Foundations Functional Medicine

Finally got my daytime 👓

I’ve had my red/full blue light blocking glasses for years- Bit they’re pretty full spectrum and make vision a bit difficult 🤓

Yellow are able to block a lot of blue light without sacrificing visual acuity. Helloooo daytime phone and laptop support 🙌

Why block blue light? Well, many many reasons. Here’s some highlights

👉 Blue light into the evenings can interrupt physiological changes by affecting your circadian rhythm (sleep wake cycles)

👉 In a society that’s constantly bombarded with blue light from natural and synthetic sources, too much cause eye strain

👉 Less blue light exposure can help with leptin signaling, therefore weight balance, satiation, and energy demand

👉 It also is shown to help improve

👉 Overall, enhances brain function and supports a more balanced mood

👓 Check them out at and use DRKATHRYN82169 for 15% off

🤩 Have you tried ??

Here’s the FULL blood sugar lab order to ask your doctor for

🩸 A1c

👉 What is it? Our total sum average of highs/lows of blood sugars, moment by moment over a 3-4 month period. This is the criteria marker for diagnosing or and my goal range for patients is 5.0-5.3

🩸 Insulin (fasted)

👉 What is it? Insulin is the hormone that helps get sugars out of the blood and into the cells where it can become energy. If this process is impaired, think about like a rusty hinge, we can’t “open that door” efficiently and the result is higher BSs. The pancreas makes more insulin in response to this, and this can result in a HYPOGLYCEMIC response after meals: Fatigue, brain fog, sleepiness etc. High insulin also signals for weight gain and the creation of fat. Fasted insulin goal: 4-7

🩸 LDH

👉 What is it? This helpful marker can give us insight into blood sugar stability and/or oxidative stress on the body due to high sugars. If high, think cellular damage and oxidative stress marker. If low, think reactive hypoglycemia and this person is likely not eating enough (at the right times at least). Goal: ~145-190

🩸 CMP (which includes our fasted blood sugar)

👉 What is it? The fasted BS gives us insight into this snapshot in time. If elevated but A1c is normal, this often reflects a stress response and cortisol issues overnight. Fasted BS goal: 75-88

🩸 Lastly, Lipid panel for triglycerides

👉 What is it? TGs are your body’s storage form of fat. If they’re elevated, this is an early indicator of metabolic disease and pending (if not present) blood sugar issues

HIGH ESTROGEN SYMPTOMS?

👉 Heavy, painful periods? Breast tenderness and swelling? Clotting? Migraines?

👉 Histamine issues (see last )? Cramps? Pain? Inability to lose weight/bloat?

👋 Hi, I’m here to let you know that it may not be what overly simplified social media post suggest as

🤔 In other words, YOU - your ovaries - might not be overproducing estrogen. In fact, I believe most do not

🤷‍♀️ I know I know, if you’ve been told “estrogen dominance” this might *seem* to contradict

😃 It doesn’t. This is just explaining the next layer deeper behind the nuance

👉 While your body might not be overproducing you might still have too much

👉 Too much synthetic estrogen exposure from and other things like

👉 Scented candles, perfumes, hygiene and beauty products, cleaning products, food packaging and sooo much more

🤷‍♀️ So you get a lot of exposure from synthetic estrogen….that sends a signal that there is a lot of it….and the body responds

🤔 Even if YOU have very little or even a normal amount

HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY TO THESE MOMS of kiddos, (clients and patients 🤣), and fur babies ♥️

I so love doing business alongside of each of you

♥️

It’s not about “solutions in 3-6 months” as many expect 👉

Although yes, many see solutions and leaps and bounds in their health journey in 3-6 months 🙌

But what then? Think you just, “arrived”? You’re “here” now? You’re all “healthy” and it’s just….honky dory? 🤔

Health IS a journey - You’re living in the same toxic swamp I am *cue Shrek* 😆

This is the where true transformation and healing exists: Recognizing that there is no “arrival” but a daily (some days small steps some day big ones) SERIES OF DECISIONS

👉 Decisions require thought. If I can do this one thing

♥️ Teach you to know what questions to ask

✅ Then I have succeeded far beyond “results in 3-6 months”

🤜🤛 we’ve got this. It isn’t always easy. There’s always set backs. But shifting your thoughts, asking different questions to arrive at different decisions…

🤗 That’s where we figure this thing out together

10/10 still don’t recommend 🤣

Signed,

🪱 A holistic health provider who believes most tumors and cysts are parasitic until proven otherwise

Comment digest to get recommendations right to you (see last slide) ♥️

Read for stomach acid facts 🙌

3️⃣ YEARS

🤪 I’m having so much fun living this life, building my business, and waking up grateful for all the dreams that have come to fruition (+ the hope of all that’s the come)

🎉 THAT I FORGOT, again, TO CELEBRATE ANOTHER YEAR OF PRIVATE PRACTICE

🎉🎉 I am so so so grateful for the last 3 years of opportunity to offer MY way, 100%, building a sustainably balanced career of authenticity and passion


👉👉👉 SCROLL for how long it FEELS like I’ve been in private practice 😁😁 I’ll always cherish that picture, it’s how most folks feel when studying for too long


🥂 to another 3, 6, 9 years and beyond

♥️ Thankful for each of you I’ve connected with here and in person. Each conversation, comment, thoughtful question, and supporting likes/shares has helped make this a reality so thank you all for the love

You can’t make this 💩 up

🙃 trusting folks with two small questions about diet timing over a long timeframe and summarizing that it’s a 91% (a whopping 91%!!!!) correlation with death by cardiovascular disease

🤣 Is totally publishable and spreading like wild fire

🤷‍♀️ But millions of women questioning the impact of birth control on their bodies, hundreds of thousands of them coming to social media to share their negative experiences

🤣 IS IN NO WAY TRUE oh, and worse, a slippery slope to far right political extremism

🤪 I couldn’t make this up if I tried

😂🤣 The sad, sad hypocrisy is REAL

YOUR DENTAL HEALTH MATTERS MORE THAN YOU KNOW 🦷

And it’s not about having pearly whites and manicured veneers 😆

It’s about the bacteria, acidity, and biofilms 🦷

Your mouth is a reservoir of bacteria. It just is. That’s not bad it’s a fact.

👉 What can become bad is when the wrong sorts of bacteria are not contained:

🦷 Be it not brushing enough, not rebalancing the pH of the mouth, mouth breathing, or not flossing or using a water flosser

🦷 OR having infected roots that modern dentistry just compacts down deep into the jaw bone and thus blood supply for ya 🤦‍♀️🤦‍♀️

If you suspected a cavity or root canal, I cannot stress the importance enough of working my with an informed dentist who knows the importance of the infection risk with system health issues

🦷 In this case, this is a patient who finally had a chronically off/on problematic tooth just pulled

🙌🙌 Read the results!

Something to consider 📲

Did you know that staying up on your phone in the dark, or even just prolonged screen exposure after the sun goes down, can have far reaching impacts on your health? 💻

Our whole system is designed to be in flow with the sun and moon 🌕

Modern society makes this pretty near impossible 🤔

But one of the first ways to protect yourself and support health and healing is to KNOW and UNDERSTAND 👍

The best diet is 🥁

Something YOU discover for YOUR needs over time 🙌

It is not etc 🤔

It is what your body needs, in a given season, consumed it a way that nourishes your mind and body ♥️

There are certain set diet changes that we know to be true and beneficial across the board 👉

🥗 Gluten is sprayed to kingdom come with and also is implicated with disease and -> IMO, it should be limited and thoughtfully consumed

🥗 Dairy is often extremely processed, resulting in inflammatory impact to your body -> Choosing less processed, more “in the raw” options is a great, nutrient-dense addition to your diet if tolerated

🥗 Sugar and alcohol … ‘nuff said

🥗 Too much fiber can be harsh on the gut or not enough fiber can be impeding a healthy gut


So here’s something important to take note of:

👉 Focus less on finding a perfect diet and more on sensing how you feel as you eat what you eat

👉 Ask your body questions about the food, wait for answers as you consume mindfully (slow down)

👉 Don’t stress perfection, just try and make steady consistent steps happen more…consistently

Life isn’t out to get you ♥️

In fact, it is constantly offering you another way. But what you ruminate on, what you hold in your deepest beliefs, can be a blind pulled over any other realities 👉

What you focus on becomes what you experience. It’s how your brain works 👉


Your life is not a consequence of anything when you realize you can shift the narrative and it’s all. Up. To. YOU.

I became fascinated with Alzheimer’s disease during my Masters research years
One thing that struck me hard in my findings and months of scouring the literature for “Alzheimer’s disease and vitamin e” and other nutritional elements of it was this:
PREVENTION is key because once these changes are there, nutrition does very little to change the progression
This was a huge shift in my direction: I could not ignore the fact that conventional medicine would never help me help you prevent ANYthing. It would help me find and treat what’s already there
is prevention
So here’s what we know about helping preserve and maintain the health of your brain 🧠

Bacteria in your MOUTH drive changes in your BRAIN leading to decline and disease 🫤

But the bacteria in your mouth are heavily related to the overall bacteria in your GUT
Yes of course, a good dental hygiene routine is crucial as well:

👉 Cut out the right away! (This nukes all the bacteria and the bad ones regrow faster, it’s like on your gut - No bueno!!)

👉 Brush sooner after meals, the sooner the better

👉 Stop ! Figure it out. A dry mouth allows the bad guys to proliferate and create more acid to break your teeth down

👉 Find a to understand the hesitation with certain types of fillings and fluoride use. Check out if local to

👉 Use a toothpaste with to help kill some more aggressive strains of bacteria and help decrease inflammation


🩷Your brain need you to care about your mouth. Your mouth needs you to care about your gut. Your gut directly dictates the overall health and longevity of your brain. Get on it.

Did you know your thyroid is intimately involved in your cycle? 🔄

It’s amazing, really, how our bodies are so brilliant ♥️

In just a few days after your period, estrogen rises and recruits key players for ovulation to occur 🙌

One of which is thyroid hormone! Get this, and both help get more thyroid hormone in the blood stream in two different ways that plays beautifully back into your overall cycle -> check this out! 🔥

ESTROGEN, which rises first (fairly early in your cycle), helps get a little more active hormone in the blood stream and make the body a bit more sensitive to what’s available 😍

A number of days later, PROGESTERONE then rises and actually helps tell the thyroid to make *more* hormone overall 😍

The result of this, then, explains the body temp rise that many use to track their ovulation (BBT). Plus, if conception does occur, thyroid hormone is immediately crucial to early embryonic and placental development 🙌🔥

The interaction between estrogen and progesterone on thyroid hormone levels is partially why women feel (typically) more energy and overall better during ovulation 🙌

Thyroid health also impacts estrogen and progesterone - Up next 😁

Please consider supporting Jessica and her family through this time. Let’s see how community can come together!

https://gofund.me/bbb1c0d2

Some people don’t wanna hear this 👀

Namely those providers who use extensive (+ expensive) genetic testing to prescribe dozens of supplements regardless of the FUNCTIONAL impact (let alone someone’s symptoms) 🤦‍♀️

Genetics are important, sure 👍

They can help us understand the “weak link” in the chain, thus helping us narrow down our understanding of what factors contributed to X symptom 👩‍🏫

But no “diagnosis” based on genetics should have an automatic outcome of “oh you’ve gotta take this for the rest of your life” 🤦‍♀️

One of the best examples is the genetic variation 👉

Few quick facts: This CAN change how well you (in the liver, specifically) 🥴

This CAN therefore lead to symptoms of poor detoxification (namely: Defective methylation) and result in downstream symptoms like 👉👉

😟 Mood changes, ADHD, PMDD, hormonal symptoms, skin issues, and so so much more

😞 Not to mention, it could also increase your body’s inflammation levels and negatively impact your heart (increasing risk of cardiovascular disease)

⚠️ So YES it’s an important topic but here’s the thing:

👉👉 IS IT AFFECTING YOU FUNCTIONALLY?? That’s THE question and it can be answered for less than $40!

🩸 Test: Homocysteine (for starters)

👉 Is it high? You’re likely be impacted FUNCTIONALLY by this genetic variation

👏👏👏 AVOID FOLIC ACID and find a quality methylated B complex: Actions steps 1 and 2 (yes it gets more complicated for some)

♥️ Here’s the thing: I personally assume this variant is far more common than 📊 would suggest. And so I test in everyone and I never prescribe folic acid (yack anyways - look at your prenatal, multi, or B complex right away)

👩‍🏫♥️ Did you learn something? Dont forget to support free educational content with a like, comment, share ♥️👩‍🏫

Blown away yesterday with Emily’s 👉 👈 articulation of complex nutrition topics in such a, well, graceful way 😍

Emily reminded us how busy we are when we eat (yes even just on our phone) and taught us tips for being mindful and actually listening to our bodies AS we eat a meal 🙌

Lemme tell ya - Not many are doing this but it would solve a host of GI symptoms and take some pressure off of finding “the perfect diet” 👏

Emily reminded us that stressing over a non-sustainable diet is worse than just eating the junk in many ways - Then gave some really great tips on how to think about food and what it does IN and FOR your body ♥️

As food breaks down, it sends signals throughout your whole body - Are you providing your cells steady energy or a quick flood of fake energy that precedes a crash? 😳

I’m so excited that is on the Foundations FM team! 😃

Can’t wait to have her full time as a Registered Dietitian 😍😍😍😍

For now, she’s got 1 more spot open for nutrition coaching through the spring - If this resonates with you, schedule her COMPLIMENTARY DISCOVERY CALL 📞

( DM us or find the link in bio )

🎉 Thanks to for hosting this Women’s Wellness Day event! Can’t wait for the next one in September

You want results but…

🤍 What have you found holds you back from continuing towards the health outcomes you want?

😉😂 With love, did I ask you if you were hungry??😋

Consider this: You’ve been preprogrammed all of your life to eat less 👉

From a young age, it was realized it was easier to skip the meals that start your day rather than end your day 👉

Busy, waking up with an agenda, on the go, …this has been your story since you were young. Maybe it used to be the bus for school and then it was sleeping to the last minute for college classes and then getting your own kids to school or yourself off to work 😬

So skipping any considerable calories in the morning was always subconsciously programmed and well, just EASY 🤷‍♀️

Your body adjusted. It adapted. It had to 😳

So hunger signals, adapting to the environment you imposed upon yourself, abated. You changed, quite literally, your physiology 🫣

So now, when you learn that you should be eating breakfast…😳

“But I’m not hungry in the mornings” is NOT a point 😬

It’s irrelevant 😉

What if eating now makes you nauseous in the mornings? 🥵

Well, again, you’ve spend years maybe decades training your body one way so reversing that may take some easing into it and finding small steps towards getting you where you need to be: 👉

Waking with a healthy level of appetite or at least interest in some fuel, and ability to consume a quality breakfast without negative side effects like nausea or upset stomach ♥️

If you have cravings into the later afternoon and evening, eat breakfast and increase protein before noon until you notice no more cravings 👀👀

It might literally be that simple

Perimenopause 😳

This super fun transitional time in a women’s life where her already run ragged, chronically overstimulated and overly stressed adrenals are supposed to now take on MORE responsibilities

👉 As a women transitions from reproductive age to menopausal, her is coming less and less from ovulation and more from the adrenals

👏👏 YES, you should still have adequate (albeit lower baseline of normal) progesterone after menopause

👉 Progesterone is a calming, soothing hormone

👉 It helps combat anxiety

👉 It helps you sleep more soundly and without waking up

👉 + tons of other roles, including healthy skin, brain, and immune system functions

😳 Sadly, there’s a LOT fighting this peaceful transition for decades leading to it

🫣 *insert symptoms* Testosterone and progesterone often plummet, as opposed to a smooth steady decline to new normal, lower baseline

😂 So is she a Karen?! Or does that girl need some progesterone support 😃

PS: and other non- bioidentical hormones are NOT it. Speak with your provider about bioidentical options for you ♥️

I was there too - Bouncing doctor to doctor, specialist to specialist and only getting prescribed pills I didn’t need and feeling totally dejected and lost after every visit 🤦‍♀️

My teen years were full of unexplained puffiness and bloating 🫣

My early 20s were full of headaches, acne, low energy, vomiting for no reason, feeling sick to my stomach ALL of the time, blistering rashes “from the sun” and so much more 🧐

I stopped going places. I gained weight despite barely eating. I alienated friends. I was NOT happy 😔

And of course, I kept going to doctors 🥼

They told me anything from terrifying possibilities to total dismissal but one thing was ALWAYS the case:

💊 “try this pill”💊

Thankfully, I was raised with a holistic mindset and that was just never the answer for me. But still, I didn’t have an answer either way 😕

I volunteered in the local hospital twice a week, thinking it would prepare me for my lifelong (literally) goals of med school 🏫

YIKES is all I can say about that. Eye opening 👀

So a giant step back led me to some filler years: Insert Masters of Biochemistry + research topics on

👉 Diabetic blood sugar + insulin signaling

👉 Blood sugar, insulin, & fat-soluble vitamin impact on brain health

🫣🫣🫣 My next Dr appointment is when I started to challenge the narrative. “What do you MEAN diet has nothing to do with my acne?!” 🧐 “How can you say this rash isn’t a reaction to something in my sunscreen?!” 🧐 “How can you tell me my symptoms are ALL just hidden anxiety and send me on my way?!”

🤦‍♀️ They didn’t like me once I started becoming an advocate for myself from a place of informed consumerism

🤩 But, I started healing. I started applying more and more of what I learned from my Masters into my doctorate of chiropractic years and realizing that even with lingering symptoms - i just started feeling good. More energy, more connection TO and WITH my body and what it was showing me, more inclination to learn more

🎊 Fast forward / ⏩

I now own my own private practice and see lives changed daily be it fertility, thyroid, hormones, autoimmune, GI, mold healing - You name it, applies

J A N U A R Y Group! 🌟

You asked, we planned it! 🙌

Jan 8th = Start date for the 5 week RESTART Program led by and guest ft. yours truly 🤝

Kaitlyn has a special touch for motivating and encouraging, and I am so excited to bring her certification to coach the Restart Program to my community 🙌👏

This program has helped SO many find RESULTS:

👉 Clear, easy understanding of the impact of sugar and how to address it in the diet

👉 An accurate understanding of FATS

👉 Weight loss

👉 More energy, less brain fog

👉 And so many more benefits that explains in a full video breakdown in the emails that went out this morning! (Message me if you want on the email list!!!)

🥗

This 5 week program starts Jan 8th and runs weekly with live, 60-75 minute meetings {virtually} + 24/7 live group {private} support 🫸🫷

+ Access to materials done for you:

😍 Cookbook: An exact diet breakdown for our time together in the program!

😍 Food journal: Log and track how you’re feeling with certain foods and changes made!

😍 The teamwork approach here is ALL the difference- Kait will bring her coaching and expertise and I will fill in some depth and bonus content ;)

Link to sign up is live in the Bio or message me for the link sent directly to you!

#2024

Dec 25th 2011 and 2016 - Christmas in India with a forever changed heart ♥️

Every year around Christmas, I relive these two trips and go through old photos, remembering these beautiful faces and the lessons they taught me ♥️

We came with gifts to wrap and provide a Christmas morning - All things of necessity, all gifts that most children in the USA would expect to receive at any regular day 🎁

But what I really remember is the joy in these kids. The joy and selflessness. The sharing and giving freely. The community. One important lesson was told to me, (in paraphrase) 👉

“richer or poorer, this is the life we know and it is a good one. Do not pity us that we don’t have what’s consider riches elsewhere, we have a joy so deep that our days are overflowing with enough” ♥️

If this Christmas looks a little different, a little less in presence or presents, I hope this post can remind you of the joy you DO have, the goodness that IS here all around you. I hope you can feel the heartbeat of a connected humanity worldwide and forget, even if just for a bit, your own little emotions in your own little sphere of the world and blip of time on this earth. ♥️

In truth, we make too much of a single day with expectations and luxury…when little reminders like this bring us back to the reason we rest and gather:

♥️ Remember joy, remember humanity, remember love and giving, remember forgiveness and healing, get out of your own way and let your heart remember GOODNESS

♥️ God bless you all, Merry Christmas

LET’S DO JANUARY TOGETHER 🤩

5 weeks of weekly meetings 👉

💻 Virtual
⏱️60-75 minutes each

+ a private community for support in real time with Kait and Dr. Kathryn 👏

+ Done for you cook book and weekly resources to support your experience 📒

I’ve never offered a group program quite THIS supportive in making sure you have allll the tools you need to

🪴 Understand food + digestion + weight + diet patterns

🪴How to cut out sugar fully, with ease + why

🪴 Plus tons of other topics, including a bonus week where I’ll be going deeper in weight, weight loss, hormones, and digestive health for whole body health

🤩🤩 This 5 week program is available for sign ups NOW by the LINK IN THE COMMENTS

🫣 We hope to see you there

Tap water was a major trigger for my skin issues 😳

And until I finally realized it, I had no idea! 🤷‍♀️

We had our home water tested, and it turns out it was off the charts with chlorine and undefined “sediment” 🤮

So every time I was heating the water and applying it to my skin, I was opening my pores and scrubbing all kinds of who knows what junk into my body 🥲

Now, I knew better to not drink it. But your skin is super absorbent and we can’t forget that fact when it comes to avoiding all controllable toxin sources that we can 🫣

Fast forward years later, our whole house filter and additional filtering of drinking water is a hugely valuable health step we take (my plants do better now too!!!) 🪴

Have you addressed your drinking water yet??

JANUARY 2024 Health ->

If you've been following along, you've seen that we've hired two AMAZING providers who bring diversity of scope and expertise to Foundations Functional Medicine
Read about us: https://drkathrynheidt.com/about-us/

EMILY is currently a health coach and also finishing up her Registered Dietitian licensure. Her health coaching, nutrition support, and mindset work are incredible. She is organized and knows how to hold you accountable to tackle your health goals one day after another.
Schedule her free discovery call here:
https://l.bttr.to/ychgw

KAIT is a Functional Nutrition Therapist with extensive experience in fitness, breast implant illness, nutrition, women's hormone, and general lifestyle tools for wellness. She is so passionate and truly a friend to all of those lucky enough to work alongside of her.
Schedule her free discovery call here:
https://l.bttr.to/JpmzH

About Us | Foundations Functional Medicine The Foundations FM Team " Welcome to the Foundations FM Team! We invite you to read more about our mission and who we are. The Foundations FM team is a unique group of providers that work together to bring multiple perspectives and expertise to your health journey. When working with one of our team....