00:00:03:07 - 00:00:16:23
Chris
Hello and welcome to the ending Body Burn Out Show. We are your host, Chris and Filly co-founders of a multi-award-winning winning functional medicine practice, serving busy people with energy, mood and gut issues.
00:00:17:00 - 00:00:24:21
Filly
While busyness, addictive doing, people pleasing and perfectionism might be the norm, it's not normal and it's a major contributor to health issues.
00:00:25:00 - 00:00:38:05
Chris
Our goal with this show is to give you a holistic root, root cause approach to healing your body so that you don't have to continue doctor or diet hopping or popping a gazillion supplements hoping something might stick.
00:00:38:05 - 00:00:46:07
Filly
Sorry, get ready to heal your body, get your spark back deeply, connect with yourself and step into the life of your dreams.
00:00:46:10 - 00:00:55:09
Chris
Let's dive in.
00:00:55:11 - 00:01:17:05
Filly
Hello, beautiful people. How are you? I am so excited for today's podcast. Today we're going to talk all things functional lab testing. But before we dive into the episode, I just wanted to do a quick announcement that we are back on the road for our book tour. I am coming to Sydney on Monday the 18th for a.
00:01:17:07 - 00:01:17:23
Dr. Vanita
Book.
00:01:18:01 - 00:01:43:06
Filly
Event. As for the launch of our book Ending Body Burn Out, I'm going to be in Hornsby Westfield at a bookstore there. If you would love to come, I would love to see you. So if you live in Sydney, you're free on Monday the 18th from 6 to 7:30 p.m. up near Hornsby area. I would love to see you just jump onto the show.
00:01:43:06 - 00:02:06:09
Filly
You know, there will be a link where you can RSVP your spot. It is free. I'm going to be in a conversation with the amazing Lizzie Williamson, who we had on the podcast a couple of weeks ago, and she's going to be interviewing me throughout the event. We're going to have lots of fun and there's going to be book sales and signings and a Q&A.
00:02:06:11 - 00:02:43:00
Filly
And I just really love you to be there to celebrate the book, but also to celebrate you and your desire and intention to end your body, burn out and find your beautiful spark. Now, along with the book today, I had the wonderful Vinita Diya from Naturopath Functional Lab testing coming on the show today to talk all things lab testing and naturopath is our preferred lab testing company that we use when we test our clients body systems.
00:02:43:02 - 00:03:10:12
Filly
And they also kindly backed me up in the publication of my new book Ending Body Burn Out. So I really wanted them to come on the show today to really dig into functional lab testing and how it can really support you in the healing of your body systems, especially for those who are experiencing body burn out. So a bit about Vinita who has come on to the show today.
00:03:10:14 - 00:03:49:06
Filly
She is an internal, nationally recognised integrative medicine expert and author. Her career has been guided by balancing body chemistries, mental health and chronic complex health conditions. The NITA is a vanguard of Neurochemistry research, which has led to the publication of Alchemy of the Mind and alchemy of amino acids books with online masterclasses. She also provides functional pathology, clinical training programs and educational initiatives to doctors and allied health practitioners worldwide, especially through naturopath.
00:03:49:08 - 00:04:26:22
Filly
And for those who don't know Puneet Tripathi's, they are a privately owned medical laboratory that was founded in 2011. They have a speciality in clinical laboratory, pioneering assistance approach that supports health care providers in the area of health and wellbeing pathology testing and they are awesome. So we're going to dig into some of the key lab tests that we use in our clinic and also that Vinita feels is really important when you're struggling with things like energy, mood, gut issues that come from a place of burnout.
00:04:27:00 - 00:04:51:22
Filly
So I'm excited to dive into that episode. If you really love this episode and you're like, I would love to have a look under the hood into my own body systems. We have some spots open for a connect the dots and issue a consult where you can book in with me 90 minutes. We really go deep into your case history, all the things that are going on for you.
00:04:51:23 - 00:05:15:08
Filly
How it all started and the opportunity at the end of that consult is that I will prescribe you some really specific lab testing that that is needed based on your your symptomology and your case history, because there are thousands there, like maybe not thousands, maybe hundreds, hundreds of lab tests when it comes to functional medicine that you could do.
00:05:15:14 - 00:05:38:02
Filly
But you really want to work with a practitioner that one has been trained in functional medicine and also can understand and the symptoms and the presentation that is connected to different body systems. So you're not wasting a lot of time money on doing hundreds of lab tests. You're really getting clear on the ones that you need. So I'll pop in the show notes too.
00:05:38:02 - 00:06:01:02
Filly
If you're keen to book in for Connect the Dots. I've opened up some spaces for that. This is the first step to our ending body burn out method. Most clients continue into the the program when our doors open, doors open again in May. Other people just want to get the lab testing and take their own insights and implement what they found.
00:06:01:04 - 00:06:24:11
Filly
All right. Let's dive in to today's episode. So thank you, everybody, for joining our podcast today. We're very excited to have Vanita for naturopath and lab testing on our property today. I love these guys. We use the lab testing all the time in our clinic and they were and also a sponsor for our book ending Body Burn Out.
00:06:24:11 - 00:06:47:10
Filly
So I'm super excited to have Benita on to really dig into why we should be looking into functional lab testing. So maybe we start off with that question first. What's all the buzz about lab testing? Why are they important? And also how are they different to regular medical testing here?
00:06:47:12 - 00:07:12:07
Dr. Vanita
Look, thanks so much for having me. I guess the first thing that we need to be establishing is that functional laboratory testing has taken off purely because people are so sick and tired of being sick and tired. The conventional testing is the testing that you would get with your doctors, and it really aims mainly at focusing on diagnosing diseases.
00:07:12:07 - 00:07:41:15
Dr. Vanita
Usually it's covered by the Medicare system and it identifies specific markers like whether you've got enough blood sugar to much sugar, too much cholesterol, not enough iron and so forth and so on. Right. Whereas functional pathology testing is looking at the functioning of our body. So it's looking at the overall body function and looking at potential imbalances before it actually actually represents as a future health problem.
00:07:41:20 - 00:08:11:07
Dr. Vanita
So it analyses a wide range of markers, including hormones, but not only hormones, but its metabolites as well. You can look at nutrients, inflammation markers. Really you're getting a comprehensive picture of your health using functional lab testing and the reference ranges in conventional pathologies generally. What broad, for example, just as an example, TSA thyroid stimulating hormone has a reference range of point 5 to 5.
00:08:11:09 - 00:08:36:01
Dr. Vanita
But in a functional pathology approach, still same reference range, but an integrative practitioner would want to optimise that to a narrower, more functioning range of 1 to 2. That's optimal. So you see anywhere over the over the two between two and five, your doctor would still say, look, that's nothing wrong with your thyroid, but yet you feeling so tired.
00:08:36:03 - 00:08:44:01
Dr. Vanita
And so that's the reason why an integrative practitioner would look at these functional markers in a lot more detail.
00:08:44:03 - 00:09:11:19
Filly
Yeah, I that's many reasons why I got into functional medicine, but one was I wasn't I wasn't showing up as having enough health issues or on the range of the blood tests with the JT, my thyroid actually was always bouncing like hypo to hyper but always subclinical. So basically like the from a GP perspective, it's like, let's just test every three months and if it gets bad enough, we'll do something about it.
00:09:11:21 - 00:09:28:15
Filly
Which was fine, but I didn't feel good and I wasn't really getting the support that I needed. And so that's one of the many reasons why I love functional lab testing, because we actually looking at the function of the body, not just diagnosing disease.
00:09:28:17 - 00:09:51:19
Dr. Vanita
Exactly. It's not the let's wait and see and let's things go really bad before we do something about it. An integrative practitioner would always look at what are the constructs that make the thyroid work properly and how can we put those nutrients back into the system by identifying those very markers that will give us the pre clinical signs of anything that's going wrong.
00:09:51:21 - 00:10:07:10
Filly
Yeah. No, I didn't actually send through a question around this in preparation, but I'm curious what got you into the functional medicine space that you knew personally?
00:10:07:12 - 00:10:45:17
Dr. Vanita
I am a qualified pharmacist and I pioneered in compounding pharmacy in Australia in the early nineties and I came from a country where people couldn't afford, you know, a full pack of antibiotics. I couldn't afford one day's worth of antibiotics. So in that pharmacy practice, we started compounding individually for the patients so that it was affordable. But today here in Australia we have a concept called compounding pharmacy, and that's the way I actually pioneered and worked in that area.
00:10:45:19 - 00:11:26:06
Dr. Vanita
And when I started in nutritional compounding, that's when I discovered that, you know, there are biochemical imbalances, that one can identify through functional pathology, that we can actually fine tune custom tailor and personalise a a profile and a treatment modality for that patient so that that patient can feel better. So my first exposure, as you say, where did it all start is I had a lady who was in such a panic who came into the pharmacy and at that time I had some amino acids.
00:11:26:06 - 00:11:51:21
Dr. Vanita
I gave her one specific amino acid and she actually calmed down right away within minutes. Right. And that's when I really said, look, I need to do a lot more. So I've gone ahead and studied more and written a couple of books as well. Alchemy of the Mind and alchemy of amino acids, which really delve quite deeply into the biochemistry behind all of these areas.
00:11:51:21 - 00:12:09:22
Dr. Vanita
And I'm very, very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with neuropathology services in the educational department, in the clinical support department, which allows me to really dig deep and share some of this knowledge.
00:12:10:00 - 00:12:39:08
Filly
That is so cool. I'm going to pull up your books in the show notes and I'm going to also read them. I do love that as well. So when I first started practising, it was more just kind of standard clinical nutrition where it was a lot of educated guesswork based on someone's symptoms that you can kind of try a bunch of supplements or a diet at someone because they have fatigue, but they can be so many different reasons beneath the surface as to why that fatigue is there.
00:12:39:08 - 00:13:03:18
Filly
So I love it from a practising point of view because it pinpoints what someone needs from a physiological point of view. It helps support rebalance body systems, but also even duration. It's like, okay, this is really out of whack. This will probably take many, many months as opposed to, you know, maybe like a two month treatment plan fit that part of the body.
00:13:03:20 - 00:13:34:17
Filly
And I've definitely seen people as well where they have come into the practice taking 20 different supplements and some of them are good and what their body needs, but just not in the targeted way that their body actually needs it. And that lab testing helps to identify and personalise that for the clients, which I love. So cool. And wow, I didn't actually know about all the stuff that you've done from pioneering compounding pharmacy.
00:13:34:23 - 00:14:04:05
Filly
The support is so cool, so some people are a bit sceptical about natural therapies they might hear The story of. This woman changed before my eyes when she took amino acids and they like, Yeah, that's just snake oil stuff, but it's not. And, and also I guess lab testing as well, the different types of modalities that might use different types of tests.
00:14:04:07 - 00:14:22:00
Filly
So so I guess how, how do you find people respond to lab testing in terms of giving it more reliability, validity in treating the body and also at the lab test evidence based?
00:14:22:02 - 00:15:07:11
Dr. Vanita
So lab tests are well, new to pathology services are accredited with peak professional bodies, one of which is native, which is an Australian based accreditation body, as well as Clear CLIA, which is a clinical labs international accreditation body. So both of these bodies are actually watching every move Nutri Pass makes in their laboratories. We employ heaps of microbiologists, haematologists, etc., geneticists, etc. and these are people that take the technologies that are performed within our laboratory.
00:15:07:11 - 00:15:37:04
Dr. Vanita
Systems are no different to that which is performed in conventional labs. However, we do analyse a lot more and in a lot more depth. So in relation to validity we can substantiate that at all. Our laboratory testing is scientifically validated in accordance with the accreditation bodies, which is the same as any laboratory anywhere in the world. All right.
00:15:37:06 - 00:16:17:01
Dr. Vanita
And in relation to effectiveness and and and footprint Nutri Path has a footprint in most of America, parts of Europe, all of Asia, New Zealand, Japan, Thailand, etc., as well as Australia. So we're constantly expanding our services because we have a robust state of the art technology at Nutri Path that provides services and constantly upgrading them to provide more clinically relevant testing for our practitioners.
00:16:17:03 - 00:16:34:13
Filly
I love it. It's so good. And I think to being able to retest patients as well after doing a protocol and actually having that clear evidence that not only do they symptomatically feel better, but it also shows up in their physiology too and is really, really cool.
00:16:34:15 - 00:17:06:06
Dr. Vanita
Yeah, because patients want to actually see themselves. Where am I? What are my metabolic blocks? Why am I feeling so tired? Why am I feeling exhausted? And and, you know, I'm stressed and fatigued and my doctor's just saying, look, there's an SSRI. Go home. It's all in your head. Right? So this is where a functional pathology test can actually go and dig deep as to the underlying causes of that fatigue, for example, as an example.
00:17:06:06 - 00:17:37:15
Dr. Vanita
Right. Because fatigue is not just the lack of sleep. It is so many. You know, we have a wide array of of metabolic functions or physiological functions that produce our energy energies, ATP. So we've got lots of little mitochondria now in our bodies. Every cell in our body has mitochondria, whether it is a brain cell, a hard sell, a bum bum cell muscle cell, they all have mitochondria.
00:17:37:21 - 00:18:19:21
Dr. Vanita
So all of these mitochondria, it's like an energy organelle that actually produces ATP, you know, you know how our plants go through photosynthesis. They take the soil nutrients from the soil, the sun, the water to produce energy, to produce green stuff, flowers, pumpkins, etc. Our body doesn't produce pumpkins, our body produces, body produces energy. So if you want to establish why am I feeling so tired, you can actually do an a functional pathology test called an organic acid test, which will go down into understanding what's happening at a digestion point of view.
00:18:19:23 - 00:18:51:11
Dr. Vanita
How are you utilising your fats, carbs and proteins? What's happening in terms of assimilation and digestion? Then what's happening within the mitochondria is what we call the Krebs cycle. In the citric acid cycle, where are the metabolic blocks? Why is it that we're not able to produce energy? Okay, is that an issue with a neuro transmitted dysfunction? Is there bacterial dysbiosis, Is there gut dysbiosis, Is there big vitamin insufficiency?
00:18:51:13 - 00:19:14:16
Dr. Vanita
Is there any oxidative or of damage going on? Are there any methylation defects? This is the level of information that you can get from one test. And most of these tests by the way, can be done in the privacy of your own home. In other words, you can collect your sample not all, but you can collect your sample in the privacy of your own home and send it off to the lab.
00:19:14:20 - 00:19:40:15
Dr. Vanita
Okay. So that's that's just as an example of of energy and how one can go beyond you know, there's a multivitamin or there's an SSRI. It's in your head. Right. So we need we can actually delve deep into the underlying and identify the physiological and biochemical imbalances that cause that energy depletion.
00:19:40:17 - 00:20:00:16
Filly
Yes. I don't know. I sometimes when someone says, what's your favourite test? What's the best one? It's kind of like it's I don't know. It's kind of like saying I have a favourite child. I feel a bit like mad if I, if I had to name one, probably the organic acid test would be the one because it looks at so many different things.
00:20:00:18 - 00:20:23:17
Filly
So if we're digging into, say, a symptom like fatigue, which this is the ending body burnout show, so often exhaustion will show up when someone is at a state of burnout. What other what other tests would you start thinking about if someone showing up with fatigue, brain fog, exhaustion and that kind of combination of symptoms?
00:20:23:17 - 00:20:46:23
Dr. Vanita
See most people who have brain fog and fatigue, they generally fairly stressed, right? They are delaying the kids. They work, they're performing so many things, so many duties. And on top of that, they are also getting addicted to their devices, whatever it is. Okay. So.
00:20:47:01 - 00:20:47:15
Filly
Yes.
00:20:47:17 - 00:21:16:08
Dr. Vanita
So as a result of that, they are depleting themselves of the repair and the and the rejuvenation that sleep offers. Right. So firstly, they depriving themselves of the reparative mechanisms of sleep. That's one thing. The other thing is that your adrenals, the first thing they do is the adrenals are little glands that sit on top of the kidneys.
00:21:16:10 - 00:21:39:19
Dr. Vanita
So the brain talks to the adrenals and the body is very, very stressed. So one of the things that I would look at is if somebody has got a burn out, they feeling brain fogged, they feeling fatigued, a definite they look at adrenals. Right. And the reason I look at adrenals is because the brain is the master hormone.
00:21:39:22 - 00:22:21:21
Dr. Vanita
The brain impacts the gut. The gut is responsible for manufacturing a lot of the inhibitory neurotransmitters like serotonin and GABA, etc.. So if you have dysbiosis, if you have constipation or diarrhoea or IBS, or you have you're on a proton pump inhibitors or indigestion, for example, all of those constructs make a difference in the way your immune system operates in the gut, because most of the immune system actually lives in the gut, and that's within the mucosal membrane, within the epithelial layer of the mucosa of the gut.
00:22:21:23 - 00:22:52:03
Dr. Vanita
And because of that, you will find that stress, which is your cortisol, it's measured with cortisol will impact the gut. It will raise those endo toxins called LPs. And there's a number of other into toxins which will drive down that in the defence mechanisms within that mucosa will build up these inflammatory markers called cytokines. So what we would typically call the cytokine storm.
00:22:52:05 - 00:23:19:21
Dr. Vanita
And so patients will say, you know what ever since I'm tired, I feel body aches and pains. I feel I can't tolerate foods, I feel bloated, I feel weighty, I feel a fluid retention, I feel I can't sleep, I feel I can't think really. And the reason is because cortisol, right? The moment you have stress, the body will respond to the stress.
00:23:20:02 - 00:23:37:21
Dr. Vanita
So cortisol sends signals to the brain and the brain says, okay, we've got a whole bunch of stress here, we've got to react to it. So let's get adrenaline on the job. So adrenaline is going to be pushed out from the these are your catecholamines from the brain and it says, okay, I've got to go into the flight like freeze mode, right?
00:23:37:21 - 00:23:56:07
Dr. Vanita
I've got to react. So adrenaline says, okay, I've got to react. So I've got to run away from the stress or react to the stress. So how do we do that? We've got to use glucose. That's our fuel source. So the brain says, okay, well, you've used all of my brain glucose, go and get some more glucose. So guess what's going to happen?
00:23:56:11 - 00:24:22:12
Dr. Vanita
We're going to have that glucose going to be extracted out of muscle tissue. This is a process called gluconeogenesis. So this is why somebody is so exhausted, says, my God, my muscles ache and I'm feeling so tired. I have I just feel like I need a massage. And the reason is that the muscles are now being broken down in order to supply some energy.
00:24:22:17 - 00:24:48:01
Dr. Vanita
And now the brain says, Hey, you've used up all my energy, where's the energy? Where's my glucose? So what happens is serotonin goes down and Smith Serotonin going down, insulin goes down. So the brain says, Hey, listen, insulin go and get some more sugar. So this is how we actually go into the sympathetic nervous system overdrive. We get this, we get the shakes.
00:24:48:01 - 00:25:09:12
Dr. Vanita
We need our sugar fix or our coffee fix right now, and so that we can have a little bit more energy, so we can react to more of the stress. So this to our system under a yogic person would be nicely homeostatic. But most of us in a Western society we operate at a different level. new norm is an Alice static norm.
00:25:09:14 - 00:25:46:04
Dr. Vanita
So that's where we operate and they adrenal so low you can't do this all the time for you can't spit out cortisol all the time for you. And so cortisol is then shifting its shifting from a insufficient state to a resistance state. And there are three phases in the resistance state. And eventually when the adrenal says, Look, I cannot produce any more cortisol for you, that's when you're going into a shutdown, that's when you call yourself chronically fatigue, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and all of those autoimmune diseases.
00:25:46:06 - 00:26:29:12
Dr. Vanita
So therefore, one has to look into your cortisol, one has to look into if it's affecting nervous system. We look at neurotransmitters, okay, that's another test. So it's a simple urine test. So it measures that imbalance and the imbalance of of your excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters and most importantly, gut. The gut is the most important, potent organ. If the gut is out of balance, no amount of stress management will work effectively enough without managing the immune integrity of that gastrointestinal mucosa.
00:26:29:14 - 00:26:58:01
Filly
So you just painted a physiological picture. This so many of our clients that start working with this like a stress, and then it produces all of these imbalances in the body and then they need the sugar and the coffee, and then it kind of makes things worse and it becomes a vicious cycle. Absolutely. I always, when I found out about the way that when our body is very stressed, we start pulling on muscle tissue.
00:26:58:03 - 00:27:14:12
Filly
We're like, my gosh, that was a really big piece of the puzzle that I had no idea about. But it also pulls on the muscle tissue as well. So a lot of people, you know, if they Google their symptoms, leaky gut usually comes up at some point.
00:27:14:14 - 00:27:16:07
Dr. Vanita
Absolutely. Yeah.
00:27:16:08 - 00:27:45:02
Filly
And so that that being in that fight or flight response can literally start leaching that gut lining as well. And it just becomes, again, this vicious cycle of inflamm zation and things being out of whack and causing more stress. And then the gut's not able to digest and assimilate nutrients into the body. So, so talking about that as well, what, what would be some really great tests to look into gut health.
00:27:45:03 - 00:28:05:16
Filly
And I know a lot of clients when they start working with this, they're like, but I've done a colonoscopy and I've done a scan over a gallbladder area, abdomen. How is how is this test going to be any different? I've also done the protests. It looks like your main parasites and nothing showing up. What's this going to show up?
00:28:05:18 - 00:28:39:05
Dr. Vanita
So the conventional system identifies various scopes, endoscopes, such as a guest recipe, colonoscopy, etc.. And so we in these scopes, we're actually looking at end product imbalances like a hole in the colon, for example. Right. Or some diverticular disease, etc.. But when we actually identify and also the conventional labs also have a look at a few analytes in relation to the microbiology.
00:28:39:05 - 00:29:09:14
Dr. Vanita
When we talk about microbiology, we have a wide array and a diverse array of good bugs by bugs and they need to be living there in harmony. As a matter of fact, we have more of these microbiota cells compared to our own eukaryotic cells in our body. So, you know, so but we have a good array of a good balance of bacteria, fungi, parasites, viruses, and they all live in harmony in our body because our immune system keeps it in check.
00:29:09:16 - 00:29:46:15
Dr. Vanita
a bacteria there to actually produce short chain fatty acids from that dietary fibre to actually produce that mucous lining to produce that immune function so that we can fight off any foods that are considered to be not nutrients but allergens. And also we can also fight off any environmental pollutants and toxins, etc.. But when that fighting mechanism doesn't work, in other words, when that immune system is depleted, like for example, Secretory IGA is depleted, that's when we will find that a patient will tend to have leaky got.
00:29:46:15 - 00:30:16:02
Dr. Vanita
They may have irritable bowel syndrome or diseases or pancreatitis, etc. So the tests that are available are so much more in-depth than the conventional processes we can actually identify. How does the digestion, what's the metabolism, where's the inflammation, what's the liver looking like? Are you gluten intolerant? Do you have enough? You have too much calprotectin which differentiates between IBS and IBD.
00:30:16:04 - 00:30:55:17
Dr. Vanita
These are all the markers of the inflammatory markers that one can identify. And then and also the leaky gut and Secretory IGA, all of those things. Then we also have the relative abundance of these bugs. Do you have enough of the right families of these bugs in comparison to a healthy cohort? And then we also have a look at all the parasites or pertinent parasites and worms and bacteria, opportunistic bacteria, as well as bacteria that have the potential to cause autoimmune diseases as well as fungi, as well as bacterial pathogens.
00:30:55:18 - 00:31:21:01
Dr. Vanita
Now, bacterial pathogens, you really don't want them in the in the in the body. These are the ones that cause problems like E.coli, Clostridium that can be quite fatal. Right. And then we've also got Helicobacter pylori, some of the viral pathogens. And that's very important. Particularly we all become aware of viruses since COVID, but viral viruses have been living in our bodies for a long time.
00:31:21:03 - 00:31:58:17
Dr. Vanita
And then also the balance and the diversity of the good bugs. Now this is contained within a test called the microbiome map. It's a simple tool test, but then number of tests that new to have has that can be more affordable for those that just want to look at the microbiology or ones that go into shotgun sequencing. So there's so many diverse tests available to identify what's happening in the gut, because if your gut is out of whack, then your cortisol is going to play havoc within the gut.
00:31:58:19 - 00:32:28:14
Filly
Yeah, and sometimes it's really hard, hard for someone to know exactly what's happening in there. And sometimes we get clients to it. They're displaying no symptoms at all, yet they've got all these other systemic issues happening and inflammation in the body. I think the the worst, the worst. And if that's the right word with this biotech stool test, and I use the complete microbiome mapping test was in a lady who had chronic fatigue and raging PMS.
00:32:28:14 - 00:32:47:19
Filly
She turned into Dragon mom, but she said not that she chose to do this, but she's like, I can eat McDonald's. Like I could probably even eat it every day and have no gut symptoms. And so I kind of had to convince her the the importance of gut health and how it actually can show up as full marine issues and also fatigue.
00:32:47:19 - 00:33:00:22
Filly
And I'm very glad she chose to do the test because there was Candida data by Laurie multiple parasites leaky gut like kind of like almost everything was out of whack in the gut.
00:33:01:00 - 00:33:26:17
Dr. Vanita
So it doesn't necessarily show up as a physiological symptom like this lady had no symptoms. But as you well know, that cortisol actually comes from it's made from our sex hormones. So, you know, libido will go out of the window and any of the hormonal regulations will impact be impacted by stress as as cortisol goes up, your sex hormones go down because it has to steel.
00:33:26:23 - 00:33:41:23
Dr. Vanita
The brain has to react to the stress over and above how wonderful the hormones are going to be in or out of balance. So that's the reason why we want to make sure that the hormones are in check as well as the guts and check as well.
00:33:42:01 - 00:33:44:13
Filly
Yeah. Yeah. So all connected.
00:33:44:15 - 00:33:45:23
Dr. Vanita
Absolutely.
00:33:46:01 - 00:34:00:06
Filly
Now, are there any emerging trends or advancements in functional medicine testing that you feel is shaping the face of health care, whether that's like in House naturopath or just generally?
00:34:00:08 - 00:34:33:21
Dr. Vanita
Yeah. Yeah. Well, right now I can let you know that we are at new to pass launching a brand new technology called shotgun sequencing for the gut microbiome and that's going to be able to identify it's using an advancements of the technology which is quantitative PCR and then advancements of that. And it's going to look at the entire microbiome and would be able to look at 30,000 plus species microbes.
00:34:33:23 - 00:35:13:16
Dr. Vanita
And the importance of this is we can actually report on the geniuses, the species or the, the virulence factors, for example, of Helicobacter pylori, but also the gene gene markers of that particular bug, I suppose you could say, as well as reporting on the capacity for the report to identify the risk of conditions like diabetes or ulcerative colitis or Crohn's disease and so forth and so on.
00:35:13:18 - 00:35:16:03
Dr. Vanita
So that's one of the advancements.
00:35:16:05 - 00:35:24:06
Filly
What I'm getting goosebumps and so excited. Yeah, genetic testing in theory, yeah.
00:35:24:06 - 00:36:08:21
Dr. Vanita
But now we also have advancements in gene testing as well because the gene tests are becoming gene tests were quite expensive initially when they were first around. Now we are able to identify the predisposition or genetic polymorphisms within a person's body that, remember, you can't change your genes, but you can change the expression of those genes. So if there's a mutation within your genetic profiling in a particular area, let's say cardiovascular or stress, etc., you'd want to do something about it now so that you can change the expression of those genes rather than wait for it to actually manifest as as a condition.
00:36:09:01 - 00:36:25:18
Dr. Vanita
So for that reason, we are looking into a lot more of the genetic testing that is going to be available and also identifying risks for conditions like some of the cancers or cardiovascular and so forth and so on.
00:36:25:20 - 00:36:30:10
Filly
Yeah, that's super exciting. Awesome. I can't wait.
00:36:30:12 - 00:37:03:17
Dr. Vanita
And I'm very excited to also talk about neurotransmitters, even though they've been around for quite a while. It is anybody that has adrenal burnout, the first thing it does, it affects adrenaline. Adrenaline and noradrenaline comes from dopamine. So there goes dopamine is your reward hormone. You feel excited, you feel you feel happy, you feel, you know, libido starts to push up, etc. when you are in love.
00:37:03:23 - 00:37:34:06
Dr. Vanita
But take put stress into the picture down goes all of that because it drives down all your catecholamines. You'll find that when you're so stressed, you're worrying about things all the time. And that level of anxiety it affects GABA levels. GABA also stimulates progesterone is a hormone that makes cortisol. And as progesterone, because you're so stressed, progesterone is driven down and that progesterone then drives down.
00:37:34:06 - 00:37:58:19
Dr. Vanita
GABA So guess what? Somebody who has high levels of stress, let's say a woman who's going through perimenopause, she's so stressed that will drive down progesterone right? And that will cause a whole lot of hot flushes and mood swings and irritability and dry skin and dry vagina, etc.. Plus it also she's find that she can't just super anxious.
00:37:59:01 - 00:38:17:18
Dr. Vanita
You know, she has to think she could get in a car and drive to Sydney and back. Right now she has to think, did I switch off the stove? Did I do this? Do do I, do I have my list, the whole whole drama in a head before she can actually get up and go. So that enzyme starts to build up.
00:38:17:20 - 00:38:43:02
Dr. Vanita
So when I look at anybody that's burnt out, has adrenal stress and neurologically affected, I will always look at the diurnal patterns of cortisol. So cortisol, when you go to the doctor and get your cortisol measured, I'll only measure one blood sample, whereas cortisol in your body is actually released at different times of the day. So it's high first thing in the morning and then it depletes.
00:38:43:03 - 00:39:24:10
Dr. Vanita
Okay, So cortisol is very important to measure in that diurnal pattern. Now with cortisol comes your neurological outcomes as well. So for that reason I would look at neurotransmitters and then also ask the patient, Look, do you have any gut issues and which medications they are on that is a way I would start together with the microbiome map, together with the adrenal cortisol profile where I would start and if it's affecting their sex hormones or if it's affecting their the neurological systems, they are people that have occupational issues, right?
00:39:24:10 - 00:39:50:15
Dr. Vanita
So somebody who's probably working in in, let's say in the mines, for example, and they have that heavy metal exposure in in irritability, they going to be affected by that heavy metal cumulative exposure. And that's going to affect the nervous system as well. So you need to look at heavy metal toxicities. You need to look at nutrient imbalances like zinc operations.
00:39:50:20 - 00:40:22:09
Dr. Vanita
You need to look after methylation status. So it's like the brain is the pinnacle and then, you know, all the spokes in the wheel, all in actual fact, all the things that we just spoke about, these are the got the neurotransmitters, etc.. So neurotransmitters and the adrenals are considered to be the pinnacle of identification of burn out. Well, then you start to look at what are the drivers and how can we actually optimise those.
00:40:22:11 - 00:40:45:10
Filly
Yeah, love it. So if someone's been listening to these party and they're like, I'd love to do some lab testing, whether it's a maybe a practitioner who would like to stop using it in their practice or even a patient. What would your advice be in terms of getting started with functional lab testing and where can they also find you?
00:40:45:12 - 00:41:14:04
Dr. Vanita
Okay, right. So firstly, it is very important not to be haphazard about testing is not cheap. Okay, Some of the tests are pretty cheap, some of them are expensive. You do need a qualified health practitioner to actually walk you through what? Firstly, what tests prioritise the tests based on your your needs. So consulting with a health practitioner is very important.
00:41:14:06 - 00:41:33:13
Dr. Vanita
The second thing we need to do is if you need to understand exactly what it is that you want to look at in terms of not only prioritising understand where you are, how do you read your results, that's something that you need to deal with. How do you get where is it that you actually what do you want to achieve?
00:41:33:15 - 00:42:13:11
Dr. Vanita
These are your numbers. Where do you want to actually be? How do you get from place to place BE How long is it going to take so your health practitioner is qualified and those that are trained in functional pathology lab test, they qualified to do this. So you're welcome to contact Nutri Pathology. Obviously. Chris in Filly you can contact me under at Vinita Target.com or you can contact Nutri Pathology and the clinical support, or that the customer service staff would be able to guide you as to who the the health practitioners are in your area.
00:42:13:17 - 00:42:26:17
Filly
Yeah. Awesome. Well, thank you so much. This has been so good. I could just geek out on lab testing and biomarkers all day, but I'm sure you've got some work to do.
00:42:26:19 - 00:43:06:14
Dr. Vanita
It's an exciting area and it is so it's so empowering when you see people who have struggled for so long and you know, they've been to the doctors and the doctors to say, look, you've got to take a holiday, have a rest, etc.. But they still tired. They still exhausted. So unless you look at the underlying biochemical blocks with functional pathology and working with a a qualified health practitioner using a tailored, customised, personalised and evidence based treatment approach, most of which can be natural, that is the key to your health.
00:43:06:16 - 00:43:16:18
Filly
And love it. Thank you so much for sharing your wisdom, Vinita. I'm going to pop in the show, notes, your book and also how you can find nature path for our listeners. Thank you.
00:43:16:23 - 00:43:22:21
Dr. Vanita
Wonderful, and thanks for having me.
00:43:22:23 - 00:43:33:01
Filly
Thank you so much for listening. We so appreciate you. If you'd like to give us extra smiles, drop us a review and spread the love. By sharing this episode.
00:43:33:03 - 00:43:51:10
Chris
You can also write your own state of burnout and the root Cause contributors by taking out ending body burnout assessment on our website. And if you're interested in learning about our group one on one ending Body burn out programs, shoot us a DM via Instagram or Facebook. Have the best day ever.
