Podcast Drop Date: 9/25/2024
In this episode host, Amber Warren, PA-C, sits down with guest Michael Sermon, PA-C, to explore men’s health through the lens of functional medicine. They discuss the critical need for men to prioritize their health, highlighting holistic approaches that address everything from hormone optimization and stress management to preventative care. Michael offers expert insights on how functional medicine can empower men to take control of their well-being and make lasting lifestyle changes.
Transcript:
Amber Warren, PA-C: Welcome to the Functional Medicine Foundations podcast, where we explore root cause medicine, engage in conversation with functional and integrative medicine experts, and build community with like minded health seekers. I'm your host, Amber Warren. Let's dig deeper. Hi, everybody. Welcome back. We've got Michael Sherman here with us. We're so excited to have this conversation. Michael Sherman has been with Functional Medicine of Idaho since 2021, and became our medical director in 2023. He earned a bachelor's in human movement science from Utah State University, and a master of physician assistant science from Saint Francis University with experience in family practice, urgent care, and emergency medicine in rural Texas and Oregon, Michael discovered the importance of lifestyle modification and root cause medicine for disease prevention and healing. He integrates traditional primary care with functional medicine, emphasizing patient involvement in health care decisions. Outside of work, Michael enjoys hiking, biking, ice hockey, and spending time with his family. His areas of expertise include: foundational functional lifestyle approach to primary care, cardiometabolic health, men's hormones and autoimmune conditions. And I can guarantee you that he has other areas of expertise as well that he's very good at. I've worked with him long enough to know that. Thanks for being here, Mike. We really appreciate this.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah. Glad to be here.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Good! So let's start. I just kind of want to start a little more general. What's your I think our audience would love to hear your journey into functional medicine.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I would say it began my wife, 99%. I mean, straight up. I had no idea what this what this functional medicine was all about. I would say 1% is because I was already kind of looking for more. I was I was sort of at this point of like, what am I even doing? Yeah.
Amber Warren, PA-C: And you were working in urgent care at the time, right?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I was doing a family practice. Family practice in a small clinic. Okay. Um, for the at that point, I was probably 8 or 9 years into family practice. So I had I'd seen a few things. I've treated a lot of things and I've seen a lot of things. And I got to this point where I was sort of had this identity crisis of like, can I do this forever?
Amber Warren, PA-C: In what way?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I felt like I was. I felt like I was inadequately addressing problems. I was just sort of treating symptoms. And yeah, here's another pill. And yet, no matter how many prescriptions I would write, people are getting sicker and sicker. It got to this point where I was like, there's got to be something. There's got to be a better way to do this. Yeah.
Amber Warren, PA-C: And so Shaliese,
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And so she sat down one day and and actually at that time she was having, um, significant health issues that were not being addressed through conventional medicine.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And so she got to this point where she's like, I gotta, I gotta change what I'm doing in my lifestyle or something. Have you heard of this? It's functional medicine.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Mhm.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And I'm going. No. What is that. And so amidst of me being in my little crisis of like can I really do this for the long haul? I wasn't really enjoying medicine anymore. I was just kind of like, I felt like it was just a Groundhog Day every day.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Oh, you're not better. Despite quadruple therapy medications. And we're going, what are we even doing here? And I and one day after I had heard about functional medicine, I kind of researched it and I was like, this is what medicine should be.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Totally.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Like, root cause medicine. This all sounded like it should be good medicine. What I wanted to do.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Oh, cool.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: So she when she had introduced me that to that and I researched it and started listening to Weston A. Price Foundation podcast, I read about Institute of Functional Medicine and started even taking my first module.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Cool.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And at that point I started saying, how can I implement some of this? So even before I joined Functional medicine fully, I was already talking to my patients like, do you like this? Do you like that you're maxed out on all your medications? What if there was another way? And so I started saying, hey, I remember like really specifically this one guy, this one gentleman came in and he said, what do I do now? Because he was on high doses of insulin, he was very severely diabetic. His his average sugars were just through the roof. And no matter what I did to throw at this, he was on every medication under the sun that I could think of that was available at the time. And I said, what? Like, this can't keep going on.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I was like, what are you eating? And he's like, oh, you know, just stuff. I'm like, okay, well, tell me specifically what you're eating.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And so he's like, okay. So he so he starts listing off the things. I'm like, like, you know, let's talk about carbs because that's obviously a big driver here with your diabetes and say, I said how many? Um how many, you know.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: So he said, I eat I eat about six tortillas a day. Like, okay. And then he's like, oh, actually no, it's six tortillas per meal. And I'm like, oh, so you're eating 18 tortillas a day? I was like, that's that might be a problem. So this was the first time this had even come up in a conversation.
Amber Warren, PA-C: With a Type 2 diabetic.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: It was always just like, you have this problem and here's the disease to fix. Or at least we thought it was. Right. And so I just sat down and said, what if you cut those tortillas in half? It's like Like, humor me here. Like, work with me here. Like, be patient here. Yeah, I know this doesn't sound good, because that was a staple of his diet. Tortillas with everything. Um, and so he said he kind of looked at me like I was crazy and asking too much, and I was like, just cut him in half. And I kid you not, he came back in three months and his sugars were half of what they were. So he went from uncontrolled to now almost ideal.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Wow.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Not perfect, but he just came back and I said, what do you think? What'd you do? He's like, I cut my tortillas in half like you said, you little dingbat. And I said, okay, that's cool.
Amber Warren, PA-C: You listened, that's amazing.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I was like, you listen to me. Um, so he came back and he was just blown away. He was, you know, almost in tears, just like, whoa, I could have done. I could have gotten this under control.
Amber Warren, PA-C: It's so empowering for a patient.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And not long after that he was off his insulin. He was starting to get off some of his medications. It was a game changer. And that's how I knew that this was what I needed to do.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah, and you couldn't go back.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: So that's when I, shortly after that, I had learned about you guys here at the Functional Medicine of Idaho. And after, I don't know, 9 to 12 months of just kind of waiting for that time when it's right.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: You guys, I think, were still building your building here in Meridian. And so when the time was right, I moved my family here until it was ready. And then we jumped on board and.
Amber Warren, PA-C: And now you are the medical director of one of the biggest functional medicine clinics, probably in America. Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: So I think it was all meant to be and the timing was perfect. And yeah, it couldn't have come at a more critical time for me because I don't think I would be practicing medicine. I've learned to enjoy medicine again.
Amber Warren, PA-C: That is so cool to hear. So we rely on you. I know a lot because majority of our clinicians are female, so we rely on you a lot to take care of our guys. And you're really good at men's health. Is it fair to say that you see a lot of men that are maybe brought in by their wives that are not maybe into it, didn't seek out functional medicine or care on their own all the time. I figured, yeah, I figured.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: All the time.
Amber Warren, PA-C: So how do you approach those guys that are maybe like, what is this? Why am I in this building? How did I get here? I'm here to just make sure my wife doesn't yell at me every day of my life.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah, there's there's going to be sort of a spectrum there where some guys have maybe done a little research and kind of know that it's sort of lifestyle medicine. But yeah, we get some guys that are and they're kind of like, what are you going to do for me? And I'm like, what can I help you with? He's like, I don't know. My wife just sent me here. You're supposed to fix me somehow. And it's like, okay. So I stepped back and I just gather information. I say, let's get to know you. Um. Fortunately, in the functional world, we are allowed to spend more time with patients, which is a real game changer, because no matter how much you want to help someone, if you don't have the time to do that in the space, you really can't do much, you know? And that's what I found out in my previous practice, was I just didn't have time to get to know them. So when I sit down with them and spend time with them, it doesn't take long before they're kind of like nodding their head. That's that's what I want. That's what I want. Yes. So it's not really that hard to convert. Most people, when they know a their provider listens to them, right? And gathers a history and cares enough to ask about how is your sexual health, how is your how do you feel about your dad that died at 50 from a heart attack? You know, how does that make you feel inside? Do you want to end up like that?
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: So I like to use a lot of, you know, Previous patients experiences to kind of say, hey, this guy came in and he had this going on and this is what we did. And this is how he improved just by using simple, holistic lifestyle modifications to really make big impacts. Yeah, I feel like functional medicine can sometimes be viewed as this really complicated. Like, whoa, like it's going to be so overwhelming, like they're going to do all these special tests on me, and they're going to spend lots of my money to find out what you know. So that's where a lot of skepticism can come from, is like, man, it seems like a really heavy load investment in the beginning to find out what's actually going on. Going after root cause is not easy. And it's a very cognitive medicine. Right? Because you're thinking beyond just symptoms. You're looking for the fires. You're looking above the smoke to be like, I know there's I know there's smoke signals, but where's the fire?
Amber Warren, PA-C: And it's almost never just one fire. Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And then you look around, it's like, oh, it's actually 14 fires. Okay. Mhm. And so the skepticism of like what can you do to really help me. And what are you going to make me do. Like cut out my gluten and dairy and sugar.
Amber Warren, PA-C: My fun away.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: So a lot of skepticism comes from the their own mental block of like, I don't want to change and I don't want anyone to tell me to change. And they certainly don't want their wife to tell them what? What to change.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Stop it.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Right. And so they, you know, they come hoping that maybe I can present it in a way, or their wives are hoping that I can present it in a way. It's like so that they're not saying I told you so, but. Yeah. Oh, my provider said to do this. And the wife's like, yeah, I told you to do that like 15 times. Like, did you not remember that? So when they hear it from me, I think it, it does help to have it come from.
Amber Warren, PA-C: For sure, and no wife wants to be managing their husband's care. Like, let's be honest, like, none of us really want to be doing that, but we care about them. We want longevity in our spouses. We want them to be the best version of themselves all the time. And as men, um, leaders in the home and leaders at work, um, just like you are, you guys tend to put yourselves last. You're the last one to really seek that self-care and really take care of yourselves. Um, that's my experience with my husband and his friends and our family. It's like, yeah, there you come last. And so it's, yeah. Are you seeing, like, a movement maybe towards more men actually wanting to be proactive in their health?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Oh, yeah. Absolutely.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Good, good.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Um, and some of them don't know what they want when they come in, but by the end of the visit, it's like. Yeah, like, I think I,
Amber Warren, PA-C: I need help.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I think I can do that.
Amber Warren, PA-C: What are some of the more common ailments that you're seeing or just constellation of symptoms you're seeing in men?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Lots of cardiovascular health issues. Like what? Cause like I said, guys don't come to you until they're almost dead. You know, that's just who we are. We're we're we feel this inherent like we feel this, like, need to not let people see how we can be weak.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: We don't like to show our weakness. We don't like to wear our emotions to shallow. We want to kind of be tough about it, you know? Hey, it's super stressful, but, you know, it's just part of being a man, you know? And I think that's a societal thing that we've kind of put on ourselves more than it actually being a reality. So I think yeah, that's a big barrier for guys is guys don't go in for mental health.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Right, right, right.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And when they do, they start to realize, oh, like.
Amber Warren, PA-C: I'm actually not well.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Of my friends are on antidepressants and all of my friends deal with this. Everyone I ask like deals with this so I can so. And when I share that with them, that's why I use examples to help, sort of thin out that fear of like, oh, I'm vulnerable here.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: When I tell people that lots of guys have this issue, you're not the only one with low t testosterone. You're not the only one that struggles with anxiety and and fear of finances and being, you know, the supportive husband in the family.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: So yeah, it's.
Amber Warren, PA-C: So you're seeing cardiovascular concerns.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah, lots of cardiovascular disease. Um, mental health stuff.
Amber Warren, PA-C: So let's break. Cardiovascular disease is kind of a big umbrella term. So what are you seeing? Like high blood pressure, high lipids.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: High blood pressure, high cholesterol, lots of lots of high cholesterol. And some of that could be genetic. Some of it can be lifestyle. How we eat, lack of exercise. So some of them can be explained and then some of them might be more genetic predispositions. Um lots of thyroid. I mean I would say like ten years. When I was practicing, I didn't see a lot of thyroid issues and autoimmune disease like Hashimoto's and Graves disease with guys. But it's are.
Amber Warren, PA-C: You you're seeing that with a lot of guys.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Becoming a lot more.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Thyroid issues.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah, yeah. More common.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Why do you think that is? Let's talk a little bit about root cause like you just mentioned four really great conditions or types of disease states. Why? What do you what are you seeing as root cause. And how does functional medicine address those root causes?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah I think it starts with lifestyle. Like what we're exposed to. We're we're in a toxic world and it's just going to get worse. We can't really control all that. Right? Yeah. So I think some of this is not necessarily things that are doing wrong. Right. But we can control some things like what we eat, what we drink, how we exercise, how much uh, how we.
Amber Warren, PA-C: So where do you start with guys? Because I can just picture that so many of your guys that didn't even want to be in your office in the first place, and now you're realizing that their blood pressures are suboptimal, their lipids are really high and their thyroid's off, and then they're starting to realize, yeah, I actually don't feel good. My threshold, I thought, was here, but I actually don't feel well. How do you start with these guys that already are having a hard time buying into the lifestyle modification that we recommend, and functional medicine?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah, I start where they're at.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Okay.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: If if they're not bought into something, if they're not invested into it, into my ideas and plans that I think will be helpful.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: They're not going to be successful. So I have to start with baby steps. A lot of times like, hey, like this guy, you know, cut your tortillas in half.
Amber Warren, PA-C: I love that.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: It sounds so simple, but it changed his life.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Because if you told that guy to go grain free, you would have lost him. He never stepped foot in your office again. Right.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: You start where they're at, and then you can build from there. And, um, I mean, I've, I've had cases where, you know, I, I'm thinking of a gentleman. Not. Not while I worked here, but even before here. That came in. And he was an older gentleman and he's like, hey, I'm I'm fat, I have heartburn. Uh, what else? I have joint pain. I have arthritis for 20 years. And I believe he was even pre-diabetic. So he's sitting here going like, help me.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And I'm like, well, let's look at your lifestyle. Yeah. Let's start with the baby steps. And he looked at me kind of like, okay, well, no one's ever brought this up. I thought you were just going to give me more pills. I was like, well, let's cut out. Let's let's do something. Where how how far can we go with you? Like, are you willing to try some dietary things? And then let's start with that.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: So we cut him off. We cut up. We cut out or cut down on gluten dairy, sugar with him because those were kind of his big go tos. And and he's like looked at me with kind of dagger eyes, like, how dare you? This can't possibly work. So I, I challenged him, I said, okay, forget everything else. Don't touch your medications, don't change anything, but just change your diet and try those things. And he's like, okay. So I said, come back in like three months after trying to cut back or whatever you feel like you can do, like just if it's just sugar. Cut back on sugar. If it's just eating less processed foods, go for it. Like me. I'm meeting you where you're at, right? And that's kind of my approach with people. And he came back in six weeks. He's like, he's like, I'm not coming back in three months. I'm in six months, six weeks. And he lost 10 pounds. He his arthritis was gone. He was uh oh. And then his. So his joint pain was gone. His, his lost 10 pounds. And come to find out he had constipation that But he's like, oh.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Didn't know I had.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Worked right. And so all of the things that he had kind of brought up, he was like seeing results. And I was like, what'd you do? What's your success? He's like. What you said. I'm like, okay, you know, no more. No more dagger eyes. He was like. He was almost in tears. He was like, why didn't someone tell me this before? Yeah. Why are you the first person that has brought this up to me? Something so simple, right? He's like. He just felt foolish.
Amber Warren, PA-C: It didn't cost anything. He felt it didn't cost.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah, he felt kind of. I don't want to say betrayed. Because we in medicine, we do our best with what we know.
Amber Warren, PA-C: We don't mean to.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Um, but he he just felt conned this whole, like.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I'm on arthritis pills and this. And his acid reflux went away. So he's sitting there going like, I'm a believer. Yeah. Like, this is awesome.
Amber Warren, PA-C: He's bought.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: In. So meet them where they're at. Mhm. Set ideal but realistic expectations and say this is what I expect from you next time. Yeah, if you don't do it, I'm not going to kick you out. Right. Like, let's find out what the barriers are. Um, if they're not exercising regularly, I'm like, go for walks. Yeah, go for a walk. Go walk with your wife. Go walk your dog. You know, instead of driving to get the mail, go walk over to the mail. You know so and so for some people, I'm like, just stop eating out.
Amber Warren, PA-C: I know, oh.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And see what happens. And then, like, almost every time that people take that serious, they come back, they're at least a little better.
Amber Warren, PA-C: And they're probably a little bit richer. Because last time I checked, eating out is really expensive.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: It's no longer cheaper. It's it's it's convenient because you don't have to go home and cook. But yeah, um, the reality is it just doesn't take much to push the needle.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah, I would agree.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: These guys improve with just small little things like, gosh, if your work environment is is toxic, figure out a way out of it, get out of it or fix it. Talk to your boss. Figure it out. And some people come back and they're like, you know that anxiety I had for 20 years, it was because I had a childhood trauma I had to address. It's like.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Oh, took care of it.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: You know? So it could be just such simple things that can lead to chronic disease that are so simple, but not necessarily easy.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yep.
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Amber Warren, PA-C: I'm so curious what kind of symptoms you're seeing in these guys with thyroid disease.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Oh yeah. The classic fatigue. Brain fog. Weight gain there. I mean, the guys carry it in the gut, you know? So you see beer bellies even though they don't drink beer, you know. Mhm. Um, yeah. Brain fog not able to focus.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Are you seeing as you fix their thyroid testosterone levels come up. Libido gets better. Energy gets better obviously from fixing that.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Oftentimes not always. Sometimes they can be pretty separate. Um sometimes you'll address the thyroid and be like, ah, you're you're you're still tired. Let's figure out like oh, and your libido is low. Okay. Well, let's look at hormones. Um.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah Hashimoto's and I don't know when I, when I started training in functional medicine and really learning more about the autoimmune disease I was ignoring when I was when I thought I was treating autoimmune disease, Hashimoto's was more known as a female disease. You know, women, 40s, 50s, 60s. I agree, we're seeing it in more and more men, but I don't see as many men as you do in my clinical practice. So I actually didn't know it was as significant as it really is in our male population. So why do you think we're starting to see it, and why do you think it's no longer like a female thyroid condition?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: My opinion is we're probably looking for it better.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah I agree. Okay.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Um, we're.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Screening men for thyroid hormone, and we didn't before.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: We're trying to find evidence of it, and it's not hard to test for. Yeah, but in my previous practice, I, I wasn't testing anyone. Yeah. Only if I couldn't figure out what was going on. Right. So I would just it was kind of a last resort test. Now I screened for it, and now I'm seeing even more like what I thought were pretty rare conditions. I mean, seeing autoimmune hepatitis issues, autoimmune things we haven't even discovered, you know, but we're just seeing lots of weird things.
Amber Warren, PA-C: The immune system is off, and immune systems look at labs to see that the immune system is hyperactive and ready to attack.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And that can manifest in hey, I've got more allergies than usual because you've got an immune system that's over reactive. You're going to see that cascade into other systems, like how is allergies related to immune system? It has everything to do with the immune system. It's a it's our body's looking at something as a lion when in actuality it's a cat. Mhm. It's like it's okay. It's just a nice fluffy kitty. It's not a lion. Yeah. And that's what our immune system is kind of like shoot at will like whatever comes into the body it overreacts to. And so you see these people as just overreaction.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Instead of just shooting the bad guys. That shoots the good guys too. Yeah. And so you really just think it's because we're screening more for it.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: We're partly, but I think there's also a growing concern of toxicities and environmental exposures that I think are playing a big role. Stress. I mean,
Amber Warren, PA-C: What kind of?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: We don't know for sure, right. Because there's so many factors.
Amber Warren, PA-C: But a hard thing to test for.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah. We've got you know, I don't know. Yeah. And it's okay that we don't know.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah. Because at least we know how to treat it. I don't we know how to support the body.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I don't like that I don't know, but I but I also know that we don't have all the information. There's just so many factors we can't quite put our finger on. Yeah. But I, I suspect that it's not just one thing. It's always usually multiple factors. There's genetics. There's how do we detox. How do we get rid of things out of our body is really important too. Because then that thing can trigger our immune system if we can't get rid of it. So I think there's it's a multifactorial issue that it's probably not just one thing. It's probably a it's like that perfect storm we talk about like this happened and this happened. It could be from a past trauma as a child that combats comes back to haunt us. Mhm.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Are you starting a lot of your guys on thyroid replacement and seeing good results with that.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah a good number.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Good.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Uh but yeah I would say, I would say probably females still a little higher.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Okay.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: But I would also say females seek help first then. Mhm.
Amber Warren, PA-C: So you're catching it sooner in our gals than you are in men.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Probably. Yeah. But yeah there's a, there's a growing number in men and, and it's not just thyroid but just all autoimmune disease. We're seeing higher rates of cancer at a younger ages too.
Amber Warren, PA-C: And would you say the cancer and the cardiovascular statistics. Do you think it's the same where it's probably just this combination of insults that's causing the disease state.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah. They're all kind of domino going on on each other somehow. Yeah, I think it's it seems pretty clear that there's a domino effect. And that's what, that's what functional medicine allows us to see that through that lens of like hey this isn't just one problem. You, it's not just a heart attack. There's there's immune system involved there too. That reacts to inflammation. Uh and so our immune system is trying to help us. But in the process it also causes problems.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Right.
Amber Warren, PA-C: This is probably a hard question. But if there's guys listening at home or or women listening at home that want to know how to encourage their guys. Um, maybe it's a gentleman that would really never step foot in a functional medicine clinic, or can't afford it, or doesn't have insurance, or doesn't live here. Name the reasons. What would be the advice that you would give that person on? Where do they start? They know they don't feel well. They know there's health issues. They are fearful of their, their, you know, family tree and the genetics that are, that are playing a role there. Where would you advise that they start?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I got to go always back to the lifestyle, I think. Look, take a close look at that. How busy are you or how stressed are you? Are you doing things to get me-time in there? Are you exercising like you should? Are you over exercising? Those are the questions that have to be the pillars to and those those serve as the foundation to anything else you do. Yeah. So I have to start with those. If we can't, if we can't optimize their diet, exercise, stress management and their sleep, you don't really get much. You don't really get far. Because those one of those crumble and you've got an unstable foundation that is hard to build upon. But other things they can do is like be engaged with their provider and say, hey, I want to look at this. And if that provider is not, doesn't have the tools to do that, whether it's in functional medicine or in conventional medicine, look for someone that is willing to have that talk with you about, hey, I feel like I want to look at my hormones. I want to look at my thyroid.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I want to look at my gut health. Uh, the gut is so important. And that's one of my big things I go after. First is let's start with your gut health. Are you having regular bowel movements every day? Like, just simple stuff that it's like, duh. Why are you asking this? Like this is important. Because that that gut, that gut and the immune system are so intimately connected and hormones and mental health, you know, so uh, anyone in the functional world knows this and I'm trying to present that to a patient in a way that makes sense. I use a lot of analogies. So that's where I like to start with. A lot of guys is like, hey, what do you do for a living? Like let's, let's use analogies that make sense. So if you're a truck driver, let's use an engine. That engine can't run without certain parts working right. Without the right fuel, without the oil being changed regularly. There's things you have to maintain in order to get good life out of that engine.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Any guy can, can resonate with that.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And a lot of women too. I use this for everyone. Yeah, but if you want the engine to go 200, 300,000 miles, what can you do early on to prevent that from to make that happen. Right. And it's those little check points of making sure that you're staying on track one degree off for a week off. Our good lifestyle choices is not so impactful, but a year off that can cause so much damage, you know? Um, but yeah, just use I like to use a lot of analogies to help patients. Kind of like ding. Yeah. The the light bulb goes off like, okay. Yeah, I, I get that. Um, and so I use a lot of that in my teaching and plans to be like, this is, this is what we're working for to get you a good head start. And with my guys, I'm just like, don't don't you just want to age gracefully?
Amber Warren, PA-C: Do they, do they say they want?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: They do they really do.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Because I, I talk about that all the time with my women because we all want to avoid the aging process as women.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: We're all gonna die.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Like it's true.
Amber Warren, PA-C: I mean, you want to feel.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Good, except me. I'm going to live forever.
Amber Warren, PA-C: But you probably.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Will. Um, we're all going to die, and we have to accept that. But at the same time, I don't accept going out kicking and screaming. Yeah, I don't think we have to go out like that. Um, we can do stuff like. Yeah, we can't control politics. We can't control this wildfire smoke. We can't control a lot of things. But gosh, if I have a choice between going down this path of, like, really good health and yeah, my heart's going to stop at some point. I die in my sleep at some point. That's that's a good, peaceful way to go. Your your journey is done. Right. Great job. You took care of your body or I'm on dialysis or I'm, you know, taking a lot of medications and things that don't sound so great because they aren't.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Well, how about dying with cancer?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And, yeah, like just pain. Yeah. Like, who wants to go down a path? If you had a crystal ball and said, I'm going to. This is your path to living a healthy, long life of 110 years old, and you feel like a 30 year old, like, of course we would choose that. Yeah. All right. This is what you got to do to get there.
Amber Warren, PA-C: You actually can.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And these are the tools on how to get you. This is your plan of action to get there. We probably would do it because we saw the end result.
Amber Warren, PA-C: And there's so much research on that. On on optimizing longevity. You know, it's the Precision Age Reversal program that Doctor Holthouse is offering here at our Eagle Clinic. There is so much research being poured into that. I think people think of what you just said and think that's so unrealistic. There's no way you could ever feel like you're 30 at an older age. And it's like, no, there. Actually, there actually are ways to do it. You have to be precise, and you have to be willing to invest a lot of resources money, time, energy, make sacrifices. But it's no, it's and it.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Might be possible and it might even be more simple than you think. Like, hey, you know, I'm going to eat more fresh caught salmon. You know, I'm going to just exercise, make it a priority to just really nail down those lifestyle things. And, um, and then, you know, you get that other crystal ball, like, this is your life on a terrible, you know, bad lifestyle choices. He's like, of course I wouldn't choose that. But what are you willing to do to prevent it? And and that's I guess the challenge in functional medicine is like, how do you prove you prevented a heart attack that never happened. Right. Mhm. And so I like to think that, hey your dad died at 50 of a heart attack and you're 60. Yeah. That you must be on to something right. Because if you were to follow that same genetic predisposition, you would be dead now.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And so I like to think that if we were to pull out long term studies of data from a more holistic approach versus like a Band-Aid approach, like take pills and quick fixes, reactive medicine, I think you would see very different results and be like, okay, there must be something going on here that that we can take control of this and we can prevent and we can slow down that aging process so that we go out peacefully instead of kicking and screaming.
Amber Warren, PA-C: That's so good. Yeah. Anything else you want to share on on your practice or just men's health in general?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah, I, I, I would just say, you know, for all the guys out there, don't, don't put off getting help. You know, even if it's just simple like low energy, you don't need to live with that. We're seeing such low T levels. Testosterone is reaching a weird point where our 20 and 30 year olds have levels of 60, 70, 80 year olds. It's it's it's an epidemic.
Amber Warren, PA-C: It is astounding.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: In fact, if I see someone over 5 or 600 testosterone, I'm going like.
Amber Warren, PA-C: I'm like, what are you doing?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I know there's 20.
Amber Warren, PA-C: What are you avoiding?
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I know 20 year olds that would kill for your testosterone. What are you doing?
Amber Warren, PA-C: Absolutely.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: You know, so there's it's a ask the questions, you know, if they're the hard questions are the hows and whys. And that's what we're willing to take on.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Absolutely. Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And we don't always have the answers. But instead of being dictators, we like to be detectives. And I think medicine has become a dictatorship in a lot of patient provider relationships. And I think turning that around and saying, no, you have a choice here. Do you want to be proactive or reactive? So I would just encourage people to be proactive like ask the hard questions. Like, yeah, make us think we're we're trained in medicine. We need to go back to biochemistry and say, hey, I learned this at a cellular. I learned it a cell level. Yeah. Let's teach these patients how to help themselves. And so we want that to be a working relationship instead of just a one kind of one sided do this because I said so. And then in in medicine. We've kind of created this like, oh, don't ask questions because I know what I'm doing. You know, don't question me. Yeah, I gave you this pill. Just take it. Be quiet. Go away. I don't have time, you know? But.
Amber Warren, PA-C: And they're right. They don't have time in their defense. They actually don't. They don't have time to answer all the questions and really meet the needs of each patient they see. Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: And and I know because I was in there, we all were. I was in the trenches for years. Yeah. And to to engage your provider and just I would challenge people to ask the questions and say, you know, what can I do to. And if they don't have the answers, go seek for someone that does. I agree. It doesn't mean we all have the answers. We just have a different lens to look through. So I don't I don't ever look down on a traditional or conventional practice because.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Right.
Amber Warren, PA-C: It's so important to have that. Like we need to we need to know how to treat strep and pneumonia and fix a broken bone.
Amber Warren, PA-C: I'm just going to say fix a broken heart.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Gotta go fix a brain bleed. I'm not going to rub an essential oil on a brain bleed. I'm going to go get a neurosurgeon to fix me. Like, thank goodness we have cardiothoracic surgeons that can do open heart surgery and and and give me more life, you know, but what we aren't good at in medicine or that we're at least getting better at is the preventive care, the, uh, not ever getting the disease right. The scariest thing you can hear is like, well, you don't. You have pre-diabetes, but you don't have diabetes yet. So just, you know.
Amber Warren, PA-C: We'll just wait till you get it all.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: I knew back not long, you know, ten years ago, I was like, well, you don't have diabetes yet, but come back when you do and we'll put you on pills. You know, I didn't I was never satisfied with that. And and I think a lot of people aren't, but we just don't have the time to address it. Address that. So yeah, just be proactive. Ask questions, be engaged with it. Yeah. Learn. There's so much information out there, and you got to be careful because everyone's a Facebook expert. Um, you have to be careful of your sources and do your research. And don't hold that research against your provider, because they may not have learned that. I have patients all the time teaching me like, hey, did you hear about this study?
Amber Warren, PA-C: All the time.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: No.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Yeah.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Send it to me. I love it. Like I'll listen to it. What? Hey, what's that podcast you listen to? Yeah, great. Let me listen to it. Like, learn more so I can help you more. I think that relationship is way healthier because now you're human. Like, we all make mistakes. We don't. We don't have all the answers, but we can't know it all. This partnership is so much more healthy. And that's what I've enjoyed is like, this is what I think. What do you think? Do you feel like you're up to that? Do you think you can do this? And when they say yes, like, I can do this, cool. Let's do it. And then let's follow up and make sure we keep eyes on this.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Let's keep the relationship.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Oh, you don't want to do this medication I got I got 15 other tools on my belt. Let's go for it. Let's try that first and see what happens.
Amber Warren, PA-C: That's the beauty in functional medicine.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: You can still practice safe medicine, but think outside the box and say, hey, is there a better way to do this in a natural way? Is it as just simple as a diet change? You know.
Amber Warren, PA-C: I love that so much. Good wisdom and tidbits that you that you gave our listeners. I really appreciate it, Mike. Thanks so much for your time. Thanks for your dedication as our Lead Medical Director. We just so appreciate all your wisdom and your leadership and just the way that you love on your patients and also just love on our team.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Yeah.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Thanks, Mike.
Michael Sermon, PA-C: Thanks for your time too.
Amber Warren, PA-C: Thank you for listening to the Functional Medicine Foundations podcast. For more information on topics covered today. Specialties available at the FMI Center for Optimal Health and the highest quality of supplements and more go to funmedfoundations.com.
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