Podcast Drop Date: 7/26/23
In this podcast episode we welcome the host, Amber Warren, to the interview seat where she discusses Renew Institute’s most successful program to date: “5 Month Weight Loss.” In this episode Amber discusses her 6 non-negotiables to optimal health, redefining weight loss to mean fat loss, and how getting to ideal weight positively impacts detoxification, hormone levels and more. She shares insights on her favorite peptides, supplements, and the mindset behind them. Amber's passion as a provider shines through and you’ll definitely hear it in the latest Functional Medicine Foundations episode!
“I’ve been working with Amber Warren and during our first appointment, she took the time to listen to my whole history, concerns, questions, etc. She helped me with strategies for diet, supplementation, and exercise and as a result, I've lost nearly 40 lbs in 6 weeks. Everyone at the Eagle office is helpful, pleasant, and quick to respond to all of my inquiries. Such a pleasant and refreshing experience outside the current medical industrial complex, in which I have lost all trust. If you are searching for real solutions and strategies for root problems, I could not recommend Amber, her team, and the Renew Institute more!” -Zach N
Transform your body and change your life with our precisely crafted five month weight loss program. Our approach combines cutting edge science with personalized support. Unlock newfound levels of energy and confidence today. To learn more, click here.
Transcript:
Amber Warren, PA-C: Welcome to the Functional Medicine Foundations podcast, where we explore root cause medicine, engage in conversation with functional and integrative medicine experts, and build community with like minded health seekers. I'm your host, Amber Warren. Let's dig deeper.
Sammy Cosa: Welcome to the Functional Medicine Foundations Podcast. My name is Sammy Cosa and we're changing things up today. Hello. Amber Warren, the host of FMF. So I'm the director of marketing and business Development, and I've been encouraging Amber here to switch seats and to be in the interview seat today because she is, gosh, a fountain, a wealth of knowledge. Absolutely. Amber is amazing. I've been super blessed to be alongside, Gosh, Functional Medicine of Idaho Renew Institute and of course, functional Medicine foundations for over a year and a half now. And Amber and and Sam are the real deal. And I'm so excited, so honored to be doing what I'm doing alongside them every single day. This is beyond work for us. This is a mission. And so we're just so excited to be on the podcast together. I'm honored. So thank you for allowing me to host this episode. Yes. And this topic is going to be something we just a few months ago actually unveiled a new program. It's called the five Month Weight loss Package. And from my personal opinion, I think it's been our most successful program thus far. Yeah, for sure, in 2023. And so we want to talk a little bit about that program, but also just what you're learning. Science is always changing and growing, and I know that you're all about relearning and unlearning and learning. And so let's talk about weight loss and what what you're learning about just that specific topic, specifically when it comes to women. So you ready to go? Yeah, I'm.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Ready. Let's do it. Yeah. So we've been running this program now since I think we launched it in January, so it's been a good six months. So we've gotten a lot of really good just anecdotal data on what works for for patients. And I'm I'm seeing most of our female clients that are coming to us wanting to lose weight. And so, I mean, I approach functional medicine. You know this I've done it in so many of my talks with I really have a lot of non-negotiables. I talk about really six non-negotiables that I talk about. So those are absolutely foundational as I'm working with my female clients on trying to get get them to lose weight. And I honestly reframe the conversation from weight loss to fat loss because we don't just want to lose weight, we really want are looking to lose that inflammatory, that inflammatory adipose tissue. So I'm trying to reframe that. And so much of what we try and do is just that lose the fat but maintain the muscle and as women that that maintaining of that muscle. It's also kind of getting them in a mindset where it's it's retraining them. That muscle is really healthy and you're not going to get big and strong and bulky. Right. And a lot of times we have to do both synergistically. So some of my non-negotiables as I work with these clients is, is obviously nutrition. There's there's no weight loss or even even functional medicine treatment protocol or recommendations that can't come with solid nutrition advice. Um, stress management with that is sleep the importance of rest hormone balancing. And that's one that's really, really huge when we're talking about optimizing body composition is to making sure that you're optimizing hormones. And we've come a long way in functional medicine from just using some herbs to balance hormones, which still works, don't get me wrong, but to actually looking at bioidentical hormone replacement therapy as a way, especially as we age, to optimize body composition and optimize lean, lean body mass. Um, so those are just some of the non-negotiables that, that, that I talk about.
Sammy Cosa: I love it. Yeah. Now when it comes to women, of course, a lot of them are in the childbearing years. Yes. And so this is actually a personal question from coming from a husband, right? When you have a wife who's, you know, having child after after child after child and lack of sleep, how important is that? And how do you how do you navigate that, that approach to to educate a woman who is, you know, nursing or not sleeping after 2 or 3 years still really well, how can they lose that weight when there is a lack of sleep?
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah, get rest when the baby rests, you rest. Right? So a lot of times I'm framing that conversation. I see a lot of women with young children that are waking up at 430 in the morning to do the 5 a.m. workout class or even 6 a.m. workout class so they can get home in time for their husband to go to work. And I'm like, knock it off. You're burning the candle at both ends. I guarantee you you're taking three steps back, three steps forward and five steps back when you're doing those early morning workout classes on five, six hours of poor quality sleep. So then we reframe how you're exercising and it's really taking the stroller out and walking with the kids, walking with the babies, biking with your children, you know, going for a walk. I remember after I we had our first baby, we put him down at night. You know, they go to bed at like 730 at night and then we just do laps in our cul de sac and just walk and talk. My husband and I at the end of our day. So it's really just trying to be really creative about your movement and your exercise and not letting it be another, another stressor and another box that you have to check. The nutrition gets really hard at that time of life, but that's where it's all about protein, and I can't overemphasize it enough.
Amber Warren, PA-C: I think we're doing a better job talking about sugar and good quality fats in. In our communities. When we're talking about nutrition, I still don't think there's enough emphasis on protein, especially for women that are trying to optimize lean body mass. And we also don't realize that in our 30s we start to lose that muscle mass and and that that term is called sarcopenia. And so something has to come and replace that loss of muscle. Mass air doesn't replace it, fat does. And so, again, it's not just about weight loss, it's fat loss, but it's also optimizing body composition and lean body mass. We want the right kind of body mass to put on our bodies. So protein helps us to build that quality muscle. And muscle is I've said this so much lately, muscle is our organ of longevity. Absolutely. So it's really, really important. Muscle is very anti aging and muscle helps us to become insulin more insulin insulin sensitive. So insulin is our fat storage hormone. Right. And we check insulin on everybody that walks in our door so everyone gets a fasting insulin level checked. And ideally, it's so wild to me. The reference range when you look at insulin is like 2.5 to like 21.5. I mean, it's just the most wild range, right? And we know as functional practitioners that we want it to be under five for it to be optimal.
Amber Warren, PA-C: End of story. If you're above five, it's going to be pretty much impossible for you to get that weight off if you're really struggling with with weight loss resistance. And so that's a term that we coined insulin resistance. And what's interesting is insulin will actually start to climb often before blood sugar climbs. You go and have your panel run for your annual insurance company to still give you your good deal on insurance. And they check a blood sugar, a random blood sugar and what's called a hemoglobin A-1c And that's going to be an average of three months of blood sugar. But they're not checking is an insulin. And that is often rising and making you insulin resistance before you'll actually see an abnormal or pre-diabetic blood sugar. So that's something that we will check in a lot in a lot of our women and insulin will drive inflammation like you wouldn't believe. And so inflammation is always something we're trying to capture. And and I tell my my clients, my job and like, for example, this five month weight loss program is not just to get you to lose weight in five months. Of course, that's the goal. And of course, we wouldn't be running these programs if we knew we couldn't be successful getting you to your body weight goals in those five months with our different modalities.
Amber Warren, PA-C: But my job is to cast a wide net and look for all the reasons that you're having weight loss resistance and to keep the weight off. And if all the weight comes back after these five months, then I haven't done my job. So those are some of the things that we really look at is, is the insulin resistance picture, Look at their macro and micronutrients. We run, you know, micronutrient panels on our clients because you do need to have certain nutrients on board to be able to to lose weight. So I think I veered really far from the question you initially asked about about younger women in their childbearing age. But intermittent fasting is a really is a really hot topic right now, too. And I think there's a lot of talk out there that women, you know, childbearing age premenopausal, shouldn't fast. And I think I want to go ahead and debunk that myth. Women should fast It just the answer is like how should they fast and the why behind it fasting, even doing a 12 13 hour fast puts your body into a state of healing. It is very, very therapeutic for you to fast and give your body, give your digestive tract a chance to rest. How far do you go beyond that is very individual.
Amber Warren, PA-C: If you're insulin resistant, you should probably get more aggressive with fasting, but you have to stabilize your blood sugar first. You can't throw somebody in a ketogenic regimen and have them doing 16 to 18 hour fast right away because their blood sugar is going to be all over the place. If you pull carbohydrates right away and get them fasting, it's going to plummet and they're going to feel like crap. And then they're not sold, they're out. So you really need to go slowly and carefully. And so for me, it's using nutrition techniques and relying on my nutritionist to stabilize blood sugar first and getting more therapeutic, high quality, dense protein foods in their foods without labels, foods that come from the ground that God intended us to eat before we really start pushing any fast. And I always check hormone levels and not just sex hormones, but our stress hormone cortisol. Because let's back up and talk about cortisol a little. Cortisol is part of that stress management. That's one of my non-negotiables. And I think cortisol has the ability to really, really destroy somebody's health. Um, there's a lot of things that will increase cortisol levels and create this hyper cortisol state in the body that's very inflammatory for the body. We all want to have high cortisol at some point in our lives, but it's when it is constantly going high and it stays high, that becomes the issue, right? Performing is is getting on and doing a podcast like this.
Amber Warren, PA-C: When I said, Hey, Sammy, I'm not just going to talk to myself, you got to interview me, right? Your cortisol went up. But you're healthy and you have a good nervous system, a healthy nervous system. So it was able to come down and you were able to calm yourself down. Right. But it's really important to be able to shift back and forth between those two states. Getting in a fight with your spouse that's going to raise cortisol. Right. Sleep deprivation raises cortisol. So it's a lot of times why women struggle to get the baby weight off because they're waking up with high cortisol every morning and it's creating that additional belly fat that they hold on to. Um, so intermittent fasting is a stressor to the body. So it's going to raise cortisol. So if you push it too soon and too long and you've already got high cortisol levels that we haven't addressed that. Intermittent fasting isn't going to work for you If you try and push these 16 18 hour fasts, which for some people can be really powerful. So it's always individual. Not everyone fits in a box. Know it's personalized medicine. What works for you? If we get three months down the road and you hit a plateau, that's great.
Amber Warren, PA-C: What we've been doing works, but now we have to shift. Maybe you're somebody that's in a good state and you could try a 24 hour water fast, and that can be really therapeutic for your body. I also find most women need to be practicing more of that reverse intermittent fasting. And by that I mean they need to be consuming food earlier in the day, right? Instead of doing this, I just talked to too many people that are like, well, they pride themselves on not eating till 2 or 3:00 in the day and then they're they're ravenous at dinner time and they're eating and snacking into the evening when we want to be making growth hormone at night and insulin like growth factor and carbohydrates and food consumption is going to blunt us to be able to make that at night and therefore impact our ability to recover at night and build lean muscle mass and detox and make hormones. So I'm constantly telling my women, hey, let's have you shift your your eating window. How about like a 9 to 5 regimen or a 10 to 6 regimen? I get it. Don't interrupt dinner time with family. That's a really sacred time. So please don't go sit down and eat dinner with your kids because you're fasting.
Amber Warren, PA-C: That can create a lot of damage in the home. But let's play with just 3 or 4 days a week when you can shift that window because it's going to help you more with how your your different hormones are regulated and how they are put out of our body. The other aspect of women that's really important with fasting, which you men are just so simple and so seemingly easy, it's almost not fair. But it's also during our cycles, we actually have the ability to build more natural testosterone and have a lot more success during the first part of our cycle. So really, like days one through ten, that's when we're going to get a lot more benefits out of that fasting period. A lot more of that metabolic flexibility will be created if we're fasting during those times. Right before you start your cycle, when progesterone drops, when most of us feel a little cuckoo as women, that's not a time to be adding more stress to your body, right? So there's a lot of nuances in fasting that we really have to play with. And if your cycles are abnormal, we have to start there. Let's normalize your cycles. Don't even think about fasting. We have to get those cycles normal first, or else we're never going to be able to get the weight and inflammation off.
Sammy Cosa: Well, that makes complete sense. Yeah. Now we've been doing the program now for for six months. Yes. And you've seen quite a bit of success. Yes. What would you say sets those apart that are successful mentally? How are they mentally preparing for this? Whether you want to call it weight loss, challenge or journey, how how does mindset play into the success of an individual when they're pursuing something like this?
Amber Warren, PA-C: I mean, honestly, it's everything. I would say. 90% of my patients, their mindset is where it needs to be. They are committed, they're ready. And I think the biggest thing is they're not they're not there for a quick fix. By the time they're coming to see us, they're willing to spend the money and the commitment because we ask them to do a lot of hard things that take a lot of time. But they're they're game. They're ready to do it. They have realized the gimmicks, the HCG diet, long term keto is not sustainable for a lot of people that didn't work for them. You know, the quick fixes just didn't work. So they've they've gone through the hard times. They've they've gone through the frustrations. They're ready for the long run. And the way we set up the program is like just as I described, it's it's you know, and I describe it, I guess I should say this. I describe it. This is not just a weight loss program. This is a detox program because you store majority of the toxins we're exposed to. And we haven't even really touched on toxins yet, our fat soluble toxins. So they are stored in our fat cells. So as the weight starts to come off, these patients are detoxing. And so we set up the program in a way that captures those toxins and allows for optimal detoxification and opens up those those drainage pathways, as we say.
Amber Warren, PA-C: So it's it's it's a detox program. It's a weight loss program. Inevitably. It's a hormone balancing program. Right. And like I saw a patient today who still has about six weeks left on her program. And I think she's kind of panicking like I've got six weeks left with you. What can we fit in? What do we need to do? And I'm like, hey, that's not what this is, right? This is like this is this is a lifelong program. Like, I want to see you six weeks after the program ends, right? I want to make sure we're. We're sustaining you. And your hormones are still looking really good and your gut still feeling good. And all of the initial brain fog you started with is is still is still gone. And let's set up a long term plan for success. So even though we call it like a five month weight program, we had to we had to have a title and we had to have a certain time commitment so we could price it out and everything. But these patients are they're committed. They're ready for a lifelong change in their health, and they're ready for to be committed to the journey. I love that. That's really.
Sammy Cosa: Cool. Now, I'm going to shift a little bit and talk about probably our favorite topic. Oh, gosh, because I know this is a part of the program and definitely an addition to renew Institute peptides.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. So that is the they're.
Sammy Cosa: A little bit that.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Is that is probably and I know that right now that a lot of these peptides Manjaro Ozempic are getting a lot of bad press with kind of some of the side effect profiles or oh my gosh, you stopped the peptide and all the weight comes back. Some of these programs are based, I shouldn't say based on peptides, but that's a part of these programs is definitely peptide therapy. Um, not, not all of the patients are using these GLP one agonists like the Ozempic. But, but but but some of the patients are and my approach and my conversation right now has been when you look to have sustainable weight loss and I'm seeing people that sometimes have up 80, 90, 100 pounds to lose. When you look at sustainable weight loss for these individuals, it's really often not more than one to maybe 4 pounds a week. When you have 100 pounds to lose and you are working your tail off at sleep, stress reduction, relaxation, nutrition, healthy movement and exercise, and you are two months in and you are down, call it 16 pounds. That's not very motivating. So we use peptides as part of a program. I don't want to say never, but I rarely if ever, prescribe peptides if it's not part of some kind of program. Right? But it is really motivating when you can get those first 20, 30 pounds off within the first two months. You know, I had one patient tell me now that I bend down to tie my shoes, to go for my daily walk, my belly isn't in my way anymore.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Do you know how motivating that is? Amber I actually look forward to tying my shoes to go for a walk. And she's someone that that was a really significant motivator to her. Right. The other the other aspect of these, we call them GLP one, we don't call them that. That's what they're called GLP one agonist, glucagon like polypeptide. They work at the level of the gut. They work with gut hormones to help stabilize blood sugar after you eat. But I'm really impressed. And the data is there and I'm seeing it anecdotally as well on what they're doing to our biomarkers of inflammation and our cardiovascular biomarkers. They're dramatically improving, getting you there more quickly than you could with with therapeutic lifestyle on its own. Things like CRP, C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation, advanced lipid markers. I mean, by and large, the number one killer of men and women is still cardiovascular disease. And so we now have tools with very minimal side effects, unbeknownst of what you're seeing on the news. They are still really minimal side effects that can help reverse some of these pre-diabetic markers. And and again, just really help with the motivation. And so. I think that that our our media likes to jump on anything that is having good success. And again, I'm never, ever going to rely on these peptides by themselves to help my patients be successful as they're doing all of the other work. But I'm impressed with what I'm seeing. They're really incredible.
Amber Warren, PA-C: I think some of the other magic of these specific peptides is what it does to decrease cravings and sometimes completely make cravings go away. And that's really empowering for patients to say, I'm no longer craving the sugar, I can do this. I cannot give in to my cravings when I drive by. I don't know the ice cream ice cream shop or whatever. I can give in, you know, not have to give in to these temptations. And I have control over what I put in my body and put in my mouth. And then there's other peptides we're using in these programs. It's by all means not just these quote unquote weight loss peptides, right? We use a lot of peptides that help to balance out hormones. We use a lot of peptides. One of my favorites right now is a peptide that's used to naturally increase growth hormone. And growth hormone is something like testosterone in that we all start to to drain out of our bodies and as early as our mid to late 30s and growth hormone is, is that hormone I was talking about earlier that that that really peaks at night and helps with our deep sleep and helps with lean body mass and very anti aging a lot of anti-aging properties and helps us build healthy strong bones and muscles. And so it's not just the cortisol and testosterone and estrogen we need to look at. It's also things like growth hormone that are really powerful and on being therapeutic in the body, right?
Sammy Cosa: Absolutely. How about supplements? Are you seeing supplements that can help and aid in weight loss?
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. So we designed this program with, you know, not everyone gets all the nine supplements that we put in this program. It's always individualized. But some of the basic supplements that we're recommending are really gut restoration supplements. So gut healing supplements, soil based probiotics, prebiotics. And a lot of times gut healers, a lot of our weight resistance patients have leaky gut or what we call dysbiosis and imbalance of gut bacteria. And that plays a huge, really significant role in metabolism. So we use a lot of gut healing supplements, mitochondrial nutrients. We actually have a multivitamin that also has a lot of mitochondrial healing herbs in it. And so that's in our program to help meet those micronutrient needs and heal our mitochondria, which are the the powerhouses of our cells and help us make ATP or make energy. So that's been really significant. I use a lot of collagen in my men and women that are trying to just gain muscle mass, really clean source of good quality protein that really supports joints and muscles, as I'm asking my patients to do maybe some more rigorous exercise programs, amino acids. I use a specific brand of amino acids that I have my patients dose first thing in the morning. It will not these these aminos don't break a fast and then have them dose it right before bed to aid in recovery. Really another really great source of proteins that helps with building lean body mass and again aiding in recovery. Um, and then I'm using a lot of electrolytes, you know, again, just helping with cellular hydration to help with just cellular health and recovery and exercise benefits. So yeah, there's a lot of different supplements we're using with Love It. Then of course we test everybody. So some people need more vitamins, some people need more magnesium, some people are needing more vitamin D, So from then it all becomes kind of individualized.
Sammy Cosa: Transform your body and change your life. With our precisely crafted five month weight loss program, our approach combines cutting edge science with personalized support, unlock newfound levels of energy and confidence. Today. To learn more, go to renew-institute.com/weight loss. Now for those that are listening right now that are struggling right they're just they've done everything and just nothing seems to be working they've they've done all the fad diets and probably done it well you know and they're still struggling. What piece of advice can you give to them? What's, you know, maybe where they feel defeated time and time and time again? Yeah. How do you renew your mindset or what advice can you have for them to restart again and maybe see things a little differently?
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Um, there's always more to look at. And I think again, that's the beauty of functional medicine. We cast a really wide net and I'd be lying if I said every single one of my weight loss patients has had great success within those first 2 or 3 months. No, I have a handful of patients where it's like the the grind of like, okay, back to the drawing board. What are we missing? And so in those patients, it's some of the things I really start to look at. I think the most significant thing I look at is toxic exposure. What's your toxic burden? Because we are living in the most toxic time in history, undoubtedly. And so we look at things like mold in the body that can be getting in the way of hormones and therefore causing weight loss resistance. We're looking at things like glyphosate, herbicides and pesticides that are just so toxic to the system. Heavy metals, um, you know, things like on the topic of heavy metals, you know, do you have any mercury in your mouth? Do you have any plastics in your mouth? Breast implants. Those are something. Breast implant illness. It is a it is a thing. And those bugaboos can carry such a significant toxic load on the body. It can be as easy as, Hey, are you drinking city water? Are you filtering your water? Are you drinking clean water? Think about how much water we consume in a day, in a week and a month. Right? So I start with what are the what what is the abundance of toxins that you're being exposed to every single day? So the water you're drinking, the food that you're eating, are you eating clean, good quality organic food? What is the laundry detergent that you're breathing on your clothes and you're sleeping on and your children are sleeping on every day.
Amber Warren, PA-C: So we really start to just I create awareness around that For women, it's a lot of lotions and potions and makeup and the amount of chemicals that we can put on our body and therefore in our body before we leave the house in the morning is astounding. So I'm just trying to bring that awareness and there's ways that we can test. We can run environmental toxicity panels that can pick up on these BPAs or the glyphosate or dry cleaning solvents that can be really damaging to our endocrine systems. We store a lot of these toxins in our endocrine organs where we where we make our hormones and our pituitary gland. And so it can be very damaging, especially for women. The other thing that we start to look at with weight loss resistance is what are other drivers of inflammation in the body that we might be missing. So for some people that might be food sensitivities. You know, you might be think you're you might think that you're eating all of the right foods. But if they're inflammatory for you, like eggs, I'm always blown away when I run some of these food sensitivity panels. They create a lot of what we call IgG or delayed hypersensitivity reactions to egg whites and egg yolks. And so if we pull out the eggs, the inflammation comes down and therefore we can start to have luck with some of the weight loss.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Unfortunately, almonds is another one that we see and a lot of times some of the multiple food sensitivities does go back to leaky gut. And if we heal the gut and seal the gut lining again, you can you can stop reacting to these foods. But it's a process and you have to pull out the offending foods first to really get get on the way to to adequate gut health. So those are those are kind of the sources of inflammation. And then looking at toxins or some of the really big things we start to look at. And then that's also where we might instead of just looking at normal blood work, we might do the advanced, you know, looking at salivary cortisol levels and really look at a full 24 hour collection of what your cortisol might look like all throughout the day, because maybe it was fine in the morning if someone checked it in your blood. Maybe you're spiking at night during bedtime with your four children, because that's a really hard time of the night for a lot of people. Right. You know that you have four kids. Yes. Yeah. So and that's also I think another another one we could put in there when we're looking at people that might be struggling is just sleep. I think that we really still underestimate. I think it's gaining more attention, but we still really underestimate quality sleep because maybe most people say, well, I get seven hours, I'm good. And my question to them is, are you dreaming? And are you recalling your dreams? Right. It's really interesting.
Amber Warren, PA-C: We talk about this stage three, stage four, deep, deep sleep, where literally your body is detoxing. You're making hormones. Your cells are healing. In this stage three, stage four sleep, there's three people that can't get there in flame. People, autoimmune people that had autoimmune issues and people that are really stressed out. I don't know many people that don't live in at least one of those camps. And so a lot of us are really struggling, getting that deep, powerful sleep. And so, of course, there's just basic recommendations like balancing your circadian rhythms, getting natural sunlight in the morning, getting off these horrifically damaging blue screens at night. But there's actually peptides that we can use that can help increase that deep, deep sleep. And it's amazing when we, you know, a couple weeks into putting people on these these peptides at night, oh my gosh, I've never dreamt like this in all of my life. And guess what? All of my brain fog is gone. And I'm like, Well, that's because your brain's able to take out the trash, you know, like your brain's detoxing at night. So that was that was the source of your brain fog. And then we're getting you deep sleep and all of a sudden you're waking up and your cortisol is now low in the morning and and you start to lose the weight instead of it being sky high when you first wake up in the morning. So it's yeah, there's a lot of different things we look at. Again, not individualized. It's all or not not it's all individualized medicine, I should say. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Sammy Cosa: I love your passion, Amber.
Amber Warren, PA-C: I could go on and on.
Sammy Cosa: No, I love it. Part two Coming soon. Yeah. I want to ask, what is your favorite part about what you do? What's your. Just go home. You're like, I'm just. I love today because of this.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. It's honestly being a part of my patients like, aha moments and whether that aha is like, oh my gosh, my cycles are normal and I feel like a normal human or that aha is. Oh, I get it that my insulin's been high this whole time and I haven't been able to lose the weight or. Oh, I've been fatigued this whole time or Oh, I just needed a little bit of bioidentical testosterone to finally get my libido back and, like, want to be with my husband. I mean, those those are the aha moments that I'm like, I live for this. Like, I get to be a part of that journey in my patients lives. And it's a really, really, really huge honor.
Sammy Cosa: So cool. Well, I know that you usually ask this question and I'm going to turn it right back to you now. Amber Warren, what one piece of advice, if you can give it to our listeners listening today, that you can say, man, if you do this one thing, it can drastically change your tomorrow and the rest of your life. What is that one thing that you would recommend to really move the needle in someone's life?
Amber Warren, PA-C: It's so hard to identify one thing, but something that I think resonates with me personally, selfishly, but a lot of my patients is we talk about stress management techniques and the absence of of of of stress in our lives. And that's not really a realistic expectation. Right? We can't actually take away the stress because a lot of our stress is, is just the jobs that we may love but are stressful. The family that we love that are stressful, the spouse that we love, but gosh dang it, they can be stressful sometimes. So I think my my conversation with my patients is to reframe it and to say, let's not talk about how we're going to reduce stress in your life. Let's talk about how we're going to bring in relaxation. Because if we can bring in relaxation, that's going to dramatically decrease the impact that that stress and that cortisol, that stress hormone has on your body. So when can you do more of of nothing? When can you go outside and sit in the grass when your kids are playing catch and just watch them and feel the grass around you and look at the birds above you and smell the air around you and listen to your children laughing instead of thinking about what you have to make for dinner, the laundry you have to do. Um, and just be present and just be and be. Be human and just take it all in. You know, take your shoes off and stand on the ground. We call that earthing grounding. And it sounds really hippie, but man.
Sammy Cosa: Having to come back.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Though, does it is having to come back. And man, when you look at the data, does it have profound impact on your health? So yeah, bring in more relaxation. Stop worrying about being stress free because it's never going to happen.
Sammy Cosa: I think that's a huge thing that our generation has really lost is we've become so robotic totally and we've lost our humanity. And I think going back to just the basics that can be so foreign and that's what the beauty of functional medicine is, is going back to the basics, I believe going to the root cause and really transforming lives, which you do that so well. So absolutely. Thank you for doing what you do. Amber Warren.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Thanks for all you.
Sammy Cosa: Do, Sammy, and thank you. I'm just so grateful to partner with you and Sam and Olive renew and just yeah, just exciting things have yet to come. And this is just the beginning. So thank you for joining in today on your podcast.
Amber Warren, PA-C: For making me do this. Of course. You're very welcome. Forest, my friends.
Sammy Cosa: All right, listen to part two coming soon, okay?
Amber Warren, PA-C: Thank you for listening to the Functional Medicine Foundations podcast. For more information on topics covered today, programs offered at Renew Institute and the highest quality of supplements and more go to fund med foundations.com.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Thank you. Yeah, it's awesome. Thanks, guys. Thank you for listening to the Functional Medicine Foundations Podcast. For more information on topics covered today, programs offered at Renew Institute and the highest quality of supplements and more go to fundmedfoundations.com.
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