Episode 79 - Goodbye DIY Health! Functional Medicine & Nutrition With Lahana Vigliano, CEO Of Nuvitru Wellness, Part 1 (Full Transcript)
This is a full transcript of the Nirvana Sisters podcast Episode 79
Editor’s Note: Please know that this podcast transcript is automatically generated and may contain minor errors such as typos and word switches. For more information, be sure to listen to the podcast here or view our podcast episode guide.
Amy: 0:06
Welcome to Nirvana sisters podcast where we take the intimidation out of well being and beauty to help you achieve your highest state your nirvana. We are sisters in law and your hosts. I'm Amy Sherman.
Katie Chandler: 0:18
And I'm Katie Chandler. So let's get into some real conversation Welcome back to the show Nirvana sisters family. Today we are sitting down with Lohana vogliono. She is the CEO and founder of Nuvi true wellness and she's also a board certified clinical nutritionist. The hunter holds a Bachelor of nutrition science degree and a master's of human nutrition plus Functional Medicine degree which is all super impressive. She's currently a doctorate student in clinical nutrition. And she has so much passion in helping women realize that there's a root cause for their symptoms, especially when they have been dismissed by health care before which we've all been there. Her company knew the true wellness specializes in women's hormones and gut health and uses functional medicine lab testing to personalize the patient's journey. Goodbye DIY. It's so true. We're all our own science experiments, right? That's what it's Yeah, she is obsessed with creating natural remedies, researching reading romance books, lifting heavy and cooking meals for her family. Outside of work. She's a mother of two and a wife. So we all have a lot in common here. And her family was the inspiration behind New vitro and continues to encourage her through everything. So welcome to the show. Lohana
Lahana Vigliano: 1:43
Thank you. I'm so excited to be here and to talk about all the fun things. Yes.
Unknown: 1:48
We can't wait to get into all of it. But before we do, let's kick off our nirvana of the week. So Amy, I want to hear yours. What do you got?
Amy: 1:57
Um, so it was funny. I was thinking about this this morning. And it's the fall and it's busy season I feel like and I I feel like I've been running a million miles an hour and I haven't really stepped back and I was like, I don't even know. Like I don't even know what brought me joy this week. I'm sure there's there's been some little things and big things but I guess the other night or one of the things that was sweet was the other night I was my son came home from my younger son came home for basketball practice later and so we had dinner for him and he was just you know, kind of sitting eating his dinner I said you want me to sit with you while you eat? He's like yes it with me, which was sweet. We just had a cute little conversation one on one. So that brought me joy. And we're hugging afterwards and hugging the dogs. There's just as like a sweet little moment because I don't get a lot of time with I just feel like the kids are so busy too. We don't get a lot of that one on one time. So it was sweet. What about you?
Unknown: 2:51
It is really sweet. Those like little intimate moments that are hard to catch when they actually talk to you. You know? Yeah, exactly what I was thinking about this we've had a couple but I know you're saying it's like the insanity things are really busy. It's probably the days are flying really quickly. I came home from some family stuff. Last week I had to travel for to do peloton bike that my husband which was a year I was very surprised by it.
Amy: 3:21
I didn't even know you guys were looking at that I did I know
Unknown: 3:24
we were either. Apparently this is a plug for peloton but they have a good new membership model. So it's the kind of situation where I don't know if we're renting it or if we own it. I don't know what it is. But it's a membership model. It's just a it's more accessible for those that are maybe interested. And it's the new one where it has the TV screen that turns and you can access all of their classes. So you can do like weights and yoga. And like, you know, all kinds of other stuff off of the bike. So that was a little nirvana for me. I've been using it this week. It's it's that's a sense of price. Yeah. What about you? Lohana What was your Nirvana this week? I definitely agree with you guys. It has been pretty crazy. And it just last week was even crazier. So honestly, it was just some silence and some wind down like we had family in town. Work was busy. We were under contract for a house and that was unexpected. But a good deal just came up and so that it's a lot so honestly just slowing down and just doing low Netflix days. Like I remember earlier this week, I was like you know what, I'm gonna do my appointments. I have a couple. But the rest I'm just gonna like Netflix. I'm going to just enjoy I'm going to work out I'm just going to do me stuff. Yeah, I
Amy: 4:43
love that. I actually I had I had a good night to watching a Netflix show with my husband. We have like a lot of shows that we will end up watching at night. We tried to put our phones away and watch the show together and I saw the I don't know if you guys watch Handmaid's Tale Yeah, you've been watching you know, like This week's episode, literally, I couldn't stop talking about it was so good. I want to know, listeners haven't listened. But like, I was just I couldn't it was so good.
Unknown: 5:10
We all need those chills.
Amy: 5:13
I know, I know. Awesome. Well, it's so nice to meet you ohana. And I feel like there are so many questions that I have. And Katie has, and our listeners will have. But I think because I've actually been like, looking into this topic a lot lately, because I'm just feeling like off. And I think like, we hear so much about gut health and microbiome and hormones. And I'm just confused, like, Where does someone start? Like, kit? Is there a home test? You can do you have to go to a doctor, you have to find a functional? Like, where do we start?
Unknown: 5:44
Yes. Usually, for good testing, you will have to have like a good partner. And that could be a functional medicine doctor. That could be though we are not doctors. We are dieticians and nutritionists. But we have access to labs and stuff. So any functional medicine provider, you'll definitely want to partner up with because there is so much information and it's so confusing. And just because you hear something doesn't technically mean that's what you need to do. And so I'm all about like, not DIY in anymore and understanding like what does your body need and moving forward. But a great place to start with, which is something you mentioned is gut health. So if you do struggle with like bloating, or diarrhea, constipation, acid reflux, abdominal cramps, anything and anything in the gut, that is where I typically like to begin, because it really all does stem there, there's so many different connections of how that affects our hormones, sex hormones, adrenals, you name it. So if you had to, like narrow in on just like a focus got would be my favorite because while you are focusing on gut, you do end up trickling into other areas at the same time.
Amy: 6:48
And if you want to focus on gut like, what do you do you go to your doctor and you say, I want to get the I know we've talked about this before on this show the Dutch test or like, what do you say specifically
Unknown: 6:58
for gut you would want a comprehensive stool test. And if you're seeing someone who's functional medicine, there's a variety of them. A lot of practitioners do like gi map, but there's stuff from Genova. But if you just a comprehensive stool, a functional medicine provider will absolutely know what that means. Just to circle back quickly, you're saying you want to team up with a functional medicine provider? It's so interesting, because I think most women when they think hormones, they think OB GYN, right. And I I've been there, we've all gone to that doctor, and it's it really is not their purview, you know, they're there. They're like going there to like, keep your uterus healthy help you have babies. And that's it. So the hormonal stuff that kind of blew my mind. And I think I know a lot of people that were surprised and really kind of let down by their OB Gen, because they just say, oh, like, yeah, everything's good, you're fine. You're fine. So that's good to know, for the listener. Okay, so help us understand that gut health and hormone connection. So you, are you just saying that with gut health comes? Like, explain how that all trickles down? Yeah. Yeah. And I want to say to a lot of providers that are in the traditional health care field, they're looking for pathology. So disease, that doesn't always mean though someone has a disease, you can have like an imbalance or something a little off. And that's why things aren't caught, per se. So like, we hear all the time of like, Oh, my doctor tested thyroid hormone for an example. And they said it was good. But then when we look at it, when they only tested TSH, which is not the like, it's one marker of the full thyroid picture, not the form, you can't just rule out thyroid with just that. But that is hands down what most providers do. And then the second thing is maybe they do get a full thyroid panel, and then they look at it. And yeah, nothing's out of range like crazy. They don't have hypothyroidism. But you can see a little bit of sub optimal, like their sub optimal, they're not the best level that they should be, but they're not disease wise. So they typically will be you know, shoot off. So that's, that's a it's very, very different. And yes, I think if you're looking to just longevity and just be healthier, that's where you got to get someone more in the alternative realm. But gut health is my favorite thing ever. Because I feel like it it feels so like, how the heck is that even related to hormones because it feels so different, but it's not. So there's a couple different ways that poor gut health can affect hormones. And a lot of that is well one thing is your bacteria balance. So we always have our probiotics, which is our good bacteria. And then we have opportunistic bacteria, which is bacteria that will always be in the gut, E coli, Staph strep, but when they are at higher levels, it causes chaos. That's why they take opportunity to cause chaos and give you bloating and all the really fun symptoms. So when you have this imbalance bacteria, we call it dysbiosis. It increases an enzyme called beta glucuronic days. And this enzyme actually can reabsorb estrogen and toxins that have already processed through the liver, it reabsorbed them back into the body. So that can be a reason for things like estrogen dominance of having just too much estrogen in the body. So that's one way. Another way that it affects hormones, and the adrenal round, which is our stress hormone. When you have stuff going on parasites, yeast, bacteria, you name it, that is very stressful on the body. And so that will actually stimulate your adrenals that makes our stress hormone, and it will stimulate cortisol or stress hormone. So this is a low key chronic stressor in the body. So whenever we bring up the stress conversation, we have to not when I think, I think when people think of stress, they think of Oh, yeah, my boss sucks. I had a really bad day, my grandpa died. But no one's thinking the internal stressors, and those mean just as much as external. So if your body's stressed internally, it's going to affect your cycle, it's going to affect other things. And then the third way that gut imbalances or gut issues, cause issues is when you are not able to digest your food properly. And we do see this quite often, whether it's people having trouble digesting fats, proteins, carbs, you're ultimately not able to absorb your raw materials that is needed for hormone production, every single process in the body hormones, not hormones, you there's a nutrient related in there, and it's helping the process come along to producing the hormones from the raw materials, and then ends up testosterone and estrogen and progesterone. So if we're not able to get what we need from our diet, then we're gonna see a kink in the hormone production. So isn't it it's wild, how complex our bodies are. I mean, it's really it like blows my mind. It's really cool. Do you I've heard that, like eating a lot of fiber is good, because it helps flush out the excess estrogen that's in your bowels and in your stomach and everything. And so would that excess estrogen be coming from the liver? Like you said earlier that infiltrates the system? Is that how that works? Yeah, so I mean, we always problems we're done with it, we process it through the liver, or fiber does help. I know, raw carrot salads are a thing right now, to help kind of bring that bind it and take it out in the body. But I mean, if you definitely have some microbial stuff going on in there, it can definitely still influence any reabsorption later on, not just for hormones, but also for toxins, which I feel like is a woowoo topic, but it shouldn't be because there's a lot of research showing like phalates, and parabens and BPA, and all these environmental toxins do affect hormones. So it increases reabsorbs those so that can you know affect hormones as well in the long run.
Amy: 12:52
So I always feel like to I hear about inflammation, right? And when we hear about inflammation in the body, what does that mean? Is that like, does that have to do with hormones? Does that have to do with gut? Is it just like, I just feel like, again, that's one of those words where you're like, Oh, you have inflammation everywhere? Like, what does that mean? And like, how do you address that,
Unknown: 13:15
it's actually kind of like your immune system is being very over reactive. And you know, our immune systems, you can think of it like when you get a cut, and your cut gets inflamed, that's just because there's a lot of chemical processes that are attracting your immune cells to help fight off any, you know, disease and pathogens. So more on a cellular level, that's kind of what's happening. But then with inflammation in general, it does just like a cut, it gets like big and red and sore. And so internally, I guess you can think of it the same way. It's just like, you might hold on to water and you might not feel well, you might get headaches. So we want to make sure that yes, our immune system is always active, it's always fighting for us. But we just got to make sure that we're just not chronically asking for it to always be on and these are like gut health and all these other things that I feel like functional medicine, actually acknowledges is the root cause of why people are having chronic and this chronic inflammation can lead to all sorts of problems like autoimmune disease and everything. And that all can start with what you're putting into your body, what you're feeding yourself and how all these imbalances are manifesting right
Amy: 14:28
now. Go ahead and yeah, and sorry, one more thing. I've just I feel like I've been like listening to a lot of podcasts about this lately, too. And it's like, you know, there's what you're putting in your body and and also what you're supplementing your body with, but then I feel like there's all these other like you were saying Lohana environmental factors. As I was saying to my husband the other day, I'm like, I feel like we need to change all of our cleaning products. Yeah, like, right, yes. Yeah, like we need to do a full sweep of that because I don't know like, just like my husband has a lot of allergies and so I feel like Do we need to do a full suite? Because there's so there's all these other things that you're not thinking about? Yeah, which is scary, but,
Unknown: 15:07
and it's scary, because it seems like oh my god, there's just so much stuff like eff it, like, I'm just not gonna do anything, right. I'm a big fan of like, take control, like with what you have control over what you put in your body, what you put in your house that you're putting on your body, like your beauty products like that all matters. And if you just slowly change each thing, before you know it, you've taken a lot of risk and reduction of, you know, chronic disease in the long term. So I'm such a huge fan of doing that, because studies do show that it literally inhibits because it hormone production is like a little we always forget the term for this assembly line. And so along the assembly line is little enzymes. And so these toxins affect these enzymes, and they either can slow it down. And again, there's the kink in the system, or it can even increase certain enzymes, like there's an enzyme called aromatase that increases testosterone to turn into estrogen. So and that's all like BPA does that. So it is very much a thing and should be taken as seriously as diet. That's really interesting. This next question is a bit personal because I was dealing with this myself, I don't know if you know 100, but I have hypothyroid and Addison's disease, so my hormones are just always a mess. But I think I'm getting to that age where they're getting a little bit more interesting as we know, ladies. So all summer, I was dealing with blood sugar issues, and I've never had blood sugar problems before. I'm not like pre diabetic or anything, but I would just I would be eating carbs or the wrong thing. And I would be a mess. Whereas I used to handle it. And I wouldn't get like the big rush of energy and the heart palpitations and then the heavy heavy crash. So why why does that? How's that connected to two hormones and hormonal shifts as we age? Yeah, oh, I love blood sugar, because I feel like it's one of the foundational hormones that needs to be in balance, for sex hormones to be balanced for Yes, adrenals to be balanced, because it can it can drive inflammation, it can stimulate stress, and cortisol. When you're like on that up and down roller coaster, in an intense way. You're kind of always in a little mini roller coaster, but any too low lows too high highs are problems, but it regulates your energy gives us clarity, and then influences our weight ultimately, as well. So insulin is our fat storage hormone. So it's really important to make sure that this is balanced. And so we love doing like continuous glucose monitors and really like playing around with foods and how they react with the body. Hopefully they know the importance. Okay, it's interesting how you said I never thought about how to fix cortisol because I don't I don't make cortisol. So I have to take cortisol. So when I was having these ups and downs on these roller coasters, I thought it was affecting it was affecting my Addison's and I would need more steroid, and then that causes all of these other problems. So it was just this massive, crazy shift. But for the rest of the population that isn't as screwed up as I am. That blood sugar, you're up, you're down. And when you're crashing, you're thinking I'm hungry, I feel lightheaded. I feel I feel so sluggish. My brain fog, I should eat more. So it's just this like constant cycle, right of probably choosing the wrong foods and doing the wrong thing to feel stable and you never feel stable. Personally, the shift happened for me when I switched to paleo, and I was able to stabilize better. So that's just a tip for anybody out there that's dealing with blood sugar issues, could always try that.
Amy: 18:35
What's also interesting is Katie, and Lana, and if you've heard this, this episode, and for listeners, you can go back but we interviewed the founder of criminal wellness, Lisa Aden Weller, and we had a long conversation about blood sugar and like how it should remain stable because so many foods spike it like she was saying oatmeal can spike your blood sugar and then you're down again. Whereas like if you try to stay in that window of like in between, you don't get super hungry, and then you don't have those crashes. But we had a conversation about that and she was saying she wears a blood sugar or glucose monitor to really see how all of the foods are affecting her which sounds like it can be individualized for many people but
Unknown: 19:14
oh yeah, that's why I love the CGM is some people do fine with sweet potato and some people like no not fine so that's where a lot of the just because you heard like oh don't do potato it's so bad for you it raise my blood sugar that does not mean it's going to raise up blood sugar for the other person right there are more foods that are more likely to but I definitely firsthand have seen so many people respond differently to bananas and to grapes and to potatoes and to rice is very different so that's why I love it because it gives you that like inside feel of like oh this is what works right? That is your go to monitor the kind that you can put on your arm Do you suggest that to your to your clients? So it's constant which is super cool as opposed to the traditional diabetics, they just prick their finger and check occasionally throw of the day.
Amy: 20:00
So what is it, you just wear it and it tells you what your blood sugar is all day long.
Unknown: 20:05
It's a prescription. So you have to work with a provider to get it. So when we we have a doctor that prescribes it for us on our team, but it's so amazing. So it goes in the back of your arm, and it measures your blood glucose 24/7. So while you're sleeping all throughout the day, so 24/7 just seeing what it is. So you open up your app, and then you see like what's spiking, it's really interesting to see your nighttime as well, because it can be problematic if by chance you are spiking at night or going too low. You can do things before bed, eating certain things, doing certain things that can help like balance that out. So some sometimes people need like a bedtime snack that's really balanced like proteins, carbs and fats, some people don't. But I think it's awesome because it can also tell us like how you do with fasting because the adrenal blood sugar is very intertwined. Because if you're either running, if you're not eating breakfast, you're most likely running on cortisol, just FYI. Which is why I'm I think intermittent fasting and fasting can be helpful for women who have good hormones, and they're balanced. But a lot of people just want to do that. But you're running on stress hormone. So if you're already having adrenal issues, now you're just putting an extra burden on it. So we want to balance that blood sugar because the reason you're running on cortisol is it's tapping into stored glucose in your liver and in your muscles. Because that is what balances out your blood sugar levels. So cortisol is like crap, we're not getting into glucose. Let me knock on some cell doors. Let's bring it out. And let's balance your blood sugar. So that's why I say you're running on cortisol. If you're not, you know, eating breakfast, you're using up stored glucose, but you really got to tap in and use those adrenals.
Amy: 21:44
So is that the same thing for men like our men and women the same in that
Unknown: 21:48
area? Yes. And also Adrenal Fatigue is also a very real thing. It's not it's not an AMI, have you? Have you heard of adrenal fatigue? Because it's not I have adrenal insufficiency. So that's a totally different thing. But it's, it's it's kind of a hot topic, right? Adrenal Fatigue, and it's when people are like you said, probably running on spiked levels of cortisol and it can feel you just like you always feel kind of rundown and you think, oh, I need more coffee, but that actually makes it worse. It's that always feeling like stressed feeling right, is that yeah. And usually when someone gets to adrenal fatigue, the correct clinical description is HPA dysfunction, which is hypothalamus, pituitary adrenal dysfunction. And it basically just means that from a long term stressor, maybe you were just really busy for the last year just always stressed, eventually, your brain kind of takes a break from your adrenals. So the communication between those two organs are like, Hmm, let's go on vacation, let's just take a break. So when it then now people will tend to have low cortisol, because that brain, that communication of the brain to the adrenals is not functioning as well. So the adrenals tend to be very low, so then you're going to be tired and just feel like crap. Yeah. Yeah. So yeah, people want to drink caffeine and, you know, add on more feel better stressors, but it makes it worse, but you actually need to slow down. Yes, you need to slow down or body rest, don't be excessively working out. It's the opposite of what you should a girlfriend of mine has been doing the her functional medicine person caught the adrenal cocktail, and it's the pink Himalayan salt and lemon juice, right? And that kind of just like helps replenish things. Yes, typically, when adrenals are low functioning, it needs a lot of love and nutrients. So some adrenal cocktails, will be like a little bit of orange juice with collagen, some coconut milk to make it like more of a balanced carbs, proteins, fats, but then they'll add electrolytes because your body just needs extra amounts that needs extra amounts of vitamin C, when your adrenals are low, lots of B vitamins when they're low, because that's really what helps them work and thrive. So when it's low functioning, you just need extra nutrient lab support. So adrenal cocktails are a great way to get into like Dr. electrolytes, the orange juice can also provide a little vitamin C, stuff like that. So yeah, that's a really popular tool that even interesting.
Amy: 24:10
I have a question too. Because again, like we were saying, there's so much information out there and like, this stuff is so individualized and like the more and more I learn about it, I'm like, I just needed to have a functional doctor because there's so many things and it's like to your point, like no more DIY because you try to you try this one day you try it and you don't even know what you're addressing, really because you don't know what you have to work with. So I guess my question is, how do you find a good functional doctor? Like I have a friend and I asked her the other day, I'm like, some of your functional doctors. She was like, Why have one but the waitlist is six months and I have another one that's virtual, but I'm like, how do you vet a functional doctor because I think it's so important to have a regular doctor and a functional doctor. See you have a team's like always know what's going on with you, especially as you're getting older and your hormones and gotten all these things are changing.
Unknown: 24:55
Well, I'm your girl. No, I'm just getting.
Amy: 24:58
I was just gonna say are you for Jonathan Yeah, we
Unknown: 25:00
do work virtual, we're actually all virtual. So even if you're not, I'll discuss to see you again. And then but I it's just like any doctor, you kind of have to interview them because I've even seen functional medicine doctors, you know, just to make the theme more difficult that I was turned off because I was pre med. So I was turned off by a pill for every ill. Yeah, now I also see functional medicine doctors doing a supplement for every ill. And so I feel like even though it's natural, we're still prescribing like, Oh, you have inflammation? Here's turmeric, well, what the heck is inflammation occurring? Why is that even happening? So I see a lot of that in functional medicine space, so you still have to be careful. I feel like you just have to, like, if you're a practitioner is always asking why, like, Okay, I'm feeling like, that's okay. Why, okay, then this happened. Okay, so why, why, why why I feel like most of the time, then you're going to have someone who's going to dig enough and deep enough for the root cause. And that's what the most important thing is, you can start off finding, I think it's ifm.org their website you can find if you want someone close to I think you can search by zip code. So that's a thing, but I don't know I feel like most people find people based on like podcasts and obviously budget because it's functional medicines typically self pay, so that plays a role too. So yeah, I feel like people just kind of hear on like social media and then they reach out to them. So I don't know if there's like an official way. That's good to hear that and I have found with doctors that you just have to vet them yourself. Like you have to understand what it is that you're looking for. And you know, like for my endocrinologist I interviewed like five this year before I found somebody so yeah.
Amy: 26:38
Stay tuned for next week, where we continue our discussion with Lohana we talk about all sorts of things hidden cause for bloat how women are eating too little keys to improving your metabolism, the secret anti aging key and much more. See you next week. Thanks for listening to Nirvana sisters. For more information on this episode, check out the show notes please subscribe and leave us a review. also find us on Instagram at Nirvana sisters. If you loved what you just listen to or know someone that would please share it and tag us. Tune in next week for a fresh new episode of Nirvana sisters will continue to watch out for all things wellness so you don't have to. Bye.