Fighting for Your Health in Midlife: How to Become Your Own Advocate
“Let food by thy medicine and medicine be thy food” -Hippocrates
Do you feel like your midlife medical concerns are being dismissed and not taken seriously? Are you tired of being told ‘it’s all in your head’?
You’re not alone!
In this episode of the Rocking Midlife® Podcast, my fabulous guest is Dr. Efrat LaMandre, founder of The Knew Method.
Efrat LaMandre is the founder of The Knew Method where she empowers patients to finally realise that their symptoms are not in their head. She helps people optimise their health, prevent illness, reduce medication and feel great by getting to the root cause of their illness. Dr. E also sits on the Board of Trustees for Staten Island University Hospital, and serves as the Past-President of the Nurse Practitioner Association. In addition, Efrat owns a Primary Care Practice called EG Healthcare, a Medical Scribe company, HawkScribes, and an education company, EG PREP.
During our conversation, Dr E shares her story about how she and her wife became advocates for their own health during midlife and discovered functional medicine. She explains how functional medicine can often provide the answers that traditional medicine doesn’t,
She then shares a few examples about how a functional medicine doctor might be your best chance of getting to the bottom of any nagging health issues you’ve been experiencing since you’ve hit midlife, including hot flushes and insomnia.
Dr. E emphasises the importance of starting your health journey with your regular GP or medical provider, ensuring that you complete all necessary tests and scans. If these results provide no obvious reason for the symptoms you are dealing with however, instead of going home and resigning yourself to accept your lot, she encourages you to be your own health advocate, and seek out a different kind of medical professional such as a functional medicine practitioner.
A functional medicine doctor is trained to treat the body as a whole, and Dr E explains how the foundation of every treatment plan she creates for her clients is their nutrition, as even the smallest tweaks to this can have a huge impact on symptoms. The main thing to remember though, is not to give up. If you know deep down that something is not right – keep looking for answers, and don’t doubt yourself, as ultimately, you are your own best advocate.
Tune in to your favourite audio platform, (click HERE) or watch on YouTube and be sure to come back and drop a comment to let me know of any “ah-ha” moments you experience during this episode.
