Recently I interviewed Dr. Krista Coombs, and we chatted about the foundations of thyroid health. If you would prefer to listen the interview you can access it by Clicking Here [1].
With me, I have today’s guest, Dr. Krista Coombs. We are going to be talking about the foundations. Dr. Krista came up with his headline, and then I will dive into her bio. The headline is “Getting Back to the True Roots of Functional Medicine and How to Apply That Foundational Approach to Better Management of Complex Autoimmune Conditions, Including Hashimoto’s and Graves’ Disease.”
And Krista’s bio: For over two decades and counting, Dr. Krista Coombs has been helping patients learn to manage complex health issues using a foundational approach, integrating Chinese medicine and functional medicine philosophies. Her expertise in autoimmune condition management using easy concepts empowers her patients, giving them hope of mastering helping themselves and increasing their health span. Thank you so much for joining us, Dr. Krista.
Dr. Krista Coombs:
Super awesome to be here. Love talking to fellow colleagues. We can always learn from each other.
Dr. Eric:
Definitely agree. As usual, I love to get the background of the person I’m chatting with. I know you have a history of Hashimoto’s, so if you could dive into your personal journey and how that influenced you becoming an integrative health care practitioner? I know you combine Chinese medicine along with functional medicine.
Dr. Krista:
It’s probably a tale as old as time. Hashimoto’s is pretty common. I didn’t know about it until I was 42. I look back at my life, and I see all of these flares that I was having. I didn’t know what I didn’t know. Nobody told me any different.
When I got into Chinese medicine, I always wanted to be in medicine. I always wanted to be a vet, and I worked with 11 vets in emergency care. I have a degree in science. I have done Chinese medicine for four years. I have been practicing for a couple of decades. I was always really in the thick of it. Then I got into functional medicine. That is when I got diagnosed.
I had to force one of my physicians to test for me because I was starting to suffer so much once I got into perimenopause. I looked back and think, “Gee, maybe I could have saved myself a lot of trauma.” In fact, it’s probably a good thing. Now I have delved heavily into functional. I have become integrative. Got certified by the Institute of Functional Medicine, which was no easy feat.
I have since tried to dial in how to go from really complex ideas. Functional medicine can be pretty complex. You have to know some stuff, and you have to be able to read papers. We are saturated, geeks like us, in this. It’s this deep rabbit hole of information that you never want to leave. How do we make that simpler so that we can actually start living a great life and having a longer health span? I didn’t really come to terms with all that until probably last year.
I was managing Hashimoto’s pretty good but not good enough for what my goals were in life. I am going to be 51 here in a month and a half. I feel like I have de-aged in the last year just by following my own ideas. It’s been quite a journey. Working with hundreds and hundreds of patients like yourself, I have all kinds of complex autoimmune diseases—Hashimoto’s is one of the top ones, especially when I deal with a lot of fertility in my practice or one-on-one.
I just got down to the foundations that were overcomplicated. Now we just try to make it really easy for people to pick those off, figure out how to do that, and empower people to take control of their own selves instead of having to give all their power away to medications, other doctors who don’t believe them, or even to us. They can learn the easy stuff without huge investment, move the needle pretty significantly, drastically really, and heal themselves, even with these complex illnesses. We really get to play and finesse the stuff left over, which is what we’re studying the depths for, so we can help those things instead of teaching them how to drink water.
That’s my story. Man oh man, I can’t imagine not doing integrative care. I can’t imagine. I can’t even imagine retiring. I love it that much. It’s such happy bliss for me. It wasn’t always. Now it’s genuinely happy bliss. I get so much joy out of it because you can make things simple. It’s incredible. That’s my story.
Dr. Eric:
I agree with you. No intentions of retiring in the future. I love what I do. How long have you been dealing with Hashimoto’s for?
Dr. Krista:
Probably most of my adult life when I look back. I have been diagnosed formally since I was 42. I started getting really sick when I was about 41. I look back, and I think, Gosh, how did I not know? But I didn’t. Even with all my education, I still didn’t. Once I started putting the pieces together, it was clear.
I will tell you that the day I got diagnosed, I remember it was May 2016, 8am. I got diagnosed. I sat in my truck and did a little cry because I knew that this was going to be the end, the diagnosis. Then I said, “Okay, next.” I knew I needed to change my diet, so that’s what I started with. Within a week, I was a completely different person. No pain, less inflammation, my brain fog was gone. I could put a sentence together; I used to stumble over words constantly. Then I devoured everything, like you.
I think some of the best practitioners are the ones who go through it. They go through big fire, and they come out the other side going, “Ahh.” I have the fireman’s hose to put out all these fires. I just have to have people learn how to hold the hose and put out their own fires. I will be 51, so almost nine years. This past year, I just learned how to make it so that I think I’ve slowed down the progressions dramatically, even just with easy stuff. I’m a big fan. Now the rest of my life can be awesome.
Dr. Eric:
We’ll definitely talk more about that. Also like myself, you mentioned you went through the Institute for Functional Medicine’s Certified Practitioner Program. It’s not just about functional medicine; you also integrate Chinese medicine. Can you talk about how that has also impacted you?
Dr. Krista:
I think Chinese medicine was pivotal in making me the practitioner I am for sure. I have a really heavy foot and love of Western science. That was my first degree. I love that stuff. However, I have a real desire to learn how to holistically look at us as physical beings and spiritual beings and how that integrates with the environment.
Chinese medicine is very much about that. It’s about looking at systems, biology already, but just not from the Western science point of view, but another way of talking about it and looking at patterns. Everything is about patterns. Instead of just going, “Oh, it’s a liver issue,” it’s not. How do those systems interact with the heart, the lungs, and the rest of the body and the environment?
Learning Chinese medicine was pivotal for me. It made learning functional medicine really simple. It was already the approach I had, looking for patterns and learning how to support where you get the most bang for your buck. It may not be always the gut. It might be something else, some genetic thing that has to do with detoxing the liver for example. You learn how to support that to get massive fallout for the rest of the body. I think that’s where Chinese medicine helped me the most.
I have been an acupuncturist as well, which is one of the tools of Chinese medicine, for 22 years. Starting to age myself. It’s been a passion. I now apply all this integrative knowledge even in my brick-and-mortar one-on-one with acupuncture patients. It’s really changed things. I can’t unthink looking at things as patterns. You must think the same, coming from a chiropractic background. You guys have something fundamentally simple. I think Chinese medicine is a little more patterns oriented. Now you are functional, so you see all the patterns. You can look at somebody and go, “It’s pretty clear,” especially when you have been doing it for decades. It’s easy to help them make some shifts once they get the mindset in play. That’s how it worked for me.
Dr. Eric:
You do acupuncture. I don’t know if you can answer this, or I am curious to see what your answer will be as far as what impact you think acupuncture has on your Hashimoto’s patients, the ones that you see in person. Over the years, I’ve had a good number of people ask me about acupuncture, that they considered going to an acupuncturist. I have been as well. I didn’t go to one when I dealt with Graves’; it was years later. I went through some treatments. I like acupuncture. I have written an article on it. Now that I am chatting with someone who does acupuncture, how can it potentially benefit?
Let me backtrack. Chiropractic can benefit everyone, I think. My guess is you probably think the same with acupuncture. Acupuncture, chiropractic are treatment modalities that can help many people, if not all people. Have you found that it’s an important piece of the puzzle when it comes to improving the health of someone with Hashimoto’s?
Dr. Krista:
Good question. Of course, everybody thinks their profession is good for everyone. I think there is a time and a place. It needs to be a personalized approach. Everything needs to be personalized. It’s not necessary for everyone. Some people can really benefit from it. I do a lot of virtual care in my practice. I am not going to give them acupuncture. If they go to someone else, if they don’t have some of the background, it’s a little easy to coordinate the efforts.
However, that said, acupuncture, I look at it as one of the tools in the toolbox that can help move the needle. Same with chiropractic actually. It’s one of the tools in the toolbox. I do believe a lot of healing can happen if someone is empowered to make better choices for themselves in the day to day. Tools like acupuncture and chiropractic, any kind of body work, can get them to their goals at a faster rate. If they are in a bit of a rush, it can do that.
Where I’ve seen it work the best when it comes to Hashimoto’s management is for people who have a lot of anxiety. They haven’t come to terms with it all, or there are aspects of their physiology that get really agitated when they’re in a flare, and it perpetuates a flare. Acupuncture is good at realigning some of that energetics.
The way I explain it to my patients is I say I’m like a mad scientist. I’m like a mad chemist actually. I’m always playing with people’s chemistry. You do something similar. I am always playing with people’s chemistry. When I look at a body and see these patterns, I go, wow, I have all of these points, almost unlimited, on the body that I can play with in patterns and shift their chemistry. I can turn some stuff down or off or trigger it to go back on. You do that repetitiously, and whammo, they are feeling way better.
I do that a lot with my Hashimoto’s patients who come to visit me. I do acupressure that they can sometimes use in those situations that they can do on their own. I am all about empowering people. There is so much they can do on their own, so they are not spending all their time coming into doctors’ offices. Not all doctors will like me saying that. But it’s the truth. We want to be living our lives, but well. I give them tools on how to do that.
Acupuncture is great like that. It even changes the chemistry. I have even done it on myself. I remember when I first was diagnosed in May 2016. I was like, “Okay, I am going to throw the whole kitchen sink at this.” I would just lay on my own tables and do my own acupuncture, which is not always the easiest thing to do. I’m influencing my own chemistry. I did it twice a week for five weeks, just to get the ball moving and get me feeling a lot better faster. I just thought it’s a beautiful technique. I don’t damage much tissue, just slight microdamage, microtrauma, but it influences the body’s intuitive knowledge of how to clean up those little microtraumas. It really gets things going very quickly. I love it for that.
I’ve coordinated with chiropractors in the past. My clinic was right beside one of the first six years of my practice up in Labrador. They go over to the other side in their bare feet and get an adjustment after getting acupuncture. It used to last longer because we have relaxed the muscles, calmed them down. The energetics were peaceful. They go over there, get their treatments, and hold their adjustments way longer. I’m a huge fan of that. You’re using body work that supports each other.
If they’re doing things to change, uplevel their lifestyle, which is what we could talk about, man, the healing is rapid. It’s like a week, two weeks, and they’re different. I’m always looking for tools like that. But it is one tool in a big toolbox. I think people need to go with what they resonate with. Give it a try.
If you have a great relationship with your chiro or acupuncturist, and you feel comfortable in their presence, and they understand you or at least are trying their best to help you, that’s the person to see. You add that to your toolbox for a little while. If you feel like you might be going into a flare, which is common with autoimmune, you’re anticipating that that could happen because you maybe are getting a root canal done, which you would hope to avoid but gotta happen. Or somebody wants to put you on an antibiotic, or you’re going on a big trip, or you have some tragedy in your life. You can interrupt that and use tools like acupuncture and chiropractic to alleviate that stress and shorten your flare. That’s my experience anyway in the industry.
Dr. Eric:
I agree. You’re right. We’re all probably biased and believe everybody needs our treatment. I will say for the most part, I don’t tell people I work with they need to see a chiropractor. I don’t think it’s essential, like you mentioned with acupuncture. In some cases, maybe it could accelerate the process of healing. I go for regular adjustments even though I admit I’m a little bit overdue. Usually, I try to go for monthly tune-ups.
Dr. Krista:
We’re our worst patients. I’m not anymore though. I have to say I learned my lesson.
Dr. Eric:
That is true. I wanted to switch gears a little bit and talk about the expense of functional medicine, which makes it difficult for a lot of people to work with practitioners such as you and I. How do you approach this in your practice? Regardless of the price, there will be people who say they can’t afford it.
Dr. Krista:
I have been practicing integrative medicine since I was about 42. Just to get the knowledge costs us how many thousands of dollars and time. It’s a pretty remarkable skillset that we have developed. Doing all this tech stuff and teaching, it takes its toll. We already have our autoimmune conditions that we’re managing, and stress is part of that.
In order to offer one-on-one care in a functional medicine paradigm, it costs money. It costs more. Here in Canada, we have subsidized care in the medical industry. People aren’t used to paying for much healthcare. I have really struggled with that: How the heck do I deliver high level care, not necessarily personalized, but teach people how to personalize, get the basics done, and then if stuff is left over, geeks like us can say, “It’s worth investing to work with us because we will take you to the next level. You will get closer to the top of the mountain sooner if you do that.” They are already aware of the power of looking at their body systemically and saying, “Look what I can do.” Then they are really inspired to work one-on-one with us. It costs them a ton less money.
I learned that this year. I have tried to sell one-on-one programs. I have a needle mover membership program where I work with these really complex cases one-on-one. It’s intense for three months, and a lot of them stay. We get a lot of momentum. I am always teaching the foundational stuff. I feel like that’s high cost to teach the foundational stuff. Once they learn it, they can just practice it if they have a good mindset and are not self-sabotaging so much. They have commitment in the game. Then it’s fun for me to add to that and finesse. That’s what I ‘ve learned this year.
I’m saving people a lot of money by offering the foundational stuff. Functional medicine is amazing. However, it’s still in its infancy. It’s still 30-some odd years old. Really catching on the last 10. I don’t know if you agree with me on that. There are a lot of us now in the industry but not enough of us.
I know I hear this all the time: “I’d love to work with you, but you’re too expensive to get that care. The supplements are too expensive. The testing is too expensive.” It is. It’s expensive. I know people say, “Test, don’t guess.” When you have been in it a long time, there is a lot you can see that you don’t have to do the expensive testing for. If they get the basics in line, they don’t even need the testing because it’s really clear. Everything starts to clean up.
I have learned to make it accessible to most people. For those people who still need more of a financial advisor than what I can give, or they are so debilitated that they can’t work, I understand that. You want to have low hanging fruit things they can use to move the needle. They spend their money on quality diet for example. As they get their life back, maybe they can invest in some mini courses or a book that you write. Maybe they will decide to do one of your online programs or challenges. You do a lot of those. Those kinds of things If they are inspired to work for themselves, they haven’t invested a lot of money, but they have learned a lot about the foundational stuff. That’s how I approached it. I think you’re doing something very similar. That’s the way to help people.
This very heavy knowledge-based, information-based world that you and I live in, they don’t have to know all that stuff to make big, massive, beautiful changes to their lives. It doesn’t have to cost a lot. We just have to find ways to teach them how to help themselves at a more reasonable price level. That has been missing in the functional medicine industry for probably the last six years or so, in my humble experience. It’s just been very driven toward really expensive testing.
I know some practitioners who, just to work with them, you have to do three, four, five big tests that are thousands of dollars. Plus an initial visit with them is also thousands of dollars. We probably know as much as they do. I don’t think that they need to do that. It keeps the practices alive, and they can pay all kinds of staff. Maybe that’s wonderful for a certain type of person.
But for the majority of us, when we’re suffering, brain fog, a lot of pain, you can’t focus properly, maybe can’t work, you’re emotional, it’s overwhelming, you’re losing your life, and your experience of it is really poor, concentration is off, you need to start with the foundations. You pick them off, and within a week or two, you’re different. Then you get more inspired to do more for yourself. I don’t think that has to be expensive to learn. But it has been missed.
You go to all these conferences and courses. How many courses do we do a week? I do at least one. People glance over the foundations. They call it basics. “Of course you got to do an elimination diet.” I don’t know, sometimes that needs to be personalized. How do you teach people how to do that? You just assume they understand what the basics are. We understand them because we’re in it all day long teaching it. The average person who is suffering may even forget that water is that essential for example, or sleep is that essential. They don’t have that dialed in. Until they get that dialed in, there is not much you can do for them.
I like lifestyle-focused, lifestyle-first approaches. Get to the very basic foundations, like you’re building a house. Before you start putting in a window or a door and a doorbell with ten supplements or something outside of you, instead of going what can I do, this is my philosophy, Eric. Why is this body having all these symptoms that look like what we call Hashimoto’s, Graves’? This collection of symptoms suggests very strongly that the body you have currently is not in alignment with the environment that it’s in. If you try to change your body, it isn’t going to work. You have to change the environmental inputs.
Once you start seeing your life that way, “I have influence, there is a lot I can do,” it is extremely good, very powerful, I think, from my experience with people, and even myself, when you start gaining confidence that you have say. All of a sudden, your body is going, “Thank you. It’s about time. Thank you for listening.” Some of those symptoms that look like Hashimoto’s start to go away because the body starts to support itself. Then you need less help from geeks like us. Really focused help, then we can move the needle way cheaper.
I will say it’s more expensive to be sick because you lose so much of your life experience potential, not just money. A little bit of investment, you can learn a ton. If you commit to yourself. You do just a little bit more if you want to move the needle a little faster with people like us. That’s been heavily missed.
There is a movement for people like us coming to that place and helping more people at a lower cost point learn how to navigate this complex stuff. I’m excited by that. I think that’s needed. You can’t just learn from a book either. Books are great, but they’re general. If you really want to learn, you have to learn how to personalize it, and you need guides for that.
I always say I’m not a sage on the stage; I’m a guide on the side. That’s what Joe Polish says, and I love that. He always says, “I don’t want to be the smartest person in the room all the time. I want to be in a room where everybody’s getting smarter.” I think that’s why offering these ideas to people in group environments instead of always one on one, which is super pricy, is where the magic lies. Everybody is getting smarter from a guide on the side. You do the same stuff.
Dr. Eric:
Everything you said I agree with. Obviously, the foundations. Then you mentioned not just changing yourself but focusing on the environment. Actually just yesterday, I chatted with someone who was talking about a moldy environment. There is so much you can do with diet and stress management if you’re not getting rid of the mold. It sounds like she did do something; she is aware of that.
Dr. Krista:
It’s also not having fear around what you don’t know, or not knowing what you don’t know. You probably hear this, too. Dr. Google’s great. I do like Dr. Google. A lot of practitioners complain about it, but I like it. I like people are seeking. I like seekers. They are striving to understand how to help themselves. I love that.
What I hear often is people say, “I was looking at all of these different pages, but it seems like everything’s contradicting each other.” Yeah, because you’re not everyone. You’re unique. You need some of the foundational comprehension in order to piecemeal all of the things you’re reading to make it apply for you.
Instead of getting too saturated with that and having all this fear response, which keeps you sick, let’s go down to the basic stuff, the foundations, and say, “What’s not in alignment? What could I do?” It’s the low hanging fruit. You have the beautiful apples on top that are getting a bit of sunburn. That’s a very expensive program, surgeries, tons of meds. That’s high level, out of reach apples. You need somebody to help you get up there to get those apples.
You have apples that are easy to pick. You don’t need anybody to help you get those.
The ones that are on the ground that are still viable, you can bend over and pick those up. You don’t need anybody to help you with that. That’s my role. That’s what’s been missing. I wasn’t always doing this, but I see that as my role to show them the stuff that’s on the ground. Those are the easy ones. You get those, and you won’t be hungry. You don’t necessarily need the ones that are starting to ripen. You definitely don’t need the sunburnt ones at the top. They’re not better. The ones that are protected are better. They are the foundation.
That is the philosophy I have been developing: start with the low hanging fruit first. Then you have so much left over, and the cost of that is way less.
Dr. Eric:
Agreed. One of the questions I wanted to ask you, which I think I know the answer now, but if you want to expand: What do people with autoimmune conditions need to do to manage their conditions, their symptoms, and overall health? It sounds like start with the foundations.
Dr. Krista:
Yeah, I’m a broken record, right? Anybody who hears this will recognize the truth of it. The truth is where it’s true for everyone. It’s not just true for you; it’s true for everyone. That is look at your life. What’s out of alignment? What can you do to create better alignment? I call it the four EASY pillars. I do everything through this lens. The lenses say easy all the time. Joe Polish says have an ELF life: Easy, Lucrative, and Fun. How do you develop an ELF life, practice, relationship? How do you do that? Focusing on what you can do to make it easy.
For all the autoimmune conditions, I don’t care which one you have, I don’t even care how far along you are with it. If you don’t dial in the foundation part, the easy stuff, you’re always needing to do really hard things. You will always decline at a faster rate. It’s inevitable in my experience. I would think you probably agree.
The four EASY pillars. E: anything to do with eating and your philosophy. That’s your immune system, your microbiome. You can start with the first layer of that. Nail it. That lets you graduate to the next layer. You can add complexity if needed.
A is everything to do with activities: mental, spiritual, physical activities. You don’t want to miss one of those. They are all important. Start with the very basics. You don’t have to chew off everything.
S is sleep and rest. There are seven forms of rest. There are different ways to approach sleep. I could argue that’s probably one of the top things that if you’re not working actively on prioritizing that, it’s pretty hard to heal. There is lots of reasons for that.
Y is saying yes yesterday. I am committed yesterday. I am committed to myself. I am making myself a passion project. If the mindset is not in alignment, and you are not consistently trying to find non-negotiables, where you have wiggle room, giving flexibility to your life, it’s pretty hard to maintain even the easy stuff.
If you do that, that’s so easy. If you do that, all of a sudden, everything goes into place. All the organ systems start to uplevel with support. It’s a very food forward, lifestyle forward, not supplement-based program to think about. It doesn’t mean you can’t try those things. But it’s not needed in most cases to move the needle. Some meds might be of course, like for Graves’, just to control things once you have progressed that far with that much damage. Generally, it’s a pretty lifestyle-focused approach.
I will tell you, in my experience, so far, especially this year, for myself even, I started putting these practices in place. I was perfecting it for myself. I have lost 45 pounds in record time just because the inflammation started to go away. Now, my metabolism is reset, I think. I have more flexibility with my food choices. I never thought that would happen. I thought I was going to have to be white knuckling it forever, just to keep my head afloat and be able to consume research papers and talk with patients and stay at work at a high level of function. It’s just so easy. I don’t have to white knuckle everything anymore.
How do you not share that? How do you not go, “Dr. Eric, teach the people?” This is so good. It would help you help them and help you help yourself. Have an ELF practice. That’s why I wanted to geek out with you here today.
That’s the four EASY pillars. I can’t think of anything to add to that. That’s the foundations. It houses literally layers of possibility to look at. They don’t need to be able to recite the Kreb cycle for energy production. We can because we like that. They don’t need to be able to understand that in order to influence it. It’s all about influencing the physiology they have so that the body systems work in more coordination together, and they start to heal. You see people come off meds, like diabetic medications, in record time because we are resetting metabolism, the relationships with sugars and fats. They are resetting the mitochondria and getting more biogenesis because we are doing some intermittent fasting and learning how to personalize it for each person. It puts the power back in these people’s hands. Then they realize, “Oh my god, I have been giving my power away to the powers that be forever. How indoctrinated I have been. I can do all this stuff myself and then have a great life.”
This is what I have always said. I am trying to help people have a better-quality life experience. I am not trying to fix people because I don’t think that’s possible. I don’t think we’re broken. I am always trying to influence them to have a better life experience. Now I am also trying to say how we increase the life span. I have no control over longevity. What if we have some say on health span? That means your quality of life is automatically better. The only way to do that is to be consistent with the basics. If you’re consistent with the fundamentals, your body declines at a very slow rate.
Dr. Eric:
Just to repeat: E is eating. A is activity. S is for sleep. Y is yes to yesterday.
Dr. Krista:
It’s about saying I am committed. If the mindset piece is not there, if the sleep piece is not there, if the appropriate style of activities aren’t there to help with various organ systems, and if the eating and daily choices to support that physiology aren’t there, the basics, you cannot out supplement that. You cannot out medicate that. No surgery in the world is going to fix that. That’s why I can’t see anything else to add.
I came up with that idea. It was at my 50th birthday last March. I was at a cabin, which I love to go to. I am an avid kayaker. Anything I can do in nature is bliss for me. I couldn’t go kayaking because there was still ice on the water. Most of the lake was frozen. I was all ticked off because I couldn’t go kayaking in March. I am in Canada. It’s not like I can go kayaking. I was laying on the beach and I was kind of moody. What the heck? How come I can’t make my health get better with all of this information that I have, all of this knowledge? I have helped lots of people. Why am I still struggling? I laid down and did some tapping. Have you heard of tapping? Emotional freedom technique.
Dr. Eric:
Yeah.
Dr. Krista:
I take it most of your listeners have as well. I love that. That’s foundationally built on acupuncture. It’s acupuncture points that we’re tapping. I am tapping and trying to shift my physiology. All of a sudden, I said, “Why can’t I make this easy?” I snapped out of it and thought, “Why can’t I? Of course I can.”
I am always overcomplicating things. I sat right up and was looking at the water and was really calm. I came up with what could EASY stand for? That’s how I came up with the four pillars. I was so excited that I couldn’t even wait to get home and talk about it with patients. What if this was all we looked at? Then I started doing that and setting up a program. We got so many people feeling better really quickly, losing weight, normalizing their metabolism. That’s really all I do now.
Why do I need to complicate something that can be so simple until I need to complicate it? I have the skillset like you. I have the knowledge we can pull from and dial things in for people because that’s what functional is, right?
That’s my little story. I thought that was kind of neat. Mindset work, getting yourself into that cool space where all these beautiful ideas just come from the universe, and they just gel.
Dr. Eric:
That’s wonderful. I love that EASY way. Quick question with the eating part of that. I’m sure some listening to this will wonder if there is a specific diet you recommend. Do you eat whole, healthy foods?
Dr. Krista:
Specifically for autoimmune management, everybody in your listenership is aware of this because you’re preaching to the choir. They understand what you’re talking about. We’re not talking to an ignorant audience.
There are times where there are non-negotiables for foods. If you have developed an autoimmune disease and have cross reactivity with certain proteins or peptides, leaving them out because the immune system has a memory is smart. It’s not an eating disorder. It is smart. There is no fear around that. It’s a choice you make because it serves you, and it helps your body survive.
There are some non-negotiables. Research is pretty clear what those are. I’m sure you talk ad nauseum about them to your people. The top of course is the gluten protein. We know this. Maybe not just the protein itself, but things that are in those particular parts. It doesn’t mean that gluten is bad. It means it’s not so great for you in your life. That’s it.
Same with dairy cross reactivities and the proteins there. If there are any digestive insufficiencies, you will have more insensitivities. Corn, eggs, grains. You can personalize that, absolutely, but you have to start from the basics to be able to do that. Your gut needs a rest. Your immune system needs a rest. That is why we do something like an elimination style diet.
My approach is basically a reset. It’s about resetting the metabolism, resetting how your body handles sugar, which is huge for inflammation and stimulating the immune system; how it deals with fat; and how it deals with trying to help the cells recover function. I call it a metabolism reset. It involves four phases.
We start with a couple days where we are overeating and doing all kinds of things. A goodbye to inflammatory foods party. If you are gluten free or dairy free already, you still do this part and trigger all kinds of cool chemistry in your body to get yourself ready for a reset.
That’s 6-8 weeks where it’s an elimination style diet, but it’s not really AIP. It’s a little different. We can tweak it. I have ideas on how they can individually do that to personalize it for themselves. They know themselves best, right? There is no one diet that fits all. We reset the metabolism.
Then we start bringing some things back. The body learns how to tolerate that and increases tolerance. A lot of healing has already happened. On average, everybody is losing about 25-30 pounds in 6-8 weeks. It’s rapid. People who are already on the thin side lose a little bit, but their brain fog goes away, and their pain goes away. They just learn a better way of structural eating to serve their body. It’s just so easy.
Then we dial in activities for each phase. We dial in how to improve sleep strategically. That’s not an extra added stress on the body. How to work on their why for getting well and making that detailed so that they always have a reason to be committed, not just, I don’t like having pain.” It’s “I want to go kayaking,” or “I want to start a business,” or “I want to walk my kid down the aisle in six months.” That’s the why. It has nothing to do with the autoimmune disease. It’s about putting the body in a better environment by changing the environment you are putting it in.
The body thanks you. That works for the body. You just go, “Oh, wow. Look at the power I have.” That’s what I do. I feel that timing of meals, figuring out what works and doesn’t work for your body, gives you so much power. It really does. Once you realize what it really means, that’s what we know.
I teach people you don’t have the fear anymore. You just know what everything means when stuff happens. Then you can make better choices. You can recover from flares pretty quick. They create their own first aid kit. You anticipate a flare, and you know how to eat for that. You know how to live for that. You know how to recover from that much more rapidly, so you are not causing more decline and developing more autoimmune diseases.
We know that with Hashimoto’s and Graves’, you are probably 5x, if not more, likely to get another autoimmune disease. How many people have you seen who has more than one autoimmune disease if you dig? Probably hundreds. If we do pretty comprehensive testing, you can see if they have elevated antibodies against other organ tissues. They are suffering.
Everything you do fundamentally, the foundations, influence every single one of those autoimmune processes. It’s all related. The immune system is protecting you. It’s pretty wise. When you start resetting your relationship to food, mentally, and your relationship to yourself, everything starts to get better.
I sound like an evangelist. I’m not even selling. It’s so real. It’s so empowering to watch people learn that they can actually help themselves instead of coming to our practices and always saying, “Please help me,” and they are crying and have nowhere to go. I can teach you how to help yourself get somewhere. That’s my passion. That’s bliss.
Dr. Eric:
Thank you for sharing all this great information. Can’t agree with you more about the foundations. A lot of practitioners, including myself, sometimes overlook them. Of course, everyone who comes into my practice, we don’t skip over diet and stress management. Sometimes, we go down a rabbit hole of complexities.
Dr. Krista:
That’s because it’s fun for us. We love it. And you and I are people who really love this stuff. We want people to feel better. We are almost overwhelmed if we can’t do it fast. We’re used to being fee for service. We want things fast so people like it and do well. I’m always trying to do it fast. We feel an innate sense of responsibility to do that. But we also love the science. It’s fun. You don’t have to be a geek to be able to personalize your own care. That is what we sometimes forget.
At least I did in my practice for 20-odd years. I really did. I glanced over. I just assumed people are drinking their water and going for a walk and sleeping. I’m looking for big stuff. We have to over supplement. Green medicine is everything. This herb for that. Adaptogens for stress management. Seriously, get rid of the stressor. What could we do to reduce some of the stressors or learn how to adapt to those stressors a little better with mindset, so you don’t need another supplement or thing that could be maybe even triggering the autoimmune process and spreading things?
Listen, I want to offer your listeners. They are obviously in alignment with you, and you and I are in alignment. I have a mini course called “Building Immune Resilience the EASY Way.” It’s 10 modules. I will give it to your people for free. Would that be okay?
Dr. Eric:
Yeah, that would be wonderful.
Dr. Krista:
I guarantee it would be in alignment with what you teach them.
Dr. Eric:
Thank you so much, Dr. Krista.
Dr. Krista:
If they use the code EASY100, they will get 100% off. Free for them as a complimentary thing because I want your people to get that little boost, so that when they are working with you, it makes even more sense. They can have that. It’s pretty awesome, and it’s easy to consume and apply over time. Everything I do is easy. Give it to your people. You take a look at it and see what you think.
Dr. Eric:
I’ll check it out as well. Anywhere else you want to guide people where they can learn more about you?
Dr. Krista:
Sure. My signature program is affordable, and we have an awesome private group. I am not the sage on the stage; I am the guide on the side. I like coaching in a group. I think it’s something I’ve missed in my whole career. I love it.
We have this private group called The EASY Way with Dr. K. It’s an online course that you get to teach you through those four phases and reset your metabolism and your life pretty dramatically. You’re in a group of like-minded people. All those people are coaching each other. It’s peer coaching. It’s accountability. I have a lifestyle coach in there who is excellent. She also has training in functional medicine. Then there is me. You have a doctor teaching people how to do stuff.
I’d love to have you in there and do a Q&A or a live on some cool thing any time. We have a few people in there with Hashimoto’s and other autoimmune diseases. Everything you talk about would work for them. I’d love to cross-pollinate. They would learn a lot from you. That would be brilliant. I love having those cool conversations with like-minded people. That’s TheEasyWay.ca. They can always reach out to me on Facebook with questions.
Dr. Eric:
Thank you so much, Dr. Krista. Appreciate you joining us here and sharing your knowledge about the foundations.
Dr. Krista:
Thanks for the opportunity. This was brilliant. I love this. How can you not want to do this all the time, Eric? This is awesome. I’m glad you do it. You help a lot of people.
Dr. Eric:
I agree. I definitely love what I do. As you said earlier, definitely don’t have any intentions of stopping anytime soon. I’ll admit, I love doing Facebook Lives. I love doing podcast episodes. But I love the guest interviews because I’m always learning stuff, too. I enjoy these even more than just doing the solo episodes because the solo episodes are honestly more work. I’m doing all the talking and not learning anything.
Dr. Krista:
You know what I find, too? When you get minds like us together, it’s like a hive mind. You come up with these beautiful ideas that you would never maybe have thought of before. It expands your potential to help other people, which is what we’re here for. We love helping people. You learn more through conversation. Thank you for the opportunity.
I wish I’d reached out to you a long time ago and gotten to know you. I bought your book years ago when I was first diagnosed with Hashimoto’s. That really helped dial things in for me. That was part of my evolution in functional medicine. I’m very grateful to you for that. I bought it in 2018.
Dr. Eric:
Which of my books?
Dr. Krista:
The one on Hashimoto’s. I think you had just posted it on your website. I was following you at the time. I don’t know why we never communicated before.
Dr. Eric:
I don’t know. I’m glad you reached out to me. I’m glad we did this interview.
Dr. Krista:
I’d like to have you in my groups, too. I have a group that’s called Hey Hashi and Healing Inspiration: The Easy Way. That’s all about Hashimoto’s. I have DrKristaCoombs.com as my Hashimoto’s website. But I work with all autoimmune. My practice sees everything. I am not as dialed in as you are even though I deal with Hashimoto’s myself because I think they’re all related.
Dr. Eric:
Thank you again, Dr. Krista.
Dr. Krista:
Thanks for listening.