Why Your Patients Need More Than Medical Care: The Functional Nutrition Solution Featuring Andrea Nakayama, EP 196
In this enlightening conversation, Andrea Nakayama breaks down the often confusing world of functional nutrition and explains how it can transform healthcare practices. Rather than focusing on restrictive diets or one-size-fits-all protocols, functional nutrition takes a personalized approach that considers each individual's unique history, physiology, and circumstances. Andrea shares how practitioners can integrate these services into their practices to better serve patients with chronic health issues, while working collaboratively within appropriate scopes of practice.
Key Highlights
What functional nutrition really is: A systems-based approach focused on individual experience rather than dietary protocols, guided by the principles that "everything is connected, we are all unique, and all things matter"
The three-tier framework:
Tier 1: Non-negotiables (sleep, digestion, blood sugar balance)
Tier 2: Deficiency to sufficiency
Tier 3: Dismantling dysfunction
The "three roots, many branches" model: Addressing genes, digestion, and inflammation as the root causes while symptoms and diagnoses are the branches
Scope of practice collaboration: How functional nutrition practitioners can work alongside medical providers to fill gaps in care without overstepping boundaries
Making nutrition accessible: Moving away from expensive testing and supplements toward a way of thinking that can be democratized for all income levels
The bike lane analogy: Understanding your personal "path" versus "poison ivy" - what foods and choices work for your individual physiology and circumstances
Business integration options: How practices can incorporate functional nutrition through hiring trained practitioners, referral networks, or additional training
Patient empowerment: Helping individuals understand their personal "mediators" - what makes them feel better or worse - rather than following rigid good/bad food rules
Memorable Quotes
"We may be asking too much of our doctors... when we ask them about nutrition, that's an out of scope question."
"If somebody's having an issue with compliance, I say we didn't match the pacing of our recommendations to that person's aptitude to be able to take them on."
"Your body is likely more functional than it's not. It's doing a lot for you. And when it comes to a functional practice, we're fine tuning the dial."
"We're not replacing [medical care] - food is better, lifestyle should do it. We're augmenting all the different things that person is experiencing."
"It's not about a protocol, it's about making steps forward and working within frameworks that help people know where to start."
"We can't walk a very narrow path for a very long time, and we shouldn't."
"When we know our mediators, we're making the decisions, we're not farming out our agency for somebody else to tell us we're good or bad."
Bio:
As the host of the 15-Minute Matrix Podcast and the founder of Functional Nutrition Alliance, Andrea is leading thousands of students and practitioners around the globe in a revolution to offer better solutions to the growing chronic illness epidemic. By highlighting the importance of systems biology, root cause methodology, and therapeutic partnerships, she helps historically underserved individuals reclaim ownership of their health.
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