We all recognize that American healthcare is a badly broken system. Wildly overpriced, exploitative, with a focus on pharmaceuticals and medical procedures to the exclusion of basic issues such as nutrition, the role of nutrients, and the microbiome. Can we expect doctors, healthcare executives, pharma or medical device executives to find better solutions?

I highly doubt it. One of the problems plaguing conventional delivery of healthcare is that doctors lack the time, knowledge, and frankly the interest in spending more time with their patients, hearing about their issues, then creating solutions that address their unique concerns.

Enter the age of health coaches. A number of years ago, when I first heard about this phenomenon, of heath coaches playing a role in the delivery of health, I was skeptical. But over the past decade, as I’ve worked with health coaches, witnessed what they could accomplish, and heard plenty of positive feedback from the public engaging their services, my opinions about health coaching has completely changed. I now see them as part of the engine that will drive improvements in healthcare.

I therefore tracked down Sandra Scheinbaum, a Phd clinical psychologist who counseled patients for many years but then diverted her career into functional medicine and health coaching, bringing the unique insights into human behavior and emotions that came from decades of practicing clinical psychology, now applied to health coaching. Dr. Scheinbaum founded the Functional Medicine Coaching Academy that educates and trains people in acquiring the skills and knowledge to practice as a health coach. She is also author of several books including Functional Medicine Coaching: Stories from the Movement That's Transforming Healthcare, and her newest book, Your Health Coach Will See You Now available in April 2025 on Amazon and selected bookstores. In this episode of Defiant Health, Dr. Scheinbaum recounts how she made this change in direction and what she foresees for the future of this important phenomenon of health coaching.

For more information:

FunctionalMedicineCoaching.org

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A 15% discount is available for Defiant Health podcast listeners by entering discount code UNDOC15 (case-sensitive) at checkout.*
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Get your 15% Paleovalley discount on fermented grass-fed beef sticks, Bone Broth Collagen, low-carb snack bars and other high-quality organic foods here.*

For 12% off every order of grass-fed and pasture-raised meats from Wild Pastures, go

Support the show

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed

Over the past decade, most of us have converted our home lighting to light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs, as they save a significant amount of energy, requiring 75-90% less energy than older incandescent lights. Personally, I converted the 50 or lightbulbs in my house to nearly all LEDs.

Most current LEDs emit, of course, visible light. But they also emit a significant amount of blue light and very little red and infrared (IR), in contrast to old-fashioned incandescent bulbs that emit some blue and a lot of red and IR. Remember when you had to change an incandescent bulb when it died? If you tried to unscrew it, it could burn your hand because the bulb was extremely hot. That’s the effect of red and IR that generates heat. Change a LED bulb and you can do so immediately, as the bulb is cool, even after dying just moments earlier. This is due to the absence of significant amounts of red and IR.

While well-intended to save energy, it is now becoming clear that the wholesale conversion to blue-emitting LED lighting has been exerting adverse health effects, especially visual. So let’s begin talking about the role of light, specifically blue wavelengths in this episode of the Defiant Health podcast, then about the role of red and IR in a future episode. _______________________________________________________________________________
For BiotiQuest probiotics including Sugar Shift, go here.

A 15% discount is available for Defiant Health podcast listeners by entering discount code UNDOC15 (case-sensitive) at checkout.*
_________________________________________________________________________________
Get your 15% Paleovalley discount on fermented grass-fed beef sticks, Bone Broth Collagen, low-carb snack bars and other high-quality organic foods here.*

For 12% off every order of grass-fed and pasture-raised meats from Wild Pastures, go here.
_____________________________________________________________________________

MyReuteri and Gut to Glow can be found here: oxiceutics.com

Support the show

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed

I’ve touched on the topic of endotoxemia in past episodes of the Defiant Health podcast. In this episode, let’s dive deeper into this topic that is absolutely crucial to understanding and managing SO many aspects of health, from subduing anxiety and panic, to depressive, to joint pain and skin rashes, to gastrointestinal conditions, even weight management.

What is endotoxemia? Fecal microbes, so-called Gram-negative species because of the way these microbes take up stain for examination under a microscope, species such as E. coli and Salmonella, have something called lipopolysaccharide endotoxin in their cells walls. Other species, so-called Gram positive species such as Enterococcus, Staphylococcus, and Streptococcus, that stain in a different manner, have something called lipoteichoic acid in their cell walls. When these microbes die, both Gram-negative and Gram-positive, these toxic factors are released into the intestines. If these fecal microbes are confined to the colon, where they belong, a section of GI tract adapted to their presence, the entry of these toxic components are limited and current evidence is unclear in how importat this process is. The real trouble occurs, however, when fecal microbes have invaded the 24-feet of small intestine, a process we label small intetinal bacterial overgrowth, or SIBO, because the small intestine—the stomach, duodenum, jejunum, and ileum are not well-adapted to the invasion of fecal species. Here, they die, release their toxic components, which then enter the bloodstream, the process labeled endotoxemia. People with SIBO therefore have high blood levels of endotoxin. This is how microbes in the GI Tract export their effects to other parts of the body. Let’s discuss this process and how you can take control over your emotions, mood, sleep, energy, weight, and numerous other aspects of health. _______________________________________________________________________________
For BiotiQuest probiotics including Sugar Shift, go here.

A 15% discount is available for Defiant Health podcast listeners by entering discount code UNDOC15 (case-sensitive) at checkout.*
_________________________________________________________________________________
Get your 15% Paleovalley discount on fermented grass-fed beef sticks, Bone Broth Collagen, low-carb snack bars and other high-quality organic foods here.*

For 12% off every order of grass-fed and pasture-raised meats from Wild Pastures, go here.
_____________________________________________________________________________

MyReuteri and Gut to Glow can be found here: oxiceutics.com

Support the show

Books:

Super Gut: The 4-Week Plan to Reprogram Your Microbiome, Restore Health, and Lose Weight

Wheat Belly: Lose the Wheat, Lose the Weight and Find Your Path Back to Health; revised & expanded ed