Latest / The Lauren Castle Show / You Don't Need Another Certification to Become a Functional Medicine Pharmacist

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You Don't Need Another Certification to Become a Functional Medicine Pharmacist · The Lauren Castle Show

• speaker-0: And what I learned is that just because I can carry something doesn't mean that it's mine to carry. That was a fun life lesson. ⁓ and just because I can solve a problem doesn't mean that it's actually my problem to solve. And it's interesting how whenever we don't take the action because we're questioning the timing of it, you know, how we'll start to make that into part of our identity. And Costa Rica was fantastic for me. I thought that I was not a morning person. I just self-identified as that. ⁓ and it turns out if there are howler monkeys and pour over coffee in the Pacific Ocean in a beautiful sunrise, I was up every day early in the morning going to the beach. So it was the first time in my life that I had started questioning some of the labels that I had put on to myself. And I think it's it's also interesting walking away from a business or, you know, any of those big transitions that we've both been through, what self-identified labels that we might put on there. speaker-1: Welcome to the Loren Castle Show, a podcast for people on a path to well-being, body, mind, heart, and soul. Join us for conversations at the intersection of pharmacy, functional medicine, and psychedelics. My hope is that each episode will leave you feeling inspired to step into your power, speak your truth, and live your most authentic life. Let's begin. Welcome back to another episode of the Loren Castle Show. We return with another one of our special guests, Miss Jessica Mills. She is a doctor of pharmacy, a doctor of naturopathy. She has been an independent pharmacy owner and currently works in community pharmacy. We have known each other for over four years now and have been on stages together. We've been in Costa Rica together. We've been at conferences together. And we're gonna get into all of it today. But most importantly, she is also our clinical educator for the Functional Medicine Pharmacist Alliance, as well as one of our regional coaches. And everything that we do would not be possible without her and her amazing expertise. So we're gonna get into all of that today. But welcome, Jessica. Thank you for being here. speaker-0: Thank you. Thank you for having me. I'm super excited. speaker-1: Yeah, you and I go way back. and I remember when we met at the Pharmacy Profit Summit, I was so excited to finally meet you in person. I think I had been following your work for a long time, and I was just so fascinated by the fact that you had both of these degrees, both of these backgrounds, you know, the pharmacy piece, but also the naturopathy. And so I would love for you to just start out and tell us a little bit of your background, how you got into pharmacy. I know it was a family business. ⁓ but then also how you started to transition into this functional medicine and kind of natural medicine space. speaker-0: Yeah. So first, thank you for having me. ⁓ super excited. And yes, I remember going to Dallas and talking about it. And you also had the structure of what functional medicine was and how to approach it from a systems based. And what's interesting is after that meeting, it really taught me, like in pharmacy, I would always, you know, we didn't want to be reliant on a person. We wanted to build out the system. And so you had this systematized version of functional medicine and these different pieces. And so it was Fantastic. It actually changed the way that I practiced and then got me here today. So thank you. so for me, my dad was a pharmacist, my parents sounded independent. And so whenever, you know, we all have that first high school job. And, you know, waking up on Saturday mornings, it was easy. Like I loved going to the family to the family pharmacy. I love going and working. And so whenever it became time to choose, you know, what the career choice was, I ⁓ it was easy. I chose pharmacy. And so I went through, you know, college and pharmacy school, came back, ⁓ immediately had some interesting hurdles and opportunities for growth and resistance and challenges to overcome. And so that happened. I kind of got my bearings a little bit, figured out how to own an independent pharmacy. ⁓ and then in 2016, my dad was diagnosed with recurrent non-Hodgkins lymphoma. And so he went to Vanderbilt, they did everything that they could. ⁓ and then basically said we don't know what else to do. He could try MD Anderson if he wanted to for, you know, an experimental treatment with linolitamide, or, you know, you could just go home, but you've got about six weeks. And I was pregnant with my first child. so at that moment, ⁓ we actually went to a mentor that I had and she was a massage therapist, but also a naturopath. And I'd never heard of a naturopath before. We go in, ⁓ and she sits down with dad and me and the whole family and makes a care plan. And so we start making this plan and he starts getting better and he doesn't die in six weeks. And I become fascinated with this like other, you know, version of how to treat humans and and not just, you know, what is the clinical treatment plan, but what is the actual human care plan. And so at that moment, that's when I decided to get a a degree. So I got a doctorate in naturopathy. ⁓ and you know, we started working together and and figuring out what to do and From that point, I decided that I wanted to open up a, and I didn't really know the term functional medicine. This is in like 2016, 2017. ⁓ but I wanted to open up a holistic, whole person care-based business that was a brick and mortar that would also have, you know, a nurse practitioner, physician, and to incorporate that for my pharmacy patients. And so we did that for a little bit. So I owned the medical practice as well as the pharmacy. And in 2020, unfortunately, he did pass away. ⁓ but that was after, you know, a lot of learning, a lot of education. We went to multiple different places. I went to a lot of conferences. When you, when you have that why as to, you know, a person that you love and caring for someone that you love, it really teaches you. And what I didn't know until then was the difference between knowing what needs to happen for someone to heal versus being able to force them to heal, very different, very different process. And so Really, it was learning a lot about boundaries, learning a lot about how to balance caring for someone versus allowing them to walk in their own path and to be able to heal themselves. ⁓ while also still seeing patients every day, whether in the practice as a functional medicine provider or as a pharmacist in retail settings, and be able to meet people where they are and be able to explain to them why they got sick. ⁓ and really it's just being able to ask a lot of really good questions. So That's kind of how and why I got into this whole thing. ⁓ I think you have a similar story with it being your husband that, you know, he was having some symptoms and you wanted to figure out why somebody was sick. And so figuring out why they're sick versus being able to support them in their healing, learning all of those lessons and really that that humble, you know, I think owning the functional medicine practice really taught me humility. ⁓ because as much as it was also functional medicine and clinical reasoning and care plans, it was also how to meet people where they are and how to establish boundaries and what sustainability looks like. And I learned a lot about myself and a lot about the capacity that I had. So that's that's how we got into this. and as we were doing that in the practice, there were nurse practitioners and they were, they were, you know, very curious, very excited about what outcomes we were able to see in our patients using a functional medicine approach. So from there, it really evolved more into teaching. And so being able to teach the basics of functional medicine and how you can actually apply it to each patient interaction, whether they came in, you know, for functional medicine or not. ⁓ but being able to ask the questions, being able to start thinking in a systems mentality and being able to really kind of meet the whole person and discuss the other things like lifestyle and what was going on, you know, how much stress they had, things like that. So that's really where the education piece came in is because I had nurse practitioners in my practice that wanted to learn more about what I was doing. And so that's really where the the teaching part really happened organically as well. speaker-1: Yeah, I love that. And, you know, whenever I first discovered functional medicine, I wasn't really familiar with the naturopathy mindset or mentality. And I sort of learned about it actually through James Maskell in his books. He wrote The Community Cure and The Evolution of Medicine. And he talked about, you know, this sort of therapeutic order. It's like a a pyramid or a triangle. And it talks about how, you know, in this particular school of thought, we're going to use the lowest level interventions first. Right. And so it it really made a ton of sense to me. And that was something I I did incorporate into my own version of like, how do we do MTM through a functional medicine lens? And some of it does come back to have we truly exhausted all the options before we resort to prescriptions? And it's not to say that prescriptions are bad or they don't have a place, but they are very powerful. And when you start to understand, you know. These substances and the way that they work and the way that they interact, and some of the more innate wisdom that our own body has and that sometimes natural medicines can have, it can make sense for an individual patient that we might want to start with a gentler approach, so to speak. So it really just clicked with me and and I've sort of brought that into the way I practice. ⁓ so I love that there's, you know, this this back and forth flow. I'm also really curious to hear more about the collaboration. So, you know, we talk about functional medicine practice models a lot, particularly within our boot camp, ⁓ which, spoiler alert, is getting ready to open for enrollment for our fall cohort. And one of the models that I'm really curious about, and I think that there's so much potential for, is this collaborative practice, particularly between pharmacists and Practitioners like nurse practitioners or PAs who are sort of at that quote unquote mid level. I know I think a lot of us don't even like to use that word because what does that mean? Right? Like nobody's mid. Like everybody's practicing, you know, at the top of our own scopes and ultimately helping to make healthcare more accessible and more affordable and really freeing up physicians to practice at the top of their scopes as well. But I just think nurse practitioners and pharmacists make such a good preparing for collaboration because we have more of that therapeutic knowledge of the drug therapies. And the nurse practitioners are going to have more of that nursing care model, the diagnostic side of things. And so when you really marry those two together, it is so complementary. And so I would love to hear more about what that looks like. You know, you were running this out of a wellness center, right? Independent pharmacy plus the clinic side of things. And I think a lot of pharmacists listening or even other healthcare practitioners, right? This podcast is not meant only for pharmacists. It is meant for any healthcare practitioners who want to learn how to collaborate with pharmacists. Maybe you've never thought of that before. And even patients who oftentimes, you know, have to wait months to get a doctor's appointment to see their physician and often get sent to see the nurse practitioner in the meantime. But what if you could walk into your pharmacy and be seen? and get all of your needs taken care of, right? For for more minor things or for lifestyle related conditions or, you know, chronic disease management, right? I just think there's so much possibility here. So tell us more about all of that. speaker-0: Yeah. So we had it structured to where if somebody wanted just a regular, we called it an ⁓ visit. ⁓ because that apparently meant something to nurse practitioners in the medical billing, because I was completely, you know, unfamiliar with that. ⁓ but if they were coming in for like school physicals or if they were just acutely ill, they had, you know, bronchitis or the flu or something, ⁓ they would typically come in and they could make that appointment with them. Basically, it was being able to explain the the lens in which I saw things through a functional medicine as well as a naturopathic type of lens of yes, there's the therapeutic order of the body. What's the least intervention we can do to have the best possible outcome? What are the goals that this patient has? And when they're acutely ill, it's pretty simple. They just don't want to be sick anymore. They want to go back to work, back to being able to take care of their family, all that good stuff. ⁓ so they could make that visit if they came in with any sort of a chronic disease though. So hypertension. high cholesterol, ⁓ diabetes specifically, metabolic dysfunction, hormone issues, that's whenever we would start to, you know, make sure that they would do a a different intake. And so basically the intake form was the main first piece that they would start to delve into a little bit more about their lifestyle. And we would typically make those visits more like a 30 to 45 minute appointment instead of just a quick 15 minute appointment. So being able to train the staff up at the front to say, hey, what are the needs? What are you looking for? And to be able to recognize like, is this a lifestyle, you know, problem? Is this a chronic illness? Is this something that, you know, we can support in multiple ways besides just immediate acute care? Because we're really, really great in this country at acute care. But being able to manage chronic conditions, totally separate ballgame. So then at that point, a lot of times the nurse practitioners, especially with PCOS, which is now a metabolic issue that's been recognized now finally, ⁓ if they had hormone issues, infertility. ⁓ diabetes that was not really well managed was just like monotherapy, or they wanted to explore what their options were. They were tired of killing their brush border enzymes with metformin. They called it gut problems, but here we are. then at that point, they would also make a referral to me. And I'm sitting in the same practice, so it it made sense. ⁓ they could come in and we could discuss lifestyle medicine. So as the pharmacist and as a naturopath, I was more on the what can we look at as far as your lifestyle? What is the diet nutrition look like? ⁓ what kind of exercise or activity? How are we moving our body? What questions about supplementation do you have? What medications are you on? Is there any drug-induced nutrient depletion? It was basically an in-person MTM, but also with lifestyle interventions included with that. And the majority of people absolutely loved it. ⁓ I think for most people, they would come in and they they had a lot of questions about supplements. And so I had to get really familiar with what supplements, you know. That would actually had evidence-based information available about them, which ones were beneficial, which ones weren't. And so we had the best part about the collaboration was truly the inner office communication. And so I would see a patient that was referred over to me. If they came to me first as a naturopath because they were struggling with this, a lot of the people that came to me, they had an issue with people in modern Western medicine. ⁓ they'd already seen multiple doctors, multiple specialists, and they were looking for something totally different. So I was able to recommend full thyroid panels instead of just a TSH. And so from the lab recommendations that we would make, from the different talks about supplementation, from drug-induced nutrient depletion, these were all things that none of my providers were educated about or really, really well trained in. And so they appreciated being able to kind of hand that off to me. And then I was able to refer them out for any kind of labs, any kind of testing, ⁓ or any kind of prescription medications that were needed. And then From the two of us, we would be able to say, hey, they're doing better. This is now what their concern is. This symptom resolved, but now they're experiencing this. Or, you know, they contacted us over the weekend and they sent this in. We might want to get them in for an appointment. ⁓ so we were able to really have more touch points with the patients. And that's really where a lot of the great outcomes came from. We had a lot of autoimmune patients, we had a lot of cancer patients, we had a lot of people that had really medically compet complex conditions, and they felt like, that they had an entire care team that would support them and that, you know, saw them and heard them and could respond and could help and was there to support instead of just one person calling, trying to get an appointment, being told it would be a couple months and, you know, then having 15 minutes of face-to-face time. So I think it's going to be as our generation gets older, the future of what medicine can look like because that's the type of care. And everyone in our office understood the golden rule, which is Hey, if this was my loved one, because at one point it was my dad. It was my loved one. And then whenever it was my children, it was my loved one. So how can we treat every person that's in front of us, meet them where they are, help educate and empower them to take control of their own health? That was our mission. ⁓ and then be able to have enough inner office communication, enough touch points. Obviously, we could refer out, and we did refer out and collaborate with other people in the community. We found holistic dentists, we found oromyofascial specialist. ⁓ we worked a lot with physical therapists and massage therapists. So our network grew to this massive community of people and resources. So no one ever left our building feeling like they had less information than when they first came in. And they always had the next right thing or the next best step to take. And so I think it provided the clarity, the certainty, the support, the security that a lot of patients are looking for, but they also got an education and they also were empowered too. So it was there was definitely a ton of rewarding parts that came from it. Our patients, they ⁓ always call it like a cult. They were like a cult like following. ⁓ they were great. And so ⁓ it was it was hard to transition that. ⁓ rent is high and you know, providers and everyone has to move on based on what their personal needs are and you know, being able to show up for your families. And I think that we were giving so much and working. I mean, I was working sixty to a hundred hours a week and had three kids under the age of four. So, you know, that's really where the humility and the boundaries and the I thought that establishing boundaries was okay, well, I just don't care enough. ⁓ but what I learned is that boundaries are absolutely essential in being able to support your patients, but also without abandoning yourself. And so I think sometimes it's easy for a whole group to get caught up in a mission and not pour into themselves, not be able to have enough time for them or their families. And eventually that imbalance starts to play out in life. And so we did have to eventually close down the practice. ⁓ and it was it was a tough decision, but it was what was best for everyone. And so it was learning, you know, if we had done this a little bit different, if we had maybe, you know, the what ifs can can always come in at any level for any professional. But the collaboration was fantastic. Being able to get those patient outcomes was amazing. And so it's a great model. Now that I've learned from, you know, doing it and just we just ran through the fence. We just did it. We just went and, you know, took care of whoever walked into our door. ⁓ and what I did learn is that having the clinical ability to help people and educate and empower and treat people is very different than the business skills that are required to be able to have a sustainable functional medicine practice. ⁓ and so I think it's it's wise like in FMPHA. We've got the business curriculum and then we also have the clinical curriculum because again, you know, learning how to clinically take care of someone is very different than how to sustainably run it, how often you're gonna show up. And I learned that each person, my nurse practitioners, my patients, and myself, we all have a certain capacity. And if we're not doing the things to be able to increase our capacity and to honor it, then that's when, you know, the sustainability piece becomes a question. So It was it was a great collaboration and ⁓ I'm very grateful that I I have the knowledge, I have the wisdom, I've learned from it and look forward to being able to build intentionally. I've learned how to refer patients out and how to be able to educate and empower them in the position of a retail pharmacist without, you know, and then I still get to clock out and I still get to go home and I still can play on the floor with my kids. And so that was the part that I did not know back in, you know, those years. So It's it's a great model and there's just a few cautionary things that you always have to take care of you and your capacity first before you can pour from an empty cup. speaker-1: Mm-hmm. Man, so much gold. And it's like this is what I love about our community, right? Is like we don't gatekeep. Like we are here to share all of the realness and the lessons and the heart shape the hardships and the heartbreak. Because none of this is easy in the sense that if it was, everyone would be doing it and all of these models would just be perfectly figured out. But we know that is not. the world that we live in today, that healthcare is very complex and being a human being is very complex. And so it really does come down to assessing and understanding what matters the most to you. And it's so easy, I think, for a lot of us that are, you know, very ambitious and and have these big dreams and goals to just go for it. And You know, there's there's a lot of dopamine that comes with being an entrepreneur. I've I've been talking about this lately with some other people and it can feel really exciting, but at a certain point you have to pause and ask yourself, wait a second, what am I really doing this for? And it's easy to fall into that trap of just, you know, this flywheel that starts going and and then at some point it's like, okay, well, wait a second. We need to take a step back. We need to understand, you know, what matters the most to us. And so I just think it's so brave, you know, as well. Like the hardest thing to do sometimes is walk away. And, you know, I myself was just posting about that on social media this week and how, you know, at that time that we connected, like we were both going through a lot in our personal lives and professional lives. You know, for me, like I related so much to you because my mom passed away ⁓ in 2021 and it just completely flipped my whole world upside down. That was the whole reason that I showed up to Costa Rica in 2023. and you know, it's kind of funny that that timeline of when we first met in Dallas in August of 22 to then reconnecting in Costa Rica on Blair's retreat in February of 2023. I went through a complete transformation myself. That was when I started working with psychedelics and kind of questioning everything about like my work that I was doing at Walmart and ⁓ you know, transitioning between my social media job that I had taken and going back into being a pharmacist as well, which, you know, I I never thought I would do. Like I thought after I stepped down from being, you know, a corporate manager and doing my functional medicine project at home office, and then going into this like remote marketing job, like I never thought I would actually go back to working as a pharmacist. And so going back to the bench was so foreign and yet Just like you said, I was like, ⁓ wait a second. This is a cakewalk. This is a cakewalk compared to what I was putting myself through for years trying to be a district manager and run 12 stores and manage a team of 20 people with 200 reports under them. I was like, I can fill prescriptions in my sleep and I can counsel people on functional medicine in my sleep. And it felt amazing. Like I Then came back to work with this whole new energy of being able to show up without all of that responsibility of being the one in charge and being the one that had to manage everything. Like I could be a superstar staff pharmacist. And it really was just this moment of humility, exactly like you said. You know, I think we probably were raised in a very similar way. Like I love my dad, kudos to him. He listens to every episode. And I always saw him being someone who was like sh, you know, shooting for the moon and climbing the ladders and being the manager and supporting teams and winning awards. Like he had all these trophies on, you know, the nightstand growing up for all the awards he won at work. And I was like, ⁓ that's what grown-ups do. That's that's what I'm gonna do one day. And I did it. Like I I did all of that. And then I realized, That was great. And now, like, I can say I've checked the box, I've done the things. I just want to show up and help people. Like that's what I really want to do now. So yeah, we we really bonded during our time in Costa Rica and we got to be roommates, which was like so perfect. You know, everything everything happens for a reason and I loved that. And so fast forward, you know, a couple of years, we spent more time going to A4M conferences and you know, hanging out, having fun at those types of events. And then this past year, you know, we've we've kept in touch over all this time as you were, you know, going through your transitions and I was going through mine. And then finally, me stepping away from Walmart, which, you know, again, it was a whole thing where it was like, okay, now I have this conflict of interest, even though I had gotten legal permission to do. what I was doing from their corporate people that, ⁓ never mind, we changed our mind. You have to choose, right? Are you gonna stay and be a staff pharmacist or are you gonna walk away and go lead F and PHA? So I walked away and I knew that was really just a sign, right? Of like, I'm gonna go all in on this vision. But I also quickly realized like I can't do this alone. I can't scale this business to its full potential by myself because I don't know everything that there is to know. I know my way of practicing functional medicine, my community pharmacy background, my nutrition background, my business background. I did a business minor in pharmacy school and was writing award winning business plans for my N CPA chapter. Like I, that is my jam. Yeah. Clinical teaching is not my jam. And that was another moment of humility that I really had to be honest with myself about the things that I love and the things that light me up. Like I love teaching the basics to my patients, like lifestyle changes, you know, nutrition basics, like all of those things, you know, entry level disease state things, like I really enjoyed hypertension, cholesterol. Diabetes, you know, things that I felt were very like foundational to chronic illness. ⁓ those are all my jams. The more what I consider to be complex sort of disease states, whether that's hormone related things, not a fan, right? I was like, ⁓ this is this is too much. Like, I don't want to deal with this. Even as a woman, right? Eventually you realize in functional medicine it's all connected. You can't escape any of it. But we all start somewhere different on that circle of healing. And eventually you will make your way around to touching all of it and coming, you know, into contact with all of it. and so for me, like as I really assessed all of that and I was like, okay, one of the pieces of feedback that we kept getting with our original bootcamp. Was the business content is so amazing, but I don't feel fully ready to start a business. I really just want to dip my toes in and learn the clinical basics of functional medicine, you know, especially before I go spend $20,000 on a certification or a master's degree, you know, years of time. I just I want to learn the basics. And so we kind of had. Some of our basic lectures and things that I had done over the years. But eventually I was like, you know what? I just, I need to ask. Like, I just need to find someone who can teach. And we had kind of been bouncing this idea back and forth literally for years because you were saying, like, I have a whole curriculum in my head. And I was like, you do. I do. I have a whole platform that needs a curriculum. And so we finally, I did a ⁓ Tony Robbins like virtual coaching thing back in ⁓ the winter of 2025 or no twenty twenty six this past year. ⁓ and it it just like came out of nowhere. And it was like, call Jessica and like get this thing done. Like quit sitting on the idea that you've had to make this comprehensive program. Quit holding yourself back and thinking, ⁓ someone else is gonna create this resource for pharmacists. Quit holding yourself back thinking that you have to be the one in front of the camera teaching every single lesson. Like, nope. Just find the right people that can use their skills and use their talent and use their knowledge to help bring this forward. And that's exactly what we did. And you literally whipped out a whole clinical curriculum in like weeks, like a matter of weeks. speaker-0: Which is great because ⁓ like you're talking about the divinely inspired action. I've had this like desire and I've I've been there. I've taught practitioners the basics of functional medicine. So like there's a reason that I had the skills and it was because I needed it. And I just, you know, whenever you have a need, I just I just make things. And so thank you for presenting the need because then I was able to get it from my head into an actual format with the platform that you have. Cause as much as you don't like teaching the really, really complex things and and doing that. I cannot stand sitting in front of a laptop and trying to figure out how Kajabi works and what kind of platform it's gonna be and who does this. And so I think it's been a perfect like combination, collaboration of your strengths and your passions and then my strengths and my passions and being able to bring it together. And it's for the benefit of everyone else. So it works and obviously for us too, but it it works really, really well. And so no, I'm I'm eternally grateful for it because Yeah, I I finally had the need and and the actual person saying, Hey, put this down because I've been wanting to do it for years. ⁓ but you know, it's more fun to go outside and play with the kids and it's more fun to go and, you know, text this one. It's more fun to go and learn all the all the complex, you know, things and go to A for ⁓ and learn all these different things and network. And and so I think there's there's something to be said about taking that divinely inspired action and when it's time, it's time and being able to show up whenever, you know, I'd I'd held so much, I don't know, shame maybe, ⁓ or had said, ⁓ I I self-identified as a procrastinator because I hadn't actually put a program like this together, even though I had the skills. And what I learned is that just because I can carry something doesn't mean that it's mine to carry. That was a fun life lesson. ⁓ and just because I can solve a problem doesn't mean that it's actually my problem to solve. And it's interesting how whenever we don't take the action because we're questioning the timing of it. you know, how we'll start to make that into part of our identity. And Costa Rica was fantastic for me. I thought that I was not a morning person. I just self-identified as that. ⁓ and it turns out if there are howler monkeys and pour over coffee in the Pacific Ocean and a beautiful sunrise, I was up every day early in the morning going to the beach. So it was it was the first time in my life that I had started questioning some of the labels that I had put onto myself. And I think it's it's also interesting walking away from a business or You know, any of those big transitions that we've both been through, what self-identified labels that we might put on there that you're able to kind of question. And so it's it's been a really fun season. It's been really great just being able to put down the actual curriculum. And the whole time I'm making it, I'm like, this is too basic. Everyone knows this. And so then it's like, ⁓ no, like it's it's interesting how sometimes I get pulled into, you know, it explaining and understanding the complexities. when really I think your word last year was simplify. And so being able to pull it back down into simplifying. And, you know, as the high achieving, I should be having this career and this business and all of these things. And actually like I just took on a role of being a, you know, community retail pharmacist at a chain drugstore. ⁓ because I love the structure, I love the benefits that it provides. And I also am going to have the free time to be able to do what I want. So being able to simplify it and not make that mean something about me. that was that was a fun lesson that, you know, twenty twenty five and twenty six so far has has been really showing is that it doesn't have to mean something if it's sustainability, if you're simplifying for that, you know? speaker-1: Mm. Yeah. Simplicity really is it's very much at the core of what I do. So I am a huge like human design, gene keys astrology nerd. That has been my sort of like life practice for the last, gosh, since 2019. go back and listen to your episode with Nicole Graham if you don't know what human design is. and one of my gene keys is actually simplicity. Or simplicity ⁓ and you know, quintessence. Like what is when you really get down to like the heart of it, what matters? And that's exactly what I'm here to do. And that's, I think what we do so well in the bootcamp program is we take all of the complexity of functional medicine and really simplify it into what is it that you need to know as a pharmacist to get started on this path? And to build this into a sustainable practice for yourself, whether you're implementing it in retail community pharmacy, whether you're in independent pharmacy, whether you're working in health systems and you're trying to build something like Cleveland Clinic's Functional Medicine Center, whether you're wanting to build a virtual practice, you know, whatever it is, it's the same sort of operating system, or you know, we call it the functional foundations framework that you Poined and I just love that, right? Because we're looking at the systems, the signals, the patterns, the priority, the plan. Like it matches and it mirrors and it flows so well with what we already do as pharmacists. Again, through that, you know, patient care process, through the MTM lens. And then no matter what functional medicine schools or trainings you go to, they're all teaching the same sort of process as well, which is just. How do you look at the whole picture? And then how do you, you know, streamline it and understand what's happening in the body? How are things connected? And what is it that we're actually going to be able to help the patient see and understand? And really just educate them and then create that plan to put the pieces together, right? And again, our bodies are wise. So I love how you teach that like the symptoms that we see that In pharmacy school, we tend to just treat as, you know, like something that needs to go away. ⁓ if you have a cough, here, take dextromethorphan. Let's just literally cut off your nervous system's ability to cough. Like you don't need to cough. Let's just, let's just quiet that down, right? And again, time and a place for everything. Thank goodness. For cough syrups, whenever I was coughing my lungs up with COVID and could not sleep enough, right? Time and a place. But also there's a physiologic mechanism that happens whenever we need to cough and expel things from our lungs, right? So it's just it's such a a unique way of starting to shift your thinking as a pharmacist. ⁓ and you just teach that so well. speaker-0: Thank you. Yeah. I from being drawn to the complexities and then building a life that was too complex because I would get caught up in the complexities. Looking at it whenever you told me, you know, like, hey, we want to start doing the clinical teaching for F and PHA, I'm like, we've got to develop a framework. Like I I had to literally step away from some things, have enough, you know, bravery and courage to be able to say, no, this is what I actually need. It's it's really hard and it takes a lot of courage to live that values driven life. ⁓ being able to figure out what it is that truly matters, what the intention is, and being intentional with your decisions. And so being intentional from whenever you said, hey, here's the need, here's what we're wanting to do. I was like, well, I've created a framework for basically everything else that's in my life because it was too complex. So how do we take something as complex as functional medicine and how do we get it into a system? And I think every pharmacist that I know enjoys having a system. And we're very systematized, you know, systematized people We like thinking in that way, if A, then B, you know, if this then that. And so being able to kind of take all of that complex, it's what I learned to do for medical writing. And that's that's what we all do every day as pharmacists anyway, when we're explaining the side effects and how this chemical medication is going to change the physiology of your body. We have to take those complex things and be able to, you know, drill it down into a simplified way of explaining it so that they can understand. And so I wanted to do the same thing and have a framework that was you know, scalable and teachable and made sense and was an easier way to think. That way, functional medicine, it's such a big term and such a, you know, just a word cloud. But at the end of the day, it really represents a different way of approaching and thinking and seeing and perceiving, you know, the opportunities that are in front of you, whether that's your patients, whether it's your own health, whether it's taking care of a loved one, but being able to ask the, you know, question why enough times to really get down to what's at the core of it. And so I wanted to develop that framework. And so it made sense that instead of just symptom suppression, which is what we're all really well trained at knowing which medication we'll do, is what is that symptom? If we interpret it as a signal, what is it telling our body? What symptom, you know, what actual system in the body is screaming out and needs support? And then what's our plan? How do we actually support that? And what's the hierarchy? How do we, and I think that's the hardest part for new functional medicine practitioners is You know, someone walks in the door with 10 different things that are going on, what am I going to prioritize first? And so being able to understand the five main systems of the body, how those actually relate to each other, how they're all interconnected. But if you don't support this, then this one is not going to be able. And, you know, learning how to think upstream, being able to get all of those topics and then teaching it with a time and the space that, you know, the boot camp actually provides and having those implementation weeks. Plus being able to ask any kind of questions. That was that's something that it's my favorite thing. I love being on the phone calls and and answering questions, whether it's helped me understand this concept or I saw this patient and I we haven't talked about it. So what's your take on that? I love being able to provide that expertise because at the end of the day I can't see every patient. ⁓ nor do I want to anymore. I don't have the capacity for that. And so being able to help educate people and, you know, step in that role as the confident provider that can explain these things. ⁓ and at pharmacist, you know, we're at this intersection of a treatment plan and a patient's real life. And so how do we actually facilitate and walk with them during their own transformation and during their own healing journey while meeting them where they are and being able to be evidence informed, but also empathetic. And for me, understanding physiology, understanding and putting it into a framework and understanding the hierarchy of needs, that to me made the most sense to be able to walk with that patient. through that intersection so that their real life, you know, and the treatment plan can integrate and they can implement both of those together. speaker-1: So yeah. Yeah. I love it. And, you know, you mentioned briefly the five foundational systems that are in there. So within this framework, you know, this operating system, we really also sort of simplify the way that the body works. You know, I think in pharmacy school everything is so compartmentalized between like drug classes and, you know, whether it's treating s very specific disease states and then you've got all these different specialists, right? So you have a cardiologist and an endocrinologist and a GI specialist and a psychiatrist, right? Yes, there can be utility to that because again, as different disease states have more complexity, and particularly whenever we get into more interventional needs, right? Like if someone needs a stent placed, please go see your cardiologist, right? But like, how can we start to work more upstream and really realizing that like most of those cardiac-based conditions really are coming from a metabolic and even a blood sugar and an inflammation perspective, right? And so, you know, you s I like the way you break it down into these five systems. So there's gut and immune barriers, there's metabolic and blood sugar, we have detoxification and liver, hormone and endocrine, and then nervous and stress. And of course. what we actually know is that everything else is really all rooted in that stress physiology. ⁓ so tell us a little bit more about, you know, your understanding of these systems and and how you think about that. And I even, you know, I'm so curious now, again, in this transition of going back into community pharmacy, like I really want pharmacists to hear this and understand that like when you start to think this way and you are able to see your patients through this lens. It doesn't matter what setting you're in. Like it is applicable across the board. Yes. And speaker-0: So being able from my own personal life transformation and and what was happening and going through all of this change, and it wasn't really change necessarily, you know, as a go-getter and a high achiever, you typically want, you know, to feel like you're in control of something. And had an entire season where I learned that, you know, you can't control other people's healing. You cannot control other people's, you know, responsibilities or their actions. Sometimes, you know. you've got your event that happens, you've got your reaction to it, and that's the outcome. And so I went through this process where I actually it was ⁓ a school that we I did this virtual training. It was seven days, ⁓ became a life and success coach, a certified clinical hypnotherapist. Like there was all kinds of fun stuff that was on there. Learned about timeline therapy. And I think the first time that I'd ever met someone like that was at Blair's Retreat and, you know, had started to learn about it. ⁓ and had then became a client of hers. And then I meet someone at a completely different trip. I was down at a girl's mastermind in Miami. And this girl taught it and credentialed people. And I was like, all right, let's do it. ⁓ and so, you know, while I'm transitioning, selling my pharmacy and starting to work for a different corporate pharmacy, ⁓ I was like, let's do a seven day training for for this. Why not? ⁓ and what I learned about it, and it was very heavy in somatics, neurolinguistic programming, you know, all the different things, emotional freedom technique, which is tapping. ⁓ is that if your nervous system is not at a place where you feel safe and if you're constantly in fight, flight, freeze, or fawn, it's not really gonna matter. ⁓ you're I mean, you can support someone all day, but what what they learn and what they hear at FMPHA and the clinical teachings is you cannot out supplement or out medicate a bad lifestyle. You you just can't. And so being able to recognize and I'd tried that. I had tried taking all the different supplements and doing all the right things. ⁓ to be able to support, you know, what my goals were and none of it was mattering because I was sleeping four hours a day and was, you know, working a hundred hours a week and then, you know, not having any kind of personal boundaries and just showing up and never pouring into my own cup. And so part of it was from learning it myself. The other part of it was from, you know, actually diving deep and getting certified into those. Hear me, you don't need a certification in this to do it. You don't need any more certifications, any more papers. If you want to, fantastic. But it's not required. ⁓ but learning about that and going through that process because of what was happening in my own life, I was able to really understand how vital the nervous system was. And so with the five different systems, I had to incorporate that. Like the stress response and nervous system had to be in there. And whenever you first start learning about functional medicine, everything's the gut first, right? And then you're like, wait a second, detoxing and liver. And like, how does this fit in? And then it's like, No, all the patients come to you though with wanting to change their hormones or, you know, having hormone-related issues. So the question becomes like at what point, you know, which one do I fix first? And the next answer to that question was, well, wait, which one's gonna respond if I play with the gut versus which one's going to respond if I, you know, start just focusing on metabolic and hormones? Well, there's inflammation and that one covers everything. And so it was really figuring out how the systems interact with each other. And being able to kind of streamline that to be able to give a framework that people can walk through and think through. And so now in community pharmacy, whenever we have someone, I'm trying to think of a patient recently. ⁓ everyone's been coming in asking about new pain medicine and ⁓ the Jordovics that's just become a a thing and it's sodium gated channels and all that. but I would say I did just have and the estradiol patches, those have been on shortage. So what I would say is a lot of women have been coming in having the conversation about hormones. And you can tell when they haven't had their, they can tell when they haven't had their estradiol patches because they're threatening bodily harm to everyone around them. And so being able to explain like, hey, cortisol, it's a thing. ⁓ and you know, have you been and of course with the black box warnings coming back on, you know, hormone replacement therapy and perimenopausal women and what the process of perimenopause looks like. Plus, we have social media now that's actually, you know, bringing up these topics that previously were reserved for an exam room with a doctor. Now they're being discussed and people have access to them and they're learning what works and what other people are struggling with. So I think that at that intersection, being able to take all of this knowledge and noise and simplify it down into, okay, here's what you've been on. Let me try to solve that problem. But also have you ever heard about, you know, cortisol and stress and your nervous system and how that can play with your hormones? And have you ever been tested or had your A1C looked at? Have do you have insulin resistance? ⁓ you had endometriosis and, you know, being able to kind of dive into in a quick five to 10 minute, you know, conversation what their past medical history looks like. And they usually stop about five to seven minutes in and they take a deep breath and they're like, ⁓ I've never had anyone ask me that before. I've never I I didn't know that there was a correlation between how much stress I have at work and how well I'm not sleeping or am sleeping at night and what my symptoms are and about these hormones. And come to think about it, it wasn't actually solving all of my problems. So what should I do next? And being able to have that information of what then the right next step is. ⁓ and being able to simplify it down just to let them know it's it's, you know, there's a conversation that you can have and there's There's other factors that are at play here. And if you want to, I can help you with that. If you want to talk to your doctor, they can help you with that. ⁓ and if you have questions, you know, here's a resource, here's a place that you can go, here's, you know, we're available for questions. And it gives people, their nervous system, the ability to just pause and take a deep breath and say, okay, like I'm I'm not alone in this and it doesn't have to be like this and it can get better. And so being able to have those patient interactions, whether I'm ⁓ no matter where you're standing as a pharmacist. ⁓ being able to have that and let people know that like, yes, I'm here for you if you need something. And, you know, there's questions. If you have them, I have some answers. And here's the next right thing for you to go and do. I think that's the the biggest takeaway of what I would tell people is, you know, don't wait for the next certification, the next piece of paper permission from someone. Go ahead and start taking care of the people that are in front of you. ⁓ and being able to, you know, guide them. You don't have to be an expert. but just be at least one to two steps and be able to guide them through what the next right thing to do is for them. ⁓ that's what I wish that someone had came by and told me whenever I first started this whole journey of of being a pharmacist and doing functional medicine. speaker-1: Yeah, I love it. That's such good advice. And honestly, that's exactly what we do inside the boot camp is we guide you through that thinking process, that thought process. We give you the clinical basics because at the end of the day, functional medicine and medicine in general is always evolving. The science is always changing. We're getting more information, new studies, new mechanisms, new, you know, molecules all the time. It is naive to think that there will ever be any one training that will give you everything you will need. Whenever you step into functional medicine, you're stepping into a journey for the rest of your life. ⁓ A journey to continue committing yourself to learning and growing and staying up to date on the latest information that we have available. And For me, like when I think about, you know, why we're doing all of this and why we're trying to just pull all of this information and resources into one place and frame it in a way that makes it accessible to pharmacists, that is tailored to the way that we already work in our different practice settings and really give you that permission slip. Yes, you know, we finally added all of this clinical content in here alongside the business. So that when you walk away, you have a business plan or a service plan to implement it. And yes, we officially give you a certificate of completion, which I I resisted. I resisted for so many years. I was like, no, people don't need more paper on the wall. That is not going to change anything. Functional medicine doesn't change your scope of practice, right? You are still practicing as a pharmacist with your pharmacist license, unless you go get a different degree or a different you know, license and you're in a state that even allows for that, I think you and I might have been in the same boat, right? Like I did a master's degree, but I live in Ohio. I can't use a master's degree in nutrition to be a dietitian. I have to go back from the beginning to become a registered dietitian. So all that to say, we'll give you a certificate that says functional medicine pharmacist because the final exam, the the That we give you at the end, it's not designed to say, do you know everything that there ever is to know about all of functional medicine? No. It's designed to say, can you describe your ideal patient to me, the type of person that you want to be able to help? And can you walk me through a plan that you create based on the symptoms that they show up with, the signals that that's actually indicating, the systems that are driving the dysfunction? And can you prioritize it into a way? that they can take action on it and that they can actually start to heal. Can you do that? And if the answer is yes and you show us that you can, congratulations. You are in fact a functional medicine pharmacist. That's it. It's as simple as that. And so there's nothing that stops anyone out there who's listening who's a pharmacist from saying you're a functional medicine pharmacist. But we do understand that it can feel overwhelming. To know where to begin. It can feel really overwhelming to try and do all of this research all by yourself. It can feel really overwhelming to try and do all of that while you're working full-time and caring for your family. And so that is why we created FMPHA. That's why we have so many amazing coaches and educators like Jessica, who are coming in with all of this knowledge and experience to share it with you. And I was so excited whenever we launched the clinical content earlier this year and we started having the weekly coaching calls with you. And the feedback from everyone was just like, ⁓ my God, Jessica is so amazing. Like this, like just I would listen to it myself and I would learn new things every time. And it was just like rapid fire of like question, answer, question, answer. Like, where else can you get that? Right. Like there is nowhere else that I know of. And it's why I'm just so grateful that you are so generous with all of your wisdom and expertise that you are lifting up all of these pharmacists and truly, truly like changing the profession. So could not do it without you. speaker-0: Thank you. Thank you. And I love that there's a platform to be able to do that because, you know, I've just been sitting here playing with my kids, being like, Man, I wish we could talk about metabolic dysfunction more. ⁓ but not really, you know, like I'd I'm not enough to wanna get my phone out and make TikToks about it. And that was kind of before this platform. Yeah, like right, where else can you ask whatever questions and I love the ask me anything style of questions and hey, what's been going on this week and and that kind of stuff. So Thank you. And I have such a good time with all of all of the students that are in here. ⁓ just because yes, like I love being able to help whether it's a patient, whether it's a student, whether it's another pharmacist, whoever, be able to walk away with more certainty and more confidence and getting that education and empowering. Like sitting in Costa Rica doing the meditations, my life purpose is to be able to educate and to empower people and to help. And I realize that being able to simplify complexity. and give things a framework and and being able to share my gifts, it feels like it's my actual purpose. And so thank you for letting me actually walk that out and and do that. And to people that are going to use it for the good and already are using it for the good of other people. So thank you tremendously. It's it's such a great thing. speaker-1: Yeah, absolutely. Well, I think we've covered a lot of ground here today. If you had any one last piece of advice that you would give to a fellow pharmacist who is at the beginning of their journey, what would that be? So speaker-0: So I tried to be everything for everyone and it ended up costing me a lot of things that I was not anticipating it costing. And so the first piece would be try not to be everything to everyone. the same way that it is overwhelming. I was up every night looking at the science between non-Hodgkins lymphoma and Epstein Bar virus and how it can, you know, become this type of cancer. And so I've done the the late night research digs and it is overwhelming and it's also exhausting. ⁓ but I didn't know who to reach out to. And so I thought that that was my only option. ⁓ I went and got a second doctorate because I didn't know who else to reach out to and I had a I had a, you know, my dad who I absolutely love that needed me. And so I I showed up in the way that I felt like was necessary, but I did it on hard. And you don't have to do it on hard anymore. ⁓ so reach out, ask the questions, join the community, have a framework. ⁓ do not think that if it's more complex, that it's something that you should, you know, just dedicate all of your time to. Don't try to be everything for everyone. ⁓ because it will leave you not being enough for yourself, honestly. And so yeah, I'd I would say honestly, I love FMPHA, I love the boot camp. I honestly ⁓ probably have a bias, but I think the clinical content's fantastic. ⁓ and know that the business content is fantastic. So I would say if if anyone has a desire to do this, feels the calling to it to take the divinely inspired action, to trust what's been placed on your heart for a reason, ⁓ and to reach out. And I know that me and you were here to support them as well as your entire team. Everyone at FNPHA is fantastic. So I would say don't hesitate to take the divinely inspired action. Don't hold yourself back and don't think that you have to do it on hard and be everything to everyone because there's a lot of people that are willing and would love to support you. speaker-1: Hmm. Perfectly said. Yeah. Well, thank you again so much for joining us on this episode of the Loren Castle Show. And we will hopefully see you in the boot camp if you're a pharmacist and on another episode when we come back. We'll see you next time. That's it for this episode of the Loring Castle Show. Thank you so much for tuning in, and I hope you'll join us for the next one where you'll hear more stories from me and some of my amazing guests. Be sure to like and subscribe to the podcast no matter where you watch or listen, and check out our website drincastle.com and fmpha.org. We'll see you next time.