A Holistic Doctor Answers Your Most Popular Questions

Episode Transcript

(00:02):
This is the Optimal Wellness Podcast, helping
you achieve optimal wellness naturally with your host, Dr.
Hello, everyone, and welcome back to the Optimal Wellness Podcast.
I'm here with a special guest, Jenna Tupin, and
she's going to be with me today. And let's hear your

(00:25):
Well, thank you. Yeah. So as he said, my name is Jenna. I
have been with you guys at Health and Wellness for what, six months now?
Yes. Pretty crazy. About half of a year. So my
journey in functional medicine started like many
providers. It started when I was actually a patient. So
as you already know my story, I was diagnosed when

(00:47):
I was pretty young, like nine or ten years old, with
a very common autoimmune condition called Hashimoto's thyroiditis. My
father is a medical doctor, which fun
fact for the audience, he actually went to residency with Dr. Fedders. Yeah,
so I was diagnosed with the disease when I was young. I was pretty much
asymptomatic until my mid to late 20s,

(01:11):
and I pretty drastically got pretty sick. Like
I said, I come from a family of doctors. My dad is a doctor. My
siblings are all doctors. I have cousins and uncles.
I thought initially that I would have the
answers right away. I was very familiar with the traditional model
of of healthcare. And I was working as

(01:35):
a nurse in the ICU at the time. So again, I was very, very familiar
with like the treatments that traditional healthcare offered.
And I was very mistaken, thinking that I would have the
answers right away. And it took me a couple years to figure out, you know, what
was going on. And I basically had to be my own advocate and,
yeah, do my own research. So I finally stumbled

(01:57):
upon the world of functional medicine. And I was incredibly
thankful for it, and it obviously was a game changer initially when
I found it. It became a passion, and I
think I found the whole gist of
functional medicine when I was in the midst of my NP schooling. Initially,

(02:17):
when I was going through that, I knew that's what I wanted to do. I
think like many functional providers, when you
go through that healing journey and you figure out how to find
health, you want to share that with your patients,
obviously. I feel like you can relate a lot with patients, too.
I know what it's like to be sick. I know what it's like to not

(02:42):
have answers. I know what it's like to be scared, but I also
know what it's like to find healing. Healing
So we have we always have questions. So we just decide we're just list
So yeah, let's get started. First question. How

(03:04):
will my first visit to a holistic doctor be different from a
Probably the biggest thing is time and detail
and listening. Your body tells you what's
wrong. It's us to listen and find out what's going on.
Ahead of time, I know people don't like it, but we want you to fill out a
questionnaire. As a rule, if everything's done right, before you

(03:27):
walk in the room, I know more about you and your health than
you do. Okay, so my nurses are amazing, so then my nurses will go
through everything. It is redundant, but it's redundant for a reason.
You can ask any nurse, the patient tells the nurse a story, and
then I hear a totally different story. Why is that? Because after you
think about it, your long-term memory comes back, and I get much

(03:48):
more detailed information when I hear it the second time. And
so, so traditionally, you know, back in the day, I
used to see 30 to 40 patients when I did traditional medicine and you
probably know what the real was. And, and so we,
if it's a new patient, if it's complicated, we, my nurse will spend
30 minutes with you. I will spend 45 to 60 minutes with you. So

(04:09):
there is no hurry. And I guess we do get
personal. I mean, we need to know your story because your story
dictates your health. If you have any kind of
significant condition, there was almost always an antecedent trigger.
Something happened and you probably didn't even know it. Classically,
you know, divorce is so common. Well, Dr. Federer said,

(04:30):
I was so stoked through the divorce. I was great. Now it's six months later. I'm
falling apart. Yes, your adrenaline kept you going for
all that time. It's when you have the calm that your brain,
you know, your healing brain activates, you know, just like the five stages
of recovery from any kind of grief. You know, there's five stages and
that's so common. So usually people don't, most people

(04:52):
rarely make the connection. What was the trigger? And sometimes it's
even good. So my trigger, you know, I had activation Lyme disease. I
moved to a new city. I just got married, you know, a
new place to live and joined a group, then had
to join another group. And then he retired. So suddenly
I had, actually I had a full practice twice and I had

(05:14):
to move, but it was all possible. I mean, everything was just great. But
again, living on adrenaline, here goes the cortisol, there
goes the immune system, and pretty soon I'm hurting all over
and aching and brain funks like, oh my. I
talked to my partner, he said, well, just take naproxen. I've killed
people with naproxen, I'm not taking that. And literally, and I realized, I'm

(05:35):
what a hypocrite. I literally thought, I literally asked
a woman your age, she had, you know, arthritis symptoms and
now she developed a bleeding ulcer. Another person, you know, I
raised their blood pressure enough, they had a stroke and it's like, you know, I
wouldn't take it. And then my mom, my mom, the holistic nurse, and
my dad, the dentist, and they told me a doctor to see and it

(05:56):
was, I was all over. I was in 100% on board for holistic
health. Yeah, but the biggest difference is we are detailed. We
do want to hear your story. I mean, and we're pretty good about getting it out
because I feel it's a safe place. And, you know, from the receptionist,
I mean, everyone is on the same team, which is pretty cool. And unfortunately, in
this day and age, you know, customer service and caring and

(06:19):
Second question, can I live a life without prescription medications?
That's a great question. If you're having a heart attack, do not call me. That happens
all the time. Do not call me. I can tell so many stories.
Actually, well, should I tell a story? You want to hear a story? Okay. So a good friend
of mine calls me six o'clock in the morning. I
feel like there's an elephant by my chest for the last four hours. And

(06:43):
I go, what time does it start, two? I go, why did you call me now? Well, I didn't want to wake you
up. So it's still six o'clock in the morning. And it's a classic. He's
breaking out sweat, can't breathe, radiating to the left arm. And I
go, no, you have no idea. So he drives to my
office. So I come off as early, so we call 911. These
big, burly paramedics, which

(07:05):
are all handsome, my nurse appreciated that, but like they are, but he
wouldn't go. So I had to literally make him get on the gurney, physically
put him on there, and then the doctor saved his life. He had quadruple
bypass, and he was back to work in two weeks. Traditional
medicine does for acute care, for severe care.
We have the best surgeons in the world, you know, the best, you know, the oncologist.

(07:27):
I mean, all the sub-specialties, when they do what they're supposed to
do, they're amazing and you want to see them. But I tell
people just like, unless you have a lot of money to
try and fight stage three and four cancer, then you see
the oncologist, you get blood and put you in remission, and then you
come to preferably see me along the way, but you come to see me, and

(07:47):
then I'll make sure it never comes back. And that's with all diseases. If
you have a heart attack, you know, see me as soon as possible, but
do not start, stop their blood thinners, do not stop their,
you know, anti-arrhythmics or any of that stuff, but we transition. And
we've come a long way in 30 years. So, every cardiologist now
knows about functional medicine. They know about magnesium and CoQ10.

(08:10):
So, we work together. It's never an issue. If you're really
complex, okay, this is what I'm doing. This is the next stage. Approve
it with your cardiologist because still for Cardiac arrhythmias and
hypertension that are really tenuous, then they
know a lot more than me about their medicine. So, I know all the basics. And
the cool thing about, you know, prescription drugs now, they're all generic. I

(08:31):
mean, 99% of the most amazing drugs used to be $500 a month are
now $5 a month. You know, treating Lyme disease used to be
$3,000 or $4,000. Now, it's mostly in-box or free. You know,
I mean, I had a family of four people with Lyme disease and
they would go broke and now the cost is almost nothing to treat Lyme.
There is definitely a place for medicine. And with

(08:53):
pneumonia, most pneumonia is viral, but if it's bacterial, then
there's antibiotics are amazing. As long as you use a probiotic, I've
never, as I recall, that were on a probiotic and
I had to treat with antibiotics, that's developed C.
difficile. So I, you know, as long as it's in balance and
that's, As I'm, well, we're both have medical degrees,

(09:14):
so therefore we're really called integrative practice.
So integrative just means both traditional and holistic.
Yeah. Yeah. It's definitely a balance that I feel like a lot of patients, uh,
they get kind of caught up with wanting to have, you know, just the
supplement approach when they come here, but having pharmaceuticals sometimes are
definitely needed. I had a patient a couple of weeks ago that came in,

(09:36):
uh, and yeah, they were, they were not aware that
this was a functional practice, which was fine. You know, we, we, we,
again, we, we implement both sides, traditional, functional. Uh, and
so when he came in, he, my
nurse, you know, initially let him know and he was like, Whoa, like, are
you guys like crazies? Like, what? Who are you guys? And I was like, No,

(09:56):
no, we implement both. So I just educated him that, you know, what
we strive to do is we strive to treat the, you
know, not just symptoms, but you know, the origin of what's going on
symptoms come with it, you know, that's the benefit of you know, treating the
origin. But, but yeah, so I mean, going back to the
to the prescription, you know, the pharmaceutical question, you know,

(10:16):
I get patients, I mean, even after the past six months, I've
had a lot of patients that come in, and they'll have pretty abnormal lab
values, like I'll have, you know, patients that will have a TSH, which
is a marker that we that we check for, you know, your
thyroid health, and it's super, super high. They'll
want to just be on supplements. The thing is, yeah, we want that

(10:37):
approach, too. Herbal supplements are good, but sometimes it's necessary
to have the pharmaceutical, the prescription for
the time being until we figure out what the underlying issue is. Then
we can take you off of the pharmaceuticals, the
prescription, and then implement the the supplements.
So yeah, so it's definitely a balance, definitely a balance. Okay, next

(11:00):
question. What are the healthiest foods I
Well, this is what I do. And so I
so the main thing is, you want to eat based
on your metabolic type. So for me, I'm a pure protein
type. I know I love my vegans, but if I eat kale,
it destroys my stomach. There's something called lectins, which is anti-nutrients.

(11:24):
So there are people that can burn lectins
and beans and legumes and grains, but that's not me. I
had arthritic pain from my
infectious process. When I got rid of the Lyme, 70% better.
Then when I really cleaned up my diet, 95% better. But
then I still had aches and pains. And Dr. Gundry came

(11:45):
out, the cardiologist, which was 250 pounds and lost all his weight.
And one of his patients, his young nurses, I think it was a
nurse that convinced him to go the holistic route as
far as getting rid of lectins and cleaned up his diet. He lost all his
weight. He has a cardiologist, he had all his patients lose weight and
do the diet and do holistic health and he got 90% of

(12:06):
their prescription drugs was taken away. So, I was cocky. I
knew all this stuff. I read his book and I thought, wow, I didn't
know that lectins are in everything. So, when I took all my lectins out,
it's like my joints feel better than ever before. No
one's probably ever noticed I have ADD, but I'll tell you. Lactans are terrible for
your brain. It's like just this peace and calm. It's like

(12:26):
when I wake up every day, it's like, I'm 65, I wake up, I have
no pain, no joint pain, mental clarity, and
mood. I mean, just mood. Any inflammatory foods, any
inflammation in your body affects your mood. Okay, so
I prefer low lactans for most people. Superfoods,
greens. We want greens, tons of minerals, no

(12:49):
acid production from the minerals. I,
to get rid of the lectins, I prefer all my greens, I just boil.
You can saute them, boil them, pressure cook, it's easier just to boil it
or steam them. And then I put, I literally do like 12 ounces
of greens every day. And all the different ones, probably Kale
and chard are probably the most highest lectins so

(13:12):
those I usually don't do but pretty much all the other greens I will do.
I do one green at a time. I'm prone to allergies so try
not to eat like mixed greens. I try to do one different
one every at least rotation probably five days. Berries
are probably the superfood as far as the best fruit. The most, again, most
amount of minerals, least amount of sugar, yeah, pomegranate, blueberries, all

(13:34):
the different berries I rotate. Obviously, they have to be organic. The
beautiful thing about our diet too is, yes, it's more expensive, but
junk food's expensive. You know, you're paying $5 for a piece of,
you know, synthetic crap that probably took five cents to make. I
mean, the advertising is where the money goes. So, you know, I don't buy any
of that stuff. I have no alcohol. You know, sometimes I would learn

(13:55):
one of my children was crying and they were a young adult. Look at my pantry. dad
you have nothing to eat he was so it's like no it's
like nothing you want to eat but it's like i don't eat junk so my pantry is
pretty bare but but it's a lot less expensive to do
that okay and then meat everyone you know everyone's
this is war against cows you know their farts dude are not destroying

(14:16):
the planet i promise you so as long as it's grass-fed beef
is a super food Grass-fed beef has been proven to
not cause cancer. In fact, men who do grain-fed
beef or processed meats definitely increase risk of
prostate cancer. But a huge study shows if you have the grass-fed, it
decreases the risk of cancer. So, meat is good, but it's got to

(14:39):
be, you know, if it's beef, it's grass-fed. Bison apparently are so smart, they
don't eat grains no matter what. You can't make them, so they're pretty much healthy. So,
just clean, you know, Ethically raised animals,
I feel is very healthy. The vegetables, same thing.
There's charts, but just vegetables, vegetables, vegetables, just the
low glycemic vegetables. So, I say broccoli

(15:01):
and cauliflower, celery, lettuce, radishes
are actually super healthy for you. There's a list anywhere,
just the highest quality, low glycemic, low
lectin vegetables. And I don't eat grains or
beans at all. Oh, then coffee. You know, I was I
my mom loved coffee. I didn't like it. I'm study after study shows

(15:24):
longevity, like adding years in your life. And
just in the last year, they realize it actually just like it alkalize your body,
just like how can lemons be so good for you when they're so acidic? But
paradoxically, it alkalize your body. So coffee does the same thing. So
I do. But our version of bulletproof coffee, so
I get definitely the coffee, what you say, wait a minute, coffee is high

(15:44):
in lectins, but you just got to get the cleanest organic coffee that's
mold free. And then I add a lot of ghee to
it. And sometimes I do MCT, the C8, the brain octane.
Yeah, there's a lot of brands like for coffee that
Yeah, I'm sure I pay probably double. Yeah. But I don't, and
people worry about caffeine, but I, you know, just three tablespoons, but I

(16:07):
make 32 ounces and I sip it throughout the day and I
never have blood sugar crashing and therefore when I do eat, I don't have to
eat as much. And I think the gheat makes it
I do. Really? I have weird taste buds, but it's like I
I do think coupling it with ghee, though, it does help significantly with

(16:30):
I mean, obviously it does, but it's something that I can... Some people don't know what that means,
but if you have low blood sugar, it's like... So I had protein,
which protein can be converted to sugar, so that's the beauty of
fats. So I don't crash at all, and man, mental
Awesome. All right. Okay, next question. Is there an
age where it's too late to switch to a holistic approach to

(16:53):
You're done. No. I know. So, you know, my average
patient, right? Of course, usually their patients are your age,
but still my average new patient is probably 70 years of age. And
As you get older, as you know, the materialism, it becomes less and
less. So, you get rid of stuff. So, what's important to you is

(17:13):
your health. Because when you're healthy, then you got to maintain a relationship with
your kids, your grandkids, and everyone else. And grandkids are
probably the greatest motivation to take care of yourself, to keep up with the grandkids.
So, I have people in their 80s. I
mean, I have a woman that's, you know, and I have people in
the 90s that drive here. and from out of town. And

(17:35):
they're good drivers, and they enjoy life and have more fun
than anyone else, because all their relationships is
their whole life. So it's never
Yeah, I mean, the body is incredibly smart. I mean, obviously, it's more
difficult for somebody that's 80, 90 to regenerate

(17:55):
their health, as opposed to somebody that's like 20, 30s. But the
body is incredible. It's super smart. So
it can definitely regenerate and it can fix itself if you give
it what it needs to heal. All right, next question.
Why am I always tired? I don't know. And

(18:16):
I mean, the first thing you think of is
your thyroid gives you energy. Then number two is your adrenals. But
your hormones, unfortunately, are within this wonderful society
with all these, you don't have to work for anything. 10-foot
TVs and everything, but the price we pay is our pollution. The
pollution in our food, in our water, in our air,

(18:40):
and if you really take care of yourself, you can
have good energy. And obviously, the diet, if you're eating a
lectin diet, you're not getting your protein, well, duh, you're not going to
Not, I mean, it's obviously the toxins too, but also just
like, correct me if I'm wrong, but our foods are
just gradually and gradually becoming more depleted of certain, you

(19:04):
You have to take vitamins. In my organic, Zach
Bush, who's super famous and he agrees, he goes, the
amount of money it takes to put vitamins and minerals into the
soil and then you absorb it and assimilate it,
it's 10 times more expensive. So just get clean food, but
your micronutrients, probably 80% has

(19:26):
Okay, next question. Can I
get pain-free without medication? So, kind of similar to
the one about being tired. Is there a way to
So, most pain is osteoarthritis, wear and tear of the bones. So, a
long time ago, I was at a conference and this man said,
you know, osteoarthritis is diabetes of the bones. And

(19:50):
now we're saying Alzheimer's is diabetes of
the brain. So when I think most
people are like me, get rid of the sugar, clean up your diet, at least 9% better.
But when you get rid of the lectins, I see this all the time, people are crying.
Yeah, well, because it's so important. That's probably the
one thing people are forgetting. So, I just last week,

(20:12):
I had a woman crying in pain. She's very much overweight and
she wanted narcotics. And finally, I said, how
many times I said, I will give you, I'll give you all the narcotics you
want, but for seven days, no lectins
Okay, so for the average patient, if someone were to come in here, what

(20:33):
would you say, and they're just beginning their journey in this whole functional world
that we live in, what would you say are some of the top supplements
Number one, vitamin D. Vitamin D deficiency. It's
a hormone. It dictates osteoporosis, heart disease.
I mean, just energy, mood. I mean, everything is

(20:54):
very much dependent on vitamin D. Probably number two, you love
gut health. I don't even get to talk about it. So I
believe in probiotics, you know, you can do fermented food and stuff, but
I just have noticed that just when people do probiotics, how
much it helps their body and then a multivitamin, you
know, those three. And then the next one would be vitamin C. And like
I said, almost everyone's magnesium deficient. And, you know,

(21:17):
I, If you really worry about EMF, and actually it
used to be multivitamins and B vitamins help neutralize it, but magnesium,
the EMF releases all this extra calcium and calcium is so
damaging at high levels and magnesium is what optimizes and
counteracts the excessive calcium. And then

(21:40):
Yeah, I mean, like you just said, I love to focus on the gut. I think it's
incredibly important. I know that you kind of
I just we I made this epiphany last night. It's like the average
person is since I've been doing this forever. They've been to three other
different So, they already know. So,
I've got my skewed population is they've done everything right.

(22:02):
They're still sick. So, that's why I go to the heavy metals and
infectious process. But I just think the average,
every holistic doctor, the first thing that you were taught is
you got to heal the gut first. And I think most of the time it's there, at least they're
80% better and that 20% they can't get there is the other
Yeah, I mean, like we said, we talked last night briefly, like 70% to

(22:25):
80% of your immune system is in your gut. So, if you have this, what
we call dysbiosis or this imbalance, it can lead
to a whole slew of things. So, yeah, probiotics are huge, but also,
you know, catering towards the commensals in the gut, so
the good bacteria, seeing exactly, you know, what is
off balance. So, feeding, you know, what we talked about, like the
polyphenols and the sources of food that can also

(22:48):
feed that microbiome. Yeah, I mean, probiotics are great. I
like supporting the liver. I think the liver is huge, especially for
women when it comes to hormones and weight loss. But
Well, thank you so much, Jenna. I really appreciate you. My patients love you.
And it's nice you take the load off of me. And we thank all

(23:11):
our patients that are liking us and keep
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