Harmony Hub Health
Functional Medicine, Hormone Health and Weight Loss with Michele Postol, CRNP
Harmony Hub Health
The Real Prescription? Rip Off the Band-Aid.
Have you ever wondered why taking one medication seems to lead to three more, creating a never-ending cycle of prescriptions? This raw, eye-opening episode pulls back the curtain on what I witnessed during my 24-year career in hospital medicine—a system designed to manage symptoms rather than create health.
Fresh off a cruise where I watched my dear friend consume handfuls of medications while continuing to suffer from inflammation, chronic fatigue, and a host of other symptoms, I'm breaking my silence about the pharmaceutical carousel that keeps patients sick and dependent. With striking clarity, I explain how conventional medicine treats numbers rather than people, and why addressing root causes through functional medicine offers a genuine path to healing.
The episode dives deep into several common medications, particularly statins and SSRIs, revealing how they disrupt mitochondrial function, liver detoxification, and overall health while failing to address the underlying inflammation, hormone imbalances, or nutritional deficiencies causing symptoms in the first place. I share shocking statistics about Big Pharma's trillion-dollar profit machine and explain why even well-intentioned practitioners become trapped in a system that prioritizes protocols over personalization.
As someone who's practiced on both sides—writing prescriptions as a hospitalist and now helping patients heal through functional medicine—I offer a unique perspective on why your health shouldn't be owned by corporations but placed firmly back in your hands. For those feeling trapped in the medication merry-go-round, this episode provides hope that another approach exists, one that honors your body's messages instead of silencing them.
Ready to rip off your health band-aids and discover what true healing feels like? Connect with me at Harmony Hub Health, where we don't just manage disease—we restore health from the root cause up.
Welcome to Harmony Hub Health, where my mission is to provide comprehensive, affordable, integrative care that addresses the root cause of health issues. At the Hub, the focus is on individual patient journeys. I strive to optimize health, vitality and longevity, fostering a community where each person can thrive in body, mind and spirit. So this week I wanted to rip the band-aid off, like really so. I spent almost 24 years in hospital medicine and I feel like I saw it all Heart attacks, sepsis, strokes, icus full of people desperately trying to recover. And do you know what we gave them? One guess okay Pills, then more pills to counteract the side effects of those pills. And when those caused problems you guessed it I gave more pills. It was like a bad relationship that you know is toxic, but you just keep going back because you think it's the only way to survive.
Speaker 1:So I just got back from a cruise last night. Sounds relaxing, right, but what I experienced on board hit me hard. I watched my dear friend, someone that I care for a lot pull out a pill organizer the size of a carry-on and I didn't even tell her that I saw this. But she tipped it back and swallowed a mouthful of medications like it was normal and my stomach turned. I had to look away. I had brought her on a bioidentical hormone replacement therapy cruise. Yes, hormone therapy, root cause, functional medicine, all the things I live and breathe and yet the disconnect was striking. Here she was rosy, red cheeks, full body inflammation, chronic fatigue, obesity, mood swings, poor sleep. She spent her trip talking about seeing different specialists and wanting to add more medications. I took my least healthy friend that I have on this cruise and let me be clear, this is not judgment. Okay, this is pain. This is the pain of watching someone I care about drown in prescriptions while the root causes go unaddressed. She's been collecting diagnoses like souvenirs and she feels miserable and I know that feeling because I have lived it. But here's the truth. You don't have to live like that. One pill leads to three, then five, then 12, and suddenly your entire life is managing symptoms instead of creating health.
Speaker 1:I'm seriously considering doing a full mock functional medicine plan of care podcast, not to call her out, but to show what's possible. I'd walk through the toxins that she's surrounded by, the gut, health that's never been tested, the inflammation, the hormone imbalance, the methylation issues and everything else that functional medicine would actually address. I have tried with this girl. I've sent her arena bands for resistance training. I have mentioned all of my functional medicine tests with rationale. I have even sent her glutathione you know how pricey that is which she admitted on this trip. She has never even opened, but what she does is she keeps adding toxins, and more toxins, and and more medications. We went to Jamaica last year and I thought I made an impression, but this year on this cruise, this was the most unhealthy I've ever seen her and she calls me her person, but she has yet to hear one word I have to say and I will say the difference between conventional medicine when I worked in the hospital is when you discharge somebody, you give them instructions and you just hope they follow what you say.
Speaker 1:Usually they don't and they come back as a readmission. But in functional medicine it is the hardest thing to do, not only to get someone to agree to want to see you, but to follow what you have to say and make modifications is the hardest thing I've ever done in health care, because the system is not set up to get people well and conventional medicine is set up to keep you in a loop and the worst part is that you forget what it feels like to feel good. So that leads me to talk about the elephant-sized pill bottle in the room. Big Pharma, it's not just a catchy conspiracy buzzword. It's a real multi-billion dollar industry with one primary goal, and that goal is profit. Now don't get me wrong. Pharmaceuticals can be life-saving in emergencies. Antibiotics, thank you for not letting us die right. Pain meds after surgery bless that. But somewhere along the line, medicine got hijacked. Instead of figuring out why someone is sick, the system became obsessed with what pill we can prescribe to keep you quiet just long enough to bill your insurance right.
Speaker 1:In 2022 alone, the top 10 pharmaceutical companies made over $700 billion in revenue. Pfizer raked in over $100 billion, nearly double its revenue from the year before, driven largely by COVID-related products. And I won't even get started on the COVID profits I witnessed when working in the ICU watching patients suffer while the corporate machine kept turning. The average markup on many prescriptions in the United States is between 100% and 5,000%, and it's no secret that big pharma spends more on marketing than research and development. I mean, what is the cost of health when profit is the priority?
Speaker 1:Functional medicine asks a different question. You know what's the root cause. Instead of lifelong prescriptions. We look for real healing, supporting the body, not silencing the symptoms. So you do have a choice Is your health a business or is it a priority? You've got high blood pressure? Here's a medicine. Your cholesterol is up Statins for life. Oh wait, your liver enzymes are now elevated. Let me add another pill. And if that causes depression or fatigue, guess what? There's another prescription. And if the companies were getting super rich and they were helping people, I would not care. I have nothing against profit, but this is at the expense of people's lives.
Speaker 1:So if functional medicine doesn't have time for the pharmaceutical merry-go-round, we wanna know what broke your system in the first place. Is it your gut? Is it chronic stress? Are there environmental toxins, nutrient deficiencies? Do you have an MTHFR mutation? Yes, it is a real thing. Instead of saying here's a pill, see you in six months, functional medicine says let's get curious. We test, we dig, we personalize, embrace yourself. We actually work to heal the root cause. And no, we don't hate pharmaceuticals, but we are deeply suspicious of chemical band-aids that keep people sick and dependent. Our goal is not to mask your symptoms, it's to optimize function and not just to avoid death.
Speaker 1:Okay, so I want to unpack some of the reasons why chemical pharmaceuticals are often seen as disruptive to mitochondrial health, to your liver function and long-term vitality, and why we need to shift the focus from suppression to root cause resolution. And let's start with the truth bomb you do not have a Prozac deficiency or a statin deficiency or an antacid deficiency. The idea that health can be restored by adding a drug to mask a symptom ignores the deeper question. You know, why is your body out of balance in the first place? What's the root cause? What systems are stressed or overloaded that led to this condition? And not, which drug can override that symptom.
Speaker 1:So many commonly prescribed medications are mitochondrial disruptors. You know, mitochondria are the little engines in your cells that produce ATP, your body's energy currency that I'm always talking about. When these are damaged, the result is fatigue, aging quickly, inflammation and disease. So you know, in my years working in the hospital, one thing was non-negotiable If a patient had a TIA, a stroke or a cardiovascular event, they were automatically put on a statin, regardless of individual risk factors, their lab work, personal history. It did not matter if their cholesterol was well controlled. It didn't matter if they were elderly, frail or already struggling with memory loss. It was a protocol and I had to follow it, but deep down I knew something was not right and functional medicine helped me understand why.
Speaker 1:You know, statins are prescribed to lower LDL cholesterol and reduce the risk of cardiovascular events. On paper they sound like miracle drugs and for certain high-risk individuals they might be helpful. But here's the problem In conventional medicine we're trained to treat numbers, not people. In functional medicine we treat root causes, not just lab values. So somehow conventional medicine has made cholesterol the enemy. Cholesterol is not the enemy. We need cholesterol.
Speaker 1:Cholesterol is essential for hormone production. It's important for vitamin D synthesis, your brain health and cellular function. Statins lower all cholesterol, including the precursors to your sex hormones and the CoQ10, which your mitochondria need for energy. So this results in hormone imbalances, muscle pain, fatigue and memory loss. You know statins block your HMG-CoA reductase. This is the same pathway your body uses to produce the coenzyme Q10. It's a key nutrient for mitochondrial health and energy production. So when you have low CoQ10, you have muscle pain, brain fog, fatigue and heart dysfunction. And ironically, we're trying to give this drug to protect your heart. That can actually damage the heart over time. Statins lower numbers on the lab test, but they don't address the root cause of vascular inflammation oxidative stress, poor diet, metabolic dysfunction, insulin resistance, which are the real threats behind heart disease and strokes. So statin use is associated with increased blood sugar and insulin resistance, especially in women. So we are seeing increasing metabolic risk in patients we are trying to protect from cardiovascular disease.
Speaker 1:So a lot of side effects are very common and often dismissed when you're on a statin, like those muscle aches, weakness, brain fog, memory issues, depression, mood changes, erectile dysfunction is a big one and also sleep disturbance. But in the hospital we're told it's kind of rare to have these symptoms or it's really not related. Kind of rare to have these symptoms or it's really not related. So after nearly 24 years in hospital based care, I became increasingly uncomfortable with protocols that put every TIA or cardiac patient on a statin with no questions asked. It was a checkbox. I could not discharge these people without promising that I had put them on a statin. And even when a patient had clear signs of side effects or had normal cholesterol levels, it did not matter. The statin was required or I could not discharge that patient and we were not practicing individualized medicine. We were just checking boxes and I was part of a system that was prioritizing liability over logic, compliance over curiosity.
Speaker 1:So in functional medicine, things that I would assess are, you know, lipoprotein particle size and inflammation markers like ApoB, which people always see in my lab panels, lp and, you know, high sensitivity CRP. I also look at insulin resistance, homocysteine and oxidative stressors, methylation function. You know your liver detox pathways and genetic risk like that MTHFR, apoe. And instead of defaulting to statins, I like to look at dietary and lifestyle changes. What about targeted supplements like the CoQ10 or red yeast rice or the omega-3s which I find so much better? Or even berberine and curcumin? Get to a root cause resolution. So functional medicine is not anti-statin I don't want you to get that out of what I'm saying. It's the anti-blanket protocols.
Speaker 1:There are some people where statins are very appropriate. If you have really bad familial hypercholesterolemia, if you had a recent cardiac event with no other modifiable risk, or your ApoB is very high or your LPA as well with persistent vascular inflammation, great, you should be on a statin. But the decision should be personalized, it should be informed, it should be based on real data, not fear or formula protocols. Okay, and don't even get me started on SSRIs, but we do need to talk about SSRI medications because for many people they've become the band-aid slapped on a bleeding artery. They're handed out like candy for everything from depression and anxiety, pms, fibromyalgia um, what else?
Speaker 1:Insomnia, even even digestive issues, and while they may provide temporary relief for some, in functional medicine we call this what it really is kick the can medicine. I say kick the can all the time. I used to say it all the time when I was a hospitalist in the hospital. But we kick the can because the patient is not getting better. We're just pushing the problem further down the road, and that is a very dangerous illusion, from weight gain to numb emotions, which makes me sad when I hear people come to me that have been placed on an SSRI and they say well, I'm not really anxious or depressed anymore, I just don't have any feelings, and that is not a way to live.
Speaker 1:Or the sexual dysfunction, the brain fog, the GI issues it comes with a laundry list of side effects that leave patients feeling worse in new ways and the medicine didn't solve anything. And they don't ask why you feel that way. They don't dig into your gut health, your hormone balance, your trauma history, your inflammation. How about your mitochondrial function? Or your nutrient deficiencies. So functional medicine's goal is to stop kicking the can, dig deep, figure out what's going on. You know your mood and mental health are not symptoms to silence. They are messages from your body. So together we can look at hormone imbalances, whether it's estrogen, cortisol, progesterone, thyroid, looking at the gut-brain axis dysfunction so hello, leaky gut and microbiome issues. You know, if you have a methylation defect, whether you have MTHFR that can impact your neurotransmitters or just dirty genes, we can take a look at that. And nutrient deficiencies like the B12, magnesium, the omegas all different kinds of deficiencies and chronic inflammation and stress. These are all things that we can look at. It's not quick fix medicine, it's real root cause healing, because you deserve more than symptom suppression. You deserve answers and a plan that leads to feeling whole again. If you're ready to stop kicking the can, then definitely come and talk to me.
Speaker 1:And your liver is responsible for breaking down everything you ingest, including food, alcohol, the environment, toxins and, yes, pharmaceuticals. Most chemical drugs are metabolized by the liver using the phase one and phase two detox pathway. So when you overload that system, toxins begin to accumulate, you know your hormones get imbalanced, you deplete your glutathione, which is your master antioxidant. Your inflammation goes up, you feel sluggish, inflamed and foggy. So functional medicine focuses on supporting the liver, not overloading it with synthetic compounds. And medications often shut down or override symptoms. But symptoms are the body's warning signs, like that check engine light in your car. If you cut the wire to that light, the engine is still in trouble. You're just not aware of it. Now, instead of chasing symptoms, functional medicine supports your gut, which is your second brain and a detox organ, your mitochondria for energy and cellular repair, your liver, your kidneys to safely eliminate waste, and your nervous system to regulate your stress and your healing.
Speaker 1:Functional medicine views chronic illness as a result of dysfunction in the terrain. So nutrition, environment, stress, sleep, toxic burden and genetic vulnerabilities. We don't suppress, we nourish, support and optimize. So you weren't born with a pharmaceutical deficiency. You were likely exposed to the perfect storm of nutrient depletion, toxic burden and chronic stress. I just want to remind you that functional medicine is not anti-medicine. It's pro-root cause, resilience and restoration.
Speaker 1:So I knew something was wrong. For years I saw patients getting sicker, not better. I watched as the side effects piled up, the medication list grew longer and no one ever stopped to ask what if this isn't the answer. I felt like a double agent, wearing scrubs by day and I questioned everything by night. My soul knew we could do better, until I got completely burnt out and had no other choice but do better. When I finally made the leap into functional medicine, it was like breathing fresh air for the first time. I no longer had to pretend that a statin was a cure for a lifetime of inflammation caused by poor diet, chronic stress and toxic exposures. I could finally say let's detox your life, support your mitochondria and clean up your gut without being side-eyed by the other white coats.
Speaker 1:Yes, I was ridiculed as a hospitalist. I can name almost every person that made a comment to me on the side telling me to spend less time with my patients or, you know, just stick with what to get them out and leave. But I would sit down literally sit down in the hospital with these people and talk to them about lifestyle and what I thought that they could do to improve their health, because I was tired of seeing them come back. Now I get to work with clients who are ready to feel better and not just die. We talk about lifestyle, nutrition, I do lab testing, we talk about supplements, nervous system, health and so much more. I reverse insulin resistance, I calm inflammation, I wean people off of pharmaceutical carousels safely, with supervision, and I do it while educating, empowering and cheering them on every step of the way, empowering and cheering them on every step of the way. And I guess I need to get off my soapbox, because I do not think big pharma is evil. It's not all evil, but the system built around it is sick and we've been gaslit into thinking it's the only option.
Speaker 1:Functional medicine is the resistance. Yes, I just spent time at Star Wars and Disney World, but functional medicine is the resistance. Yes, I just spent time at Star Wars and Disney World, but functional medicine is the resistance. We don't want to manage disease. Okay, I could do that in the hospital. Well, pseudo-managing. What we want to do is to restore health, and if that means walking away from the prescription pad after 24 years of playing that game, 10 years as a nurse passing out the pills, 14 as the one that wrote for the pills, then so be it, because in the end, your health shouldn't be owned by a corporation. It should be in your hands, and I'm here to help you. Take it back If you want to work with someone who's lived both sides of the system and choose health over hustle. You know. Book a functional medicine consultation at Harmony Hub Health and I can rewrite your story. We can actually write it together. So come and see me at wwwharmonyhubhealthcom. You can email me at Michelle that's Michelle with one L M-I-C-H-E-L-E at harmonyhubhealthcom. You can see me virtually there or you can come in person. I'm in Manchester, maryland. You can come and see me at Monarch Beauty and Spa and I really look forward to helping you rip off your band-aids.
Speaker 1:The information shared in this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. Always consult your licensed healthcare provider before making any changes to your diet, your lifestyle, adding supplements or starting or stopping any medications. While I am a licensed nurse practitioner, I'm not your personal nurse practitioner unless we have an established clinical relationship. The views expressed are my own and do not substitute personalized medical care. Thanks for tuning in. Stay well, stay curious and stay empowered.