I mean, I've worked with some
elite athletes. I worked with an athlete who
was running 100 mile marathons or 50 mile
marathons. And, you know, a marathon was
basically, you know, a training day. And
so this, this woman was, she needed a lot of
carbohydrates or fuel. So for her, I did a different
system. And she, she's just needed
carbohydrates, but she needed a, you know, a
boatload of protein for those muscles. So
everybody is different. It depends on how much you,
how active you are and how much muscle you have and
how much weightlifting and all those factors play a
part. In addition, I do genetic
testing. So I do a genetic test that
tells us if you have more enhanced with power and
strength versus endurance. And
so it's interesting to me to see that breakdown with
people. And, and sometimes I can see a
pattern with somebody who was, and they usually tend
to be somebody who's very athletic to begin with. We
test them and then they say, Oh, yeah, that's why
you're so athletic. You are, you have motivation to
exercise, you know, genetically, they have that,
and they have power and strength and endurance. So
it's really interesting to me. So
genetics do play a part in that as well. How
much of what we see now in society, like the
obesity epidemic, the type two diabetes, the
neurological disorders, how much of that do you would,
would, would you attribute to genetic and epigenetic
effects from generations prior to environmental
factors that we're currently plagued with? So
genetics always do play a part in everything. And
but basically, you know, we're doing so much
advancement in genetic testing. And
I really hope by the time my grandchildren are born,
that I'm pretty optimistic about this, but it probably
won't happen. Maybe my great, great great
children. But I hope that when they are
born, we take their blood and we say, Okay, here's
your genetic makeup. And you can make a right here
or make a left there, you don't have to go straight
and you don't have to. Now you know that you have a
greater risk of this. So you can change the way you
live or the way you eat or the way you do your
brain health or whatever it is that you're concerned
about. So that's the same thing what
I see is that genetic testing. So
you might have a higher an enhanced need to get
vitamin D from foods or supplements. But
that doesn't mean that, you know, so so everybody is
different. And so when it relates to the
obesity academic epidemic and the inflammation
epidemic, which is the diseases, you know,
inflammation is the driver of disease, those, I don't
know how much genetics play. I
mean, there is that level that playing field that
that base foundation that we have. But
it's really the choices that you make. So
epigenetics are basically the environment and your
lifestyle. How does that play with your
genetics? Yeah, so it's yeah, so if you
if you have this genetic plate, let's say, and you
are destined for, let's say you have the Abley 4 gene
and you are destined or you have a higher
likelihood for Alzheimer's. Well,
if you know that information and you take
steps to avoid that by decreasing inflammation in
your brain, eating foods that are going to be brain
helpful for cognitive health and exercise and sleep and
do all the things that are going to help boost your
brain health versus decrease your brain health, then
your likelihood of getting Alzheimer's is way lower
than the average person with the exact same genes
that you have. 100%. So yeah, epigenetics are really
the way of the future. When
it comes to genetic testing, there's a lot of
difference like this has become a more trendy
popular subject. So people have, I mean,
there's been all these different companies that pop
up and will run your genetic data and spit out
a recommendation. Some are much more reputable
than others. Is there a particular company
that you would recommend for that genetic testing?
It depends what you are
looking for. So they offer so many
different things. The company that I use really
does more nutrient involved. It's
more focused for nutrients. It
focuses on workouts and weight loss and
cardiovascular health versus something like a 23andMe
that will just do more, it will do traits and it'll
do a little bit of health stuff as well. But
you know, how and my test does caffeine as well, but
that does caffeine. It does dairy intolerance. Mine
will do dairy and gluten. And
that test does a little bit more, you know,
ancestry as well. So it really depends on what
your objective is and what your focus is, what
information you're looking for. Gotcha.
Makes total sense. When people are trying to get
things dialed in and they don't really know exactly
where to turn first because it can seem pretty
overwhelming and daunting. They're
going online and trying to diagnose themselves and
figure things out. Where do you think people should
probably allocate the most bandwidth in the beginning?
More sort towards the genetic
testing, the blood testing, nutritional choices. Like
what would you think the most proverbial bang for
the buck is? Absolutely, 100 % blood test and stool
testing. So that's what I do with
everybody I work with because I always say I'm
not really good at playing darts with the lights off
and I cannot see the target. So
if you don't feel well, let's say you're not your
optimal self, you don't feel like you used to
feel, you're gaining weight, you're sluggish, you're
having guts, stuff, whatever it is, if you get a real
good functional medicine panel, which is what I
use, a comprehensive blood test, and I'm looking at
all four markers of blood sugar, I'm looking at all
nine markers of thyroid, I'm looking at iron panel,
I'm looking at your white blood cells and the
breakdown of that, I'm looking at your inflammation
markers, which conventional medicine doesn't do any of
those things. I mean, they'll order one
marker of your thyroid. And so once you have an idea
what the problem is, I'm always looking at the root
cause. So what is the problem? Is
it sugar dysregulation? Is it sluggish thyroid? Is
it overactive thyroid? Is it a tremendous
inflammation? Then you have an idea of where
you should start, where the dartboard is, where's the
target. The stool test, I'm a huge fan
of as well, I do over 84 markers and I'm looking at
your good guys, I'm looking at the bad guys, I'm
looking at any overgrowth, I'm looking at potential
pathogens, like Giardia and E. coli,
Salmonella, I'm looking at worms and parasites, and
then I get a really good general idea of how much
inflammation you have. Do you have leaky gut? Are
you having a hard time digesting bats? Do
you need, are you producing any pancreatic enzymes? You
know, so on and so forth. There's
lots of stuff on that panel that I get. That's
usually where I start. If somebody's interested in
their genetics, then I will be happy to order that,
but it doesn't really steer me, because as I said,
your lifestyle really is more of a factor than what
your base foundation is if you are active in achieving
optimal health. If you're not active and
you're sort of active in achieving suboptimal health,
or you don't really care, you don't put much effort
into it, that's a different story than I would
definitely say for sure, order those genetics, but
the people that come to me are people who are
interested in maximizing or improving their health. But
we order that test quite a bit. I
offer it to everybody if they're interested, and then
I can do further testing as far as like hormones
are concerned, or a lot of viral stuff, or food
allergies, things like that. But
those are the two main tests that I order, and
then we have an idea. Now, my philosophy, because I've
been doing this for decades, is not every
person can eat the same way. So,
where you might thrive on a carnivore diet, I
probably wouldn't. So, everybody is different, and
so nutrition then comes into play, and I customize
an eating program for your particular health status.
So, if you've got blood sugar
dysregulation, let's say you're in type one type,
or type two diabetes, and you've been at it for a
while, and there's a bunch of symptoms, and you have
your gallbladder, and you don't have any fat
malabsorption, I'm going to suggest keto, that's an
excellent way to get to stabilize blood sugars. But
if you've got autoimmune, or you've got let's say
you've got chronic bloating and some diarrhea, then I'm
going to see if you've got SIBO, which I can usually
see on that stool test, that small intestinal
bacteria overgrowth, and then I'm going to give you
a completely different diet, eating lifestyle, that is
going to help with your gut stuff. So,
it really, I determine everybody's eating plan
based on their health status, that's how I
created Food Frame, which is my methodology and how
I see people thrive. I really appreciate how
comprehensive functional medicine as a whole is,
relative to Western medicine on average. I
mean, if you go to your general family care
physician, you may get a blood test, which is going
to measure your LDL, HDL, and trig, and that's
probably going to be about it. And
then you'll get prescribed a statin, if your LDL is
too high, and you'll probably get prescribed
insulin, or ozimpic, or something like that if
you're overweight. So, that is much more
comprehensive with functional medicine. I've
had several functional medicine practitioners on
the podcast, so I kind of want to learn more about
that as a profession. When did you start going down
that route as a practitioner? So,
I've always had a fascination and a passion
about nutrition, because it was always so interesting
to me, because everybody in my life growing up was
always on a diet, all the women in my family, and I
was like, you know, it's the same five, ten pounds
they're always trying to lose. And,
you know, these, for some foods were good, some foods
were bad, and thinking why those bad foods taste
pretty good to me. So, it wasn't, you know,
everybody was just always in this deprivation state.
And, oh, I'm going to go off
my diet tonight, and it just was this bad
relationship with food. So, I became interested in
nutrition, and I studied forever, and then I became
a clinical nutritionist, and I kind of put everybody on
the same diet type, and I would test everybody for
food allergies. And I realized, some people
have a lot of food allergies, while some people
didn't. And I realized it wasn't the
actual root cause, wasn't the food allergies, because
you're not born with 65 food allergies, right? You
have a leaky gut, is what I realized was the root
cause, and these food allergies were basically
sensitivities to foods, because you had gaping
holes in your intestinal lining, and these digestive
proteins were going in and causing inflammation, and
eventually leading into autoimmune disease. So,
then I started to incorporate, when it wasn't
really working for me, so it was pretty early on,
and I started researching functional medicine, and, oh
gosh, I went to a million conferences and webinars,
and really learned how to read blood work, and then
I realized, now I have the tools. Now
I can see where the target is, and now I can help
people, and my success rate of helping people just
increased tremendously when I started using those I'm
assuming all curriculum for functional medicine is not
created equal. There are probably some that are
much more reputable than others. Is
there like a, like if somebody's listening to this
and wants to go down the route of functional
medicine, like what direction would you advise
them to? The Institute of Functional
Medicine is really good if they have a very
comprehensive program, and they offer different things.
So you could be a health
coach or a functional nutritionist, or there's
lots of different things you can do in the
functional space. You can be an MD, you can be
a DC, an ND, so there's lots of things that you
can do, and they've got great resources, and if you
need a functional doctor, it's a great directory as
well for every, you know, all over the country. So
I really like the Institute of Functional Medicine. I
think they are top notch. And
how long does that study, that practice, that program
typically take? Well, it depends. I
mean, it could be three years, it could be, it
depends which course you do, and depends how quick
you do it. So it depends what
certification you're going for. So
it's not more than I think three years, but I think
it's six months to three years. I
don't know exactly because I'm not part of that
organization, but you can, you're going to get
comprehensive learning in that, with that Institute.
Do you get much pushback or
flak from, you know, conventional Western medicine
doctors, or are they pretty receptive to what you're
suggesting and saying to your patients? It's
interesting because I get a lot of different responses.
I get, I do work with a lot
of doctors as patients, which always amazes me, and
I love that because they help them read blood work,
and they really don't know, they don't know what to
order, because they, they're just really going on what
insurance tells them they can order. And
so I love teaching doctors about that. I
actually had a dentist years ago as a patient,
and we, you know, I helped him with his weight issues
and his energy and all that stuff. And
he came to me about a year or so ago, he's
developing a toothpaste, and now he started to implement
ozone in his practice to clean the teeth, because I
was telling him about that. When
my kids were a little, I told their, their pediatric
dentist about xylitol, and then I know that she
eventually started carrying xylitol gum and things like
that, and realized, you know, did some research. So
some people are open to it. I
work with patients, and I'll work with their
doctors, and some of the doctors will be completely
closed to anything and say, this is, you know,
ridiculous, and, you know, I'm not going to be
supplement searches to trash, and, you know, so
it really is a wide spectrum of responses to,
but I think we're going in this direction. I
mean, I hope we are going more in this direction. And
I think that a lot of MDs are very frustrated with
not being able to help their patients. And
they know it's a pill for an L paradigm. And,
you know, I was working with somebody a few years
ago who was a surgeon. And one of his biggest hurdles
was lunch, because the pharmaceutical companies
would bring lunch for his entire staff every single
day. And we, I, we talked about it,
and I said, how much control do you have over
what is being brought. So it turned out he had to
bring his own lunch every single day, and eat real
good food. But it's, it's, it's a
challenge. So people are opening up to
that. And I hope so because our our
country needs good care. And
so I do encourage any conventional alpathic
medicine doctors to to just open their horizons and,
and, and learn. I think people are, I mean,
I think, I hope, you know, we obviously are facing a
downward trend in health as a, as a whole. But
I feel like people are opening their eyes to the
fact that there's, you know, not any one make or
break factor, but it's kind of more everything in
tandem, everything in unison that's working against us.
And with that holistic approach,
I think they're looking for more holistic means of
improving things, which paints functional medicine
in a positive light, because that typically takes
a more holistic approach and view. So
I think the trends are moving in the right
direction in that regard. Like
I've talked to several people that were, you know,
frustrated and dismayed by the care they're beginning
with traditional routes. And then they were able to
break free of that and actually get some far, far
more minimum progress made in working with the
functional medicine practitioner. And
so I think, I think that trend is starting to move
in the right direction. Yeah.
And I think people are finding functional medicine
because I'm usually, you know, the last stop for
people who are really sick and they, they're so
frustrated. And I mean, I'm working with
somebody right now who is, you know, in our late 30s,
she's got three young kids and she was in major,
major pain or full body pain from rheumatoid
arthritis. And the doctor just gave her a
myriad of pills and said, here, take these for the
rest of your life. And, and, you know, but they
were trying to manage her disease or her diseases.
And we reversed it. So
we haven't gotten a diagnosis yet to reverse
it. We just started, but her pain
is virtually gone in, you know, four to six weeks.
So for, for, for that and
with no medication. So I think people are
realizing that that is not the right thing to do. And
the unfortunate thing is functionalists and typically
is out of pocket. So it would be so great if
we could get insurance companies behind this, they
would save a ton of money because people wouldn't need
long term care as much and as many doctor visits, if
we just focused on what they ate, and it's worked
on prevention instead of, you know, crisis, health
crisis instead of, you know, wellness. Has
there been any fore momentum on that in front,
like are there insurance companies that are reaching
out and being more proactive in working with
functional practitioners? Or is that not really the
case yet? I haven't seen it, but I
don't use insurance except for one lab I use with
insurance and they are starting to deny it more
and more. So in my case, that's going
in the opposite direction. And
what's happening is people are finding this to be an
opportunity. So it's a lab test that I
use. And so people are starting to
create their own lab test and it's private. And
so they will pay cash for it. So
it's a business for them. And
they see an opportunity because insurance companies
aren't even covering these to begin with. So,
you know, I'm not I'm seeing the insurance
companies covering less. And I don't order any of my
lab work through insurance companies because my copay
ends up being more than if I bought it for cash
through my office and I don't mark up my lab. So
they're the same as everybody pays. But
it's crazy to me that we that it's expensive. And
and the doctor, you'll go, people would go to their
doctors, they'll say to me, well, I'm insurance, I pay
for insurance, I want to order all your labs through
my insurance company. I said, okay, great. I
used to say, let's try it. But
now I don't do this anymore because I've never
had it work 100%. And some of the doctors don't
even know what some of these labs are. So
they don't order it. And then they don't order it
because they know the insurance company is not
going to pay for it. So it's a whole headache for
their front office. I don't blame them. But
it's really the insurance companies that need the
schooling on on changing the system. I
worked with a guy who was an executive for a big
insurance company. And when after I worked with
him, he's one of our last visits, he goes, wow, I
don't know why we don't cover this, like all of
the symptoms went away. He just he felt tremendously
great. His weight dropped, everything
worked for him. And he said, I said, please,
please go talk to your your executive team and try
this would be so good for you and for your bottom
line. Yeah, insurance, I don't get me
started on insurance. Insurance
is a total mess that ends at nightmare. I
mean, that is without a doubt our largest personal
expense in the home. And it's like my wife and I
are both incredibly healthy. We
eat the best foods. You know, we do not deviate.
We train, we get all we're
checking all the boxes yet I have to pay this massive
monthly premium. And none of the tests that I
would ever want to get anyways would be covered by
it. So it's like, I don't know,
like you feel obligated to pay for insurance in that
what if scenario, but it's like this is there's got
to be a better way. Yeah, well, you're not even
obligated to legally have to. Yeah.
And it's really predicated more on where you live
versus what your health status is. When
I just recently got new insurance, because I had
to. And I said, Jill, you have
some kind of a catastrophe program for me, because I
don't really use your services much, you know,
I'll pay for my annual OB appointment, but I can pay
for that. I don't need to pay all this
money for just for that. And
she said, well, you don't qualify with your income
for that. So, and then I asked about the
pricing and I said, aren't you going to live in a
good neighborhood, then my insurance was more
expensive. So it's a very broken system.
Yeah. And I don't know what the
solution to that is. I mean, there's just so many,
so many factors at play working against the actual
health care and betterment of society that I don't
even know what the solution would be. But
I know what we're currently doing is likely the
furthest thing from optimal. Yes,
it's broken. Yeah, 100%. Well,
talk to me about your course, your resources, your
website, like how do people get involved? And
what all does the thyroid course until? Yeah,
so I have a cheating optimal thyroid health. It's
a course, an online course that is everything I know
about thyroid, which is a lot because I've been doing
it for so long. And for myself personally, I'm
worse my Hashimoto's. And so I break down everything,
all everything you need to know what's what you should
eat, what you shouldn't eat, what your supplements
you should take, what supplements you should
avoid, for hyperhypo, if your thyroid was removed,
every scenario is in there and what labs to order,
ask your doctor to order and how to read them,
because we shouldn't know how to read our own blood
work. So it's really comprehensive.
It's on my website. And
that's available. And then I have a lot of
products all gluten free, dairy free soy free jump
free. And it's all on my website as
well. I work with people all over
the country, be a zoom and you can find me at my
website is Risa R -I -S -A last name is grew G -R -O
-U -X nutrition .com. All social media is really
secure nutrition and feel free to say hello, call
the office make an appointment or just learn
something from the website or in for Instagram. Well,
I will most definitely link out to that and make it
easy for people to find you. And
I really appreciate what you're doing. I
appreciate you trying to help people for the right
reasons and just keep fighting the good fight,
Risa. Thank you. And
the same to you. I appreciate you having the
megaphone and talking about what's important in terms
of health. So thank you. Hey,
my pleasure. There's everything I can do to
help move the needle for you. Just
let me know. Thanks so much. Take
care. Okay, YouTube.