December 29, 2023 • 40 mins
Welcome to the launch of the Wellness Connection MD podcast, where Dr. McMinn and Coach Lindsey become your partners on a quest for optimal wellness. On our previous show, the Functional Medicine Podcast, we discussed a wide variety of healthcare subjects, from a functional and integrative medicine point of view. The purpose of this episode is to introduce ourselves to any new listeners under our new name. We would also like to share with you our philosophy of healthcare and to explain to you why we take the approach that we do, and how we got here.
Our overall goal is to bring to you up-to-date, honest, vetted, unbiased, evidence-based information about health and wellness, along with practical solutions, in order to empower you to overcome your healthcare challenges, and to optimize your health in mind, body, and spirit.
However, as our population ages, and we are faced with evermore chronic diseases. The disease- pill model is simply not working for these individuals and for our society as a whole. Legions of patients with chronic diseases who are falling through the cracks of modern medicine. These people are often desperate to be heard, to be taken seriously, and to have their concerns adequately addressed. Instead we should be focusing more on a preventive, lifestyle-based, functional, and integrative approach. As a medical community we need to begin to "think different." We need to remain evidence-based, while opening our minds to other viable therapies beyond drugs and surgery. We also advocate that this shift in thinking be accompanied by a renaissance of "loving kindness" in healthcare. Providers and patients would all benefit.
We are hopeful for the future of health care. When we first embarked on the path toward a more holist style of medicine, there were very few providers in our community who were like-minded. However, 17 years later we see that patients are blessed to have many options for integrative and functional healthcare. In fact we see that many of our most esteemed healthcare institutions now have dedicated integrative or functional programs, such as Harvard, Duke, Mayo Clinic, Cleveland Clinic, Vanderbilt, and UCSF. Integrative and functional medicine are gaining credibility across the nation and around the world. Patients are demanding a different approach, and healthcare is listening. We will all be better off for the change.
We hope that you will join us on this journey to optimal wellness on Wellness Connection MD. Take care and be well.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Intro speaker (00:00):
Welcome to the Wellness Connection.
MD podcast with Dr McMinn andCoach Lindsey, where we bring
you the latest, up-to-date,evidence-based information on a
wide variety of health andwellness topics, along with
practical take-home solutions.
Dr McMinn is an integrated andfunctional MD, and Lindsey
Matthews is a registered nurseand IIN certified health coach.
(00:21):
Together, our goal is to helpyou optimize your health and
wellness in mind, body andspirit.
To see a list of all of ourpodcasts, visit wwwminnmdcom.
And to stay up to date on thelatest topics, be sure to
subscribe to our podcast on yourfavorite podcast player so that
you'll be notified when futureepisodes come out.
The discussions continue.
(00:41):
These podcasts for educationalpurposes only and are not
intended to diagnose or treatany disease.
Please do not apply any of thisinformation without approval
from your personal doctor.
And now on to the show with DrMcMinn and Coach Lindsey.
Dr. McMinn (00:56):
Welcome to the very first episode of Wellness
Connection MD.
This is Dr McMinn.
I'm here with our certifiedhealth coach and registered
nurse, Ms Lindsey Matthews.
Coach Lindsay (01:05):
Good morning Dr Matt, good morning listeners.
We're excited to be with youthis morning.
Dr. McMinn (01:11):
Although a Wellness Connection MD is new, coach
Lindsey and I have been aroundfor quite a while and we're not
new to podcasting.
For the past few years we'vebeen doing a podcast called
Functional Medicine Podcast andbefore that I did a podcast and
a radio show called the WellnessConnection.
If you're interested, we havemany episodes on a wide variety
of subjects relating to wellnessmedicine which are available to
(01:32):
you for your listening pleasure.
You can find those under thename Functional Medicine Podcast
on your favorite podcast playeror you can find them at our
website.
You just go there at minnmdcomand we'll have some options
there for you to find on thepodcast.
The purpose of this particularepisode is just to really
introduce ourselves to those ofyou who may be new to us under
this new banner and to sharewith you our philosophy on
(01:55):
health and medicine and a bitabout how we got here, in hopes
that you might find itinteresting and potentially
helpful to you.
Coach Lindsay (02:01):
Let me get right to the point and summarize for
you the purpose of our podcast,and it's worth noting that,
although the name of the podcastis changing, the purpose is
still the same.
In summary, the reason that wedo the podcast is to bring you
honest, up-to-date, vetted,evidence-based, outcome-oriented
, unbiased info, along withpractical solutions in order to
(02:25):
empower you to overcome yourhealth care challenges and then,
a step further, to optimizeyour health and well-being in
mind, body and spirit.
Dr Mack and I both went intomedicine to help people, and our
passion for doing so has reallynot faded over the years.
We both feel blessed to usethis platform in order to share
(02:47):
with you this information, inthe hopes that, in some way, we
could help you overcome yourhealth challenges and then,
beyond that, become the verybest version of yourself.
Dr. McMinn (02:57):
And the reason for the name change is to cast a
wider net for potentialinterested listeners.
While we remain dedicated tointegrative and functional
medicine and we'll explain moreabout that in just a bit it
occurred to me that the majorityof people are not familiar with
the phrase functional medicineand don't even know what
functional medicine is.
So even though they might beinterested in what we have to
say and it might be helpful tothem, they would not know to
(03:19):
search for it.
And even if they stumbledacross it, since they don't know
the name functional medicine,they probably would not realize
its potential for theirwell-being.
Coach Lindsay (03:26):
We have been so blessed to see excellent growth
in our listenership over theyears and for our longtime
listeners.
We thank you so much for yoursupport and we hope to continue
to serve you.
However, with the name changeto wellness connection, MD
wellness is really the term thatmore people are familiar with,
and so with that change, we'rehoping to reach an even wider
(03:47):
audience of people who canbenefit from this information
that we have to share.
Dr. McMinn (03:52):
And for those of you who are new to us, let us tell
just a bit about ourselves andalso about functional and
integrated medicine.
On a personal note, I live inBirmingham, alabama, with my
wife, dr Cheryl.
You might hear us refer to DrCheryl from time to time, as she
provides us with some words ofwisdom now and then.
Coach Lindsay (04:07):
She has so much wisdom?
Yeah, she does.
Dr. McMinn (04:09):
I hate to admit it, but she does, and I also have
two amazing daughters and lotsof hobbies and interests that
keep me busy these days inretirement, one of which is
podcasting Now, professionally,I retired from almost 40 years
of clinical medicine.
I was a board-certified MDphysician and I worked first
half of my career in what I callregular medicine.
I got that term with mypatients.
(04:31):
They would say I saw my regulardoctor, as opposed to your
functional doctor.
Coach Lindsay (04:34):
That's right.
That is what people say.
They say regular doctor, right.
Dr. McMinn (04:37):
That's how I got that term regular medicine.
You can substitute, I don'tknow, traditional Western
medicine or whatever you want,but that's what I call it.
But mainly worked in theemergency room and, to a lesser
degree, in family practice andalso as the medical director of
a large medical clinic nearBoston.
However, for the past 16 yearsof my career I was totally
dedicated to an integrative andfunctional approach to medicine
(04:57):
at the McMinn Clinic inBirmingham, Alabama.
Throughout my career I alsopracticed in academic medicine,
with appointments on the medicalschool faculties of Harvard
University, Brown University andMichigan State University.
I retired as an assistantprofessor at the UAB School of
Medicine here in Birmingham.
Coach Lindsay (05:14):
And then, as for me, I'm a Kentucky girl, came to
Alabama and graduated fromSanford with my bachelor's in
nursing, and I've gotten to workseveral different settings in
that with my nursing degree,both in and out of the hospital.
And one day I walked into DrMack's office and asked for a
(05:35):
job and thankfully he hired meon and so I got to work under
you, dr Mack, and what aprivilege it was, because you
really took me on, mentored meand taught me so much.
I feel like an adopted thirddaughter to you in many ways,
and you really have inspired mein my life and helped me take
(05:55):
things a step further in mycareer, became a health coach in
your practice, so I'm sograteful for that.
And then, just on a personallevel, I've been married 12
years to my best friend, mybetter half, tyler, and we talk
about him some on the podcast wehave before.
We've got two kiddos ages fourand two, and right now one of my
biggest passions is reallyhelping our family navigate,
(06:15):
learning to eat healthy and havethose skills of how to take
care of our bodies and live wellin this busy modern world just
finding simple ways to do that.
And I also love being on thispodcast with you, Dr Mack.
What a privilege to shareknowledge with our amazing
listeners and listeners.
Thank you for giving us thisprivilege of your ears and your
(06:37):
time.
Dr. McMinn (06:37):
Thank you.
And, by the way, one thingLindsey didn't tell you she's a
great Irish dancer.
One time at a Christmas party Ipulled out my fiddle and played
a jig and Lindsey got busy and,oh my gosh, she was cutting the
rug.
Intro speaker (06:49):
That was very fun .
Dr. McMinn (06:50):
Dancing a jig, and so she's really good at it,
anyway, but we both come to thetopic of health and medicine
from a evidence-based, academicpoint of view.
On our podcast, we will alwaysdo our homework and we'll always
shoot straight with you.
We will be open-minded, butwe'll always be evidence-based
and outcomes-oriented.
We are not here to sell youanything or to promote any
particular therapy or product.
We're just all about promotinghonest, unbiased, evidence-based
(07:13):
information to help youoptimize your health and
well-being, and that's it.
That's what we're all about,really.
Coach Lindsay (07:19):
If you want to learn more about us as
individuals, check out our bioson McMinnMDcom on the home page,
and also if you want to learnmore about our practice
philosophy, then a good place tostart would be to check out the
diagram called the FourAccesses of Care at McMinn
Clinic, which you can find atthe McMinnMDcom website.
(07:41):
It's forward slash documentsMcMinnMDcom forward slash
documents, and on that diagramyou'll see that there are four
foundations of care that wesubscribe to, and let's talk
about them.
Dr. McMinn (07:54):
Yeah, the first is functional medicine, which
really means that we look forand treat the root cause of the
problem.
The second one is calledintegrated medicine, which means
that we have developed and whatI call an expanded toolbox of
therapies to choose from beyonddrugs and surgeries, in order to
help our patients.
And I would submit to Lindsayand let's get that issue unique
vis-a-vis you're not going tofind that with a regular doctor.
This is what kind of separatesus from, say, the average
(08:18):
internist or family practicedoctor.
Coach Lindsay (08:20):
Yes, exactly.
And then the other two accessesadvanced prevention, and that
means that we try to look intoour crystal ball, so to speak,
and based on your personalhistory, family history, your
clinical exam, your labs, anyother workup, you get this very
personalized way of assessingyour risk factors and then we
(08:41):
can put together a plan to avoidthose risks from happening down
the road.
And then, even beyond that, wetalk about optimization as that
final access, and that meansthat we help you become the very
best version of yourself.
And I really think, dr McMinn,that the combination of all four
of these is true healthcare.
I would like to posit thateverything else is more like
(09:01):
sick care.
Dr. McMinn (09:03):
Right.
Coach Lindsay (09:03):
I want you guys to be the best version of
yourself.
It's not okay just to be okayor that's just part of growing
old is maybe what a lot ofpeople here at the doctor's
office.
So our goal is to help youexperience vibrant living.
Dr. McMinn (09:17):
Yeah, over the years I've come convinced that this
is what healthcare should be.
I know I'm biased to peoplewith regular doctors who would
think of us as alternative, butto me this is what healthcare
should be.
But just as importantly, on thediagram you'll see that all of
this is built on a foundation ofwhat are called loving kindness
.
Now, coach and I both believethat the practice of medicine is
the perfect medium for theexpression of loving kindness.
(09:38):
Quite frankly, I wish theywould teach loving kindness as
required course in medicalschool and nursing school.
In fact, the world would be abetter place if they started
teaching in preschool andkindergarten for everybody.
I think that we would havefewer wars, less fights, less
divorces, less badness of allkinds.
Overall, the world would be abetter place to live in and
would all be happier people.
Coach Lindsay (10:00):
An emphasis on loving kindness in our
patient-provider interactionswould make for more satisfied
patients and it would alsocontribute to more satisfying
careers for providers.
Let's face it there's a lot ofburnout in medicine, all
throughout the ranks doctors,nurses, you name it.
While there are many factorscontributing to that burnout,
(10:21):
such as, most recently, covidand everything that evolved with
that, the electronic medicalrecord, just requirements of
insurance companies those arejust a few of the obstacles.
But a patient, day-to-dayloving kindness approach when
we're interacting with patientsgoes a long way in fostering a
(10:41):
more meaningful and satisfyingcareer as a provider.
I hear about colleagues all thetime who went through all the
rigorous training who now wantto get out of medicine
altogether.
They're just totally burnoutand it's really sad to see that
these are good people.
Yeah big-spot-horses Nancy, whenI hear that, yes, we really
(11:01):
need more people in healthcare,and there's just all these
reasons, but a personal focus onhow I can bring loving kindness
to the workplace and to everypatient that I interact with.
It has gone a long way inproviding a more satisfying work
day for myself, and I reallybelieve that could as well be
the case for others.
Dr. McMinn (11:22):
Lindsey, I can attest that you always brought
loving kindness to the workplacewith every patient interaction.
I remember my sister, cindy,used to work at the clinic and
she overheard you one daytalking to a patient and she
said something to the fact thatif you were a patient it would
be impossible to be angry withLindsey.
Anyway, that was her observationBack when I was in the
emergency room as a provider, Icould fall victim to what I call
(11:43):
pervailing thinking that yougot bed two as a knee injury,
but it comes pretty boring afterabout the 10,000th of the
injury.
Instead, I can think of that asMrs Jones in bed two who has a
knee injury.
She's not bed two, she's MrsJones.
And there is a scared,vulnerable and helpless human
being in bed two who happens tohave an injury and is in a lot
of pain, and I can takeadvantage of that opportunity to
(12:04):
bring loving kindness to her inher most vulnerable time of
need.
It makes all the difference toher and if I take this approach,
then when I go home at the endof the day I've had a much more
rewarding and meaningful dayknowing that I have not only
helped her physically but alsospiritually.
I have brought light, hope andcomfort to her in her greatest
time of need.
I connected with her as a humanbeing.
It's an awesome gift for herand it's really also a
(12:27):
meaningful gift for me that Iwas in a position to do that for
her as a provider.
Coach Lindsay (12:31):
And I think that just really points to the fact
that we're more than justphysical beings.
There's more to us than that.
Let's take a closer look at theterm functional medicine, since
this has been our focus formany years.
As we see it, and as theInstitute of Functional Medicine
defines it, it's a holistic,biology-based approach to
healthcare that focuses on theroot cause of illness and
(12:56):
disease.
However, if you look at othersources, such as, maybe,
wikipedia, they claim that it'sa pseudoscience, quackery and
maybe just a rebranding of termslike alternative and
complementary.
Dr. McMinn (13:08):
Now, kocha, in my career I've really been on both
sides of the fence.
As I described earlier, I was aregular doctor for really most
of my career, ashley, and thatwas before I became enlightened.
Of course I say that somewhattongue-in-cheek, but there's
also a bit of truth in that.
I have come to view medicalschool and residency as an
exercise in what I callindoctrination, or you might
even say brainwashing.
(13:28):
They force feed you into aphilosophy or a belief system of
medicine that's mainly groundedin drugs and surgery, and we've
come out of that.
We look at the world throughwhat I call a narrow set of
glasses, which are mainly drugglasses.
Now, before I go on further, letme state unequivocally that
this podcast it has never beenand will not be about bashing
(13:49):
what I call regular medicine.
Quite frankly, regular medicineliterally saved my life and has
helped and saved the life of somany others.
So big kudos to those doctors,nurses, mps, pas, lab techs or
at least in everybody else whogoes to work every day to help
people.
We're really grateful for thosefolks.
But I'm just saying that insome cases, in order to get the
best outcome with that patient,we have to, as Apple says, think
(14:13):
different by looking for thingslike root cause and opening our
minds to other treatmentpossibilities that we didn't
learn in medical school orresidency.
Coach Lindsay (14:22):
Let's imagine an eager young person who wants to
go out into the world and helppeople in some medical capacity.
And let's imagine further thatwe could clone that person into
six different clones.
So clone one becomes a surgeon,two becomes an internist, three
an osteopath, a doctor, andfour that one goes to
(14:42):
chiropractic school, five goesto acupuncture school and clone
six becomes a naturopathicdoctor.
So each clone spends a certainamount of time and training
getting indoctrinated into acertain belief system.
Dr. McMinn (14:56):
Now let's imagine that we have a patient we'll
just call her Mrs Smith and MrsSmith has a problem.
For instance, let's just useinflammatory bowel disease such
as Crohn's or ulcerative colitis.
And let's say that Mrs Smithmakes a round to each of these
highly trained, contentioneddoctors with the exact same
problem.
When she goes to Dr Clone One,the surgeon, he's more likely to
(15:17):
recommend that we cut out thedisease section of the bowel,
and that is his belief system.
In which goes to clone numbertwo, the internist, she's more
likely to prescribe medications.
That is the belief system shehas learned and been taught.
Coach Lindsay (15:29):
And then clone three, the osteopath or the DO.
They might use the same meds asthe internist or they might say
let's try a more holisticapproach.
That's their belief system.
When she goes to clone four,the chiropractor, then she might
suggest that it all comes fromthe spine.
Mrs Smith is out of alignment.
She needs an adjustment andthat's her belief.
(15:50):
That belief system.
Dr. McMinn (15:52):
And when Mrs Smith goes to a doctor of traditional
Chinese medicine, she's morelikely to get acupuncture and
maybe some Chinese herbs, andthat is her belief system.
And lastly, when Mrs Smith goesto the naturopathic doctor,
then he's likely to recommendlifestyle changes, along with
dietary changes and perhaps somesupplements, and that is his
belief system.
So what we have here is sixdifferent recommended therapies,
(16:14):
all for the exact same problemfor the exact same patient.
All these doctors are lookingat the world through their own
narrow set of glasses, and theprescription for those glasses
was written by the training.
And, quite frankly, each ofthese doctors would most likely
have anecdotal stories ofsuccess with their approach with
patients like Mrs Smith, but atthe end of the day, their
(16:35):
approach all boils down to theirown belief system about
healthcare.
Coach Lindsay (16:39):
The point of the exercise here is to illustrate
that all providers are subjectto their training, and so the
undeniable fact of the matter isthat, due to the tremendous
influence of the pharmaceuticalindustry on medical science and
on medical education, regulardoctors, as we like to say, have
been subjected toindoctrination which leads them
(17:01):
to look at patients like MsSmith through that narrow set of
glasses, dr Mack, that you'redescribing, with a focus on
drugs and surgery.
So, for a particular patient,that may or may not be the best
thing for them.
Dr. McMinn (17:15):
So, for instance, coach, I had a patient.
A really nice lady came in herfifties.
She came in for severeheadaches and she has had these
headaches for many years and hasseen lots of regular doctors,
including the chief of neurologyat a major academic institution
I won't name names and she gotbasically little to no relief
from these folks and there wasreally no need for us to repeat
all these other things that theother doctors had already tried
(17:35):
and failed.
So we reached into our expandedtoolbox, which is once again
integrative medicine, to lookfor other therapies and we tried
acupuncture.
This therapy has literally nopotential for harm and it might
help.
We tried it and guess what,coach, it worked like a miracle.
It was just amazing.
The patient got completelyrelieved.
She was thrilled, and so was I,and so here's an example of the
(17:57):
power of integrative medicine,which is the expanded toolbox
beyond drugs and surgeries inorder to achieve optimal
outcomes for patients.
Once again, I think this shouldbe the standard of health care
for all providers.
So why aren't we teaching theseother tools in medicine?
Because they can help ourpatients, and the reason is
because it's not in our policesystem Now.
I was subjected to the sametraining as all these other MDs,
(18:18):
and I bought a hook line ofsinker for many years as a
student and resident anddoctorate.
You had to in order to surviveand to not be ostracized and
labeled a quack by your peers.
My eyes began to open manyyears ago when I lived back up
in Boston.
I learned about a doctor by thename of David Eisenberg, md,
who went to Harvard MedicalSchool and then went to China
for many years to studyacupuncture and traditional
(18:39):
Chinese medicine.
He's now an assistant professorat Harvard and studies the
impact of alternative therapieslike nutrition on health
outcomes.
Coach Lindsay (18:47):
Se.
Consequently, we have seen someof the most esteemed medical
centers around the country, suchas Harvard, duke Mayo Clinic,
johns Hopkins and the ClevelandClinic, open dedicated centers
for integrative and functionalmedicine.
It's really exciting.
Dr. McMinn (19:03):
It is Zicochia, yeah , that's great.
It is more Vanderbilt, UCSF.
The list goes on and on.
It's really amazing, yeah.
Coach Lindsay (19:09):
Yeah, and I think patients are looking for
non-drug focused options intheir medical care and they're
tired of just adding on thepills, getting bigger pill boxes
, and they're tired of highcosts and, a lot of times, the
added side effects that comewith those types of therapies.
Now the medical community isfinally seeing the light and I
really think things seem to betrending in a more positive
(19:30):
direction, dr McMahon.
Dr. McMinn (19:31):
I do too.
I do too.
It's optimistic for sure.
But I'll never forget thepatient who came to see me, who
was a generally unhealthy middleage, mildly obese guy.
He was on a bunch of meds,including blood pressure meds,
and he knew he was headed downthe road to ruin.
He was ready to make somechanges in his life.
He could see that the pillsweren't working, he was not
getting healthier and he knew hewas going to die young.
He's had a couple of kids athome and he just decided I want
(19:54):
to try something else.
And he was on a terribleSouthern diet and so we just
basically started with cuttingout the low-lying fruit things
like fast food, sodas and friedfood, and we got to do some just
moderate exercise like walkingBefore long.
Guess what?
He was losing weight, startedfeeling better than he had in
years and his blood pressurestarted coming down coached
Amazing.
(20:14):
So he basically got him off allhis blood pressure medicines.
So he actually went back to thedoctor who got him on all those
pills and he thought that thedoctor would be really proud of
him for the weight loss and allthe changes.
But instead the doctor told himto get off that crap.
Of course, the crap being gooddiet and exercise and then all
that doctor mixed up was a muchquackery.
I'm not going to argue with thedoctor, but I just told the
(20:35):
patient to listen to his ownheart and he could be the judge.
And wisely, the patient stuckwith the McMinn program.
Coach Lindsay (20:41):
I'm glad that he had a really positive outcome.
I hate that the other doctorwas just so turned off of things
he couldn't see the good thatwas happening in front of him.
Dr. McMinn (20:52):
I was out to dinner with some folks just the other
night and Lindsay and you hearthis story over and over again
the guy had some blood pressureand his doctor wanted to go up
on his medicine.
He just got some exercise andchanged his diet a little bit,
lost a little bit of weight andguess what, instead of going up
on his meds, he got off his medscompletely.
I just think that we got to getaway from this symptom till
stuff and we have to empowerpatients to embrace lifestyle
(21:16):
changes and so that they don'thave to get on all these meds
with all the cost and all theside effects.
Anyway, I'm ranting about this,coach, forgive me.
Coach Lindsay (21:25):
I think that comes from a place of passion.
And so you've.
Through the years, you saw somany folks that were needing
help and just not seeing whatthey needed to see from the
regular model of medicine, and Ican honestly say that through
the years of working with you,almost everyone got better with
an integrative, functional,lifestyle-based approach and
(21:48):
sometimes like just flip theswitch, stay a night better.
When we first started, comingfrom traditional, regular
medical background, the outcomesalmost seemed too good to be
true.
Really, we would come in withmultiple complaints and then
they'd come back and sayeverything was better.
It was just amazing.
Yup, it's thrilling.
Dr. McMinn (22:08):
Yeah, it is.
Sometimes I'll go back and lookat the original note and it
goes on and on with listedcomplaints.
So you get them on a programand you address all these
complaints and they come backand you go through them one by
one.
Everything's better.
And I would often ask thequestion.
I say, okay, if I could wave amagic wand and make you perfect
in my body spirit, what would Ido?
Now they say, I'm there and togo from being so miserable to
(22:31):
feeling optimized, that's justso powerful.
And these people had gooddoctors, lindsay.
They had good internals, goodfamily practice doctors, good
specialists, but they weretaking the time to listen and
they weren't conducting the dots.
Each of these doctors works intheir own silo and they have a
very limited amount of tools intheir toolbox.
Drug surgery anyway.
It was really rewarding.
In fact I was thinking about it.
(22:52):
If I'm a regular doctor andsomebody told me you could have
these kinds of outcomes, I wouldnot have believed it.
It's too good to be true, but Isaw it with my own eyes.
When it first started happeningI said it can't be true.
But then you see it over andover again and then you realize
oh my gosh, this stuff is reallypowerful medicine, and if it
(23:13):
sounds like you and I are justdiscredited, cast off from
regular medicine, quite theopposite is true, in fact.
We're grateful for regularmedicine and at the same time,
we're full of hope for abrighter future.
We see organizations like theInstitute of Functional Medicine
growing in leaps and bounds,and when I would go to their
conferences, there will bethousands of medical providers
from all walks of life who werethere to once again find joy in
(23:35):
meeting in the practice ofmedicine.
Coach Lindsay (23:38):
It always amazes me that we even talk about
things like nutrition orexercise as alternative medicine
.
What could be more fundamentalto our health and how we feed
our bodies and how we move them?
That's not alternative.
It's really a foundation ofwellness.
Dr. McMinn (23:55):
Coach, let me go back a little bit.
You talked about the day youshowed up at my clinic in
Aspergera.
Why?
Did you seek out my clinic.
Why didn't you just go to someother Jochmo internist in
Aspergera?
And by working at my clinic didyou also find a new sort of joy
in medicine that you had notfound in regular medicine.
Coach Lindsay (24:16):
Oh, absolutely.
I sought you out, dr Matt,because I wanted to be a part of
healthcare, true healthcare.
Like I mentioned earlier, Ididn't True healthcare exactly.
I didn't want to be part of thedisease model.
There just weren't a lot ofpositions in a regular hospital
setting that I felt like I wouldbe contributing towards a
positive change.
(24:37):
I think there, like we'vementioned before, there's so
many wonderful things aboutmodern medicine.
I just think about people thathave trauma and they need a car
accident or whatever and theyneed immediate medical help.
They need drugs, they needinfusions, they need so many
things to preserve their life.
But for the majority of peopleout there, we're not
(24:58):
experiencing trauma.
Most people are experiencingchronic health issues and I
believe that one of the bestanswers for those chronic health
issues is lifestyle medicine.
And so I really wanted to be apart of that change, and that's
why I sought you out.
You were one of the few in theBirmingham community who was
(25:21):
moving in that direction, and soI, in desperation, marched over
with my resume in hand, and Iwas so grateful you took me in.
Dr. McMinn (25:30):
The chat through to Lindsay is even to this day,
many medical students get littleto no training in the important
fundamentals of health likenutrition, and I talk to these
students and a lot of themreally want to learn more, but
the higher ups, for some reason,have determined it's just not
important enough for thesestudents to spend time on it.
As a result, due to theoutside's influence of the
pharmaceutical industry, thesestudents come out of their
(25:52):
training with this symptom pill,disease pill approach to
medicine.
So, for instance, as a provider, when you hear something like a
urinary tract infection, thevery first thing that pops in
your mind is something likeBactrum or Cipro or some other
antibiotic, and you get intothis mindset of symptom pill or
disease pill.
You're trained to think thatway.
Basically arthritis, motr,gastric upset, let's get them on
(26:16):
a cryo-set, right, and that'sthe way doctors think.
Unfortunately, that's stillback to the UTI though.
For instance, I had pretty goodluck treating mild UTIs with a
natural therapy like D-menos,but I guarantee you those
medical students will never hearof D-menos because it's not a
drug and it's not in theirbelief system.
Coach Lindsay (26:35):
And Dr Whitman, I would say I think the majority
of people that get intohealthcare have the best of
intentions and they'repracticing With the knowledge
that they've been given andthey're doing that to the the
best of their ability and, likeI, like we have both said so
many times, there is a time anda place for those things, but we
just believe in a more expandedtoolbox for right, just
(26:57):
abundant living and for truefull health.
Dr. McMinn (27:00):
Yeah, you're absolutely right, coach, and I
was there too, and when I openedup my practice, I was a regular
doctor, but it was this paradeof people coming in who were
miserable.
They were desperate and theywould tell me Dr, you're my last
hope.
And they had the doctors andthey were on the appropriate
medications, and I really thinkthere's something else going on
here.
And so that's when I got busyand really started working on
(27:23):
Expanding my toolbox and tryingto be a better listener and
taking these people seriously,anyway, again I start preaching.
Sorry about that.
Coach Lindsay (27:30):
No, it's good, it's good.
We are grateful for your story,dr Mac.
It's affected so many,including myself and my
husband's.
But just a circle back and makesure we've Concluded what we've
been saying here.
Most doctors get theirinformation from two major
sources medical journals andthen drug reps.
And it goes without saying thatthe drug reps are biased
(27:52):
Towards a drug approach.
They, that's their job.
Dr. McMinn (27:56):
Some doctors offices I have known have actually had
lunch served to the entire staffevery single day by the drug
reps.
I Invite you just to sit in theoffice of, or the waiting room
with some of these cardiologists, rheumatologists, some day and
watch the parade of drug repsthat come through and you cannot
tell me that it doesn'tinfluence the drugs that these
guys are prescribing.
Well, in fact, the studies haveshown that it does influence
(28:18):
these doctors and of course,that's why the drug companies do
it.
Coach Lindsay (28:22):
What's made it even worse is the direct to the
consumer advertising.
We see tons of ads for thingslike the purple pill that people
can get over the counter forreflux, or they say, ask your
doctor about this bill.
But they never say ask yourdoctor about why you got the
problem in the first place, orAsk your doctor about exercise
(28:43):
in a diet program that couldwork well for you.
They just they and then beyondthat they minimize the potential
risks or downsides of takingthe drugs.
They're just said in the littlelitany or typed in small print
at the end of the commercial.
Dr. McMinn (28:57):
Including death.
They show these like happypeople and doing fun things, and
then they're quiet, fast boys,they say death Um yes, it's
ironic and sad really.
Yeah.
So let's take a brief look atthe other major source of
information for doctors, that is, medical journals.
This is really interesting tome, coach.
(29:18):
There's a guy in Richard HortonH, or to win, it was the editor
of the Lancet, which is one ofthe top four medical journals in
the world, and he once wrotethat, quote journals have
devolved into informationlaundering operations for the
pharmaceutical industry.
In quote I'm gonna repeat that,coach, this is profound.
Here's the editor of the Lancetwho wrote that journals have
(29:40):
devolved into informationlaundering operations for the
pharmaceutical industry.
Interesting now, then it was adoctor named Marsha Angel, who
was the editor of the NewEngland Journal of Medicine,
which most consider the topmedical journal in the world, as
she wrote an article entitleddrug companies and doctors a
Story of corruption.
(30:01):
In the article she stated thefollowing Conflicts of interest
and biases exist in virtuallyevery field of medicine,
particularly in those that relyheavily on drugs or devices.
It is simply no longer possibleto believe Much of the clinical
research that is published orto rely on the judgment of
trusted physicians andauthoritative medical guidelines
(30:22):
.
I take no pleasure in thisconclusion, and I reached it
slowly and reluctantly over mytwo decades as an editor for the
New England Journal of Medicine.
Coach Lindsay (30:34):
Wow, isn't that so pretty righty yeah.
Dr. McMinn (30:37):
Yeah, that's.
That's pretty amazing.
Her comment about Authoritativemedical guidelines probably
stems from the fact that many,if and sometimes most, of the
experts on the committees whoEstablish the guidelines often
have direct financial conflictsof interest with the drug
companies, which are often notdisclosed.
It's really deceitful, lindsay.
(30:57):
Even though Dr Angel says youcan't trust the guidelines,
often doctors are browbeateninto following the guidelines
and they are downgraded if theydon't.
In some cases, their salary iscut if they don't follow the the
bogus guidelines.
Interesting.
Coach Lindsay (31:16):
And also, in many instances, the researchers that
put out the science thatdoctors based their decisions on
are often in cahoots with thedrug companies.
The researchers helped todesign the studies to make the
drug look good, or theyeditorialize the study to
package it so that it soundslike the drug is better than it
(31:37):
really is.
There are many kind of dirtytricks that they used to do this
, and maybe we can do a separatepodcast on these dirty tricks
One of these days.
Dr Mac in the journal nature,which is one of the top science
journals in the world, inarticle from July of 23.
They stated medicine is plaguedby untrustworthy clinical
(31:58):
trials.
Investigation suggests that insome fields, at least one
quarter of clinical trials mightbe problematic or even entirely
made up.
Dr. McMinn (32:09):
Isn't that amazing, coach.
Yeah, we have scientificjournals and the articles are
entirely made up.
Oh my gosh.
Coach Lindsay (32:18):
I think following the money.
Yeah, it's something that wehave to do.
It's medicines, and science isdirty little secret.
Dr. McMinn (32:25):
Yeah, there was a guy here at UAB, one of the
professors.
He was getting a half a milliondollars every single year from
the drug companies to do thesestudies and tell me that one
skin doesn't influence it.
But let me be clear, coach I ama scientist at heart and I have
great respect for science andscientists, but this is a sort
of dirty laundry thatbastardizes what we call medical
(32:47):
science, and it makes the drugcompanies and their
co-conspirators richer to thetune of billions of dollars,
while at the same time drivingup the cost of health care, and
I would submit that it directlyis harming patients by stirring
them down a certain drug pathwhen in fact, a different
therapy Would be better for thepatient.
It's painful to watch thisdirty laundry of public, but I
think we need to acknowledge itso we can move on to what I call
(33:10):
Honest medicine, and that'swhat we're going to try to
provide here.
Coaches honest, unbiasedmedicine.
Coach Lindsay (33:17):
Yes, the doctors who get caught up in this as
prescribers have unwittinglybecome drug pushers for the
pharmaceutical industry.
So on top of that, there'sabout $370 million that are
spent lobbying the federalgovernment by the pharmaceutical
industry in the US each year,so that our congressmen and
(33:39):
women will protect the hugeprofit margins on these drugs by
gouging the public.
Dr. McMinn (33:47):
And, by the way, coach, the pharmaceutical
industry brought in $1.5trillion in 2022.
Oh my gosh, that's a hugeamount of money.
So again, let me be clearalthough it may sound like it,
I'm really not anti-drugaltogether Drugs are a very
important tool or toolbox, and Iuse them every day in my
(34:09):
practice.
I'm just asking for honestmedicine, where the provider can
get real science, accurateinformation about the drugs and
other therapies as well, so heor she can act as an unbiased
advocate, always in the bestinterest of the patient, not of
the drug company and not of theinsurance company.
Coach Lindsay (34:26):
As we grew the clinic, taking all of the above
into account, we also realizedthat there were many people who
were falling through the cracksof modern medicine and for whom
the symptom pill approach wasinappropriate or just didn't
work.
Often these were the folks who,through no fault of their own,
were stricken with things likechronic fatigue, fibromyalgia,
(34:48):
autoimmune diseases ordysautonomia, like my husband
Tyler.
Modern medicine is fantasticfor things like trauma or if
you're having a heart attack,but most doctors don't have any
idea how to treat things likedysautonomia.
We found that many of thesepatients were not being taken
seriously.
Some were actually gaslightedor even labeled as being
(35:10):
malingering or drug seekers bythe very doctors who they had
trusted and who they went to forhelp.
We also found that women'sissues were often not being
taken seriously or adequatelyaddressed.
Dr. McMinn (35:23):
When I started seeing these patients coach,
they often told me that I wastheir last hope.
It became clear to me thatmodern medicine was not working
for these patients.
This was an eye-opener for me,since I had always thought of
modern medicine as the latest,greatest end-all, be-all
medicine.
I was in the regular medicinetribe, but this was my period of
enlightenment.
I knew I needed to open my mindas a doctor and to find other
(35:46):
and better ways to help thesepatients.
However, my training would notallow me to stray into quackery,
so my motto became to beopen-minded, but always to be
skeptical.
I always was willing to workhard to learn new therapies
beyond drugs and surgery and toadd new things to my toolbox.
My radar screen was always upfor BS.
Believe me, there's a lot of BSout there.
Sadly, there are a lot ofproviders out there who will
(36:09):
take advantage of desperatepatients.
Ultimately, when a patientpresented to me, the question
was no longer what drug can Iput them on, but instead the
questions became why does thepatient have the problem, and
what course of therapies barnone which may include drugs
Does this patient need in orderto help the patient achieve his
or her optimal outcome?
Coach Lindsay (36:30):
Even though drugs were in our toolbox most often
than not, we found that drugswere not always the best answer.
As we have stated in previouspodcasts, the most powerful
medicine on earth is lifestylemedicine Getting people to
change their diet, reduce stress, get restorative sleep, regular
exercise, find emotionalwellness, optimize their gut
(36:51):
health, reduce toxins and findoptimal hormonal balance.
Those things were, in mostcases, the keys to better health
and often came with a reallydramatic turnaround.
Coach.
Dr. McMinn (37:04):
I think that pretty much explains who we are and
where we're coming from and howwe got there.
I hope this is something thatinterests you and perhaps in the
future we can be a steady andreliable source of information
for you on topics that arerelevant to you.
Coach Lindsay (37:18):
We're getting the podcast out about once a month
these days, so if our podcastsounds like something you might
enjoy listening to, then pleasesubscribe, follow and hit the
notification button so you'll benotified when future episodes
come out.
Dr. McMinn (37:32):
Don't forget to check us out at McMenMDcom.
You'll find lots of greatinformation there.
Also, please help us grow thepodcast by telling your friends
and family about us.
You can always reach me at menthat's the spelldoctor
McMenMCMIN at yahoocom.
I'd love to hear from you.
For those of you who are new tothe show, one of my favorite
highlights of the show is thecoach, lindsay Pearl of Wisdom.
(37:54):
She's so full of wisdom.
Anyway, we always finish theshow with this and so, coach,
it's time.
What's your Pearl wisdom today?
Coach Lindsay (38:02):
Thanks, Dr Mac.
I'll share this and it comesfrom one of my most favorite
doctors.
He always says you are thecaptain of your ship, Dr Mac.
Dr. McMinn (38:14):
That's right.
Coach Lindsay (38:15):
It's listeners.
It's so true, and what we meanby this is that your health is
your gift, it's your talent,it's your garden to tend.
You get to advocate for it,listen to you and take care of
your body.
So gather your healthcare team,gather information, make
informed decisions, and that'sreally our goal with this
podcast.
(38:35):
That's to empower you in this,to be the captain of your own
ship and to make those bestchoices for your health, from
dealing with the root causes ofillness to advanced prevention
and then, even further, tooptimization and thriving.
Being the best.
You are the captain of yourhealth ship listeners.
Dr. McMinn (38:54):
There we go.
That's so funny.
You mentioned that, coach.
I remember a patient I had yearsago.
He was a guy and he just madethis amazing turn around
recovery let's give him alifestyle medicine.
And I asked him.
I said how did you do it?
He reminded me.
He said, doctor, when I came tosee you a couple of years ago,
you got out a piece of paper andyou drew a picture of the ship
(39:14):
and you actually put me there inthe captaincy and you said that
I, dr McMinn, was his co-pilotand I drew the picture of the
ship heading in certain and Idrew an iceberg in front of it.
I said, michael, if you don'tchange courses, you're going to
hit the side Right, but you'rethe captain, you can steer right
, you can steer left, you canchange it.
(39:36):
And certainly I think that gotthrough to him drawing that on
the piece of paper.
That got through to him like noother doctor ever had and got
him to change his ways and he'sa much healthier guy because of
it.
So anyway, thank you forsharing that, coach.
That'll about wrap it up andthank you so much for listening
to Wellness Connection MD.
This is Dr McMinn.
Coach Lindsay (39:54):
And this is Coach Lindsay.
Dr. McMinn (39:56):
Take care and be well.
Welcome to the Wellness Connection.
MD podcast with Dr McMinn andCoach Lindsey, where we bring
you the latest, up-to-date,evidence-based information on a
wide variety of health andwellness topics, along with
practical take-home solutions.
Dr McMinn is an integrated andfunctional MD, and Lindsey
Matthews is a registered nurseand IIN certified health coach.
(00:21):
Together, our goal is to helpyou optimize your health and
wellness in mind, body andspirit.
To see a list of all of ourpodcasts, visit wwwminnmdcom.
And to stay up to date on thelatest topics, be sure to
subscribe to our podcast on yourfavorite podcast player so that
you'll be notified when futureepisodes come out.
The discussions continue.
(00:41):
These podcasts for educationalpurposes only and are not
intended to diagnose or treatany disease.
Please do not apply any of thisinformation without approval
from your personal doctor.
And now on to the show with DrMcMinn and Coach Lindsey.
Dr. McMinn (00:56):
Welcome to the very first episode of Wellness
Connection MD.
This is Dr McMinn.
I'm here with our certifiedhealth coach and registered
nurse, Ms Lindsey Matthews.
Coach Lindsay (01:05):
Good morning Dr Matt, good morning listeners.
We're excited to be with youthis morning.
Dr. McMinn (01:11):
Although a Wellness Connection MD is new, coach
Lindsey and I have been aroundfor quite a while and we're not
new to podcasting.
For the past few years we'vebeen doing a podcast called
Functional Medicine Podcast andbefore that I did a podcast and
a radio show called the WellnessConnection.
If you're interested, we havemany episodes on a wide variety
of subjects relating to wellnessmedicine which are available to
(01:32):
you for your listening pleasure.
You can find those under thename Functional Medicine Podcast
on your favorite podcast playeror you can find them at our
website.
You just go there at minnmdcomand we'll have some options
there for you to find on thepodcast.
The purpose of this particularepisode is just to really
introduce ourselves to those ofyou who may be new to us under
this new banner and to sharewith you our philosophy on
(01:55):
health and medicine and a bitabout how we got here, in hopes
that you might find itinteresting and potentially
helpful to you.
Coach Lindsay (02:01):
Let me get right to the point and summarize for
you the purpose of our podcast,and it's worth noting that,
although the name of the podcastis changing, the purpose is
still the same.
In summary, the reason that wedo the podcast is to bring you
honest, up-to-date, vetted,evidence-based, outcome-oriented
, unbiased info, along withpractical solutions in order to
(02:25):
empower you to overcome yourhealth care challenges and then,
a step further, to optimizeyour health and well-being in
mind, body and spirit.
Dr Mack and I both went intomedicine to help people, and our
passion for doing so has reallynot faded over the years.
We both feel blessed to usethis platform in order to share
(02:47):
with you this information, inthe hopes that, in some way, we
could help you overcome yourhealth challenges and then,
beyond that, become the verybest version of yourself.
Dr. McMinn (02:57):
And the reason for the name change is to cast a
wider net for potentialinterested listeners.
While we remain dedicated tointegrative and functional
medicine and we'll explain moreabout that in just a bit it
occurred to me that the majorityof people are not familiar with
the phrase functional medicineand don't even know what
functional medicine is.
So even though they might beinterested in what we have to
say and it might be helpful tothem, they would not know to
(03:19):
search for it.
And even if they stumbledacross it, since they don't know
the name functional medicine,they probably would not realize
its potential for theirwell-being.
Coach Lindsay (03:26):
We have been so blessed to see excellent growth
in our listenership over theyears and for our longtime
listeners.
We thank you so much for yoursupport and we hope to continue
to serve you.
However, with the name changeto wellness connection, MD
wellness is really the term thatmore people are familiar with,
and so with that change, we'rehoping to reach an even wider
(03:47):
audience of people who canbenefit from this information
that we have to share.
Dr. McMinn (03:52):
And for those of you who are new to us, let us tell
just a bit about ourselves andalso about functional and
integrated medicine.
On a personal note, I live inBirmingham, alabama, with my
wife, dr Cheryl.
You might hear us refer to DrCheryl from time to time, as she
provides us with some words ofwisdom now and then.
Coach Lindsay (04:07):
She has so much wisdom?
Yeah, she does.
Dr. McMinn (04:09):
I hate to admit it, but she does, and I also have
two amazing daughters and lotsof hobbies and interests that
keep me busy these days inretirement, one of which is
podcasting Now, professionally,I retired from almost 40 years
of clinical medicine.
I was a board-certified MDphysician and I worked first
half of my career in what I callregular medicine.
I got that term with mypatients.
(04:31):
They would say I saw my regulardoctor, as opposed to your
functional doctor.
Coach Lindsay (04:34):
That's right.
That is what people say.
They say regular doctor, right.
Dr. McMinn (04:37):
That's how I got that term regular medicine.
You can substitute, I don'tknow, traditional Western
medicine or whatever you want,but that's what I call it.
But mainly worked in theemergency room and, to a lesser
degree, in family practice andalso as the medical director of
a large medical clinic nearBoston.
However, for the past 16 yearsof my career I was totally
dedicated to an integrative andfunctional approach to medicine
(04:57):
at the McMinn Clinic inBirmingham, Alabama.
Throughout my career I alsopracticed in academic medicine,
with appointments on the medicalschool faculties of Harvard
University, Brown University andMichigan State University.
I retired as an assistantprofessor at the UAB School of
Medicine here in Birmingham.
Coach Lindsay (05:14):
And then, as for me, I'm a Kentucky girl, came to
Alabama and graduated fromSanford with my bachelor's in
nursing, and I've gotten to workseveral different settings in
that with my nursing degree,both in and out of the hospital.
And one day I walked into DrMack's office and asked for a
(05:35):
job and thankfully he hired meon and so I got to work under
you, dr Mack, and what aprivilege it was, because you
really took me on, mentored meand taught me so much.
I feel like an adopted thirddaughter to you in many ways,
and you really have inspired mein my life and helped me take
(05:55):
things a step further in mycareer, became a health coach in
your practice, so I'm sograteful for that.
And then, just on a personallevel, I've been married 12
years to my best friend, mybetter half, tyler, and we talk
about him some on the podcast wehave before.
We've got two kiddos ages fourand two, and right now one of my
biggest passions is reallyhelping our family navigate,
(06:15):
learning to eat healthy and havethose skills of how to take
care of our bodies and live wellin this busy modern world just
finding simple ways to do that.
And I also love being on thispodcast with you, Dr Mack.
What a privilege to shareknowledge with our amazing
listeners and listeners.
Thank you for giving us thisprivilege of your ears and your
(06:37):
time.
Dr. McMinn (06:37):
Thank you.
And, by the way, one thingLindsey didn't tell you she's a
great Irish dancer.
One time at a Christmas party Ipulled out my fiddle and played
a jig and Lindsey got busy and,oh my gosh, she was cutting the
rug.
Intro speaker (06:49):
That was very fun .
Dr. McMinn (06:50):
Dancing a jig, and so she's really good at it,
anyway, but we both come to thetopic of health and medicine
from a evidence-based, academicpoint of view.
On our podcast, we will alwaysdo our homework and we'll always
shoot straight with you.
We will be open-minded, butwe'll always be evidence-based
and outcomes-oriented.
We are not here to sell youanything or to promote any
particular therapy or product.
We're just all about promotinghonest, unbiased, evidence-based
(07:13):
information to help youoptimize your health and
well-being, and that's it.
That's what we're all about,really.
Coach Lindsay (07:19):
If you want to learn more about us as
individuals, check out our bioson McMinnMDcom on the home page,
and also if you want to learnmore about our practice
philosophy, then a good place tostart would be to check out the
diagram called the FourAccesses of Care at McMinn
Clinic, which you can find atthe McMinnMDcom website.
(07:41):
It's forward slash documentsMcMinnMDcom forward slash
documents, and on that diagramyou'll see that there are four
foundations of care that wesubscribe to, and let's talk
about them.
Dr. McMinn (07:54):
Yeah, the first is functional medicine, which
really means that we look forand treat the root cause of the
problem.
The second one is calledintegrated medicine, which means
that we have developed and whatI call an expanded toolbox of
therapies to choose from beyonddrugs and surgeries, in order to
help our patients.
And I would submit to Lindsayand let's get that issue unique
vis-a-vis you're not going tofind that with a regular doctor.
This is what kind of separatesus from, say, the average
(08:18):
internist or family practicedoctor.
Coach Lindsay (08:20):
Yes, exactly.
And then the other two accessesadvanced prevention, and that
means that we try to look intoour crystal ball, so to speak,
and based on your personalhistory, family history, your
clinical exam, your labs, anyother workup, you get this very
personalized way of assessingyour risk factors and then we
(08:41):
can put together a plan to avoidthose risks from happening down
the road.
And then, even beyond that, wetalk about optimization as that
final access, and that meansthat we help you become the very
best version of yourself.
And I really think, dr McMinn,that the combination of all four
of these is true healthcare.
I would like to posit thateverything else is more like
(09:01):
sick care.
Dr. McMinn (09:03):
Right.
Coach Lindsay (09:03):
I want you guys to be the best version of
yourself.
It's not okay just to be okayor that's just part of growing
old is maybe what a lot ofpeople here at the doctor's
office.
So our goal is to help youexperience vibrant living.
Dr. McMinn (09:17):
Yeah, over the years I've come convinced that this
is what healthcare should be.
I know I'm biased to peoplewith regular doctors who would
think of us as alternative, butto me this is what healthcare
should be.
But just as importantly, on thediagram you'll see that all of
this is built on a foundation ofwhat are called loving kindness
.
Now, coach and I both believethat the practice of medicine is
the perfect medium for theexpression of loving kindness.
(09:38):
Quite frankly, I wish theywould teach loving kindness as
required course in medicalschool and nursing school.
In fact, the world would be abetter place if they started
teaching in preschool andkindergarten for everybody.
I think that we would havefewer wars, less fights, less
divorces, less badness of allkinds.
Overall, the world would be abetter place to live in and
would all be happier people.
Coach Lindsay (10:00):
An emphasis on loving kindness in our
patient-provider interactionswould make for more satisfied
patients and it would alsocontribute to more satisfying
careers for providers.
Let's face it there's a lot ofburnout in medicine, all
throughout the ranks doctors,nurses, you name it.
While there are many factorscontributing to that burnout,
(10:21):
such as, most recently, covidand everything that evolved with
that, the electronic medicalrecord, just requirements of
insurance companies those arejust a few of the obstacles.
But a patient, day-to-dayloving kindness approach when
we're interacting with patientsgoes a long way in fostering a
(10:41):
more meaningful and satisfyingcareer as a provider.
I hear about colleagues all thetime who went through all the
rigorous training who now wantto get out of medicine
altogether.
They're just totally burnoutand it's really sad to see that
these are good people.
Yeah big-spot-horses Nancy, whenI hear that, yes, we really
(11:01):
need more people in healthcare,and there's just all these
reasons, but a personal focus onhow I can bring loving kindness
to the workplace and to everypatient that I interact with.
It has gone a long way inproviding a more satisfying work
day for myself, and I reallybelieve that could as well be
the case for others.
Dr. McMinn (11:22):
Lindsey, I can attest that you always brought
loving kindness to the workplacewith every patient interaction.
I remember my sister, cindy,used to work at the clinic and
she overheard you one daytalking to a patient and she
said something to the fact thatif you were a patient it would
be impossible to be angry withLindsey.
Anyway, that was her observationBack when I was in the
emergency room as a provider, Icould fall victim to what I call
(11:43):
pervailing thinking that yougot bed two as a knee injury,
but it comes pretty boring afterabout the 10,000th of the
injury.
Instead, I can think of that asMrs Jones in bed two who has a
knee injury.
She's not bed two, she's MrsJones.
And there is a scared,vulnerable and helpless human
being in bed two who happens tohave an injury and is in a lot
of pain, and I can takeadvantage of that opportunity to
(12:04):
bring loving kindness to her inher most vulnerable time of
need.
It makes all the difference toher and if I take this approach,
then when I go home at the endof the day I've had a much more
rewarding and meaningful dayknowing that I have not only
helped her physically but alsospiritually.
I have brought light, hope andcomfort to her in her greatest
time of need.
I connected with her as a humanbeing.
It's an awesome gift for herand it's really also a
(12:27):
meaningful gift for me that Iwas in a position to do that for
her as a provider.
Coach Lindsay (12:31):
And I think that just really points to the fact
that we're more than justphysical beings.
There's more to us than that.
Let's take a closer look at theterm functional medicine, since
this has been our focus formany years.
As we see it, and as theInstitute of Functional Medicine
defines it, it's a holistic,biology-based approach to
healthcare that focuses on theroot cause of illness and
(12:56):
disease.
However, if you look at othersources, such as, maybe,
wikipedia, they claim that it'sa pseudoscience, quackery and
maybe just a rebranding of termslike alternative and
complementary.
Dr. McMinn (13:08):
Now, kocha, in my career I've really been on both
sides of the fence.
As I described earlier, I was aregular doctor for really most
of my career, ashley, and thatwas before I became enlightened.
Of course I say that somewhattongue-in-cheek, but there's
also a bit of truth in that.
I have come to view medicalschool and residency as an
exercise in what I callindoctrination, or you might
even say brainwashing.
(13:28):
They force feed you into aphilosophy or a belief system of
medicine that's mainly groundedin drugs and surgery, and we've
come out of that.
We look at the world throughwhat I call a narrow set of
glasses, which are mainly drugglasses.
Now, before I go on further, letme state unequivocally that
this podcast it has never beenand will not be about bashing
(13:49):
what I call regular medicine.
Quite frankly, regular medicineliterally saved my life and has
helped and saved the life of somany others.
So big kudos to those doctors,nurses, mps, pas, lab techs or
at least in everybody else whogoes to work every day to help
people.
We're really grateful for thosefolks.
But I'm just saying that insome cases, in order to get the
best outcome with that patient,we have to, as Apple says, think
(14:13):
different by looking for thingslike root cause and opening our
minds to other treatmentpossibilities that we didn't
learn in medical school orresidency.
Coach Lindsay (14:22):
Let's imagine an eager young person who wants to
go out into the world and helppeople in some medical capacity.
And let's imagine further thatwe could clone that person into
six different clones.
So clone one becomes a surgeon,two becomes an internist, three
an osteopath, a doctor, andfour that one goes to
(14:42):
chiropractic school, five goesto acupuncture school and clone
six becomes a naturopathicdoctor.
So each clone spends a certainamount of time and training
getting indoctrinated into acertain belief system.
Dr. McMinn (14:56):
Now let's imagine that we have a patient we'll
just call her Mrs Smith and MrsSmith has a problem.
For instance, let's just useinflammatory bowel disease such
as Crohn's or ulcerative colitis.
And let's say that Mrs Smithmakes a round to each of these
highly trained, contentioneddoctors with the exact same
problem.
When she goes to Dr Clone One,the surgeon, he's more likely to
(15:17):
recommend that we cut out thedisease section of the bowel,
and that is his belief system.
In which goes to clone numbertwo, the internist, she's more
likely to prescribe medications.
That is the belief system shehas learned and been taught.
Coach Lindsay (15:29):
And then clone three, the osteopath or the DO.
They might use the same meds asthe internist or they might say
let's try a more holisticapproach.
That's their belief system.
When she goes to clone four,the chiropractor, then she might
suggest that it all comes fromthe spine.
Mrs Smith is out of alignment.
She needs an adjustment andthat's her belief.
(15:50):
That belief system.
Dr. McMinn (15:52):
And when Mrs Smith goes to a doctor of traditional
Chinese medicine, she's morelikely to get acupuncture and
maybe some Chinese herbs, andthat is her belief system.
And lastly, when Mrs Smith goesto the naturopathic doctor,
then he's likely to recommendlifestyle changes, along with
dietary changes and perhaps somesupplements, and that is his
belief system.
So what we have here is sixdifferent recommended therapies,
(16:14):
all for the exact same problemfor the exact same patient.
All these doctors are lookingat the world through their own
narrow set of glasses, and theprescription for those glasses
was written by the training.
And, quite frankly, each ofthese doctors would most likely
have anecdotal stories ofsuccess with their approach with
patients like Mrs Smith, but atthe end of the day, their
(16:35):
approach all boils down to theirown belief system about
healthcare.
Coach Lindsay (16:39):
The point of the exercise here is to illustrate
that all providers are subjectto their training, and so the
undeniable fact of the matter isthat, due to the tremendous
influence of the pharmaceuticalindustry on medical science and
on medical education, regulardoctors, as we like to say, have
been subjected toindoctrination which leads them
(17:01):
to look at patients like MsSmith through that narrow set of
glasses, dr Mack, that you'redescribing, with a focus on
drugs and surgery.
So, for a particular patient,that may or may not be the best
thing for them.
Dr. McMinn (17:15):
So, for instance, coach, I had a patient.
A really nice lady came in herfifties.
She came in for severeheadaches and she has had these
headaches for many years and hasseen lots of regular doctors,
including the chief of neurologyat a major academic institution
I won't name names and she gotbasically little to no relief
from these folks and there wasreally no need for us to repeat
all these other things that theother doctors had already tried
(17:35):
and failed.
So we reached into our expandedtoolbox, which is once again
integrative medicine, to lookfor other therapies and we tried
acupuncture.
This therapy has literally nopotential for harm and it might
help.
We tried it and guess what,coach, it worked like a miracle.
It was just amazing.
The patient got completelyrelieved.
She was thrilled, and so was I,and so here's an example of the
(17:57):
power of integrative medicine,which is the expanded toolbox
beyond drugs and surgeries inorder to achieve optimal
outcomes for patients.
Once again, I think this shouldbe the standard of health care
for all providers.
So why aren't we teaching theseother tools in medicine?
Because they can help ourpatients, and the reason is
because it's not in our policesystem Now.
I was subjected to the sametraining as all these other MDs,
(18:18):
and I bought a hook line ofsinker for many years as a
student and resident anddoctorate.
You had to in order to surviveand to not be ostracized and
labeled a quack by your peers.
My eyes began to open manyyears ago when I lived back up
in Boston.
I learned about a doctor by thename of David Eisenberg, md,
who went to Harvard MedicalSchool and then went to China
for many years to studyacupuncture and traditional
(18:39):
Chinese medicine.
He's now an assistant professorat Harvard and studies the
impact of alternative therapieslike nutrition on health
outcomes.
Coach Lindsay (18:47):
Se.
Consequently, we have seen someof the most esteemed medical
centers around the country, suchas Harvard, duke Mayo Clinic,
johns Hopkins and the ClevelandClinic, open dedicated centers
for integrative and functionalmedicine.
It's really exciting.
Dr. McMinn (19:03):
It is Zicochia, yeah , that's great.
It is more Vanderbilt, UCSF.
The list goes on and on.
It's really amazing, yeah.
Coach Lindsay (19:09):
Yeah, and I think patients are looking for
non-drug focused options intheir medical care and they're
tired of just adding on thepills, getting bigger pill boxes
, and they're tired of highcosts and, a lot of times, the
added side effects that comewith those types of therapies.
Now the medical community isfinally seeing the light and I
really think things seem to betrending in a more positive
(19:30):
direction, dr McMahon.
Dr. McMinn (19:31):
I do too.
I do too.
It's optimistic for sure.
But I'll never forget thepatient who came to see me, who
was a generally unhealthy middleage, mildly obese guy.
He was on a bunch of meds,including blood pressure meds,
and he knew he was headed downthe road to ruin.
He was ready to make somechanges in his life.
He could see that the pillsweren't working, he was not
getting healthier and he knew hewas going to die young.
He's had a couple of kids athome and he just decided I want
(19:54):
to try something else.
And he was on a terribleSouthern diet and so we just
basically started with cuttingout the low-lying fruit things
like fast food, sodas and friedfood, and we got to do some just
moderate exercise like walkingBefore long.
Guess what?
He was losing weight, startedfeeling better than he had in
years and his blood pressurestarted coming down coached
Amazing.
(20:14):
So he basically got him off allhis blood pressure medicines.
So he actually went back to thedoctor who got him on all those
pills and he thought that thedoctor would be really proud of
him for the weight loss and allthe changes.
But instead the doctor told himto get off that crap.
Of course, the crap being gooddiet and exercise and then all
that doctor mixed up was a muchquackery.
I'm not going to argue with thedoctor, but I just told the
(20:35):
patient to listen to his ownheart and he could be the judge.
And wisely, the patient stuckwith the McMinn program.
Coach Lindsay (20:41):
I'm glad that he had a really positive outcome.
I hate that the other doctorwas just so turned off of things
he couldn't see the good thatwas happening in front of him.
Dr. McMinn (20:52):
I was out to dinner with some folks just the other
night and Lindsay and you hearthis story over and over again
the guy had some blood pressureand his doctor wanted to go up
on his medicine.
He just got some exercise andchanged his diet a little bit,
lost a little bit of weight andguess what, instead of going up
on his meds, he got off his medscompletely.
I just think that we got to getaway from this symptom till
stuff and we have to empowerpatients to embrace lifestyle
(21:16):
changes and so that they don'thave to get on all these meds
with all the cost and all theside effects.
Anyway, I'm ranting about this,coach, forgive me.
Coach Lindsay (21:25):
I think that comes from a place of passion.
And so you've.
Through the years, you saw somany folks that were needing
help and just not seeing whatthey needed to see from the
regular model of medicine, and Ican honestly say that through
the years of working with you,almost everyone got better with
an integrative, functional,lifestyle-based approach and
(21:48):
sometimes like just flip theswitch, stay a night better.
When we first started, comingfrom traditional, regular
medical background, the outcomesalmost seemed too good to be
true.
Really, we would come in withmultiple complaints and then
they'd come back and sayeverything was better.
It was just amazing.
Yup, it's thrilling.
Dr. McMinn (22:08):
Yeah, it is.
Sometimes I'll go back and lookat the original note and it
goes on and on with listedcomplaints.
So you get them on a programand you address all these
complaints and they come backand you go through them one by
one.
Everything's better.
And I would often ask thequestion.
I say, okay, if I could wave amagic wand and make you perfect
in my body spirit, what would Ido?
Now they say, I'm there and togo from being so miserable to
(22:31):
feeling optimized, that's justso powerful.
And these people had gooddoctors, lindsay.
They had good internals, goodfamily practice doctors, good
specialists, but they weretaking the time to listen and
they weren't conducting the dots.
Each of these doctors works intheir own silo and they have a
very limited amount of tools intheir toolbox.
Drug surgery anyway.
It was really rewarding.
In fact I was thinking about it.
(22:52):
If I'm a regular doctor andsomebody told me you could have
these kinds of outcomes, I wouldnot have believed it.
It's too good to be true, but Isaw it with my own eyes.
When it first started happeningI said it can't be true.
But then you see it over andover again and then you realize
oh my gosh, this stuff is reallypowerful medicine, and if it
(23:13):
sounds like you and I are justdiscredited, cast off from
regular medicine, quite theopposite is true, in fact.
We're grateful for regularmedicine and at the same time,
we're full of hope for abrighter future.
We see organizations like theInstitute of Functional Medicine
growing in leaps and bounds,and when I would go to their
conferences, there will bethousands of medical providers
from all walks of life who werethere to once again find joy in
(23:35):
meeting in the practice ofmedicine.
Coach Lindsay (23:38):
It always amazes me that we even talk about
things like nutrition orexercise as alternative medicine
.
What could be more fundamentalto our health and how we feed
our bodies and how we move them?
That's not alternative.
It's really a foundation ofwellness.
Dr. McMinn (23:55):
Coach, let me go back a little bit.
You talked about the day youshowed up at my clinic in
Aspergera.
Why?
Did you seek out my clinic.
Why didn't you just go to someother Jochmo internist in
Aspergera?
And by working at my clinic didyou also find a new sort of joy
in medicine that you had notfound in regular medicine.
Coach Lindsay (24:16):
Oh, absolutely.
I sought you out, dr Matt,because I wanted to be a part of
healthcare, true healthcare.
Like I mentioned earlier, Ididn't True healthcare exactly.
I didn't want to be part of thedisease model.
There just weren't a lot ofpositions in a regular hospital
setting that I felt like I wouldbe contributing towards a
positive change.
(24:37):
I think there, like we'vementioned before, there's so
many wonderful things aboutmodern medicine.
I just think about people thathave trauma and they need a car
accident or whatever and theyneed immediate medical help.
They need drugs, they needinfusions, they need so many
things to preserve their life.
But for the majority of peopleout there, we're not
(24:58):
experiencing trauma.
Most people are experiencingchronic health issues and I
believe that one of the bestanswers for those chronic health
issues is lifestyle medicine.
And so I really wanted to be apart of that change, and that's
why I sought you out.
You were one of the few in theBirmingham community who was
(25:21):
moving in that direction, and soI, in desperation, marched over
with my resume in hand, and Iwas so grateful you took me in.
Dr. McMinn (25:30):
The chat through to Lindsay is even to this day,
many medical students get littleto no training in the important
fundamentals of health likenutrition, and I talk to these
students and a lot of themreally want to learn more, but
the higher ups, for some reason,have determined it's just not
important enough for thesestudents to spend time on it.
As a result, due to theoutside's influence of the
pharmaceutical industry, thesestudents come out of their
(25:52):
training with this symptom pill,disease pill approach to
medicine.
So, for instance, as a provider, when you hear something like a
urinary tract infection, thevery first thing that pops in
your mind is something likeBactrum or Cipro or some other
antibiotic, and you get intothis mindset of symptom pill or
disease pill.
You're trained to think thatway.
Basically arthritis, motr,gastric upset, let's get them on
(26:16):
a cryo-set, right, and that'sthe way doctors think.
Unfortunately, that's stillback to the UTI though.
For instance, I had pretty goodluck treating mild UTIs with a
natural therapy like D-menos,but I guarantee you those
medical students will never hearof D-menos because it's not a
drug and it's not in theirbelief system.
Coach Lindsay (26:35):
And Dr Whitman, I would say I think the majority
of people that get intohealthcare have the best of
intentions and they'repracticing With the knowledge
that they've been given andthey're doing that to the the
best of their ability and, likeI, like we have both said so
many times, there is a time anda place for those things, but we
just believe in a more expandedtoolbox for right, just
(26:57):
abundant living and for truefull health.
Dr. McMinn (27:00):
Yeah, you're absolutely right, coach, and I
was there too, and when I openedup my practice, I was a regular
doctor, but it was this paradeof people coming in who were
miserable.
They were desperate and theywould tell me Dr, you're my last
hope.
And they had the doctors andthey were on the appropriate
medications, and I really thinkthere's something else going on
here.
And so that's when I got busyand really started working on
(27:23):
Expanding my toolbox and tryingto be a better listener and
taking these people seriously,anyway, again I start preaching.
Sorry about that.
Coach Lindsay (27:30):
No, it's good, it's good.
We are grateful for your story,dr Mac.
It's affected so many,including myself and my
husband's.
But just a circle back and makesure we've Concluded what we've
been saying here.
Most doctors get theirinformation from two major
sources medical journals andthen drug reps.
And it goes without saying thatthe drug reps are biased
(27:52):
Towards a drug approach.
They, that's their job.
Dr. McMinn (27:56):
Some doctors offices I have known have actually had
lunch served to the entire staffevery single day by the drug
reps.
I Invite you just to sit in theoffice of, or the waiting room
with some of these cardiologists, rheumatologists, some day and
watch the parade of drug repsthat come through and you cannot
tell me that it doesn'tinfluence the drugs that these
guys are prescribing.
Well, in fact, the studies haveshown that it does influence
(28:18):
these doctors and of course,that's why the drug companies do
it.
Coach Lindsay (28:22):
What's made it even worse is the direct to the
consumer advertising.
We see tons of ads for thingslike the purple pill that people
can get over the counter forreflux, or they say, ask your
doctor about this bill.
But they never say ask yourdoctor about why you got the
problem in the first place, orAsk your doctor about exercise
(28:43):
in a diet program that couldwork well for you.
They just they and then beyondthat they minimize the potential
risks or downsides of takingthe drugs.
They're just said in the littlelitany or typed in small print
at the end of the commercial.
Dr. McMinn (28:57):
Including death.
They show these like happypeople and doing fun things, and
then they're quiet, fast boys,they say death Um yes, it's
ironic and sad really.
Yeah.
So let's take a brief look atthe other major source of
information for doctors, that is, medical journals.
This is really interesting tome, coach.
(29:18):
There's a guy in Richard HortonH, or to win, it was the editor
of the Lancet, which is one ofthe top four medical journals in
the world, and he once wrotethat, quote journals have
devolved into informationlaundering operations for the
pharmaceutical industry.
In quote I'm gonna repeat that,coach, this is profound.
Here's the editor of the Lancetwho wrote that journals have
(29:40):
devolved into informationlaundering operations for the
pharmaceutical industry.
Interesting now, then it was adoctor named Marsha Angel, who
was the editor of the NewEngland Journal of Medicine,
which most consider the topmedical journal in the world, as
she wrote an article entitleddrug companies and doctors a
Story of corruption.
(30:01):
In the article she stated thefollowing Conflicts of interest
and biases exist in virtuallyevery field of medicine,
particularly in those that relyheavily on drugs or devices.
It is simply no longer possibleto believe Much of the clinical
research that is published orto rely on the judgment of
trusted physicians andauthoritative medical guidelines
(30:22):
.
I take no pleasure in thisconclusion, and I reached it
slowly and reluctantly over mytwo decades as an editor for the
New England Journal of Medicine.
Coach Lindsay (30:34):
Wow, isn't that so pretty righty yeah.
Dr. McMinn (30:37):
Yeah, that's.
That's pretty amazing.
Her comment about Authoritativemedical guidelines probably
stems from the fact that many,if and sometimes most, of the
experts on the committees whoEstablish the guidelines often
have direct financial conflictsof interest with the drug
companies, which are often notdisclosed.
It's really deceitful, lindsay.
(30:57):
Even though Dr Angel says youcan't trust the guidelines,
often doctors are browbeateninto following the guidelines
and they are downgraded if theydon't.
In some cases, their salary iscut if they don't follow the the
bogus guidelines.
Interesting.
Coach Lindsay (31:16):
And also, in many instances, the researchers that
put out the science thatdoctors based their decisions on
are often in cahoots with thedrug companies.
The researchers helped todesign the studies to make the
drug look good, or theyeditorialize the study to
package it so that it soundslike the drug is better than it
(31:37):
really is.
There are many kind of dirtytricks that they used to do this
, and maybe we can do a separatepodcast on these dirty tricks
One of these days.
Dr Mac in the journal nature,which is one of the top science
journals in the world, inarticle from July of 23.
They stated medicine is plaguedby untrustworthy clinical
(31:58):
trials.
Investigation suggests that insome fields, at least one
quarter of clinical trials mightbe problematic or even entirely
made up.
Dr. McMinn (32:09):
Isn't that amazing, coach.
Yeah, we have scientificjournals and the articles are
entirely made up.
Oh my gosh.
Coach Lindsay (32:18):
I think following the money.
Yeah, it's something that wehave to do.
It's medicines, and science isdirty little secret.
Dr. McMinn (32:25):
Yeah, there was a guy here at UAB, one of the
professors.
He was getting a half a milliondollars every single year from
the drug companies to do thesestudies and tell me that one
skin doesn't influence it.
But let me be clear, coach I ama scientist at heart and I have
great respect for science andscientists, but this is a sort
of dirty laundry thatbastardizes what we call medical
(32:47):
science, and it makes the drugcompanies and their
co-conspirators richer to thetune of billions of dollars,
while at the same time drivingup the cost of health care, and
I would submit that it directlyis harming patients by stirring
them down a certain drug pathwhen in fact, a different
therapy Would be better for thepatient.
It's painful to watch thisdirty laundry of public, but I
think we need to acknowledge itso we can move on to what I call
(33:10):
Honest medicine, and that'swhat we're going to try to
provide here.
Coaches honest, unbiasedmedicine.
Coach Lindsay (33:17):
Yes, the doctors who get caught up in this as
prescribers have unwittinglybecome drug pushers for the
pharmaceutical industry.
So on top of that, there'sabout $370 million that are
spent lobbying the federalgovernment by the pharmaceutical
industry in the US each year,so that our congressmen and
(33:39):
women will protect the hugeprofit margins on these drugs by
gouging the public.
Dr. McMinn (33:47):
And, by the way, coach, the pharmaceutical
industry brought in $1.5trillion in 2022.
Oh my gosh, that's a hugeamount of money.
So again, let me be clearalthough it may sound like it,
I'm really not anti-drugaltogether Drugs are a very
important tool or toolbox, and Iuse them every day in my
(34:09):
practice.
I'm just asking for honestmedicine, where the provider can
get real science, accurateinformation about the drugs and
other therapies as well, so heor she can act as an unbiased
advocate, always in the bestinterest of the patient, not of
the drug company and not of theinsurance company.
Coach Lindsay (34:26):
As we grew the clinic, taking all of the above
into account, we also realizedthat there were many people who
were falling through the cracksof modern medicine and for whom
the symptom pill approach wasinappropriate or just didn't
work.
Often these were the folks who,through no fault of their own,
were stricken with things likechronic fatigue, fibromyalgia,
(34:48):
autoimmune diseases ordysautonomia, like my husband
Tyler.
Modern medicine is fantasticfor things like trauma or if
you're having a heart attack,but most doctors don't have any
idea how to treat things likedysautonomia.
We found that many of thesepatients were not being taken
seriously.
Some were actually gaslightedor even labeled as being
(35:10):
malingering or drug seekers bythe very doctors who they had
trusted and who they went to forhelp.
We also found that women'sissues were often not being
taken seriously or adequatelyaddressed.
Dr. McMinn (35:23):
When I started seeing these patients coach,
they often told me that I wastheir last hope.
It became clear to me thatmodern medicine was not working
for these patients.
This was an eye-opener for me,since I had always thought of
modern medicine as the latest,greatest end-all, be-all
medicine.
I was in the regular medicinetribe, but this was my period of
enlightenment.
I knew I needed to open my mindas a doctor and to find other
(35:46):
and better ways to help thesepatients.
However, my training would notallow me to stray into quackery,
so my motto became to beopen-minded, but always to be
skeptical.
I always was willing to workhard to learn new therapies
beyond drugs and surgery and toadd new things to my toolbox.
My radar screen was always upfor BS.
Believe me, there's a lot of BSout there.
Sadly, there are a lot ofproviders out there who will
(36:09):
take advantage of desperatepatients.
Ultimately, when a patientpresented to me, the question
was no longer what drug can Iput them on, but instead the
questions became why does thepatient have the problem, and
what course of therapies barnone which may include drugs
Does this patient need in orderto help the patient achieve his
or her optimal outcome?
Coach Lindsay (36:30):
Even though drugs were in our toolbox most often
than not, we found that drugswere not always the best answer.
As we have stated in previouspodcasts, the most powerful
medicine on earth is lifestylemedicine Getting people to
change their diet, reduce stress, get restorative sleep, regular
exercise, find emotionalwellness, optimize their gut
(36:51):
health, reduce toxins and findoptimal hormonal balance.
Those things were, in mostcases, the keys to better health
and often came with a reallydramatic turnaround.
Coach.
Dr. McMinn (37:04):
I think that pretty much explains who we are and
where we're coming from and howwe got there.
I hope this is something thatinterests you and perhaps in the
future we can be a steady andreliable source of information
for you on topics that arerelevant to you.
Coach Lindsay (37:18):
We're getting the podcast out about once a month
these days, so if our podcastsounds like something you might
enjoy listening to, then pleasesubscribe, follow and hit the
notification button so you'll benotified when future episodes
come out.
Dr. McMinn (37:32):
Don't forget to check us out at McMenMDcom.
You'll find lots of greatinformation there.
Also, please help us grow thepodcast by telling your friends
and family about us.
You can always reach me at menthat's the spelldoctor
McMenMCMIN at yahoocom.
I'd love to hear from you.
For those of you who are new tothe show, one of my favorite
highlights of the show is thecoach, lindsay Pearl of Wisdom.
(37:54):
She's so full of wisdom.
Anyway, we always finish theshow with this and so, coach,
it's time.
What's your Pearl wisdom today?
Coach Lindsay (38:02):
Thanks, Dr Mac.
I'll share this and it comesfrom one of my most favorite
doctors.
He always says you are thecaptain of your ship, Dr Mac.
Dr. McMinn (38:14):
That's right.
Coach Lindsay (38:15):
It's listeners.
It's so true, and what we meanby this is that your health is
your gift, it's your talent,it's your garden to tend.
You get to advocate for it,listen to you and take care of
your body.
So gather your healthcare team,gather information, make
informed decisions, and that'sreally our goal with this
podcast.
(38:35):
That's to empower you in this,to be the captain of your own
ship and to make those bestchoices for your health, from
dealing with the root causes ofillness to advanced prevention
and then, even further, tooptimization and thriving.
Being the best.
You are the captain of yourhealth ship listeners.
Dr. McMinn (38:54):
There we go.
That's so funny.
You mentioned that, coach.
I remember a patient I had yearsago.
He was a guy and he just madethis amazing turn around
recovery let's give him alifestyle medicine.
And I asked him.
I said how did you do it?
He reminded me.
He said, doctor, when I came tosee you a couple of years ago,
you got out a piece of paper andyou drew a picture of the ship
(39:14):
and you actually put me there inthe captaincy and you said that
I, dr McMinn, was his co-pilotand I drew the picture of the
ship heading in certain and Idrew an iceberg in front of it.
I said, michael, if you don'tchange courses, you're going to
hit the side Right, but you'rethe captain, you can steer right
, you can steer left, you canchange it.
(39:36):
And certainly I think that gotthrough to him drawing that on
the piece of paper.
That got through to him like noother doctor ever had and got
him to change his ways and he'sa much healthier guy because of
it.
So anyway, thank you forsharing that, coach.
That'll about wrap it up andthank you so much for listening
to Wellness Connection MD.
This is Dr McMinn.
Coach Lindsay (39:54):
And this is Coach Lindsay.
Dr. McMinn (39:56):
Take care and be well.
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