Welcome to Sustain youn Vitality, the podcast that gives you a nurturing kick in the ass so you can take action every day to feel better, not older.

Your lifestyle holds the power to change how you feel, and no matter your age or health issues, you are in the driver's seat.

I'm your host, Zoa Connor, Functional wellness guide at Zen and Vitality with Zoa and retreat leader at Intentional Vitality Retreats.

I'm here to help you figure out how to lower your stress, increase your energy, put yourself into a healing state, boost your drive and pleasure in life, prevent disease, and feel the best that you ever have with no regrets later.

Let's go.

I'm here to talk to you today about the idea of functional wellness.

My brick and mortar studio and the basis for my wellness retreats is functional wellness.

So you may have heard of functional medicine and the idea of seeking out the root cause of your problems, your symptoms, your disease.

Functional medicine doctors are still trained doctors who are using testing and symptoms and matching patterns to ultimately find you a diagnosis.

Along the way, they are trying to do things that help you feel better.

But functional wellness takes that to another level.

Wellness in general is all about what you do for yourself every day to support the operation of your body, the functioning of your brain, your mood, your energy level, and everything about your body, mind and spirit.

Functional wellness has an innate belief and trust in your body to heal.

Functional wellness is holistic in nature.

We deal with the entire body and mind and the spirit because it's all connected.

An example is that anxiety could be your diagnosis, but it's a mental health challenge.

And it's related to the digestive power that you have and your gut microbiome.

But it's also related to your nutritional status.

And so you have to consider your issues, your symptoms, your problems, your challenges from a holistic approach.

Functional wellness is also a multi system approach.

So whereas Western medicine doctors, you may have a cardiologist who's an expert on your heart and a podiatrist who's an expert on your feet, and your endocrinologist who's an expert on your hormones and endocrine glands.

And then there's your gastrointestinal doctor who's all about your digestion and your systems of your body, your circulatory system, your digestive system, your nervous system, they all work together.

If we return to that anxiety example, there's a digestive component, there's a mental component, there's a nervous system component, and all of those are connected multiple systems you can't just focus on one organ, one system, because it depends on all the others to create function and to operate well.

And in the idea of functional wellness, or the principles of functional wellness, we are looking to create optimal functioning.

We're looking what is the function of this part of the body, of this system, and what does it mean in order to function well.

We're not interested in how far away from optimal are you, how close you are to a disease or a diagnosis.

We're more interested in how close can we get you to having everything work really, really well.

Our focus is the support based on the design of your body.

We're trying to take away the roadblocks to healing.

Your body is designed to self clean and self repair and all of these wonderful things.

It's just that the longer that we live, the harder it becomes because we have more trash and less resources and all of the functions start to diminish.

So if we take away the roadblocks, then we can stay healthy, we can do better with less effort.

Our goal is optimal functioning of every part of every system, of all the coordination between the parts and the systems, not just trying to deal with a disease or even not even just trying to avoid a disease.

Our wellness focus is on what you do every day on your own terms.

It's not a focus on your health or your diagnosis or the management of it, or your medications.

We're talking about your diet, your nutrition, your movement, the things you do every day, the quality of your sleep, the hydration of your body, the cleanliness and care of your mouth and oral microbiome and teeth and bones.

Those are all related.

When you focus on supporting the optimal functioning of all of the parts of your body, you can reverse problems.

You can take away symptoms, not by masking them or hiding them, not by going down the rabbit hole towards medications and surgeries, but on true fixing, true healing.

It's an empowering thing to be in the realm of functional wellness and to be practicing that for your own self care.

Your lifestyle makes a huge difference in how you feel.

It makes a difference in your risk factors for disease and it affects whether or not you have vitality and whether you can sustain that vitality.

Wellness is proactive.

Functional wellness is highly proactive in all of the aspects of your lifestyle and it's preventative in nature.

We're trying to create the health and state of the body such that you're not going to succumb to disease so that you have low risk.

Western medicine.

Your traditional doctors are a little More reactive.

You have a complaint, you have a pain, you have a symptom.

You go to the doctor, they address that particular thing.

And it's not uncommon for them to prescribe something to make you not complain, which is different than prescribing you something that you can do to make it not happen in the first place.

Functional wellness is a comprehensive approach, not piecemeal.

We're not dealing one organ at a time, one symptom at a time.

If we're going to work on your anxiety, we're going to work on your nervous system regulation.

We're going to work on the stiffness or tension held in the body.

We're going to work on supporting good digestion and elimination.

We're going to work on your gut and oral microbiomes.

We're going to work on all kinds of aspects of the body and all kinds of systems and parts in order to make you not have a state of anxiety, because there's no need for it.

We're going to address the reason for your complaint, your symptom, your problem.

We're going to look for the root cause by supporting the optimal functioning of your body and mind as a whole.

No masking of symptoms.

No starting with symptoms first, we start with function first.

We truly fixed your problem.

Let me give you an example.

You have a plumber come to fix your toilet in your house.

The toilet's not flushing properly.

Well, what happens in your mind if the plumber simply installs a second toilet?

Does that fix the problem?

No, it bypasses the problem.

If you still use the first toilet, it still doesn't flush.

Well, what if the plumber alternately puts a second toilet on top of the first one?

It still has a problem, perhaps even more of a problem, and now it's hidden because you can't see it.

So you called the plumber there and they did something, but it didn't actually fix the initial problem.

But hopefully it gave you a way of not complaining.

That's not what you want, and that's not what you want for your body either.

Functional wellness is by definition personalized.

It can't possibly be one size fits all.

There are absolutely commonalities that we can make use of, especially if you're looking to handle things on your own.

But the body is so complex that oftentimes, if you make the wrong choices or do the wrong order, you can feel worse because of your efforts to feel better.

The more of your systems and body parts are involved, the more you need the help of someone who is trained in functional wellness.

A practitioner like me, Functional wellness is something you do for yourself.

It's a practice, there's an evolution, there's an action that you take.

Many actions that you take over time.

It's not done for you, it's not done to you.

You are the driver.

But if you want a co pilot to help you interpret the road signs and read the map while you're on your journey to better health through a wellness lifestyle, and you like the ideas behind functional wellness, these are things that you do both at home and when you're on travel.

I invite you to schedule a wellness consultation with me and together we can help you feel better, not older.

If the Sustain your Vitale podcast is helping you understand what you need to feel fabulous in every way with the least amount of effort, please share the show with someone who also needs it.

Sharing is easy, just use the sharing link in the show notes the Sustain your Vitality podcast is a gift from Zen and Vitality with Zoa LLC and Intentional Vitality Retreats based in the State of Maryland, usa.

All the podcast things planning, recording, editing, producing have all been done by me, Zoa Connor, PhD.

Even though you can call me doctor, I'm not a medical professional and your safety is your responsibility.

By listening to this podcast and understanding that any movement, nutrition, lifestyle or health protocol is discussed, you are agreeing to take full responsibility for your actions.

Zen and Vitality with Zoa are not responsible for any injuries or issues that may occur.

This podcast is intended for educational and informational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized medical, wellness, nutrition, lifestyle or movement and fitness advice.

Always practice any fitness or movement related activities in a safe environment.

I make no claims about the effectiveness of the techniques or protocols discussed for you or any specific results that you may achieve.

I recommend you consult with your healthcare professional before changing your diet, exercise, routine or healthcare plan.

Zenin, Vitality with Zoa and the guests of this podcast are not liable for any injuries or health problems that may arise from following the information presented.