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Dr. Emi's 100 Pound Weight Loss Journey
On today's show, I'm bringing on Dr. Emi to talk about how she lost 100 pounds using food and functional medicine.
Who is Dr. Emi?
I've talked about Dr. Emi a few times and am so excited to have her on. Dr. Emi is a physician who is board certified in internal medicine with experience in hospital, ICU, and complex internal medicine care. She has also spent many hours doing additional training in holistic and functional medicine. Dr. Emi doesn't shy away from diagnostic challenges or difficult medical issues, she believes in the power of each person to be their own healer.
Dr. Emi's Weight Loss Journey
Dr. Emi's focus is on body transformation because of her own journey. She was once 100 pounds overweight and doing everything right. She ate 1,000-1,200 calories/day on a vegan diet and exercised nonstop. But, the weight wasn't budging.
One day, she had a patient turn to her and say "You know, you're trying to give me lifestyle advice, but you're 100 pounds overweight." That was a wake-up call because she realized she hadn't learned anything about increasing metabolism in medical school, she was just taught calories in and calories out.
She made it her lifelong passion to learn that science and help people get the bodies that they want, especially women over 40. It's not just about weight, though. The weight is a symptom of deeper issues that are going on, like inflammation, genetic issues, food sensitivities, and allergies. Uncovering what's going on helps patients lose weight and gain muscle.
Why Dr. Emi Shifted Her Focus to Functional Medicine
As I mentioned in the intro, Dr. Emi is a board-certified internal medicine physician, so I wondered what inspired her to study functional medicine. She said that her son was on the autism spectrum, had horrible tantrums, was unable to really speak, and had asthma, eczema, and gut issues. She took him to doctors but no one was able to help.
When she changed his diet to be free of gluten, dairy, artificial colors and flavors, and processed sugar, he calmed down. Then, she added a strong antioxidant supplement to his routine to help with his allergies, and he went from not recognizing letters to reading. After seeing the huge difference functional medicine made for her son, she wanted to bring it to her patients, too.
Dr. Emi's Weight Loss Supplement
Dr. Emi designed a weight loss supplement because nothing on the market was working for her. She wanted to come up with something that would be a 60 or 70% solution for most people over the age of 35, especially women.
Why do we gain weight as we age?
She says that as we age, we become more resistant to the hormone insulin. Our bodies stop listening to that signal, so we have to make more and more insulin to get our blood sugars to the right place. These higher levels of insulin can actually be signals for the body to pack on weight.
The other thing that happens is that our brain stops listening as much to a hormone called leptin. Leptin is a hormone that is made in fat that goes to your brain and gives it the signal to direct your body to burn more fat and eat less.
One ingredient in the supplement she created, Youthful Slim, helps the brain listen to the leptin signal more and the other helps control blood sugar.
Nutrigenomics
Nutrigenomics is testing your genetics to figure out which changes to your lifestyle, food, and exercise can turn off the genes that you don't want to be turned on, and increase the output from the good genes you have.
When you do nutrigenomic testing, it is looking at nutrient metabolism, cardiometabolic health, weight management and body composition, food intolerances, and fitness and physical activity to determine things like which diet is going to work best for your body, not someone else's.
Food Sensitivity Testing
Both Dr. Emi and I have seen great results with food sensitivity testing. Food allergy tests look at IgE, which is the fast antibody that will cause hives, rashes, and anaphylaxis. Because these symptoms show up quickly, people are able to more easily pinpoint what is causing their allergies.
With food sensitivity testing, we look at the IgG antibody, which can cause reactions up to a few days later. Because it is so much slower, it's not as easy to figure out which foods are causing the reactions. The symptoms can be things like fatigue, brain fog, eczema, psoriasis, joint pain, and digestive issues.
The goal isn't to eliminate the foods you're reacting to forever. Instead, by removing them you can reduce the inflammation in your gut which will allow it to heal. Then, you'll often be able to add foods back in.
Toxin Testing
Dr. Emi says that environmental toxins are another important pillar of functional medicine. Some environmental toxins can keep you from metabolizing hormones. She says that mold is a really big one to look for. It can cause things from neurological symptoms to depression, to sinus issues, to even joint pain because it can create oxalates in your body. Oxalates are crystals that can cause kidney stones and deposits in your joints.
Dr. Emi says that what often happens is that people are put on a low oxalate diet, but no one actually does the testing to find out why they are having issues with oxalates. What functional medicine does is look for these things that get missed over and over again.
Where to Find Dr. Emi
Here's where you can get in touch with Dr. Emi:
Work With Meg
I do a lot of the functional medicine testing that Dr. Emi talked about today, including food sensitivity testing and microbiome testing. Click below to schedule a free 45-minute call with me to discuss which tests would be best for you.
