What are the top concerns for functional medicine practitioners?

The most common questions asked when someone is considering starting a health coaching business are:  

1. “Can I run lab tests?” 
2. "Do I need to understand nutrition and supplements?”

Surprisingly, both of these are just a tiny part (or not used at all) in most health coaching practices. Why?

Do you know whether eating a warm vegetable soup or a bowl of store bought cereal for dinner is the better option for your health? Most people do.

Your client’s more challenging problem, after a bit of personalized nutrition education (which can be done by health coaches or the nutritionists, dietitians, and other healthcare professionals that you work with).

Most clients need A LOT of support with implementing the day-to-day health behavior changes that they will be responsible for to heal.

For example: If you or your family members or friends struggle with simply drinking enough water each day, what is the root problem?

• A. You (or they) don’t know that you should stay hydrated
• B. You (or they) are confused about how much water to drink, when, and should you add electrolytes (if so, which ones?)
• C. You (or they) haven’t put the daily behavior of drinking enough water into your day consistently, for any number of reasons, including don’t feel deserving enough of self-care, are so busy you forget to drink, are worried about having to pee or irritating your bladder, or you just don’t like the taste of water.
• The answer is: B and C.

Thus, functional medicine practitioners, and specifically Women’s Health CoachesTM must be educated on functional nutrition strategies so that they can properly educate their clients about nutrition. 

What are the nutrition topics that Women’s Health CoachesTM and all functional medicine practitioners need to learn?

Functional Diagnostic Testing for Nutrition Professionals

It is not within the scope of practice of health coaches, or even nutritionists and dietitians, to diagnose any diseases.

But, understanding functional lab testing is essential for all health professionals and certified health coaches. 

As more and more health information, functional lab testing, and education are available directly to the public online, individuals will have the ability, resources, and responsibility to take more ownership of their health and healing. This is excellent news. 

While healthcare professionals may be deeply knowledgeable about health condition or diseases,  people living with that health condition or disease are the true experts on these conditions in their daily lives. 

Even if a practitioner knows more about pathophysiology and new clinical research regarding a specific condition, they will never have the expertise that comes with living with  health conditions. 

People living with health challenges understand their symptoms, impact of treatments, their functional limitations, and how their health problems or challenges impact their relationships. 

Thus, everyone has the right to understand their own functional lab data, and should be encouraged to track their health regularly using specific biomarkers.

Which lab data is most relevant and useful to track, what the optimal ranges are of specific biomarkers, and how to improve suboptimal markers, such as markers of nutrient deficiencies, gut dysbiosis, chronic yeast overgrowth, or toxic exposures.

All of this is essential training that functional nutrition practitioners and board-certified health coaches should understand and have the capacity to communicate about with clients and their collaborative health teams.

As functional nutrition professionals, our goal is to assess which of these systems are most out of balance, and how the imbalances of one system can contribute to imbalances in other systems.

None of these systems exists in a vacuum. All of these systems communicate and connect with the others.

One of the most fascinating and fun parts of working as a Women’s Health CoachTM with your strong training in functional nutrition is that you will begin to see the connectedness of all micro-systems.

Such as the connection between the cell membrane, cellular DNA, and the mitochondria, and the macro environment that your client is living in,  such as her home relationships, work, and communities supporting her. 

How do all organ systems work together?

Not only do all of her micro and macro systems work together, but all of her organ systems work together as well. They all must be nourished at all levels.

In a related example, a postpartum woman who is struggling with depression may lack specific nutrients, such omega-3 fatty acids, amino acids, or B vitamins.

Each of these nutrient deficiencies will affect her neurologic system, impacting direct changes to the brain that can precipitate depression.

Plus, each of these nutrient deficiencies can also impact her hormone levels, these impacts can also contribute to depressive symptoms.

Concurrently, this same postpartum woman may have recently undergone a traumatic birth experience. This trauma can change the composition of the gut microbiome 1.

Improving digestive and gut microbiome health with stress management, prebiotic, probiotic, and post biotic foods and supplements can improve the health of both the digestive and nervous systems.

Let’s discuss how this works in practice by considering a few of the organ systems.

Digestive and Gut Microbiome Health

Women are especially vulnerable to fears and insecurities around food and eating, 2.They are at least 4 times more likely to struggle with eating disorders or disordered eating than men, 3.  

The emotional aspects of nutrition will drive your client’s ability to eat the food plan that is most healing for her, and that is a key aspect of the skill set of health coaching. 

Can you suddenly develop a food intolerance? How effective is food sensitivity testing?

While the validity and reliability of food sensitivity testing is quite low, food sensitivities and intolerances are increasingly common.

Food intolerances affect up to 20% of the population and growing 4. However, testing biomarkers for food intolerances is challenging. Why? 

Because people are not only immunologically allergic to food,  which is easier to test and more clearly defined, but they are also intolerant to other components of food. Other components includes food additives, FODMAPS, and histamines, etc. 

Additionally, people struggle with enzyme deficiencies, and visceral sensitivity amplified by autonomic nervous system sensitivity and challenging emotional relationships with food.

What are functional foods?

Most whole foods are functional. Functional foods are foods that offer benefits beyond simply adding nutrients.

• Foods that are antimicrobial, such as oregano, are functional. 
• Foods that are anti-inflammatory, such as turmeric, are functional.
• Foods high in protein, such as salmon, that build muscle are functional.
• Foods that boost brain derived neurotrophic factor, which improves cognitive function, such as blueberries and olive oil, are functional. 

Equally important to women’s health as the digestive system is the immune system.

Nutritional strategies to support your immune system include adding functional foods that lower inflammation, reduce the risk of autoimmune conditions, and/or optimize gut microbiome diversity as the health of the gut microbiome strongly influences immune health5.

Diet and the immune system: What is the link?

Many foods have specific impacts on immune function.

Nutrient deficiencies can weaken immune resilience to infections, increase risk of autoimmunity, and even contribute to disease states.

Adding beneficial functional foods, such as foods high in phytonutrients or specific fatty acids, can reduce the risk of chronic illnesses and support recovery from chronic illness.