006: Take Control of Your Health— Functional Medicine Strategies for Thriving, Not Just Surviving with Dr. Heather Stone

“All it takes to start moving your health in the right direction is a shift in your mindset.” —Dr. Heather Stone

Taking control of your health starts with listening to your body and trusting your own intuition, even when traditional medicine fails to provide answers. 

For Dr. Heather Stone, a frustrating dismissal of her hormonal symptoms by her doctor inspired her journey into functional medicine and a career dedicated to helping others resolve the underlying causes of their health issues. 

In this insightful discussion, Ann and Dr. Stone share practical and empowering tips for proactively optimizing our whole body health and wellness— from the quality of food from farm to fork to addressing root imbalances holistically rather than just symptoms. 

Connect with Ann on Social Media:  

Website: https://seednutrition.com/Annt/home 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100008572834952 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/annthemasterhealer/ 

Email: Tamingdiabetes@yahoo.com 

Episode Highlights: 

02:01 Discouragement from Doctors

07:33 Preventive Measures 

14:30 Healthy Eating and Weight Loss 

23:14 Making Healthy Habits a Lifestyle

28:47 Prioritizing Health and Self-Love

35:17 What Animals Eat—The Impact on Health 

40:33 Food Quality and Nutrition

44:08 Keto Diet, Functional Medicine, and Body Communication

47:50 The Importance of Holistic Healing

Transcript

Ann LeMaster: Good morning, everybody. Welcome back to Common Sense Living Podcast.Today, I have a very special treat right up my alley. Dr. Heather Stone is one of the top functional medicine practitioners in the world. She has over 20 years of clinical experience and private practice. During that time, she has successfully helped thousands of women overcome the symptoms of hypothyroidism and Hashimoto's thyroiditis. Her Thyroid Transformation Blueprint has been used by hundreds of doctors and thus helped countless women return to happy, healthy and lean. Her mission is to change the face of healthcare through her private practice works, masterclasses webinars, education programs, retreats on her ranch in Texas. Thank you for being on my podcast. 

Welcome, Dr. Stone. You've got the floor. But I have a first question, what got you into functional medicine? What got you on this particular journey?

Dr. Heather Stone: Yes, well, thank you for having me. I'm really excited for this podcast today. And we'll jump right in. This is a personal journey for me like many different health care practitioners who are in this particular space. About 20 years ago, I was really struggling with weight, I was tired, I was fatigued. My hormones were all out of balance. I did not have a menstrual cycle. I thought, well, I gotta go figure this out. I was in pre med at the time. I went to one of the best in quotes OB-GYNs at that time in Austin, Texas. And I thought, well, I think maybe I have a thyroid problem that predates Dr. Google, all I had to go off was textbooks. In the old days, we actually read textbooks. And I thought, well, maybe I have a thyroid problem. So I knew just enough, but not very much at all about physiology and what this really could be. So I go in and I tell him my long list of symptoms. I say, I'm exercising, but I just cannot lose weight and all of this stuff. And I said, maybe I have a thyroid issue. He was like, well, we'll check your thyroid. So he runs some bloodwork. And he says, come back and see me in a couple of weeks. And so I go back and see him, and I'm really hoping and praying that it's my thyroid that we found the issue so that I could get over the symptoms. And he says to me, your thyroid is fine. There's nothing wrong with your thyroid. And I think that you don't have a menstrual cycle because you exercise too much. And on his way out the door, because it was in and out like five minutes. 

So on his way out the door he was like, oh, by the way, I think you're gonna have an issue getting pregnant so you're probably going to need fertility treatments. Have a nice day, and I'll see you later. And he's out the door. And I was like, oh, my gosh. First of all, I'm trying to replay this in my head, getting kind of over the shock that he just told me that I wasn't going to be able to have children. But naturally anyway. And I said, did he just tell me that I don't have a menstrual cycle because I exercise too much? And I knew enough to know what he was referring to, or at least what I thought he was referring to, because I wasn't allowed to ask questions because he just zoomed right out. When women exercise too much and they get their body fat below 10%, they stop menstruating. And that was not me at all. I was 50 pounds overweight, and I certainly wasn't over exercising. I'm grateful for that moment and grateful for the knowledge that I had, because everything else that he said, in my mind, was not true. There was just a disbelief about whatever else he said because that first statement of, I think you exercise too much that's why you don't have a period, and that's the end of the story and he's out the door. So I'm like, you know what? This is not how my life is gonna be, and I just obviously need to go and find the answers. I did not go to doctor after doctor like many, many women who have low thyroid because he was supposed to be the best of the best. And I was like, if he didn't know that, I'm gonna have to figure this out. And so at the time, I was going to school. Like I said, I was in pre med. I didn't really know what kind of doctor I wanted to be. But the only thing I knew is that I did not want to be an ER doctor. So I'm like, maybe I just need to figure this out and it'll lead me down the right path. And I thought that I wanted to be a dentist. That was like, no way. So that's what really led me down this path. 

If I could figure out my own health issues, maybe this is where I need to be. And once I figured this out, I was like, holy cow. There are millions of women who have been either diagnosed with low thyroid or haven't been diagnosed with low thyroid, but have all of those symptoms. And we get stuck in this medical model because there's no official diagnosis, but we have all of these symptoms. And so we fall through the cracks of traditional medicine. And in traditional medicine, it is a diagnosis or a disease drug therapy model. It's like diagnosing the disease, giving a drug and out you go or a surgery. And if you don't have a diagnosis, but you have a list of symptoms, it's either you're out of luck. Just deal with it, or live with it. I have a whole list of medications that we can give you for all of these symptoms just to cover up the symptoms. I could imagine if I continued on this journey like many of my patients, it's like, oh, well, your hormone cycles are off. Here's birth control, or here's some hormone replacement. You can't sleep? Here's a sleeping pill. Do you have anxiety and depression? Here's a psychotropic drug. It just keeps going, and going, and going. My mission is to really change the face of health care and give women a voice, and allow them to take control over their health, and allow them to realize that no one is going to care more about their health than they do. And so they are the CEO of their health, and they direct it and no longer should we just give up the most precious gift that we have to someone else.

Ann LeMaster: I love that philosophy. That's so true. And I think attitude is my key for everything. Because if you don't love yourself enough, you're not going to do things that are necessary to fix you. And I relate to that. When I weighed almost 200 pounds, I met my current husband and wined and dined me and everything. 200 pounds? Are you kidding? So anyhow, I lost it all, whatever. But I am such an advocate for organic food. It was in the 80's when I was going to nursing school and they asked our class, what's more important, the brain or the gut? So there's 30 of us, we all decided that it's the brain. Because after all, if your brain's dead, nothing works. They knew then that it was the food and attacked your gut, and that destroys everything. And look at where we are now. All this frappuccinos and whatever. It just makes me almost nauseous to think of this stuff. Do I eat 100% organic? No, it's expensive. But my health is worth it. Because if I eat organic and I don't have all these symptoms, I am able to live life, and not have to be sick. Family is the worst one to try to get on board and here I am a free resource for them. And nope, they don't cost too much, whatever. Well, what is your life worth? 

Insurance pays for your medicine and you go down the rabbit hole. Like you said, you're on this one. Now, you're on that one. All this stuff. So I feel that things happen to us for a reason. And if we listen to that, my own incidence is that almost, well, three and a half years ago, I worked too hard in the garden and I ended up hurting my right side. My husband says to stand up straight, look like something's wrong with you. I said, I can't, it hurts too bad. Long story short, that was in September. I had a hip replacement done back in 17, and I go every year. And I told him, my right side really hurts. And he said, you need another hip surgery. And I said, how about we get an x-ray? He said, we'll do that next time. Next time is a year. I said, I'm here now with a complaint. Why would we wait till next year? I canceled my appointment with him. I'm not even going back to him. He costs money during COVID. And now, he's making up for it. Only 95% is back from the first surgery, which in fact, I had in January. And nine months later, I'm hiking Machu Picchu?

Dr. Heather Stone: That's really awesome. I think it's important to go back to something that you said. A lot of times in this country, because health insurance is so expensive. I pay for health insurance so whatever my health insurance pays for, that's what I'm going to do. And I think it's really important to understand that it's not health care insurance, it's sick care insurance. And so when you're in a sick care model, you go when you're sick. When you have an emergency, you cannot expect a sick care model to get you healthy or to prevent disease. And I think it's important to know that in Medicare's, the bylaws of Medicare, if it is to prevent reverse or improve your quality of life, they deem it not medically necessary. So we have to start shifting our thinking that this health care or health care insurance that we pay for really should be used for emergencies only, or when the body is in an emergency and it needs to be rescued short term. But if we would look at eating well, eating organically when possible, preventing diseases, if we would look at that like insurance, if we would look at that like an investment, you have to realize that, I know that you do a lot with diabetes and I've treated hundreds if not thousands of diabetics over the years also. Once you get diagnosed with diabetes, it immediately shortens your life, I think about seven years. And it adds the expenses that a diabetic has outside of what insurance pays, I believe is about seven to, with inflation, who knows. 

But let's just say it's 5 to $7,000, every year, year after year from the moment that you get diagnosed with diabetes. And it's like, if you would just think differently about, what can I do to invest in my health so that I can prevent diabetes? I can guarantee you that it's going to cost less if you prevent the disease than try to manage the disease. But that's just money. We are not even talking about your quality of life. What do you get to do? How do you get to live it? How long do you get to live it and enjoy it? So it's a different thought process. We are programmed to think that we're gonna work our whole lives and retire at 65. And what most people do after they retire is they're sick. So all they do is go to doctor's visits, and they sit in front of the TV for an average of eight hours a day. So you're literally just wasting away because you're tired, you're overweight, you take a gajillion medications, you're sick, you can't really travel. Or if you do, it's not as enjoyable as it would be if you weren't on all of those medications. And so if we would say, what if we would start to think it doesn't even matter how old you are because you can turn this around, because your body is born to heal. But if we would say, I know that I'm creating my future. You actually have a lot of control over what your future looks like. But if you have no thought process around that, or you just think, well, whenever. 

As I get older, these diseases just happen. Then you're kind of in effect, and you're gonna go down that process. But then we look at people who are in their mid 70's like you are, and you are loving life and feeling great. And then if you go to Colorado, you see a two year old skiing on the mountain, and they're perfectly functioning, and their brain functions properly, they're very active. And so people, really, if they would realize that they have so much control over creating their future, and they have control over what genes turn on and turn off based on the environment that they're exposed to, yes, eating organic is expensive. But it is an investment in the rest of your life. And so with that simple mindset shift, it makes it so much easier and better. And you're setting your life for a much better experience.

Ann LeMaster: So true. And that comes down to attitude, in a sense. That's why I don't even want somebody in my program that says, I can't do that. Foods are not going to fix me. Know your attitude is, and that's where I use my leg as an example. I listened to my inner voice, and I sought out of my pocket. This little nugget of wisdom would come and I processed it, and I took it. I ended up going to a totally different doctor and he listened to me. He took an x-ray and an MRI. Sent me to this therapy place that the first doctor sent me to, which was no different than going to an exercise. What your doctor thinks, I believe, that gives you either just a low grade solution, or this other doctor sent me to what's called results therapy. He pushed on the ass which nobody wants to touch because it's too close to your privates. He pushed on that and the pain tolerance of 10 being the top, I have a high pain tolerance. For the first time in three years, I walked out of there without a limp. 20 minutes later, I walked out without a limp. I'd say pretty close to 90% that I'm out doing my gardening. No surgery, no pills, just the right modality, and the right doctor to send you there. He didn't get paid any pills, I only saw him twice. The right path is such a blessing. But attitude, you have to love yourself enough to go for it.

Dr. Heather Stone: And I think the important lesson to what you're talking about is when you have a doctor that gives you advice that intuitively is not the right solution, you don't have to go forward with it. You can go to the next doctor and get a second opinion, and the next doctor, and the next doctor until you find the one that listens to you, resonates with you, and that you are comfortable moving forward with. I think a lot of doctors also try to instill fear so that you move forward with their recommendation as quickly as possible and not think about it. So I think that that's a really valuable lesson that, again, you're in charge of your health care. And if you don't like what the doctor says, or you didn't feel like it was a good solution, you can go to the next one and you can go through what I would consider an interview process.

Ann LeMaster: And that's because I listen to common sense. Common sense, I'm full of it. That's my little joke. People might think I'm full of, you know. But anyway, common sense because I'm old. I love saying that. People tell me not to do that. But I feel blessed that in my age, and I grew up where you learn common sense. It's not just about calories in and out. It's gone beyond a weight loss mindset. You got more stuff here knowing what to do, what not to eat, or what path.

Dr. Heather Stone: We can start with, first of all, ladies with low thyroid, and if you have insulin resistance, diabetes, any of these chronic degenerative diseases, most chronic degenerative diseases start with insulin resistance. Almost all of them. I say almost, but I'm just doing that just in case. Pretty much all chronic degenerative diseases start with insulin resistance. And in our society, the way that we are told to lose weight by the traditional model is you have to eat less and exercise more. And it's always about reducing your calories. So if someone is overweight, they're looked at like they just eat too much. Just stop eating as much as you're eating and the weight is going to come off. But that might work for some people who truly are just over eating. But most of my patients that have low thyroid, most women hormones are a little bit different. A man typically crunches, decreases calorie count, and the weight falls. But that doesn't typically happen for us, because we have different hormones, we have different cycles, we have other things that are possibly going on. And most of my patients have tried every diet known to man just like I have before, and there's only so many little calories that you could possibly eat and survive without getting results. When we think that it's just calories in and calories out, and we reduce our calories to 1000 calories a day, 500 calories a day, that's not sustainable. So whatever weight we force the body to lose, it's going to come back in droves. Whatever you gain plus a few more is going to come back if you stop with that super restrictive calorie eating. And if we have to think about this, when we eat food, what happens physiologically when we eat the food? 

So if you took 500 calories of chicken, like grilled chicken, and you took 500 calories of chocolate chip cookies, physiologically the same exact thing happens in the body. I think if we used common sense, we would know that it can't possibly be the same thing. If we eat lean grilled chicken, the same calories as chocolate chip cookies, we are going to have a completely different physiological effect inside the body. How we would wish that it wasn't. I wish that I could just eat chocolate chip cookies because we don't really feel that we eat. But I wish that if we ate chocolate chip cookies, it was the same as eating lean protein or vegetables, right? But it isn't that way, even though they want us to believe that it is that way. So we have to think about what the food that we're eating creates physiologically. How does it impact your blood sugar? That's kind of the basics. Whenever I'm talking to my patients when they're like, Dr. Heather, can I have this? Can I have that? Can I have this? I'm like, well, what goes through my mind or the process that I'm using to allow them to eat something or not is what is it going to do to their blood sugar. If we stick with proteins, vegetables and whole foods, and of course, organic as possible, you don't even have to worry about the calories that you're eating. It's almost impossible to overeat protein and vegetables. You get these hormones that get released that say, hey, you've eaten enough. You can't chew anymore. I get tired of chewing before my stomach gets distended. 

So when you eat proteins and vegetables, you don't get that full distended. I can't eat another bite, roll me out of this restaurant. Because when we're eating all of those things that turn into sugar, we don't get those hormones that get released that tell us that we've had enough. Because we don't. There's not enough nutrients in there. So it's not really about calories in and calories out. It's the quality of the food and how it impacts your blood sugar. And if we would just stop trying to eat all of these processed foods, we would actually stop having to count calories. I don't know about you, but I've tried counting calories. And I can do it for a little while. Who has the time to do that? And then when you go to a restaurant, you're like, I have no idea about every ingredient and every quantity to calculate all the calories. You can't do that as a lifestyle. And so if we would get off of these fad diets, these calorie counting diets, this processed food diet and just start eating proteins, vegetables, and whole foods, you wouldn't have to count all of those calories, and you would automatically know when your body was full. Another thing is to eat consciously not just in front of a bunch of screens, but pay attention to the way that you're feeling as you're eating. Your body tells you when to stop. It actually tells you when you're full and you've had enough.

Ann LeMaster: I made popcorn the other day and I'm thinking, I have these tortilla chips that I got at Trader Joe's and gotta love them. So my husband and I eat them. And then I thought, popcorn, if I want the crunchy, the snack to eat, all I want is a kind of thing, organic popcorn and organic butter with some salt on it. And I use nutritional yeast. My husband says, why did you put that on there? I said, because it's extra B vitamins, and it gives it a cheesy flavor. So we had that instead. And I think it still serves the same purpose as stuffing my face. We had ice cream. I've been sugar free all my life, and my grandma had died from diabetes complications, amputations, and I swore it's not going to be me. So at one point, I had my genetics done. I have a 4% chance. Yes, I fall off the wagon and I get back on. I can get busy and don't have time to cook so I just whipped something quick. But when I'm on track, I'm human like everybody else, we all fall off the waggon and get back on. But those that don't get back on are the ones that get in trouble. So we had all this ice cream, and then we were having some gut issues and rather loose stools. I do biometric screenings to keep myself in the loop. And I work with some of the gals that are obese and they have issues like Crohn's disease and such, and I got to thank them. So we kind of backed off. I get organic ice cream as much, but my husband didn't so we started buying this one brand and it tastes good. Of course, it tastes good. I had some the other day, and I think it was probably an hour later when I felt like my gut was clear out here. I didn't feel good. I told him that I don't feel good, and the only thing I've eaten that would make me not feel that way is the ice cream. Well, I ended up going to bed, and I'm farting up a storm. And the next day, sure enough, I'm a little bit looser. I said, yes, that's me listening to my body's reaction to something that is toxic to me. So that's for all you listeners to be aware of. Just because I'm in the health field doesn't mean that I'm not using the waggon just like everybody does. But the point is to get back on it.

Dr. Heather Stone: And I think it's important to make it a lifestyle, and that's what you're really talking about. It's your lifestyle. And that doesn't mean that you don't fall off the wagon every now and then, but you always get back on it when it's your lifestyle. And I think this is also important. Once you get out of a place where you no longer have a disease, like there's no disease and the body is functioning optimally, then you have a little bit more tolerance for falling off. So like I always say, I pretty much stick with protein and vegetables most of the time. I would say about 90% of the time. But then there's times when I go on vacation where I'm gonna have dessert, there are times when it's my birthday and I'm gonna have dessert. You have to stick with that 100%. Because a lot of times, people think, I can't do it 100%, why would I do it at all? We have those 100 percenters out there. But I always say that if you just start with 2% today, make a 2% change. And tomorrow, another 2% change. And the next day, 2% better. Then by the end of the year, you're there at like 80 to 90% better. And that's all it takes to start moving your health in the right direction is it does take a shift in your mindset. 

So that it's not a fad diet. I'm not going to do this for 30 days, I'm going to slowly shift and make this a lifestyle. But it doesn't necessarily mean that you have to be 100%. The body is amazing. It's just what happens when we continue to insult the body over and over and we never get back on the wagon, then it turns into a disease state. Like this weekend, I wanted to try out these gluten free rolls. I have not perfected gluten free rolls because I don't usually make a lot of those things because it makes your blood sugar go up. But I said that I'm going to make these rolls. I always monitor my blood sugar. And sure enough, my blood sugar went up to like 140, and then it came back down. And then the next day, I had another little bite. And of course, it went up, and it came back down. But when you do that, I'm not going to do that for another, I don't know, a month or two. I don't know when the next time I'll make that. But if you do that over and over, and over, you continue to insult the body, and then it starts to lose its ability to adapt. And that's when you move into insulin resistance and diabetes, then you start with the whole weight gaining thing. But because I stick with it 90% of the time, I can do that. I can have a gluten free roll once in a month or in two months, and I'm not going to gain weight. It's not gonna really throw me off because your body has the ability to adapt. But it's that 10% of the time. It's what you do 90% of the time that really matters.

Ann LeMaster: If you eat this and you spiked 140, and the next day you do it again and again. Pretty soon, you're not going to go down to that end, you're going to go down to 95, then you're a 140, and then you're going to be at 100. And pretty soon, pretty soon, you're not gonna go down and you might be higher. So it's looking at it as a treat that's why I say I'm 80/20. I'm human 80% of the time, 20%, you can't get away from it. You can't.

Dr. Heather Stone: Yeah, yeah, for sure. So again, sometimes people think, I'll never ever have sugar again. Getting off of sugar is more painful than getting rid of their disease process. So if they would shift it in their mind and say, well, it's not forever, and it's not 100%. But I'm going to be really good until I get out of this disease state. And then every now and then, I can have some sugar. I always say that if you think that you are going to be really strict and the way that you position it in your mind is, when I am 95, I'm going to eat whatever the heck I want, whenever I want when I'm 95. I have earned that privilege. Now for me, I'm living to 120. So when I get to 115, then I can eat whatever I want.

Ann LeMaster: I'm gonna live longer than 120 because I'm gonna live to 125.

Dr. Heather Stone: My kids are like, Mom, really, you're gonna outlive us. Your goals are way too low. You need to raise the bar. Come on, I don't know what you're talking about.

Ann LeMaster: My own sister even says, oh, come on, get real. Maybe 100? I said, no, because what you think about, you bring about.

Dr. Heather Stone: That's right. God willing, I'm living to 120 and beyond. That would be amazing. I think they're saying that 150 maybe. I heard 180 is what life expectancy could be or should be. So I'm like, if 180 is what life expectancy really is, then my 120 seems really too young to die. So maybe I'm gonna raise the bar here. But I think that the research continues to grow beyond my goal that I said many years ago.

Ann LeMaster: Yeah. Well, a little story when I do the biometrics. I had this guy, he's a good looking dude, right? And his numbers were not so good. I said, I bet you that you got a really cool car. He's just beaming. And you will wax that baby, wash and polish it. You put premium gas in it. It means that you are beaming with pride. I said, why don't you do that to your body? Which slapped him, but only verbally. You treat your car, an object, better than you treat yourself. That car's gonna outlive you at the rate you're going. I like to use that as an example. Sometimes, because we get so caught up in other things, our body is the best thing that we could possibly own, if you will.

Dr. Heather Stone: I find that with women in particular, it's very difficult for them to, first of all, love themselves enough to take care of themselves. Secondly, whether it's the way that we're raised, or it's now in our DNA and our genetics, but we tend to put everybody in front of ourselves. And if we were to put our health as our number one priority, most women think that that's selfish. And that's something that we really need to work on. Because taking care of your health is one of the most, if not the most, selfless things that you could possibly do. Because I can guarantee you that if you're not feeling well and you're putting everybody in front of you, you're taking care of the kids, you're working, you are a great employee or a business owner, and you're a great spouse and a great child to your parents, that you are not showing up at 100% if your health is not as good as it possibly could be. And so what you're thinking is 100% effort because it's all you got is really you're showing up to the table at like 70%, 50%. Some of my patients are trying to be a mom, but they're sleeping for four and five hours during the day because they have zero energy to do anything because their health is so bad. 

And so if we could just shift for a moment and think, what would it look like if my health was my number one priority? And immediately, a lot of times women think, how could my health be my number one priority? Somebody's got to take care of the kids, and somebody's got to go to work, somebody's got to take care of my parents. But having your health your number one priority doesn't mean that your responsibilities fall off. It just means that you make different decisions. Maybe you prepare meals, or maybe when you go out to eat, you look at the menu before you go making sure the only thing on the menu is fried food. Or maybe you start to rearrange your day so that you can fit time in for exercise, or maybe some meditation or maybe something where you fit your health into your day so that you can actually show up and be the best person that you can possibly be. And I think that we have short term thinking on that. Because if we don't put our health as our number one priority, later in life, we become a burden. And then your kids are having to take care of you, or maybe you end up in a care facility and you're not able to participate in life as you would want to participate. Working to make our health our number one priority and see it as a selfless thing, and really working on that self love knowing that you are enough is such a high priority.

Ann LeMaster: I never was blessed with children. I think my hormones were off, whatever. I don't know. But we are so busy fixing breakfast, making lunches, cleaning the house and doing all this stuff, and we are our last priority. And yet, we wear ourselves out doing all that. So there's less of us to share. Now, you sit down and watch TV with the kids and your husband, hold hands. No, I don't even feel like that. I'm so tired. I think I'm gonna go to bed. So you're not showing up for the important things in life. Cleaning house, I hate to clean house. It's the mundane thing over and over. If I'm ever rich enough, I'll hire it. And I have allergies to cats, and yet I have seven cats. I love them. I'm gonna write a book about them one day. But speaking of animals, animals are great teachers. You watch what they eat, offer them something that you eat, offer them something that's junk food versus one that's not, a piece of meat and they'll know the difference. I learned a lot by just observing nature.

Dr. Heather Stone: Absolutely. And I think it's pretty cool. Something that we need to think about is, you are what you eat. I have a ranch, and I really got into this even more. I've been eating organic, and I knew that that was important. Always making sure that the meat that I could buy was hormone free, antibiotic free and all of that stuff. But once I started owning cattle, I'm like, what are they eating? Since I bought this ranch, they've been putting glyphosate on this before I got here. Do I need to reseed and make sure that the quality of the food that they're eating is appropriate? And then I'm getting the soil tested to make sure that they have all the minerals and the nutrients. It's really cool that you've got to think about what you eat. Because it's not just what you eat, but going even deeper. And it's really cool, because you think about it, cows and sheep are (inaudible), so they have something like seven different stomachs, they sit, they eat and they graze. They're not supposed to be eating grain. Their digestive system is set up so that they eat fresh grass, and it goes through this whole intricate, amazing digestive process so that they can pull all the nutrients out of the things that they're eating. And it's just amazing to me to learn. The more I get into this, the animals that we're eating that have been fed from a feedlot and on all kinds of grains, they're actually diabetic, the fat and the muscle. COVID taught us a lot too. There was a lot to learn about COVID. 

I remember seeing feedlots were just killing their cows. And I thought, why are they killing their cows? Can't they just wait another six months until this passes and then the processing centers open up again? I don't understand why they can't just let the cows sit there and eat a little bit longer until we are open again and then they can process them. But what would happen is that these cows are so sick, and they actually have diabetes. They would start getting sick, and then they would have to kill them anyway. And so then, they would essentially just extend how much they were feeding them. So it was costing them money. They knew they weren't going to live long enough in order for these processing plants to open up again. So they were just slaughtering their cows and essentially burning them because they're sick. And what we think of as high quality protein is this marbling in the muscle. Think about that marbling in the muscle is not normal. In order for us to have marbling of fat in our muscle, we would be obese, and that would be essentially what we would equate to diabetics. And so that's why when you go to the grocery store and you see grass fed, grass finished beef has very little marbling within the meat and it's very lean. You have to cook it differently than you would cook something that was grain fed. And you also have to be careful because they'll do grass fed and then grain finished so that they add that layer of fat on there. As Americans have grown to love this fat labeled meat and we don't realize that that shifts the fat content of the meat where we're getting a lot more omega 6, and that's where it's really starting to change our health. But when we start to look at what animals are supposed to be eating, how are they in their natural habitat? And how can we optimize the health of an animal? That way, we optimize the health of who we are as beings as well. It's pretty cool.

Ann LeMaster: I live in San Antonio, and we're in a neighborhood where we have deer. And when we first moved here, I had 27 of them eaten out of my hand. And it was that deer corn, which I didn't know at the time was actually junk food. Anyway, I stopped doing that, but they're out there grazing all the time. And if my backyard wasn't fenced off, they'd be in there eating all my plants because they did that before we fenced it. But like you said, watch what they eat. And if you take a piece of meat that's manipulated in whatever manner that it's not organic, and you take the organic, say the pizza, chicken, the consistency is totally different. The organic chicken is firmer, and you can see its dreaminess, so to speak. And the manipulated meat, if it's even real meat by now. It's like a blah.

Dr. Heather Stone: It's really crazy. We have a lot of chickens as well, and I can always tell when we're eating our chickens versus a chicken that we might have bought. The meat is more flavorful for our chickens, but the meat is a little bit tougher because I make sure that we get organic heritage breed birds versus the ones that they have bred so that they get fat really fast. And then these poor chickens, they get fat so fast that they can't even walk. And I'm like, we are not doing that. We are doing organic heritage breed chickens. You can really taste the different flavors. But also the texture of the meat is quite different.

Ann LeMaster: But if you grew up and never knew that, you don't. I have a great nephew who is 11, I think. When I go back to Iowa to visit there, he is sitting in front of the TV with a bag of chips. I wonder why we eat so much. Because it's junk food, our body is starving. I better not say the name of the diabetic shot with a shot we get for diabetes. But I know a lady who's taking the shot once a week. And it's like $800 to $1,000. I told her, do you know the mechanism of action for it? She didn't even know what I'm talking about. And I said, it stops 70% of your digestion in your stomach so you're only digesting 30%. What are you eating? Is it junk food? Or is it organic? So now, you're only getting 30% of your food. So now, you're nutrient deficient as well. Going down the rabbit hole a little bit deeper, well, I want to look there. Just eat better.

Dr. Heather Stone: It's really crazy to think about, you said your nephew is eating these chips. And these companies, they are formulating their products so that they break down faster in the mouth so that it doesn't take so long to chew. This goes for fast food companies as well. Whenever you eat a hamburger from McDonald's, it takes very little time for you to actually chew that food because it dissolves very quickly so that you can eat more in a faster amount of time. Plus, they're putting chemicals in there that make it more addictive. And then you're releasing all these neurotransmitters. And so it's almost like a never ending cycle because you don't ever feel full. You're not eating any nutrients so the body's not like, hey, we've had enough. So essentially, you're just eating tons of calories and very, very damaging inflammatory foods. And it's, it's really sad. I mean, it's pretty easy to avoid that. But if you don't know and understand and you're just wrapped into the traditional model, or even what these food companies know how to market, it is really crazy. I was in the grocery store the other day and I saw this box of cookies that said keto, power cookies keto. I don't understand. There's no part of that that makes sense, but it's all marketing. And I did put my dad on a keto diet a few months ago cause he was having some issues. 

He bought some keto compliant ice cream bars and my sister texted me, Dad bought these bars. My dad is the person who is not going to care. He's gonna say, it says keto so I think I can have it. He's not gonna read the labels because he's like, well, I don't want to be on this diet anyway, but she's making me do it. So it's still technically keto. But anyway, I look at the ingredients on the back, and it's not keto. It absolutely will spike your blood sugar, it'll take you out of ketosis and make you go into glucose utilization for energy. But it's all about the marketing. It's all they market to how they want you to think that you're going to feel when you eat these foods. It's about trending. And a lot of us think that there's marketing laws, that there are no real marketing laws. You can say anything is natural. There's no laws that say what's keto and what's not keto. So they have a whole market. And then after we fall for the marketing, then they have chemicals in the food that make it addicting, breaking down and allowing us to eat it much faster. You have to have some knowledge around how the industry works in order to get out of that industry and start taking control of your health.

Ann LeMaster: We've talked a lot about food and the diet and stuff, but we don't have much time left. But we haven't talked a whole lot about the functional medicine kind of aspect, do you want to finish off with that?

Dr. Heather Stone: In functional medicine, essentially, you're always looking to get down to the root cause of why someone has a disease process or a symptom. So your body communicates with you that something is not quite right by giving you a symptom, and that's kind of what you've been talking about using your intuition or your common sense to listen to your body when it's communicating to you. And so it'll give you a symptom to allow you to know something's not right. You can choose what you do with that symptom, you can ignore it. You can keep pushing on like, oh, it's not that bad. And so you're gonna keep moving forward, and then the symptom eventually will get worse. And if you try to cover it up with medication, another symptom will pop up. So your body is always relentlessly trying to warn you when there is some underlying imbalance or a disease process. We have to start listening. And in functional medicine, we know that those symptoms or diseases are caused by underlying imbalances. So we do very extensive testing. Not testing, just to rule in or rule out a disease process, or that ICD-10 code that they put with your insurance. But really understanding where the underlying imbalances are, and looking at the whole body and not just saying, like for women who have a low thyroid problem, not just doing thorough testing on the thyroid, but looking at the whole body because the body doesn't work in parts. The body works as a whole. 

Or if we're looking at somebody who has diabetes not just saying, you got a blood sugar problem, but digging even deeper to figure out, why do you have a blood sugar problem? Why do you have a thyroid problem? What are all of the underlying issues that might be creating this issue that you're dealing with? And then working with the body to start resolving these imbalances so that the body can start to heal. The body was born to heal, it's a self healing mechanism. Sometimes, it needs a removal of that interference. Sometimes, you got something that's interfering with that healing process and we have to resolve that interference, or we have to change the environment. We have to really work with the body to start allowing it to restore health, different from when you have a symptom or a disease. You go to the doctor, they give you a diagnosis, they put you on medication, and then they send you on your way. If you have low thyroid, they give you thyroid hormones and move you on your way. They're not looking for why you have a low thyroid problem. And with most women, over 90% of us have an underlying autoimmune condition called Hashimoto's that's causing the low thyroid. That's why most women don't feel better after they get put on thyroid hormones. So are thyroid hormones appropriate? Yes, in many instances because the thyroid hormone has a receptor site on every single cell in the body. So it affects you greatly when you have low thyroid hormones, but just replacing those hormones and not figuring out why you have a low thyroid issue, or if you have an autoimmune condition, it's not going to allow you to resolve the symptoms that you're struggling with. If you have diabetes, you know you get the diagnosis. They put you on the diabetic cocktail, they give you metformin, a blood pressure Med, a drug, and they send you on your way. Are they fixing why you have diabetes? Or are they even asking why you have diabetes? Do you have an underlying infection? Do you have mold issues? Do you have heavy metal issues? Are your adrenal glands not functioning? How's your liver working? What are your detoxification pathways like? All of those things impact your blood sugar. 

And so really digging deeper to figure out why you have a symptom or a disease process, and then applying the solution is what really allows the body to heal instead of pushing down overriding the body's physiology because the body doesn't like that. And when you do that, it fights back and gives you more symptoms and more clues. Like hey, silly, we got something going on here. And if you realize that the body is really trying to work with you and is always working towards survival, it's not working against you, if you would realize that, then you can try to help and work with the body so that you come out on the other side of this feeling even better right now. So diet is a huge part. You can't reverse disease processes if you don't have a good diet. But that's not the only thing. In my opinion, you have to work deeper underneath the surface and work to optimize the rest of your body's function. And sometimes, that requires supplementation. Maybe that requires exercise and certain kinds of exercise based on where you're at with your health that requires mindset getting out of sympathy and moving into parasympathetic, allowing your body to be in that healing space. You've got to really look at it from a holistic perspective and not just disease drug therapy model, but also not just only eating the right thing. You have to dig even deeper to actually have full optimal health.

Ann LeMaster: If somebody wanted to get a hold of you, how would they do that?

Dr. Heather Stone: Well, they would go to my Facebook page, which is Happy, Healthy and Lean. If they search that on Facebook, they'll see a picture of me. They probably can't see me if they're not on YouTube. Happy, Healthy and Lean is the Facebook page. Right now, we have about 24,000 ladies on that page, and it is such a great community. I do master classes once a month. I just finished with a weight loss masterclass, and I'm starting a thyroid transformation masterclass today. And in March, I'm going to be doing a masterclass on hormones, menopause and all the different phases of female hormones. So that's coming up too so it's all exciting. During those masterclasses, I do open the schedule up for patients. But outside of that, my schedule is closed.

Ann LeMaster: Yeah, I would imagine that you're plenty busy.

Dr. Heather Stone: I also have a book that I wrote, it's on Amazon, it's called the Thyroid Transformation Blueprint. So if they really want to dive in and really dig into thyroid and what it really means to heal from having thyroid issues, that is a really good place to start.

Ann LeMaster: Within an in depth thing, I'll say that the body is miraculously complicated.

Dr. Heather Stone: Absolutely.

Ann LeMaster: Dr. Stone, it's my pleasure to have hosted you today. I have certainly learned so much. I apologize that we didn't talk enough about functional medicine, but I do believe the audience has learned mega amounts that they just have to implement it.

Dr. Heather Stone: That's right. The key is implementing, and the hard part is doing something different than what you've done before, especially if you want to get a different outcome.

Ann LeMaster: Yeah. Okay. Well, I want to thank my audience for having tuned in today, and we have more coming up in the future, so thank you so much.