“You can’t join the dots unless you know what those dots are. There is a problem though in that once you’ve been bitten by this bug and once you understand that there is more to medicine than just prescribing a pill for every ill, it’s really quite addictive because it works.”

The wise words of my wonderful guest Dr Sarah Davies – a functional medicine practitioner who keeps one foot in the mainstream medical camp in the UK, also working within the National Health Service as a General Practitioner.

We hear why she felt compelled to turn to functional medicine to find the knowledge and space to dig deeper – holistically – to treat patients. Why her clients thrive on whole food diets, breaking lifelong addictions to refined sugar and fast food. We learn why and how she treats autoimmune disorders and a host of others ills that defy easy diagnosis. And why inflammation and insulin resistance are the root causes of the scourge of modern, chronic lifestyle diseases.

We share a history of underperforming thyroid glands and of beating back serious bouts of Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) by modifying our diets, eliminating gluten and other problematic foods. I was living in Geneva at the time of my RA diagnosis and followed the advice of my Swiss rheumatologist. I ended up taking progressively more toxic drugs over two years to slow the rogue attack on the cells that line the joints, making them stiff, swollen and painful.

That standard protocol always suppresses – wrecks more like – the immune system.

Dr Sarah, of course, knew better than to follow this treatment path. She investigated her diet as the probable cause of her RA. It took me longer to finally discover that, like her, I’m gluten-intolerant. Hers “vanished and never came back” when she changed her diet. It took me longer to reach the same, happy conclusion and suppress my symptoms.

We close out this episode with Dr Sarah’s advice on how to manage the extraordinary levels of pandemic stress we’re all feeling. A good first step? Quit “doom-scrolling the news”.

I hope you find her insights helpful to you or someone you know. Enjoy and [encouraging tone] share liberally!

Please view the information in this episode as only that; it should not be construed as medical advice. Go to your GP or family doctor for that.

Links

• Dr Sarah’s website
• Dr Sarah’s article on how to improve your gut health
• Dr Sarah’s talk on Functional Medicine and the NHS at the Evolution of Functional Medicine Forum (2017)
• TwinsUK – Kings College London Prof Tim Spector’s landmark nutritional PREDICT study on twins
• f.lux software to filter blue light
• 3-4-5 breathing to lower stress: breathe in for 3 seconds, hold for 4, breathe out slowly for 5
• Dr Jeffrey Bland (USA) known as the Father of Functional Medicine
• Dr Dale Bredeson (USA) recognised expert in the mechanisms of Alzheimer’s and other neurodegenerative diseases
• Hypothyroid Mom

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• Hosted + produced by Susan Flory
• Music: “Beautiful Day” by Sahin Koc