A first visit to a doctor usually lasts for around a few minutes. With only such a limited time, identifying the root cause of your chronic pain might be challenging, if not outright impossible. When it comes to achieving optimal health, one must try a vastly different and more holistic approach. Zach Gurick sits down with integrative healthcare expert Dr. Jaquel Patterson, who discusses what it takes to move beyond the symptom management method of conventional medicine. She explains the importance of getting comprehensive specialty tests and biohacking modalities to improve gut health, hormonal health, and detoxification strategies. Learn how you can take full control of taking care of your own body and unlock a long-term health span.

The information presented in Fully Alive is for educational and informational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or treatment and before making changes to your health regimen. Guests’ opinions are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of the podcast host, production team, or sponsors.

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Addressing The Root Cause Of Chronic Diseases With Dr. Jaquel Patterson

On this episode, we’re diving into one of the most important and often misunderstood areas of health, the root causes of chronic illness, and what it really takes to heal. Joining us is Dr. Jaquel Patterson, a nationally recognized leader in naturopathic and functional medicine. She’s the president of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, and she’s the founder of Fairfield Family Health.

With over sixteen years of clinical experience, she’s helped thousands of patients navigate complex conditions like Lyme disease, autoimmune disorders, inflammation, and mental health challenges by addressing what’s happening beneath the surface. She’s also trained physicians around the world, contributed to Forbes, and is at the forefront of a growing movement that’s shifting medicine from symptom management to true root cause healing.

In this conversation, we explore practical steps that you can take starting today to improve your energy, clarity, and long-term health span. If you have ever felt like something is off a little bit and you haven’t been able to find answers, this episode is for you. Let us welcome Dr. Jaquel Patterson, and let us dive in.

  

  

Dr. Jaquel, thank you so much for joining us. I’m so excited to learn from you, and I’m so curious about all the things that you’re working on and focused on. You have such a broad expertise. I’m excited to learn from you myself. I’m excited for our listeners, our audience, to learn from you. Thank you so much for being with us.

Thank you so much for having me. I enjoy having these conversations. I’m looking forward to the conversation.

You are a naturopathic doctor. You have your MBA as well. Is that right?

Yes. I’m one of my friends, just like a Renaissance person in terms of having a background in business and healthcare operations. That is also all part of my story of how I ended up doing all of that. My true passion in my heart has always been integrative medicine since the beginning.

I’m excited to dive into that and really break that down for our audience, too, but you’re leading this major national organization.

I’m president of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians, which is the source for licensed physicians in the state. There are about 26 licensed states in the United States for practicing naturopathic medicine.

On top of that, you’re also a new mom. I just learned. Just a few things are going.

Let me hear her crying in the background. That might be why. That’s a baby.

How Dr. Jaquel Discovered Her Passion In Naturopathic Medicine

That’s amazing. I’m so curious. Can you just share with us how you got to be where you are today? What created this passion in you that drove you to accomplish the things you have and end up where you are now?

I always had an interest in integrative medicine, even when I was a kid, having my little brother experiment with all my different herbal concoctions. I actually had an interest since I was a kid in, I guess, an integrated medicine. I went to Cornell. I applied to Cornell undergrad as a plant scientist. I came in as actually a plant science major. During that time, actually around 15 or 16 years of age, as I was looking at colleges, my mother became ill. It took them some time, about 6 to 8 months, before they figured out the exact diagnosis, but she ended up having lupus, an autoimmune condition.

I have several members of my family, cousins, etc., who are conventionally medicine-trained. I was actually in a feeder program to go through the conventional route without the MCAT for medical school. I knew for me that that wasn’t the fit. I became further disillusioned with the conventional medical healthcare system based on my mom’s experience in healthcare. I went to Cornell as an undergrad plant science major. I still did not know what it was exactly because there wasn’t the only person I’d heard of at that time was Dr. Andrew Weil.

Right now, there’s so much more that was like twenty-something years ago. I’m 45 now, so now there’s so much more by functional medicine, integrative medicine. There’s a lot more. There’s been so much progression in that realm, but at that time, it was really only Dr. Weil that I’d heard of. I changed my major and was told that going into naturopathic medicine was quackery, or naturopathic at that time. They hadn’t heard of integrative medicine, which was quackery, and I changed my major to economics and business. I ended up working in the food industry and marketing analytics.

That is how that business background came, and I did healthcare operations as well. When I learned about naturopathic medicine, I randomly got like some flyer or something. I do not know what happened, but somehow there was a random flyer, I got something, and I was like, “This is exactly what I wanted to do, but I did not know what it was called.” Immediately worked and went back to my pre-medical requirements and went back to naturopathic medical school. It was like a full circle piece. I didn’t know what it was called, but I knew I always wanted to do it.

In the meantime, I always say to everybody, I feel like, when I mentor younger people, that every experience builds upon itself. Because of that experience, it got me into business and marketing. It got me to think differently about how people buy things, consumers. It was a lot of what I was in, like the food industry, which was like consumer purchasing behaviors. It taught me a lot about that, then also how to run a business, because I now have a really successful, thriving, integrated medical practice with nine other doctors.

I feel like having some of that background experience helped to do that. Also me being active in our profession with leadership, I think having that business background all helped me. I went to a full circle moment, and I have always, since I first started practicing, had an interest in autoimmune conditions, joint pain, fatigue, and I really think that was based on what I saw growing up with my mother and her story. Also, how we deliver care, we say our models, like healthcare delivery as it should be. A lot of that is because of those experiences I’ve seen and the experience of so many patients who come to integrated medicine.

They’ve usually seen 7 to 8 doctors before they’ve come to see us, and they feel dismissed. One of the biggest things that we can do is we have time that we spend time with them. They feel hopeful. They don’t feel dismissed. They feel listened to, and having that time is everything because in the conventional model, you have 5 or 10 minutes with your doctor. How can you really get to the root cause of things? It can, but it often takes years just purely because there’s just not the time that they have to spend with you. That is a long story, but it influences everything and how I do and how I operate, basically.

In the conventional medicine model, you have five to ten minutes with your doctor. You cannot really get to the root cause of things in just a short amount of time.

How Integrative Medicine Differs From Conventional Medicine

Thank you so much for sharing that. For someone who’s new to your work, how would you describe and maybe break it down for us a little bit, integrative medicine, in simple terms? What is that philosophy, since you’re one of the leaders in that space for us?

There’s naturopathic medicine. A lot of people might not know about functional medicine. It’s confusing. There are a lot of different terms. Naturopathic medicine, integrative medicine, functional medicine. If you look at naturopathic medicine, our tenets always say we’re like the OGs of functional medicine because the practice philosophy is very similar in tenets, but the differences with functional medicine are that many people have been conventionally trained. It’s like an MD who went back to get additional training in integrated medicine.

That is like functional medicine. I’m trained in both, but with naturopathic medicine, integrated medicine, the root, the biggest thing is to get to the root cause. We always say it’s like detectives. We try to find out why we’re constantly asking why, like, “You have joint pain. When did this happen? Did anything happen to initiate it before? Are you not feeling good now? Is there environmental exposure?” I’ve had some patients where they’ve moved, and then that’s when these things ensued, or they had a huge life stressor. That is when these pieces happen.

If you look at fertility, pregnancy, having a child, or going through perimenopause, the rates of thyroid conditions increase significantly after that. Also, those big hormonal shifts will change. We’re looking at what the reasons are. It’s not just, “You have Hashimoto’s, we’re going to give you medication.” Did this happen, let us say, after they had their baby? What are hormones to play with? If we get the hormones in balance, will your disease condition be managed better? We’re really looking at asking why.

The other thing with naturopathic medicine is that one of the biggest things we do is teaching. We’re trained to do that, to really like education. You understand if I’m running blood work, why am I running it? You’re tired. I’m also going to check your iron and ferritin. This is why, because you’re getting less oxygen to the cells, and you’re going to be more tired. We’re doing a lot more explaining. That’s really hugely important because it’s empowering somebody when you’re actually educated as to the why. We’re doing that.

Obviously, we do herbal medicine, nutrition, and lifestyle. We do nutritional supplements. We might do art training. We learn acupuncture. We even do naturopathic manipulation, which is like adjustments. We do hydrotherapy. Our scope is pretty broad. Interestingly, in some states, we even prescribe. I have licenses in multiple states. If you look at some NDs in, let us say, Arizona or Washington, or Oregon out West, where it’s a little bit more progressive, they’re doing medication too and working as a primary care doctor.

You are a naturopathic doctor, or you might be a primary care doctor. It’s really interesting. It’s different depending on where you’re at. The big core difference for us is we’re really asking the why, the root cause. We have always said it’s like a lot of tools in our tool case, because we can do medication, and sometimes we can do herbal medicine. It might just be diet and lifestyle. We could even do therapy and counseling. It’s going to be whatever we feel is the need for the person that’s sitting in front of us.

It’s a very holistic approach.

Holistic approach, yeah. That’s the simplest way to say it. Holistic in all of those different elements. People are not always surprised at how many different things we can actually provide by way of what we do in naturopathic medicine.

Getting Right Into The Root Cause

I imagine you probably see a lot of patients who have similar conditions to what your mom had. Have you been able to help your mom and other patients like her?

Yeah. It’s always funny, families are always different in terms of what they will actually listen to and not. Interestingly enough, my dad was the one that’s more into integrative medicine than when I was a kid. He used to take me to health food stores. My dad is already doing a lot of those things. My mom has definitely helped to support, as it pertains to the actual physical joint pain, and also asking the right questions with the doctors, because there have been several misses or several things I’ve found before got fully worked up. Again, we’re asking why. Like, “Do you have this?”

Seizures were an example of something she’s having, able to find that and look into it faster than what she had had her doctors do, or running of some laboratory work or assessments faster than what they would have, more regularly than what they would have done. In terms of that, for sure, I’ve had many patients with autoimmune conditions that once we’ve found other contributors to it, we’ve been able to even have autoimmune markers clear, where I’ve had patients with like rheumatoid arthritis that had positive rheumatoid factor or had positive ANA and have been negative with those tests for several years after we work with them.

I’ve had that. I’ve had the others that are like their disease condition is managed well, like instead of, they’re not having as many flares or aggravations. They are basically in remission. We’ve seen patients with that, too. The biggest thing we’re first doing when I work with somebody or like, are your top three things that you want support in and palliative that we can help them feel better with, and then going to a deeper level to actually get to the root of where it started from, which takes time.

Walk us through them. You mentioned most people who are coming to your practice, or a lot of times, they’ve been to 7 or 8 more traditional medicine physicians, and cannot find a cause or a cure. Walk us through, like, what happens when they come to your practice, and where do you start?

What we do is so that we have a really intensive intake. Our intake is about twelve pages. Just our forms alone are like twelve pages in length. That’s the first thing. We get to know everything about you, like diet, lifestyle, obviously family history, but also environmental exposures that I mentioned. All these other factors and life events. When we meet with somebody, our visits are 90 minutes for the first visit. Some doctors will spend up to two hours. Why is that important? It’s because if you only have ten minutes with a patient, how are you really going to get their full history?

For example, as I mentioned, “My autoimmune condition started after my third baby. I also lost my job.” I had all of these different factors. We need to go back and see, “How’s your cortisol? Cortisol, for example, impacts your thyroid, as it actually suppresses your thyroid hormone, which can cause you to have thyroid issues. If you look at inflammation. Inflammation, for example, significantly increases the rates of depression and mental health issues because inflammation affects the brain and cognitive function. It can affect your hormones.

If you have a lot of stress, why do you need to reproduce? Your body is going to do what it needs to survive and to live. All those questions are hard to ask if you have a short period of time. When you come in, it’s going to be 90 minutes. We’re going to go through all this, and then we’re going to do really comprehensive blood work testing. I think one of the things my patients will say is that they might do 12 to 20 vials of blood. It’s going to be very thorough.

We’re going to look at all the hormones. That’s always a surprise to patients. I have people in their 30s, like a young male, and they’re having issues with cognitive focus or fatigue. No one ever tested testosterone. I tested my testosterone. Their numbers and it’s in range, but their numbers, like what a 70-year-old should be. For example, if you look at testosterone should be 250 to 800. I might have a young person coming in, and their numbers are 255. I’m like, “That’s way too low.” Of course, they’re going to have brain fog.

Of course, they’re going to have motivation issues because testosterone affects dopamine, which is like your motivation. Of course, you’re going to be tired, like all of these factors. These are the pieces that we miss, that a lot of people who come to see us, they’ll say they’ve gone to the doctors, but what happens is like, they just get a complete blood count checked, and they get like maybe their liver checked, and they might get their cholesterol checked. They’re on medication, and their numbers are like, it’s managed, but they’re like, “I’m still having all the symptoms.”

Like, “Yes, my blood works normal, but I’m exhausted. I’m sleeping all the time. I cannot focus. I cannot remember things. I have physical pain, but the tests here are negative, or they’re not negative. They’re stable, but they still do not feel good.” That’s where we come into play because people are tuning in, like we want to have that health span. We want to feel good all the way through life. We do not want to feel just good enough.

You would be surprised at how many patients I have, “Zach, who are in their 30s or 40s, and I feel okay. or even younger.” I have teenagers who say, “I feel okay.” I’m like, “You should not feel okay at like twenty years of age.” You really shouldn’t feel okay at any point in your life, but to feel like I just feel okay or my energy is enough to get through the day, that’s not acceptable. Those are the people who are coming to see us because they do not want to just get by in life. They want to actually feel like they’re thriving.

Move to optimal health. Do you see a lot of people, and they just want to optimize? They’re like, “I feel pretty good, but I want to stay as healthy as possible for as long as possible.”?

We have different tests. We have some specialty tests that will test for all your nutrient status, your mineral status, your metal status, like heavy metal status, and your Omega status. We have specialty tests that are just like those for wellness. That is also excellent because I’ve had people do that, and they were like, “I thought I felt good until I did the test.” We added some small changes, and I feel really good. You do not even know sometimes when you’re not working at full a hundred percent battery until you have it.

  

  

It just becomes your normal.

It depends on your normal shifts, like the goalpost moves. We do that. We do like IVs at our office. I run a pretty large multidisciplinary practice. We created one of the biggest things I want to create, like more wellness services. We have IVs, have saunas, we have cold plunge, we have cold lasers, we have different equipment for mental health, like Alpha-Stim, vagus nerve stimulators, things like that to help with that, because that is really helpful. We have acupuncture, we have cranial sacral therapy. We basically offer all these other services because that’s also equally important. To that point, what you said is just like for overall wellness as well.

Importance Of Getting Different Specialty Tests

People can come there for a whole variety of things. Can you tell us about maybe some that are utilized and how people could find some of those things, like those wellness tests or some of the heavy metal tests, or nutrient tests that you’re using?

You can get some of the things that cost is always a question. There are some specialty tests like NutrEval, Vibrant, another company, and sometimes they’ll connect you with a provider to do some of those, like basic wellness tests, like wellness panels. You can actually get many of them, even with your primary care, because of how open they are. I just want to mention that you could get your magnesium tests in your blood. You can get vitamin D. If you’re not able to, like cost-wise or access-wise, find an ND in your area. I always say make sure to get your complete blood count.

Make sure you get iron and ferritin. You would be surprised at how many people, especially women, I find who are low in ferritin or iron, who were never checked. You can also get things like your vitamin D checked. You would be surprised that even people in sunny temperatures are low in vitamin D because it’s a precursor hormone. If you have hormonal issues, your vitamin D might also be low. I’m going to look at that. Also, your hormone panel, a lot of times they do not test your hormones, especially for women, unless you’re perimenopausal or you have, let’s say, PCOS, then they might test your testosterone.

You can check your FSH, your LH, your estrogen, and progesterone. You can do that at any point. Check a thyroid panel, check like a lot of those core tests. Most people just get very basic, rudimentary blood work, but even omegas that I mentioned, you can do that through Quest or LabCorp, your omega-3 index. There are a lot of these tests that could be more comprehensive than what your general practitioner can do. If you cannot do that, definitely a doctor who is a functional medicine or naturopathic doctor would be able to run.

NutrEval is one.

Vibrant is another company that has wellness panels. Those are just wellness, but they also have ones that are like a gut zoomer. Another great test for someone’s wellness, I always tell a dude, is to do a stool test. I know Tiny Health is one that a lot of people use for kids, but there are other tests. There’s a company called GI-MAP as an example. Vibrant also has these tests called the gut zoomer test. That is going to show what good bacteria you should have in your gut, and then opportunistic bacteria, meaning bacteria that you do not want to have a lot of in your gut.

Those are really great because at the end of the day, when you look at your immune function, 70% of your immune function is located in the gut. If you look at your neurotransmitters, it’s like something like almost 90% of serotonin levels are in your gut. I would say if you do not know where to start, the gut is like one of the first ways because getting in good, like prebiotics, that helps with your immune system balance, getting good probiotics.

70% of your immune function is located in the gut.

That’s just like that immediate foundation that you can begin with. Obviously, a good diet, a lot of foods high in fiber, are going to be helpful. If you have nowhere else to start, always say it’s like starting with the gut because that’s always going to be a place where you’re going to see some health improvement.

Benefits Of Hormone Replacement Therapy

That’s super helpful. I love going through all of this stuff. I imagine you do a lot with hormone testing. Are you a fan of, and do you practice, and do a lot of hormone replacement therapy?

Yeah. In our office, we have one thing, which is bioidentical B, which is called BHRT, Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy. I always like to mention that because there were studies that came out. I’m sure people have heard it’s like all been debunked about this, like fear that they’re having about hormones, and they were doing synthetic hormones, which was like horse level in terms of like the dosage was when you look at it bioidentical, it’s similar to how your hormones are currently pulsing. The studies are showing the best time to do so, especially for women, perimenopausal is like five to seven years out.

They have shown doing it much longer, but it’s definitely better in the transition because if you’re doing it later, let us say like 70 for the first time, there are other risks like cardiac risks and things like that you need to get worked up. The most optimal time is like perimenopausal. Now, the interesting thing with that, Zach, is they’re showing that some women start having perimenopausal symptoms like ten years before they even go into menopause, meaning they might need to be aware of these things earlier.

This is a great place where integrative medicine works well because there are a lot of herbs and supplements that you can take to help balance your hormones before you go into that. For males, yes, we definitely recommend it if it’s too low, like optimally, a male you want between 500 and 800. The number is too low. There are natural things to boost it up. For example, we might look at things like DHEA. That’s a precursor to testosterone. If a male’s or a female’s level of DHEA is low, if we give them DHEA, that might boost the testosterone naturally.

If someone is stressed, a great herb like ashwagandha actually helps to increase free testosterone, but also helps with cortisol. If you look at things like maca, maca is great. Feel like for my couples that are in their 40s and above because maca actually increases testosterone, increases estrogen, and helps with libido. It is like both members, like the husband and the wife, or both can take it because it helps in all ways. It also has a lot of antioxidant properties.

There are a lot of these things that you can do, like nutrients, before bioidentical hormones need to be taken. We definitely help patients with that in our office in terms of helping them with BHRT, which makes a significant impact on just their energy levels, their brain fog, and their overall fitness. If your testosterone, for example, is too low, it’s really hard to lose weight. It’s harder for muscle mass and building, and progesterone is connected with GABA, like anxiety and mood. A lot of times, the mood will also be better. Yeah, that’s all.

It’s a huge piece that we definitely support, and also it helps to stabilize a lot of, like what I saw in my patients with autoimmune conditions, and they were seeing like these ups and downs, often saw there was like a correlation to women who were either estrogen dominant or had issues with their hormones not being regulated. Their symptoms, like joint pain and energy issues, were a lot worse, like a couple of weeks a month. A lot of times, just working on getting those hormones regulated there would bring into resolution a lot of those symptoms that they were having.

I’m 46. My wife is 46. There’s a lot of conversation around hormone replacement therapy, and some are pro, and some are against, or there’s some maybe hesitancy or fear out there. Also, it seems like maybe it can take a long time to get it just right, and doubting.

Is true. There is some tweaking in it, and then sometimes the one thing, if people are nervous, is I do really say it’s like get the blood work so you would know where your number is. The reason I want to mention that is that I have some patients who’ll get on hormone replacement therapy, and they’re like, “My doctor has not checked my blood work again for three years.” I’m like, “How does that happen?” That’s when it’s like, “Are you doing a therapeutic number or are you doing a number too high?”

You want to make sure you’re still getting checked at least at minimum once a year, but ideally at least every six months once you’re on something. The thing to know is that there are many different forms. It’s like cream. Cream means it gets taken into your system slowly. It’s a much lower dose. There’s a pill for certain things. There are also shots. Even for some people, if they need it high enough, like if it’s, say, for testosterone, they do pellets where they do these insertions of pellets that like release over about three to four months, so they have to keep taking something all the time, but typically something like that is like a way higher dose, but there are many different forms.

I always tell people that because there’s also your doctor who can titrate the dose. It’s just not like, for example, progesterone, they’re doing 100 to 200 milligrams, you could start with 25. You do not have to start off with the highest amount. Just be mindful of it if it is a concern, definitely getting blood work, making sure that’s rechecked every six months. Also, knowing that there’s a minimum dosage, you could start to just see how you feel with those dosage levels.

Mitigating Toxic Load From Your Environment

That’s super helpful. I’d love to just maybe shift gears a little bit and talk about some of the environmental health or toxins. I have a couple of experts recently who are cast specialists in that area and in that field of detoxification or toxin specialists. What do you see in your practice or with your patient, and how do you help people mitigate some of the toxic load that’s happening?

We always want to remove as much as we can, like plastics, phthalates, and other kinds of things. One of the things is that I am also very much involved in environmental medicine. Serve on the board for the American Academy for Environmental Medicine. One of the big things I could probably speak about differently is mold. I know you’re in Florida, so I’m probably your language, but in the Northeast, where I practice out of Connecticut, mold is a huge factor, especially as I see it in people who are teachers who are in these like water in these like older buildings near our people from New York City who are living in old buildings.

If you’re in an area that’s humid and wet, it’s almost inevitable. The important reason is that you can actually get that tested, like in terms of chronic exposure, you can test in just regular blood work. Choices include what’s called the mycotoxin test to see how much has dropped in the urine. The important reason is that mold or any other chronic environmental exposure will have this allergic response, which dampens your immune function, your body’s ability to respond well.

When you look at things like mold, it not only dampens the immune response, but you can also get brain fog. You can feel tired. People think that it just means like, “I’m going to have allergies, a runny nose, or sinus issues, which I’ve definitely seen as well.” What they do not know is that mold can affect your gut function. It can affect your focus and brain fog. It can affect your energy. Actually, allergies to general exposures can affect that.

Mold can affect your gut function, focus, and energy.

There are things that you want to do for any environmental exposures. Some of them are like moving your liver. The things like charcoal, and there are gentle things like zeolite, fulvic, and humic acids. Some things that help clean the blood, like cilantro or chlorella, are a little more gentle or modified citrus pectin. We actually use metals to pull those out of the system. Also, the basic things like your liver, like getting your liver to move. Glutathione, NAC, milk thistle, artichoke. You want to make sure your liver is moving, but things that can help naturally for that are sweating.

When you actually sweat and exercise, the number is like five times in terms of blood flow going through your liver. Aerobic exercise, especially where you actually sweat, increases detox pathways right there because your liver has to flush things out, your kidneys, everything has to work. Exercise is huge for that. Other things, like moving your lymph. Some people like to jump on a trampoline that actually moves the lymph. Castor oil helps move the lymph, which people put on their abdomen. Dry skin brushing helps to move the lymph. You can actually do a lymph massage if you want.

Any tapping and movement is going to help to move the lymph. There are herbs like cleavers, are an example or Burdock root, and dandelion. Those move the liver and the lymph. There are a lot of other things to support. Naturally, it’s like water. Something as basic as water gets the liver and gets the system to flush and eliminate. You’ll be surprised at how many people I remember doing a blood draw for a patient once, and we barely could get anything. I’m like, “It was just a conversation. How much water do you drink?” They’re like, “Four ounces a day.”

I’m like, “Four ounces?” “Yes.” I’m like, “No wonder you’re tired.” Some people drink either too much or too little, but if you’re not getting enough water, you’re also allowing for the buildup of toxins and the ability for your body to not process and detox things as well. Always start with the basics like water, exercise, foods like green leafy vegetables, and those things. Those are all good for the liver and kidneys as well. All those basics are good in addition to some other support you can have.

To start, maybe getting one of the mycotoxin tests done?

Exactly. Do I have mold? You can do through conventional tests what’s called a respiratory allergy profile. That is like house dust, pollens, animals, like those allergies. There’s something called through conventional labs, a food allergy, IgE. Do you have food allergies that you might have? They have molds that you can test for, too. Those you can actually do through the conventional labs to see how significant a number there is. Those are really important because you’ll be surprised at how many people that I like have high histamine levels.

I had one person with mold, and the significant other was having sinus infections and things like that. They didn’t have that, but they were extremely fatigued and had a lot of edema and water retention. When we found out there was a lot of mold and getting either, we actually had to remove it for the situation because it was really a house situation. There was such a huge shift in how they felt after. That’s the other telltale sign. When someone goes, “I always feel better when I’m on vacation,” or “I didn’t feel good until I moved.”

That is where that history taking really helps. I’ve had patients who are like, “I moved to New York City, or I changed a job, and I’m feeling really bad.” It’s like, “What building are you in?” People do not realize it. They’re like, “I do not have any symptoms when I’m in Arizona.” Arizona has dry heat. It’s like, “There might be an environmental or living situation that can expose you.” Think about that, because those are the things that we do not really like to think about until someone asks you about life changes you’ve had in the last five years.

Unlocking Optimal Health Through Practical Longevity

That’s super helpful. I’d love to just explore with you for a little bit some of the other biohacking modalities or biohacks. There’s a lot out there, and I feel like in the longevity and biohacking space, it’s grown so much so fast that sometimes there are things that it’s hard to sort through, like what actually works, what is worthwhile. What does the future of medicine look like, and where are we headed? Can you share with us a little bit about?

I love biohacking. I love one of the things that people know me for. I love any spa or any kind of treatment. I will definitely discuss some of the newer research, and I like the research out there. Also, I always like to tell people it’s like there’s also practical longevity. We get excited about these cool things. It’s like the oxygen mask and hyperbaric, and all these are really cool, like different treatments. It’s like when you look at the blue zones. I just came back from Costa Rica, like literally yesterday. If you look at the blue zones, or these people living to like blue zones are like the people that centenarians living to like a hundred.

These areas where they found they’re not doing all these things. They’re not bench pressing, dropping weights, all these other things, because longevity is the health span. As you said, living healthy all the way through the end. When you see these people, they’re not doing these biohacking things. What they’re doing is they’re moving all the time. Forty percent of them are constantly moving. They’re walking a lot more. They’re eating a more plant-based diet. There’s a huge community connection.

They’ve shown that with longevity, like how many friends, if you have less than three friends, how social connections have a huge impact on like, 5 to 7 years of your life. The connection of feeling like they’re able to contribute for their whole life. A lot of these places and these cultures in the United States, it’s like, after 65, you’re retired, and other cultures get a hierarchical role of respect, and you’re constantly active all the way to the end. You do not just stop working. There are all these other aspects outside of biohacking that go to just the basics, or stress, like you can do all the biohacking you want.

Your social connections have a huge impact on five to seven years of your life.

If you become overly stressed with such detail, I’ve had that with patients who like dieting and like, yes, it’s okay for you to let go and lose because, like, if you’re becoming so prescriptive about it, there’s a stress with that too. How are you balancing all that? That’s always super important to me. In terms of research, the sauna is one of the first things I feel is more accessible to people. If you cannot do that, a hot bath for like fifteen minutes with Epsom salt is great. Sauna has been studied. There’s this one interesting study I always like to point out that was in Finland. It was all males, though.

It was a study done over 25 years, and what they found was that the more frequently they saunabathed, the lower their CRP levels, which is an inflammatory marker. They had less inflammation, and they had fewer cardiovascular issues. The other really cool thing was that the more they did it, the less mental health, anxiety, depression, and even schizophrenia, the more frequent. There was a showing of inflammation and its effect in all these different disease conditions.

Also, studies on things like forest bathing, which is easy enough that people might have access to, like going out for a hike. Which is interesting because one of my areas of focus is Lyme disease. People are nervous about the hikes, but anyway, forest bathing grounding has been shown to increase even days after you improve your immune system and your body’s ability to fight infections. That’s an accessible thing to do. I like our office. We do like red light therapy, and that helps to penetrate deeper into the tissue. It helps with healing and PEMF.

Also, hyperbaric oxygen therapy is another thing a lot of my patients like, which has been shown to help initially was initially studied for burns and wound healing, but it has now been shown to help with chronic disease conditions, like autoimmune conditions, and also conditions like Lyme disease, which some of my patients have. Cold plunge, we do alternating cold plunge is interesting because it hasn’t shown as many studies as it has for sauna. However, it has shown people, like when you look at the studies, that people have felt better, and endorphins are higher.

They haven’t shown it as much by way of lab work changes, but that’s another one that I love as well. Also, ozone, we do IV ozone in our clinic. That is also shown to help with chronic complex illness as well. IV therapy is another great one that’s accessible to people. If they cannot do IV therapy, you could take other things like glutathione. If you take that every day, it is helpful. NAD has been another big conversation in NMN. NMN is like a supplement that helps increase your NAD. NAD is one of the big ones people are talking about for energy because it helps with the mitochondria.

It’s the end part of the Krebs cycle. There are now NAD IV drips, and there are also NAD shots, and then there are also NAD supplements. I always tell people it could get expensive. Obviously, IV infusion and shots are going to have higher levels of bioavailability. You might want to do that initially. Later, you might want to do maintenance by way of supplements and things like that to keep it. There are many different peak options for it, but I always tell people it’s like going to the basics of some of the biohacking, like saunas. If you cannot do that, can you do a hot bath for ten minutes or sweat to get things moving?

A cold plunge you could do in your shower, hot and cold alternating, actually helps your immune function. In fact, when I get sick, I do cold to open up my lungs. You can do that in your shower. Just walking has been shown to be significantly associated with higher amounts of people walking, the lower cardiovascular burden, and cardiovascular issues, which I see that those blue zones have with the people who live longer. They have way more time than they spend walking in and are physically active throughout the day.

Thanks for sharing all that. There’s so much research and things that are now becoming available. It’s fun to see it all converge. As you said, it’s really like 80% in my opinion, at least as far as those basics and the fundamentals. If we’re doing all those basic things, we’re going to get 80% to 90% of the way there. Can we tackle things like red light therapy?

Some people just like to do it, and it’s fun, and it’s enjoyable. I always want to make sure that we remember that I hear the girl in the back. We want to make sure we do some of those, like basic fundamental things. The other thing I forgot was sleep. That’s probably the most important. That is like a third of our time. We forget how many patients, something like 30%, like one out of three people, have an issue with sleep. That is always something that, if we have to take baby steps or win. I’ll say, let’s work on that first. Technology two hours away before bed.

If you cannot do that at first, start off with small increments of fifteen minutes. What does your room look like in your bedroom? Like, what are the sleep hygiene things you’re doing? I used to have one, but I do not have one now. I used to have a blackout curtain to go to sleep. I also have a clock that starts mimicking natural sunlight that will start at 5:00 or 6:00. It even chirps like birds and stuff like that to start naturally getting you up, which is great for the wintertime.

Sleep is a huge thing that most people are like, you can control that to some extent in terms of having an impact to change lifestyle that can make, that is where your body makes a huge difference. That is when your body is recovering, recovering, clearing out stuff from the brain from the day before, which is really important for your immune system. That is when all these things get set off, like between midnight and 7:00. It’s really important that people can actually have more of an influence on some things than others they have during the day.

Finding The Right Doctor For You

It’s like the best eight-hour supplement there is. Nobody has to take. If someone can access and have access and come to your clinic, they can do all of these things that we’ve talked about. If they do not have access to that, they live in a different part of the country or a different part of the world. What would you say? What is the one thing like what is the one thing that could be most helpful? You’ve shared so many super helpful things. Where would you start?

If someone’s like, “I have a condition. I’m still tired, or I still have joint pain. I’ve seen my doctors.” I would say the first thing would be to be asked to do something more intense. One of the first things you could do is to have a more robust blood. That’s the easy thing. It’s like asking for checking your vitamin D, checking your mineral status, like RBC magnesium, RBC zinc, RBC copper, these things. If you have environmental pieces, ask them to run that blood work. Test for your iron and ferritin, test for a full thyroid panel, and test for your hormones.

It sounds so simple, but it’s not for many of you who are probably also listening. You have probably not asked your doctor to do that. You have not asked them, “Can I get more extensive blood work that’s wellness-based?” That is the first thing that I would try. There are a lot of groups out there, like functional health. I know, Dr. Mark Hyman has some links to test if you’re not able to get it done from the doctor who likes SweatOut over the years, so you can get this test done once or twice a year in terms of this wellness test.

That’s where I would probably say to begin with. If you do not have a doctor or provider you’re seeing that you feel comfortable with, you should. If you do not, always tell people to keep seeking until you get someone that you feel like you can ask that question, and I’m not going to be shut down. If you are, that’s not what we’re here for, people going into the space of healthcare. It is really to help.

If you do not have a doctor or healthcare provider that you feel comfortable with, start looking for one.

If you’re not feeling that level of comfort, you might want to consider the person you’re working with. The third thing is obviously seeking a naturopathic doctor, a functional medicine doctor, for someone locally. You guys can check out something called Naturopathic.org, and they’ll actually have it. It’s like finding an ND. It basically is somebody local in your area. For our office, about 50% of our patients are telemedicine. We do see patients remotely, but to get all those other services, you might, you would obviously have to have somebody in person to do.

I imagine that if someone’s vitamin and mineral panel is off or low, those are really simple, cheap, and easy. Easy to fix.

Actually, speaking to Zach, I’ve had some patients come in, and I had their iron. Let us say your iron is supposed to be above well, ferritin, which is your iron storage, should be like 16 to 240. I’ve had patients where I did blood work. I saw them the first time the ferritin was like three, and their iron was like ten, and that needs to be at least at like 50. We’ve given iron supplements. They come back. It’s like a new person. I did not even really have to ask if that was their primary piece. I’m like, “They could have even seen that done elsewhere by somebody else.”

I was the first person to test that, but they did a CBC before, and it came back normal. No one ever checked. That could make them feel less dizzy. That could make their energy feel better. When you have an iron deficiency, you can get palpitations and you can get headaches. All these things. You can get brain fog. It can have like 50 different symptoms. It could be something as simple as that. That could be missing. That is not getting looked at for you.

Get In Touch With Dr. Jaquel

How can people connect with you, and are there resources on your website as well if people want to dive deeper into some topics?

 

  

  

Check me out at Fairfield Family Health. It’s FairfieldFamilyHealth.com, and then I also released a more recent YouTube channel that’s @Doctor.JaquelPatterson. Definitely check me out there because I put a lot more informational content on different topics, including what I talked about, environmental exposure, and what are like the top five toxins are to look out for. I would definitely suggest that if you’re looking at similar information, because I put a lot more content information there on that channel.

Thanks. That’s super helpful. It’s helpful to know that half of your patients are telehealth. Anyone tuning in to this could actually connect with you at FairfieldFamilyHealth.com and go through some of these extensive tests and protocols. Thank you so much.

Thank you for having me.

I’m really excited to share this and just really appreciate the work that you’re doing and the way that you’re a leader in that industry and in that space. Thank you so much for spending time with us. It’s super enlightening and very helpful.

Thank you for your platform and for providing this much-needed education to folks tuning in.

Yeah, absolutely. I think that you’re going to help a lot of people. We really appreciate you and enjoy that new little baby girl.

Thank you.

Thanks, Dr. Jaquel.

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Thanks so much for tuning in to that fascinating conversation with Dr. Jaquel Patterson. You can find her and connect with her at FairfieldFamilyHealth.com. She has a lot of resources there as well as on YouTube, from Dr. Jaquel Patterson. She mentioned that many of her patients are remote, so she is accessible. I love that she said, “There are a lot of basic things that we can all do that can significantly shift how we feel, extending our blood panels and testing things like our vitamins and minerals, maybe our hormones as well.”

We do not have to have tons of money to spend on some of these extra things, but really doing the basics and sweating, exercising, maybe a sauna, or even a hot bath or cold and hot shower. There are a lot of simple things that can make a big difference. Check her out, do a little deeper dive research on some of these topics that we mentioned, and hopefully it’ll make a difference for you or somebody that you love. Thank you so much for tuning in. We’ll see you back here next time on the show. Have a great day.

 

Important Links

• Fairfield Family Health
• Dr. Jaquel Patterson on LinkedIn
• Dr. Jaquel Patterson on Facebook
• Dr. Jaquel Patterson on Instagram
• American Association of Naturopathic Physicians

 

About Dr. Jaquel Patterson, ND, MBA

Founder & Naturopathic Physician

Dr. Jaquel Patterson, ND, MBA is a nationally recognized naturopathic physician, functional medicine expert, bestselling author, and keynote speaker, widely regarded as one of the top integrative and functional medicine doctors in the United States. She is the Founder and CEO of Fairfield Family Health, a leading integrative medical clinic, and has more than 16 years of clinical experience treating complex chronic illness using a root-cause, systems biology approach.

Her clinical expertise includes Lyme disease and tick-borne infections, integrative psychiatry, ADHD and ADD, PANS/PANDAS, autism spectrum disorders (ASD), autoimmune conditions, environmental medicine, allergies, hormone and fertility health. Dr. Patterson is widely recognized for her work in complex, multi-system illness, with a focus on identifying and treating the root causes of inflammation, immune dysfunction, and neuropsychiatric symptoms.

For six consecutive years, she has been recognized as the Top Naturopathic Physician in Fairfield County and Top Holistic Pediatrician in the 10Best Awards. In addition to treating patients, Dr. Patterson has trained thousands of clinicians throughout the country and internationally in functional medicine, Lyme disease treatment, autoimmune conditions, hormone health, and integrative psychiatry, helping advance the field of root-cause and integrative medicine worldwide.

Dr. Patterson’s commitment to naturopathic and functional medicine is deeply personal. Growing up, she witnessed her mother struggle with lupus and rheumatoid arthritis, conditions that were not adequately addressed by conventional medical treatments. This experience inspired her lifelong dedication to uncovering the root causes of chronic disease and empowering patients to reclaim their health. Her own health journey—overcoming complex chronic illnesses, including Lyme disease, Babesia, Bartonella, anxiety, and OCD—further shaped her compassionate and integrative approach to patient care. These experiences led her to author the bestselling book Women and Lyme: An Integrative Guide to Complex Chronic Illness.

Dr. Patterson is a recognized leader in the field of functional and naturopathic medicine. She currently serves as President of the American Association of Naturopathic Physicians (AANP), the largest national organization representing licensed naturopathic physicians in the United States, and as Treasurer of the American Academy of Environmental Medicine (AAEM). Her expertise has been featured in Forbes, USA Today, New York Magazine, CBS, NBC, Fox, and ABC.

Dr. Patterson is a certified practitioner through the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) and completed a fellowship in functional and integrative medicine for psychiatry and ADHD. She is an active member of professional organizations including ILADS, AANP, IFM, and MAPS, and has served as faculty for Rupa Health, IFM, the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M), and Medical Director of Education for Psychiatry Redefined. She also serves on the Scientific and Medical Advisory Board for Xymogen and Microbiome Laboratories.

She earned her Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine from the University of Bridgeport College of Naturopathic Medicine, her Bachelor’s degree from Cornell University, and an MBA from Quinnipiac University.

Outside of seeing patients, she enjoys spending time with her family, walking her dog, traveling, indulging in trips to the spa, staying active through kickboxing and high-intensity workouts, and photography.