34.2 Functional Medicine with Patient/Physician/Cancer Survivor, Dr. Jill Carnahan, MD
In Part 2 of my series interviewing Dr. Jill Carnahan, a functional/integrative family/internal medicine physician and breast cancer survivor, we continue in our discussion on the blending of Western medicine with holistic/functional/integrative approaches. Jill discusses her favorite labs to obtain to further investigate the gut microbiome, with her number one choice being a comprehensive stool sample analysis to reveal multiple various causes of inflammation in the gut, which extends into our entire body (and don't worry patients and providers, the sample is sent directly to the lab with results then sent to the provider). We further discuss the devastating role of excess inflammation on the gut, brain, and body, with approaches like cutting soda intake, supplementing deficiencies, and connecting patients to their values as crucial and outcome-moving treatments for our patients. We discuss the anti-inflammatory role of Lithium supplementation in treating mental health symptoms like anxiety, as well as medical/gut problems such as Crohn's disease, colitis, or inflammatory bowel disease. Join us for Part 2 of our discussion, hope you enjoy! with an incredible medical origin story. During medical school, Jill was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer, and fought through treatment while continuing her medical school journey. Treatment was effective, but led to severe side effects/consequences in the form of Crohn's Disease, a type of inflammatory bowel disease that causes digestive tract inflammation and sometimes requiring major abdominal surgery to resect diseased parts of the bowel. Through all of this, Dr. Carnahan persevered, and used her experiences to improve her knowledge and understanding of what patient's need in her blend of holistic and Western medicine approaches. She very much takes a preventive and root-cause approach to her patient's care, as opposed to just identifying and treating symptoms. She recognizes the role of inflammation in our rising rates of chronic disease and mental illness and works to reduce inflammation in a flexible way with her patients, offering a multitude of potential treatment options. She utilizes functional labs to target direct/root causes of illness and, like me, is a big proponent of utilizing nutritional and low doses of lithium to improve mental and physical health outcomes. I hope you enjoy. Come back next week for Part 2! If you're passionate about what we do here at Renegade Psych, we're now on Patreon! If you’d like to support our work, you can! Or not... I'll continue putting out content as long as my other jobs pay the bills. Other things you can do: liking, commenting, and sharing our posts also go a long way! https://patreon.com/RenegadePsych. Thanks for listening to the audio podcast... You should check out our posted video podcast on YouTube (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCaZ1bds1MGMM4tSbY7ISqug) as there are graphics overlaying the video to make it all more interactive and educational. For more social media content, check us out on all social media platforms @RenegadePsych. If you have any comments, questions or challenges to the information we've presented here, if you'd like to be a guest to the show, or if you have general comments, questions, or suggestions, email us at [email protected] and follow the link https://renegade-psych.podcastpage.io/ to our website for source material, transcripts, and additional links for my guests. If you feel passionate about our message and what we're trying to do, and you'd like to donate, you can also follow the link in the show notes to our website. Disclaimer, this podcast is for informational purposes only. The information provided in this podcast and related materials are meant only to educate. This information is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice. While I am a medical doctor and many of my guests have extensive medical training and experience, nothing stated in this podcast nor materials related to this podcast, including recommended websites, texts, graphics, images, or any other materials should be treated as a substitute for professional medical or psychological advice, diagnosis or treatment. All listeners should consult with a medical professional, licensed mental health provider or other healthcare provider if seeking medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment