Ep. 34 Pairing Functional Medicine with Health Coaching

Hello, and welcome back to another episode of Becoming a Health Coach.

I'm Megan McCrory.

I created this podcast back in 2018 when I was attending the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, studying to become a health coach.

Fast forward.

It's 2025 and I'm taking a fresh look at my early episodes with fellow IIN Health Coach extraordinaire, a Danna Levy Hoffmann.

Danna Levy Hoffmann: Hi everyone.

I am Danna Levy Hoffmann.

I'm a functional medicine certified health coach, and Megan's co-host on the So Frickin' Healthy podcast.

Together we are gonna talk about what we learned and how our views and experiences have changed over the years.

Or not.

the original episode is still available for you to listen to, but I hope that this updated version provides a deeper understanding between training to become a health coach and actually practicing as a health coach in the real world.

As always, I'd love to hear your thoughts and questions about becoming a health coach.

You can reach me via the podcast website hosted by the Swiss Cast Network.

The link is in the show notes.

Megan J. McCrory: Now let's hear what 2018 Megan has to say about functional medicine.

Oftentimes people have a symptom, maybe something that came on slowly over time, maybe all of a sudden.

They don't want to go see a doctor.

Why?

So in my experience, I believe that doctors wouldn't find anything wrong with me.

And I'd walk away feeling like a hypochondriac, like it really was all in my head.

So we wait and we wait to see if it will just go away.

We wait to see if it gets better, but we wait.

And often then with all this waiting we grow used to the symptoms and we just live with it.

Or by the time we see the doctor, it's way more serious than if we had gone earlier.

Now with the internet and Dr. Google, we sit in the comfort of our own home and try to diagnose ourselves.

Like that ever really works.

The simple fact is if you don't feel good, something is wrong with you.

What that is will still need to be figured out.

However, you are the keeper of your body.

If you haven't had the best luck with Western taught doctors, search out a functional medicine practitioner.

These are healthcare professionals that have taken additional training in functional medicine.

More and more people are finding success with functional medicine practitioners.

All right, Danna.

you have recently and recently, like within the last two years, got your certification as a functional medicine health coach.

So you are extra super awesome and,

Danna Levy Hoffmann: Thank you.

and I think functional medicine is.

In certain circles, very well known because people have become disillusioned with Western medicine and disillusioned with the fact that they can't find a root cause for their problems.

but I really want to kind of set the scene because I wanna know how functional medicine, first of all, what it is and how it works differently from what is called western medicine, or more ironically called traditional medicine because, so yeah, help us out here.

What is, what's going on?

Danna Levy Hoffmann: so I mean, let's start with Western medicine maybe, because basically western medicine, how should I say this?

Mainly Western medicine looks at your symptom and what medicine can I give you in order to take away that symptom, right?

You come in saying you have headaches or migraines or I don't know, whatever, pain or whatever ailment, and the doctor just kind of like scans through their brain like, what medicine did I learn about?

And they try to help you.

They do try to help you, but they try to help you by giving you a, a medication.

With functional medicine, what we realized was that a lot of medications nowadays are actually doing more harm than good, or are just basically putting a over the symptom and not necessarily tackling the source of the issue.

With functional medicine, what we try to do and what functional medicine doctors try to do is try to find the source of the problem, meaning, okay, you get headaches every day, or you get migraines every day.

Let's talk about that a little bit.

What other symptoms can you tell me you're getting did you find any correlation with certain things that you're eating or.

You know, running full blood tests and, and maybe sometimes stool test or urine test, understanding where your hormones are at, where your amino acids and and vitamins are at, and just trying to get a wider picture of your whole situation, and then connecting the dots from there and understanding what the source could be, and oftentimes a good.

Functional medicine doctors will sometimes be like, I don't know what the source is, but I do know that if we start doing this it could be a C and z. If we start doing it this way, it might help us to understand is it A, is it C or is it Zed?

And so we need to go through a certain process.

Yes.

Sometimes it feels like it's a little bit slower.

You need to go run the tests.

You need to get the results.

You need to start taking certain, supplements actually, because we're trying to help you heal by.

Filling up the reserves, right?

Like filling up the buckets of the vitamins and the amino acids and all the things.

So I hope that answers the question.

It's basically, you know, trying to get to the core of the problem and trying to bring you into a more balanced state holistically so that you manage to see, okay, oh great, that actually feels better.

I'm feeling.

Like the migraines are not as, as often and often we look at nutrition as well, of course, because certain things could be because of certain foods that you're eating, um, to certain groups of foods or certain things that you'd find in certain foods.

So it's a whole, it's a whole very complicated world.

But with with a person who actually knows that world can really be helpful.

I remember hearing a story and I, maybe it was in my health coaching course or maybe it was not.

I don't remember where I heard this.

But the, um, kind of the explanation for people who have never heard of anything with functional medicine, the scenario is this.

Somebody goes to the doctor, their normal gp, western medicine doctor, and they have high blood pressure.

The doctor's gonna give them.

Blood pressure medication, and they're gonna take that for the rest of their lives because as you mentioned, they're treating the symptom of high blood pressure.

Contrast that with a functional medicine doctor.

So a functional medicine doctor should be noted.

This is most often a western medicine doctor who has

undergone additional training in functional medicine to be called a functional medicine doctor.

So don't, this is not like some hocus pocus woo woo kind of whatever.

And let's say that same person goes to that doctor.

they say, Hey, you have high blood pressure.

This is not good.

We will give you blood pressure medication now because we need to get your blood pressure down because you're restraining your heart.

But we're not gonna leave it there.

We are gonna look to see what lifestyle choices and lifestyle things that we can change, environmental, nutritional, physical activity wise, can we change to help lower your blood pressure.

From a natural point of view to get you off the blood pressure medication because you don't, nobody wants to be on medication the rest of their life.

And again, like you said, it's not fixing the underlying root cause.

Why did the person have high blood pressure to begin with?

Would you say that that is a relatively good way to kind of the same scenario and how both of these doctors would handle that differently?

Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah, a hundred percent.

I mean, of course some, you know, depending on your sever, the severity of the situation.

some functional medicine doctors might decide not to even go, uh, the Medica Medicine route if it's not so bad.

Right.

If you caught it on

Right.

No, but like if, if it's, if it's your health is in risk now, they're not gonna not use medicine.

They're not gonna just give you herbs and walk out the door.

My point is, is that they, they still have at their disposal to use modern medicine and pharmaceuticals to help solve a critical situation quickly.

Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah.

But they're not gonna leave it there.

They're not gonna, like, that's where it's gonna stay for the rest of your life.

Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah, a hundred percent.

And, and I can even go into a little bit more detail on that one.

Let's pretend that you have an inflammation of some sort and you go to a Western doctor and they'll basically probably give you antibiotics right, and send you on your way where a functional medicine doctor will say, okay, let's give you some antibiotics, Let's also help your body by giving it probiotics.

And they'll tell you not to take them at the same time because that would make no sense whatsoever.

And they will maybe give you something else or give you another food for thought about what could be causing or what could be helping the inflammation go get worse and what could help subside it.

So I feel like they just have the time and the knowledge to go a little bit more into detail on holistically make sure that your body is getting a bit more balanced.

Rather than going like, here, take these antibiotics.

I'll see you next time.

five minutes in and out.

They didn't even look you in the eye.

I'm kind of generalizing.

But fact is Western doctors don't have, don't have much time.

They really don't.

And it's not their choice.

It's the, the health, uh.

What is it called?

The,

Yeah, the healthcare system.

Danna Levy Hoffmann: and the

Yeah.

Danna Levy Hoffmann: everything.

Yeah

You are a health coach.

We already talked about this.

So you're trained in 2018 as a health coach, and then you did additional training as a functional medicine health coach, like we talked about, where the doctors have been trained also in functional medicine.

I believe nurses can also be trained, and I'm wondering are like, um, any mental health care professionals, like psychologists or psychiatrists also trained in functional medicine.

Danna Levy Hoffmann: They definitely can be.

Yeah, of

Yeah,

Danna Levy Hoffmann: I find that, you know, I find that the doctors that go into down that route are ones that are quite, they're disappointed in how little they're actually making a difference.

And that's when they kind of start going like, what, what is the, like, what's the point and what's, how can I help better?

Yeah.

We recently talked about patient advocacy and people getting frustrated with the healthcare system or with their doctors' non responses, and I find that a lot of people then eventually end up going to a functional medicine doctor because they've exhausted the resources in Western medicine.

So.

Would it be better to say just find a doctor who also does functional medicine and try to make them your gp?

Danna Levy Hoffmann: I mean, look, a lot of, there are a lot of doctors out there who just consider themselves a bit more open-minded and would not necessarily.

Say that they're functional medicine on their website and things like that, but they are.

I wouldn't say that anyone who doesn't have that, you know, a, a badge on their, on their shoulder is not functional medicine.

I think you just have to suss it out and ask the right questions and see how you feel about the answers that you're getting if you're being dismiss.

No, but if you're being listened to and the answers are a little bit more out of the box, then, you know, you're, you're talking to a human being who's listening to you as a human being.

the doctor that I see is a doctor who, on their website, they say that they're a holistic approach.

They don't say functional medicine anywhere on their website, but.

I have visited a couple of doctors in that practice.

I have found one woman who is super knowledgeable, who, has a lot of functional medicine knowledge.

I mean, she's very much functional medicine.

And, and that's who I go to because I, I feel that I'm being heard and I feel that I'm being asked the right questions.

And at the same time I've also had bad experiences with functional medicine doctors.

Okay.

Danna Levy Hoffmann: Who claim their functional medicine.

But when I sit there, I'm like, how do I know more than you and how, how is this even a conversation?

So I think it's just very individualized.

I think

Yeah.

Danna Levy Hoffmann: a person that you're vibing with, finding a person that you feel like you're being heard, that go into detail.

They ask you really questions that you don't even think.

They would ask or all of a sudden jump back on your test results and just kind of be like, oh, maybe it's this, you know, I wanna see curiosity from my

Mm-hmm.

Danna Levy Hoffmann: that they're really trying to help me to figure out this fucking puzzle that is my life and my health.

And if I don't get that vibe from them, I, I usually tend to just kinda like, okay, I, I, I will probably find someone new.

so as a health coach and talking to other people who are thinking about becoming a health coach who are new health coaches, can you explain a little bit of the difference from when you had your kind of general health coaching certification and you were practicing as a health coach and then you have your functional medicine certification and

how has that changed your approach and the kinds of people that you are picking up as clients?

Like how has that changed your practice as a health coach getting that extra certification?

Danna Levy Hoffmann: Yeah.

Yeah.

So I think what happens now is that I have a lot more, you know, let's just say that before I had this knowledge, I also felt uncomfortable giving um, not advice, but kind of like ideas of, oh, maybe it's this, and maybe it's that, because I didn't have more knowledge around it.

When, now when I, you know, when someone comes up to me and says, oh, you know, I have this symptom and that symptom, I can already start thinking like, okay, why don't you go to your doctor and ask about histamine intolerance and ask maybe to check if you're gluten intolerant the way that it helps me is to just guide my clients a little bit more focused, to be able to try to help them.

If they cannot afford going to see a doctor that is not covered by insurance, then we get, we get to start testing things out.

That doesn't cost money.

It does not cost you money to try to live a gluten-free lifestyle for a month or two.

It's just kind of giving you a little bit more of an idea of how to help your clients,

Well, cool, Danna, that was a excellent discussion on functional medicine and I hope that our listeners have learned something.

And as always, if you are interested in dropping us a line, we'd love to hear from you you can leave us a voicemail or drop us a message on our website and

the link is in the show notes.

Thanks Danna.