Episode 219
Angela Simpson:The 80-20 Rule That Reverses Autoimmunity Without Perfectionism
Angela Simpson:
The 80-20 Rule That Reverses Autoimmunity Without Perfectionism
Join functional medicine practitioner Angela Simpson as she shares her personalized approach to reversing autoimmunity without perfectionism.
Learn about the comprehensive testing that reveals hidden root causes, why 80% of women are teetering on autoimmunity, and the sustainable 80-20 rule that helps clients achieve lasting health transformations.
Learn about the comprehensive testing that reveals hidden root causes, why 80% of women are teetering on autoimmunity, and the sustainable 80-20 rule that helps clients achieve lasting health transformations.
First Aired on: Nov 24, 2025
Episode 219
Angela Simpson:The 80-20 Rule That Reverses Autoimmunity Without Perfectionism
Angela Simpson:
The 80-20 Rule That Reverses Autoimmunity Without Perfectionism
Join functional medicine practitioner Angela Simpson as she shares her personalized approach to reversing autoimmunity without perfectionism.
Learn about the comprehensive testing that reveals hidden root causes, why 80% of women are teetering on autoimmunity, and the sustainable 80-20 rule that helps clients achieve lasting health transformations.
Learn about the comprehensive testing that reveals hidden root causes, why 80% of women are teetering on autoimmunity, and the sustainable 80-20 rule that helps clients achieve lasting health transformations.
First Aired on: Nov 24, 2025
Table of Contents:
Table of Contents:
In this episode:
In this episode:
Introduction
Angela Simpson is a functional medicine practitioner with over 20 years of healthcare experience. She specializes in helping women in their 40s to 60s navigate autoimmunity and hormonal changes. After healing from her own Hashimoto's diagnosis in her thirties, Angela is passionate about helping women discover the root causes of their symptoms through personalized functional medicine approaches.
Episode Highlights
Why 80% of Women Are Teetering on Autoimmunity
Angela reveals that up to 80% of her female clients are either on the edge of autoimmunity or have been recently diagnosed.
- Common symptoms include debilitatingly low energy despite adequate sleep
- Brain fog and difficulty focusing that gets dismissed as hormonal
- Unexplained weight gain and mood imbalances
- Many women don't know they have autoimmunity brewing beneath the surface
- Symptoms are often normalized as "just part of aging"
The Power of Comprehensive Functional Lab Testing
Angela emphasizes starting with detailed lab testing to uncover the true root causes of health issues.
- You can't change what you don't know - testing is essential upfront
- Comprehensive testing includes gut microbiome, toxin loads, mitochondrial function
- Also checks hormone levels, nutrient status, and digestion capability
- Goes far beyond standard blood labs to reveal hidden imbalances
- Creates a customized roadmap rather than guessing at treatments
The Gut as "Ground Zero" for Healing
Both speakers emphasize that the gut is the foundational starting point for all health improvements.
- You can't get anything going with your health until the gut is balanced
- Different people have different gut issues - overgrowth, leaky gut, toxin overload
- The gut-brain connection means gut health affects mood and cognition
- Healing the gut typically takes 6-24 months but results start showing in weeks
- Anti-inflammatory diet is the biggest needle-mover for most people
Hormone Changes and Autoimmune Triggers
Angela explains how hormonal shifts in midlife can trigger or reveal autoimmunity in women.
- As estrogen and progesterone drop, insulin and cortisol naturally rise
- This hormonal imbalance creates more inflammation in the body
- The drop in hormones is often the trigger for autoimmune development
- Autoimmunity develops over 10-15 years before showing symptoms
- Progesterone drops faster than estrogen, affecting sleep quality first
Stress, Cortisol, and the Nervous System
The conversation covers how different types of stress impact the immune system and gut health.
- There's no way to supplement yourself out of stress - lifestyle changes are needed
- Physical stressors (inflammation, blood sugar) can drive high cortisol too
- Chronic stress breaks down the gut lining and ramps up inflammation
- Meditation is one of the most proven ways to recalibrate the nervous system
- One client replaced phone scrolling with meditation and saw life-changing results
The Sustainable 80-20 Approach
Angela advocates for an 80-20 rule rather than perfectionism for long-term success.
- Initial healing phase may require 90-100% consistency for 3-6 months
- Most people can sustain strict protocols for about 2-3 months
- After initial healing, transitioning to 80-20 maintains results
- Women with autoimmunity often need to stay closer to 80-20 vs 70-30
- Food diversity and rotation is important for gut microbiome health
- Perfectionism itself can be a stressor that hinders healing
Sleep Quality as a Two-Way Street
Sleep issues are both a symptom and a driver of autoimmune problems.
- Poor sleep quality often improves first when inflammation decreases
- Many women haven't had truly restorative sleep for 10-15 years
- Sleep medications don't provide the same healing benefits as natural sleep
- Waking up feeling rested is often the last symptom to improve
- High cortisol from various stressors directly impacts sleep quality
Notable Quotes from this Episode
I find when people are consistent with their strategies, lifestyle wise, typically over a period of anywhere from three to six months, they can actually get their autoimmunity into full remission. And I've seen that several times.
Angela Simpson
There isn't a way to supplement yourself out of stress. There isn't a diet that's true to stress.
Angela Simpson
You can't change what you don't know. That's our starting point is comprehensive functional lab testing.
Angela Simpson
The gut is ground zero. You really can't get anything going with your health until you get that gut at least back into some sense of balance.
Angela Simpson
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Connect with Angela Simpson
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Episode Transcript
Angela Simpson: You really can't get anything going with your health until you get that gut, at least back into some sense of balance, you know?
And,
Julie Howton: Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Houghton, and today we're joined by Angela Simpson, who's been a healthcare professional for over 20 years. She's trained in functional medicine as a practitioner to support women with rebalancing their bodies from a root cause perspective.
Angela struggled with her own health and autoimmune diagnosis in her mid thirties and healed herself with functional medicine. She's the founder of Angela Simpson Functional Medicine, and she's passionate about sharing what has worked for the countless women that she's worked with over the years to rebalance their bodies naturally.
In today's conversation, we are talking about how a personalized healing approach, simplified and consistent, can allow you to feel like your best self. Again, Angela, welcome to the podcast. Hi, Julie. Thanks for having me. I'm excited for our conversation, but I would love for listeners to get to know a little bit more about you. I know you've been in healthcare for a long time, but what brought you into functional medicine?
Angela Simpson: Yeah, I mean, probably not unlike many.
Um, my own personal health challenges and even some with my family members is what brought me here. So, um, as well as working with clients, you know, for years and years and seeing that there's probably more out there for them to get them feeling like the best version of themselves. Um, but it started with myself.
Um, so yeah, I mean, just a little bit about me, my background. Yeah. Um, yeah, I mean, I've been a healthcare professional for many, many years. Uh, almost 25. It's amazing 'cause you look 25. So
Julie Howton: well done.
Angela Simpson: That's
Julie Howton: nice.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. I mean, I do, having said that, I do feel possibly better now than I did when I was 25. Me too.
Yep. Yeah, and and that's actually when I started to. Discovered that there were some things going on with my health. Uh, early twenties I started to have a health crisis and no one could figure out why. You know, I went to every doctor at every test. Um, no one could figure out what was going on. I was, you know, put on drugs for asthma.
Um, you know, I was getting iron injections, um, all these things just to try and band-aid, um, what was going on for how I was feeling. And it wasn't until I got to a, an actual functional medicine practitioner that I got to the root of what was going on for me, and there was multiple layers to it. But really, I actually did have autoimmunity, um, already, so I had Hashimoto's, which is a very autoimmune condition.
Um, and I had no clue, so I wasn't managing it properly. And sure enough, practitioners knew either. So, you know, fast forward to now, I've learned a lot about myself, a lot about what, um, makes my system tick and operate correctly. And I, I feel a lot better 20, 25 years later than I did twenties. Yes, yes. Yeah.
And, uh, super passionate about helping people discover that for themselves as well.
Julie Howton: Amazing. I very much understand that passion. Um, yeah. And so I'm excited. And you, you work, I work. WI work with more women than men as well, because as we all know, when you look at the numbers in, in the autoimmune world, it, it ends up shaking out to being mostly women.
Um, but you, you specialize at least for right now. Yes. Um, in helping women in their like forties, fifties, right. 40 to 60 something. Um, navigate the changes that they're dealing, you know, as hormones are changing and, and shifting. Um, yes, and we all know there's just so much overlap between hormones and autoimmunity and, and, um, and so I know you see what I see, which is that the approach you take, not necessarily, people aren't coming to you sometimes, like you said, don't even know they have autoimmunity, right?
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Um, so tell us a little bit about that, because I think we have a lot of similarities. I know you do some in-depth testing and just like, nobody found your Hashimoto's before because they weren't looking for it. Right, exactly. Um, you know, share with us a little bit about, about how you're helping women.
I, I say feel like their, their best selves.
Angela Simpson: Yeah, for sure. Um, I think, you know, given the number of women that I've worked with over the years, which is, you know, hundreds and hundreds, um, I'd say, you know, up to 80, possibly even more, 80% or more are either teetering on the edge of autoimmunity and they don't know it, or they've, you know, had a recent diagnosis.
And it is definitely more common as you get older, for sure, um, into your forties and fifties. Um, yes, there is changes that are happening with hormones that can influence that. Um, but there's various other factors as well. So, you know, the way that I look at it with women and, and how they find me really is they're struggling just with health in general.
They're, they know their hormone levels are lowering. Many women I work with the top concerns and why they seek me out and find me is they have, you know, debilitatingly low energy, regardless of how much they sleep. Um. Often that overlays with, uh, brain fog and low brain energy. They're not functioning, not focusing a lot of fog.
Um, they think it's all hormonal overlay. The hormones are lowering. They've been told it's, uh, you know, tied into them needing more estrogen or progesterone, or a combination of the two. Um, and many women have mood imbalances, weight gain, they're just not feeling like themselves and, and they wanna figure out why.
And, and often when we, you know, kind of pull the curtain back beyond the blood labs, we can start to understand why. And, and that's where Optum, we find out that people are either, again, teetering on that edge of autoimmunity, or in fact, they have markers that already show that they're in that category.
Julie Howton: Well, and as you're listing, you know, the, the low energy, the brain fog, the weight gain, the mood, and I mean, it's Sure sounds also fair. It's just, I like a spectrum. Right. And, and all of those things also fit with autoimmunity and most of them are the things that were, that have been normalized. Right. With aging.
And like you said, oh yeah. It's just a part of. This is, suck it up buttercup. That's just how it is. And here are two people in different countries with completely different experiences that both feel better now than they did in their, you know, twenties, thirties. Definitely. My, for me, my forties, my fifties have been amazing.
Um, and, and so I, I, I love that you talk about pulling, you know, like the layers because. It, it a, it's never just one thing, right? Yes. Um, and, and so I used to, in the beginning of my practice, um, it would frustrate me when clients would come in and it's like their driver was weight loss. And I'm like, well, that's a, that, that's like when we get to the root, that'll go away on its own.
And now I realize like whatever they show up with. That's fine because we can help. Um. Mm-hmm. And so, yeah, and it, it's rare. I'm not saying food is not important. Food is very important. Um, but it, it's not typically, you know, that the kind of stereotypical, well, you know, just put less food in your mouth.
It's like, no, it's all of these things going on in the body.
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm. Agreed. Yeah. Yeah, the food's an interesting one for females, right? Yes. You know, I think just as a societally we've been programmed from, as a, as a child, even like. How much to eat, how to, you know? Yeah. Not that, you know, all those things.
Right. Um, and then we really focus on the foods and the calories and, and that kind of
Julie Howton: Yeah. Well, and then it, it, it turns into that blame of like, oh, well I did this. I, I, you know, and it's like, well, no, probably things aren't optimized. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so, so, so where do you start with your women,
Angela Simpson: with your ladies?
Yes. Um, again, like my practice has evolved over the years as well. Sure. As you know, your, your clients are your best teachers. So I've learned a lot from them along the way. Um, and what I have learned, which makes sense too, when I think of myself and my health journey and how I could have really shortened it up if I would've known this ahead of time.
Um, is, it's important to get out in front of understanding what's going on internally in your body. And, and for that you really need to do customized detailed lab testing. Um, you know, it's never enough to just check the surface slur, which is your blood labs. Uh, you know, well-trained functional medicine practitioner can, can really dig even into those blood labs to understand some imbalances and nuances and you know, where things could potentially be coming from.
It's never gonna get you to the full picture. So I, I know that the first place I start, we talk about the goals, we talk about where you wanna get to, um, regardless of if you come to me with autoimmunity or not. Mm-hmm. Um, and then from there we do the detailed labs to start with. So, um, you know, there's a cost upfront, but I, I always say, you know, you can't change what you don't know.
Right. Sure. Sure. Um, that's our starting point is comprehensive functional lab testing. So we check the gut, the gut microbiome. We check urine and check for different toxin loads. We check to see how the mitochondria are functioning, nutrient levels, digestion, ability to absorb. Um, you know, we really strip it back to the basics, um, with understanding these, these labs.
Julie Howton: Yeah, it, it, it is so important and, and typically especially the people I work with, but you know, by the time they don't wanna try something and then have me say, well that didn't work as well as we were hoping. Now let's, you know, spend the money on the next layer of testing. Um, and, and, and so I understand the, you know, that honest, like yep.
It's, it is a cost upfront, but it's, it's time, energy, health, all the things. Yeah. Um, and so, so you really are, you're just getting that comprehensive look at, okay, what is, where's the body right now? What is going on?
Angela Simpson: Yeah. And I love solving puzzles. I, I always have on my coffee table upstairs, a new puzzle I'm working on, you know, connecting the dots together.
Mm-hmm. Um, and that really sometimes is what it is. By the time someone gets to a diagnosis of autoimmunity and they're teetering on that edge, um, what's going on inside can be quite complex. Right? Sure. So we need to understand how to, to put those complexities together. Um, you know, ironically in a simplified plan for people, right?
Yes. Because it can be overwhelming. You know, I've got this wrong, I got this wrong, I got all these things I gotta do, you know, what am I gonna do, right? How am I gonna take that first step? So it's that complexity and making it simple and guided so that people have a, a structured plan that's that's customized for, for success.
Julie Howton: I love that. Um, and before we started to record, you were talking about the importance of consistency. And so a a and I actually, I'm gonna be quiet. I'm gonna, because I want, I want you to share more about your approach with listeners. Um, but, but you said this and it just jumped out at me. So, um, what do you mean by that?
Angela Simpson: Um, I mean, I also just reflect on my own health of course, too. Sure. So many people I've worked with over the years, um, I never see those success stories with people that are not consistent with their health strategies. Um, okay. But with that consistency, there needs to be a highly customized strategy because I find people I work with, probably you as well, by the time they get to us.
Mm-hmm. Um, they say I've had consistency, like you say, like I've been doing all the things with the diet, the lifestyle, trying to stress less, sleep more. Um, I've been consistent yet I'm still not well. Right. But it's not customized enough to them, so. Gotcha. I find when people are consistent with their strategies, lifestyle wise mm-hmm.
Typically over a period of anywhere from three to six months, they can actually get their autoimmunity into full remission. And I've seen that several times. So Amazing.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I always love the that. Kind of time period where the things that you said that, you know, they kind of didn't believe. Yes. But they have their own motivation.
Right? Like, I mean, who, who I, I wouldn't have believed if you told me I could feel this, well at 56 when I didn't think I'd lived a Z 50. Like, I, I wouldn't have believed you. I would've mm-hmm. Done the things I, because. Any forward motion with the needle moving would've been an improvement. Right. But, um, yeah, it is so much fun.
Um, when yes. You know, people get to really experience that the body is designed to heal. Um, and so
Angela Simpson: Exactly. Yeah. It wants that. Um, I think the other thing too is, you know, there is human behavior we always have to keep in mind as well. Very complex. Um, yeah, it's complex and it, there's various challenges for reasons why people find it hard to have that consistency.
Mm-hmm. Um, with their strategy, even if it's laid out in front of them and, you know. Detailed yet simple follow through strategies. So, um, I usually find with people that start to follow through, as you know, as well as they can, 80, 90, a hundred percent, um, within about three to four weeks, they start to have less symptoms.
They start to feel better, right? So I find from a behavioral perspective, you know, and I'm sure you'd be the same, like for example, say the goal was weight loss. If you've, you know, been in this highly detailed plan for four weeks and you haven't had any change on the scale, right. It's hard for you to continue to follow through.
Sure. We need that reward, that
Julie Howton: motivation.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, uh, you know, people that are just daunted by even starting to make these changes, um, I, I do find almost every time I work with someone who puts the strategy in place that we lay out. Within three, four weeks, they're noticing symptom change.
So it's, it's pretty consistent. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Is there anything that you find that, for you, do anything different for somebody with autoimmunity versus not? Or is it just Yes. Customized, individualized, um, but is, is the approach the same when you're looking to optimize?
Angela Simpson: Yeah. It's interesting you say that. And I would say.
The approach is very similar. Yeah. You know, in functional medicine with our training, we have very specific history taking strategies. The ways that we break down the root causes of what's going on in the body and put together a plan based on labs that's very personalized and their health history and their timeline of events that it may have happened as far back in their body as when they were in the womb.
Mm-hmm. Um, you know, and we help them trace that back to where they are now. I would say that it's not a, an autoimmune specific plan or protocol, right. If you will. It's just highly personalized. Um, I mean with, as far as looking at trends, you know mm-hmm. In regards to labs, and I do run genetic testing as well.
Um, I often do see, especially with people that have autoimmunity developing earlier in life, that they have, um, you know, a potential for. Higher triggers, higher toxin loads in the body. Sure. You know, recirculation of things. They may have had a lot of antibiotic use as a child or, you know, there's sometimes some really specific history that can lead you to the, the why.
Right. Quite a bit sooner.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Angela Simpson: Um, but no, I wouldn't say that what I do for autoimmunity when I work with women is different than someone who doesn't. Um, it's just personalized to them to get them the results they need. Um. The main thing, me too
Julie Howton: was kind of a loaded question, but I, I think people need to hear that.
'cause I, I hear all the time, well, you know, do you work with people with this diagnosis or that diagnosis? And it's like, well, I'm not working with your diagnosis, I'm working with you. And, you know, I, I'd actually prefer, you know, there's, the work we need to start with is like, you are not your diagnosis.
Mm-hmm. And, and so, and it's person life
Angela Simpson: error, right? Yeah. I mean, how many times probably for you as well, have you come, someone come to you as saying, I've been on the a IP diet for the last five months and nothing's changed.
Julie Howton: And I am a certified a IP coach. Um, and and what you said right there is the problem.
It's not a diet
Angela Simpson: Exactly,
Julie Howton: because it also does take into account, you know, the stress management and movement and sleep and toxins and all the things, but everybody, but you talk about, you make the complex, you simplify it for people and everybody gets so caught up in this, you know. Oh my gosh. A IP it's all these things and, and, and it, that's the, and I started there too.
What do I need to avoid? Mm-hmm. Right. To feel better. Mm-hmm. Um, and a IP is so much more than that. It's also about what you need to include and, and I think it's a great framework and some people get great results, but I like you, I do a lot of testing and I've had so many people. Come to me and you know, I've, I've been on a IPX amount of time and I, I, you know, I just don't feel better.
And we, we do testing and it's like, yep. Well, because all that spinach, you've been pounding every day to be so healthy. You are sensitive to right now because you didn't heal your, you know, like it just, yeah. Um, it's not one thing. No. Yeah, no.
Angela Simpson: And, and I find too, usually, you know, the root for most people, even though it needs to be customized and individualized, but the root always starts at the gut.
Yeah. Right. Starts at that interface of the gut. And you know, for one person it may be that they have a big overgrowth, um, you know, and the gut microbiome's really outta balance. Where the other person, they may have, you know, a lot of disruption in the gut lining and that may be the main thing. They don't have a lot of overgrowth.
Um,
Julie Howton: right.
Angela Simpson: Know some, someone might look like their gut microbiome. Okay. On labs. Um, but then you run a, a toxin load test and you see that there are parabens, phthalates, BP, A, you know? Yeah. All those toxins from our environment are through the roof, and that's their trigger. So, you know, the way that we understand what's going on in the body and then personalize their strategy, it really is the way to, to get them back to health.
Right?
Julie Howton: Yeah. That's so well put. So where we, we talked, I know we both said it's not just food, right? Then we talked about food. Um, a little bit. Yeah. Uh, uh, my approach when, again, back to the customized right? I've had people say, well, just tell me what you eat. You healed. And I'm like, well, you're not me.
Mm-hmm. You know, and, and so definitely, but I do say across the board. The starting point. If you're, if you're listening and you're not al already there, whole real food, consider the sourcing, you know, you, you want, if, if you're eating, hopefully, I, I, my preference, hopefully you are eating animal protein. Um, but hopefully it is pastured, wild caught all the things.
Yes. Um, just think of, and, and I find this actually with. Most pillars that we're talking about, think of how we used to live. You know? Yes. How did animals used to live? They didn't live in a feedlot. Like that's not, they weren't eating. Yeah. Cows weren't eating corn because they, they can't, it makes them sick, you know?
Totally. So it, we, that, that's a way of simplifying something complicated, right. Is like, wait. Mm-hmm. Is this, is this. Fill in the blank, how nature intended. Mm-hmm.
Angela Simpson: Like, do you agree with that? Oh, yeah. I even think of, sometimes I use my pet as an analogy, my dog, um, you know, what keeps them happy and healthy?
It's not living off patch, processed foods and, you know, sitting in, in the house all day watching tv. Yeah, yeah. It's getting them out for some daily exercise. It's, you know, you know, a bit of a variety of food, not just those dried up crunchies that are highly processed, you know? Yeah. Um, and their life is quite simple.
Right. You know, they're, yeah. They're not high-paced, stressful life. But, you know, I also think of a, a pet I had that was part wolf and, and we'd go in nature and the animal would be eating off the bushes, be eating the berries. Um, would bring, they do gain. I had a,
Julie Howton: I had a golden retriever who used to wait, this was.
Back when I was still growing and eating peppers. Now we, we grow a couple, a little, but we used to grow a lot of bell peppers in the summer. And, and she would, she always knew when they were ripe, she would, you know, they weren't ready to pick. She would not touch them and we'd go out to harvest them and they were gone and she loved bell peppers.
Angela Simpson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I, I, I didn't
Angela Simpson: teach her that, you know? No, no. We're so far away from what, uh, you know, innately the body needs, we're sort of tuned with that. Right. But yeah, if we can strip it back to the basics, um. We're, we're animals too, right? We're, we're really not a lot different. So yeah, I do think it's the ultra process.
Packaged foods that are, are the big one. I agree with you, the Whole Foods, it may or may not be that they need to have the nightshades removed, you know? Which is that big. Oh, maybe not nights,
Julie Howton: you know, and I always, I still like reintroduce. Right. Mm-hmm. Because again, and there's no across the board, but, but consistency, but what we need changes over time.
Right. And so yeah, I, I will, when the spirit moves me, be like, okay, I wonder if now or like I can to, I'm totally fine eating the tomatoes we grow over the summer. Yeah,
Angela Simpson: yeah. Totally fine. Yeah. I mean, I do think, yeah, how it's grown, the nutrient density has a lot to do with it as well.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Angela Simpson: You know where it's coming from.
You know, I do think there is a connection there too with us growing our own food. Right. You know, and, and there's a kind of a spiritual emotional connection to that as well. Absolutely. Kind in the store. I mean, those tomatoes are such a good example. Any tomato you buy in the store tastes like water when you go it.
That's the difference. So, um, yeah. Types of foods matter. But I find for the most part with people, when we get really restrictive, it actually increases the stress in their environment, which affects their gut and fat parts. Yeah. Because
Julie Howton: it, it brings and sleep and all the other things. Yeah.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. So there has to be some rotation of foods, whole Foods.
Um, some people may find that certain foods are, are aggravating to them, so they should keep them out for sure. Um, or at least limit them.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Angela Simpson: But it's that rotational diet and, and kind of going back to intuitively what our bodies need, um, is really what helps calibrate that immune system over time. I find.
Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I, I totally agree and I'm glad you brought up, I was gonna go there next, the, the, the stress piece, right? Because that, that's how I heard you describe what you do is you, you try to best, you can reduce the stress while getting really good results. Um, and so. You know, what is, what is your approach with, like, do you always start with food?
Do you, what are, what are the other things that impact our, our wellness?
Angela Simpson: I mean, I would say generally speaking, I always start with food. Okay. Um, I always start with incorporating an anti-inflammatory diet. Um, which may be different for some people than others, the types of foods that they're, you know, either reducing or even completely eliminating, sometimes short term.
For example, if you have, you know, a test come back where they're, you know, sensitive, reacting to gluten, I say, well take it out a hundred percent. It's not a half point at this point. Right? Yeah. So, like I say,
Julie Howton: being kind of gluten-free is like being kind of pregnant, like it's just not a thing. Yeah,
Angela Simpson: kind of brushing your teeth once or twice a week up with cavities, right.
I mean, um, yeah, so I'd say I almost always start with diet, but of course beyond that, um, it's really where the customized lab testing comes in. And I do definitely lab test around hormones and checking the adrenals and, and cortisol as well. Mm-hmm. Um, now there isn't a, a way, I always tell people this too.
There isn't a way to supplement yourself out of stress. There isn't a, a diet. I like that. That's true Stress. Yeah. Um, and there's different stressors on the body when we see even higher cortisol results on lab testing, right? So there's emotional stressors and then there's those physical stressors. And sometimes it's hard to know when you see those high cortisol results, what's what.
Um, when people have a lot of inflammation in their bodies, it can be that, that's driving that high cortisol. They can have, you know, a lot of blood sugar imbalance and that's driving their cortisol up. They're not necessarily pulling their hair out because they're so stressed, right? Mm-hmm. Um, whereas some people are right.
They've maybe got past or current trauma going on. Their, their nervous system is always activated. Yes. Um, far under a lot of emotional and chronic stress. Um. Which puts a lot of pressure on the immune system because it ramps up that inflammation over time, and there's lots of research around how cortisol starts to break down that gut lining, which is that sensitive barrier that helps us to manage our immune response.
Yeah. It's
Julie Howton: so, so important. And I, I love that you said that. I, I also wanna add one more type of, of person who's not aware that, like, that, that whole, you don't have to feel stressed out, and you said it like with the cortisol, right. It, it may not be coming from, but even, even the people that are experiencing a lot of emotional, psychological, and physiological stress.
Yeah. Um, and it's a coping me mechanism. You know, it's why they, they show up at our virtual doorstep. Yes. But I've had so many people say, you know, they show up. Oh no. You know, I'm like, let's talk about your stress. I'm not stressed. And then they, you know, tell me about their lives. And I'm like. I am like, wow.
Yeah. You know, because they've kind of just shut off. It's the same thing with ignoring the really quiet whisper symptoms.
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. Is
Julie Howton: it's a coping mechanism or I, I say all the time, like when I was in so much pain every day, like, you ha I was a single mom with three kids. Like, you have to shut that
Angela Simpson: out, right?
You form adaptations around stress and then you, you kind of. Almost act like it's not even there. Yeah. You know, I know you normalize that response so much that it seems like it's not there. Um, I'll never forget when I had a call with one of my clients who I was just getting to know, but she said, I said, how's it going?
She said, oh, it's pretty good. Um, my dad died yesterday, but besides that, things are fine. And she just kind of kept going and we, you know, she just wanted to talk like business as usual. And I was like, I said, oh my gosh. Like, do you wanna reschedule the call? No, I'm fine. You know,
Julie Howton: fine. As a four letter, four letter F word right there.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. So people have different ways of coping with stress, I guess, as well. Yes. Um, but yeah, definitely women are, are infamous for internalizing those stressors. Right. And, and that does start to break down and affect the physical over time. And that's, I think that's a, a real key reason for doing lab testing.
Yeah. Because people can say they're fine and you see it on, on paper, I'm fine. Yeah. And then you're like, you're not fine. Here's why. Um, and then, yeah. What are the strategies around that that I use? I mean, there, there are various different strategies depending on the person in front of you, of course. Um, you know, there are some proven strategies around meditation.
It's been well researched, well studied. Mm-hmm. Um, one of the best ways to recalibrate the nervous system. Some people are much more resistant to it than others, but. Yeah. Anyone who's, who's truly been able to develop a meditation practice that I've seen has had a consistency.
Julie Howton: Right. There is the key. Yeah.
Angela Simpson: So key. Yeah, so true. So true. Yeah. Like I had one client replace her phone scrolling at night with meditation.
Julie Howton: Oh
Angela Simpson: my gosh. Life changing night and day. Yeah. Their immune system response. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Amazing. Yeah. And, and what is your perspective on, and I'm gonna say both, even though we just said, you know, we're, we're talking about whole health, right?
But as you're working with women with, you know, either going into or dealing with hormone changes, um, I know one of the things impacted. From that it can be sleep or vice versa. Mm-hmm. Yes. Um, but same with autoimmune. Whether it's, you know, from the inflammation and the pain, you're not sleep, it just, everything, pretty much everything is a two-way street.
Angela Simpson: Um, it's, but with the hormone shifts specifically, you know, as estrogen and progesterone drop, progesterone drops quicker as we know, and then estrogen kind of oscillates down a rollercoaster and then it, it really drops off when you go into menopause. Mm-hmm. Um, but as those hormones drop, um, you know, your insulin and cortisol naturally rises a bit.
And so, you know, when those hormones get outta balance, even just with the natural change that's going on in the body, um, that automatically creates more inflammation in the body. Right. If you don't have a great balance there, when those hormone levels are starting to shift and change mm-hmm. That often is the triggers.
For development of autoimmunity. Right? It's, we know autoimmunity is a 10 to 15 year, you know, years in the making development behind the scenes.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. But the drop in hormones can be a big trigger for women. And, you know, just to understand those connections, it really has to do with that natural rise in inflammation.
And we know if cortisol is on that higher side, we're not gonna sleep that well. And, and that's a big reset for inflammation in the night, right? So, yeah.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm. And, and do you, do you hear, I, I find this. Actually probably more in the men that I do work with, but, um, do you have people show up that say, well, I just don't need, you know, I only need four hours of sleep?
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Yeah. What do you, what do you, what is your, or
Angela Simpson: I haven't, I mean I've definitely worked with people that have four hours of sleep. I haven't worked with any that say they feel well, that think it's okay hours. I, I do work with women though that often have five to six hours of sleep on average. Okay.
Um, and. They only, they're coping to a point. Um, yeah. But when you really break down the detail with them. They're often not coping that well. Gotcha.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Yeah. I I
Angela Simpson: think it
Julie Howton: again, layers, right? Like they don't know because they haven't experienced good restorative sleep. Um, yeah. And so, or it's been so
Angela Simpson: long, they forget, right.
A lot of women, they, you know, end up having children right in the middle of their career, in their early to mid thirties or even late thirties. Um, and they're already starting to have the hormonal shifts. Come in there. Right. So they potentially haven't had really great sleep for 10 or 15 years.
Julie Howton: Yeah, that's true.
Angela Simpson: That's true. And then the drop in hormones just really, you know, accelerates that. Right. So they, they don't remember what it felt like to have that asleep all night feeling, waking up, feeling rested.
Julie Howton: Yeah. And that's the waking up feeling rested. That's on the. As people are telling you, they feel better.
Like I feel like that's sometimes the last one. Right? Pain will be better and weight will start to fall off and you know, the laundry list starts to get smaller and then we get to that. Yay. I'm waking up with energy. Yeah.
Angela Simpson: Exactly. Yeah. Um, I actually just got off a call with someone this morning who she started out with her hba one C, which is that measure of blood sugars over three month time period, uh, at 6.4.
So she was in that diabetic category. Mm-hmm. She knew she needed help. She was feeling terrible. Yeah. Um, and she wasn't sleeping well. She was using sleep medications to, to help kind of, she said drug her to sleep was her quote. Right. Um, but you know, again, working through some very specific protocols and plans.
Three months later, her A1C is down under 5.8 already. Mm-hmm. So she's you in that pre-diabetic category still, but big decrease in the So close. Yeah. Yeah. And the first thing that improved on her from a symptom perspective was sleep. As soon as she said the inflammation down in her body, her sleep improved.
Yeah. She doesn't use medication anymore. Her blood sugars are getting more balanced. She's feeling more energetic. So sleep's a big one. It is
Julie Howton: a big one. And I, I, I feel like it's one. Because then they're the people that aren't shorting themselves, but they haven't had good quality sleep and they don't know it.
Right. Just with, again, when I think back to, okay, how are we designed to live and what do we need to compensate for today and, and I feel like that's the almost like hidden, unless people are tracking. Yes. You know, the, that, that sleep quality, same thing like as progesterone drops even, so even early on, that's sometimes one of the first things people feel is like, ugh, it's just my sleep.
Angela Simpson: Yes. And like you say, it's such a revolving door because people can be, you know, kind of following a sleep hygiene strategy. Like they're going to bed on time. Right? They're staying in bed long enough. They can't get that quality sleep no matter what they do. And again, back to, yes, the hormones play a role, they can trigger some of that poor sleep, but underneath that, the root usually comes down to imbalances and inflammation.
And we've gotta go to gut to look for where that's coming from and gotta go way upstream from the, the hormone symptoms.
Julie Howton: So, so true. I just had a, like a flashback to probably six, seven years ago. Like, Ugh, come on. Everything's the gut. Is it really all the gut?
Angela Simpson: It is. Yeah. I mean, you could say, right? Yeah. I, I think it's the same, like it was this grand discovery when I first became a functional medicine practitioner.
Oh, I just fixed the gut and everything improves. But years later, you can see it's still the case. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah, yeah. Well, and it's again, everything, especially like all we thought, we had all these one-way pathways, right? And everything is, is a two-way street. And um, the gut is really. You know, and I don't think it's the second brain.
I think it's the first brain.
Angela Simpson: It's ground zero. Yeah. It really is. Yeah. It's ground zero. Yeah. You really can't get anything going with your health until you get that gut, at least back into some sense of balance, you know? And, and it takes, I don't know about for you when you got your health on track, but for me, within about six to nine months.
I started to notice feeling more like myself again, but it really took about two years, you know? So, yeah, got me remodeling and rebalancing. I mean, it's not just some quick fix with a, you know, a dietary strategy and a few supplements over, you know, a month or two or three. It takes time,
Julie Howton: right? Yeah. Well, and I, I say for me, it, it took, I mean, honestly, I, I, to feel better, um, like I felt the needle move.
But I was so depleted of healthy fats. You know, I grew up fat phobic, I was super, super toxic. I was celiac and didn't know it. I mean, you just name it. I I was that. Yeah. And I didn't have you to work with Right. Or me to work with. So I, I say that I like you. I do what I do to shorten. The path, right. My approach was throw spaghetti at the wall and thank goodness, and, and that's where I feel very sure and certain that this is what I'm supposed to do because I didn't, I didn't take it all into account.
I didn't do, you know, I got enough movement with the right diet change and consistent meditation.
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Together. That then my brain could work again and I could go back to school and learn, because that alone was life changing. Yeah. And so I still say like, at 56, I feel better than I felt at 55. Mm-hmm.
Um, so at first six years I've been like, oh, you know, ah, you know, I'm here. And then I look over my shoulder and I'm like, no, actually I feel even better this year. Mm-hmm.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. So well on itself over time. Right. Either for better or for worse. Yeah. Um. I'm sure you've had those calls with potential clients and so have I where they say, I just don't know if I can do this right now.
Um, yeah. I'm going to chat with you again in a, in a bit, right? Mm-hmm. Inevitably, you do talk to them in a bit and they're not better. They're worse.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I had a client that I worked with many, many years ago, sweet, sweet, sweet gal, and I can't remember honestly how many diagnoses she had. 'cause again, I don't pay a lot of attention to that.
Yeah, and she just, you know, she, we did work together and, and she learned some things, but can, she couldn't, the consistency. Um, and, and the diet was a really big piece for her. She was, you know, extremely carb addicted and had a lot of stress, and it just, she couldn't, she couldn't do it. And she did circle back many years later, probably four years later.
That number. I do remember she had eight diagnoses.
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: And she was ready and she did it, and she, you know, feels amazing. She's still a, a patient at our clinic. You know, it, it's, so sometimes I say like, I want it too much for client showing up at the door because I know it's possible. You know, like I, I am not.
We're all special, but we're all also designed to heal. Mm-hmm. And, and so it, it's sometimes really hard when, when. People aren't ready, but when they're not ready, they're not ready and, you know
Angela Simpson: Yeah. No, no. And they, they need the right tools, but they need the tools at the right time. Yeah. Um, yeah.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I find, I, I mean, I do find sometimes women, um, you know, if they're in a really crummy relationship or marriage and Yeah. There's, there's a lot of stress around that, you know, and I talk to them, you know, one or two years later and either things have resolved in their marriage or they've gone their separate ways.
Right. Um. They're at that stage to heal their bodies. Right. So there's, there's often a lot of barriers with relationship challenges, either at home or, you know, it can be in the workplace too. It's just not allowing them to take that step.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Don't you find that, that one of the gifts with the population you, you work with is that as they learn and they heal, like I, I feel like it's, it cha ends up changing generations.
Because families are learning to go back to real food and stress management isn't self-indulgent and you know, all the things.
Angela Simpson: Yes. Um, I mean super commonly, 'cause I work with women primarily, and a lot of them are moms. Yeah. I work with their daughters, you know, I work with their children. Um, yeah. So yeah, it can definitely start to snowball in the right direction versus the wrong direction.
Right. Yeah. That's the far as the foundations for help, which is. The goal. That is, the goal is absolutely the goal. Um, but I mean, we have a long ways to go there in, in society. It's
Julie Howton: an uphill, I I joke 'cause I, you know, between the podcast and then the clinic, um, I, I live in this bubble of, you know, functional medicine and wellness and like-minded people and, and um, and then I drive home and I see the line around the corner at the fast food restaurant and I'm like, oh yeah.
Right. It's progress. We have more work to do.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. You see the lineup out the door at Starbucks, you know? Yes. And all those things. Yes, absolutely. So, yeah, I mean, again, it's, it's just back to, I mean, you gotta want it, you gotta be in a place to accept it. Um, but you have to be consistent with making the changes needed.
Yeah. And in your opinion, does consistent mean perfection? Um, it's a good question because I actually was just on a call with someone. We were talking about that as they'd come through three months of being very consistent with, I would say, pretty close to perfection. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and she was having amazing results of course, but she's like, I can't keep this level of perfection forever.
Right. You know, what's, what's the way to open this up? Um. So we don't just decide, you know, when the client feels like they're kind of getting done, that's when we open it up, right? Right. We've really got labs and where they're at and have some objective measurements for understanding when they can open things up.
But I find people do well initially at the start when they're 90 to a hundred percent on the plan. Absolutely. Absolutely. Which could be anywhere from three to six months. Most people do well, I find they can sustain something really specific for on average, two, three months. Um, a lot of people after that, they find it more challenging for various different reasons.
Yeah. Um, from a mindset perspective for so. Sure.
Julie Howton: Like going in, knowing this is, you know, this is time limited. I can do anything for x whatever your limitation is. And, and we have to remember, we're, we're talking about specifically today, women, like women can do anything. Come on, you know, look true. Yeah. I, I did.
Well, I shouldn't share that story that recently overheard a conversation and I was laughing 'cause I didn't have to have the conversation. Um, it, it was a, a a a a male, um, who had done a food sensitivity panel and he didn't like the results, but he did the panel 'cause he didn't like the symptoms. And so I.
To just, yeah. Doesn't that keep saying, I can't do that. I don't, I I can't do that. That doesn't sound good. I don't want it. It's like, whoa. You know? Um, but again, timing. Right? And, and in a month he might decide, you know what? I should probably just try giving that food out for a little while. And, and seeing, um, it was just, it was kind of, kind of funny, but I, I feel like so many women come in with per perfectionism.
Being one of the factors that got them to my doorstep. Yes. Um, that it's a really hard balance, especially when, now I was gonna say people with autoimmunity, but really any, when you haven't felt well and you don't feel like yourself mm-hmm. And then you do things that, that, oh my gosh, you know, I'm back. I was in there the whole time.
Um, it's hard to open back up. It is. And, and so it's funny because in the beginning I, I always tell people like, you don't believe me right now, but I am going to have to convince you. It is time to, to open up because Yeah, like they're scared. Yeah. It, it's, they're comfortable. And, and my husband always used to say, and it used to drive me crazy.
Um, and now I'm like, oh, he was right. You know? True wellness is resilient. And, and so we shouldn't have to hold so tight in a little box at be into the bubble
Angela Simpson: forever. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It reads, yeah, it's not good for your gut microbiome too, which is one of the hallmarks of maintaining your immunity, right?
Yeah. Diversity with your foods, rotations of different things coming in. So yeah, those different microbes from all the different types of foods. Right. So, um, I mean, I usually do suggest that people move into an 80 20 rule. Yeah. Um. I, I find a lot of women, especially if they already have known autoimmunity, if they slide back, you know, to even the 70 30.
Mm-hmm. Um, too much, they start more symptomatic.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Also with women, there's a little bit more of, I I, I find a slippery slope too, where 70 30 really just means it's back in, you know? Exactly. Exactly. So there's a, and I joke like I. Uh, because we're talking about real whole nutrient dense foods, and I am right there with you, like the most varied diet that supports your body is, is the ideal.
And that may change over time and be, it's definitely gonna be different for you than it is for me. Um, and I joke, but like processed foods and, and sugar are not in that ca like they're.
Angela Simpson: No, I know. It's like you're trying to do that. They're just inflammatory, period. Can I food, challenge alcohol or can I food challenge cookies?
It's like, right. Well, you can, but,
Julie Howton: but we're not holding that a challenge.
Angela Simpson: No. It's not providing any nutrition. So Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean there's, there's that combination approach, right? There's a time to tighten it up. Yeah. And then there is a time to open it up and, you know, it's up to us.
Julie Howton: Sometimes have to tighten it back up a little bit again. I call, you know, it's time to uplevel or reset. Mm-hmm. And that's okay because yeah, life probably threw something different at you. And so it's, it's, yeah, this is an ongoing, like there is no, I got this figured out check on the board and I'm just gonna live this way for the rest of my days because we're not static.
Angela Simpson: No. And I mean, I often have women, I'm sure you do too. Come to me and say. I did this detox protocol, I did this plan, I did this plan, and now I'm off it and I'm back to what I was doing before. You know? And so there isn't really any change, right? Over time they're just thinking they've gotta kind of compress and do this little protocol for time being and then they can
Julie Howton: go back one that wasn't
Angela Simpson: even like
Julie Howton: designed for them.
Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. Uh, well, we speak the same language. I could talk to you all day long, but I promised I would get you out on time. So listeners are leaning in right now because they know, I'm going to ask you for one step that they can take starting today to move the needle on their journey.
Angela Simpson: I mean, we talked about it definitely.
Um, the biggest needle mover I see mm-hmm. Autoimmunity combined with many different conditions and symptoms I see is an Whole Foods anti-inflammatory diet. Love it. If you don't have that in place, any of those other fancy protocols and strategies and detoxes and supplements and all the things you can try that are quite complex.
Yeah. They won't take hold. And that's part of that consistency over time, right? It has to, the dietary strategy has to be in place at least 80 20, sometimes even tighter when needed. Yeah. Ah.
Julie Howton: Such amazing, amazing gold. Angela, for people that are listening on the go and aren't gonna check the notes, where is the best place for them to find you?
Angela Simpson: Best place on my website, uh, www.angelasimpsonfunctionalmedicine.ca. I've got lots of information on there and there's a way to contact me there as well. Fantastic.
Julie Howton: Thank you so much for your sharing your wisdom, expertise, and kindness with us today. Thanks, Julie. It was great to chat with you as
Angela Simpson: well.
Julie Howton: For everyone listening, remember, you can get those show notes and transcripts by Visiting Inspired Living Show.
I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
And,
Julie Howton: Welcome back to The Inspired Living with Autoimmunity podcast. I'm your host, Julie Houghton, and today we're joined by Angela Simpson, who's been a healthcare professional for over 20 years. She's trained in functional medicine as a practitioner to support women with rebalancing their bodies from a root cause perspective.
Angela struggled with her own health and autoimmune diagnosis in her mid thirties and healed herself with functional medicine. She's the founder of Angela Simpson Functional Medicine, and she's passionate about sharing what has worked for the countless women that she's worked with over the years to rebalance their bodies naturally.
In today's conversation, we are talking about how a personalized healing approach, simplified and consistent, can allow you to feel like your best self. Again, Angela, welcome to the podcast. Hi, Julie. Thanks for having me. I'm excited for our conversation, but I would love for listeners to get to know a little bit more about you. I know you've been in healthcare for a long time, but what brought you into functional medicine?
Angela Simpson: Yeah, I mean, probably not unlike many.
Um, my own personal health challenges and even some with my family members is what brought me here. So, um, as well as working with clients, you know, for years and years and seeing that there's probably more out there for them to get them feeling like the best version of themselves. Um, but it started with myself.
Um, so yeah, I mean, just a little bit about me, my background. Yeah. Um, yeah, I mean, I've been a healthcare professional for many, many years. Uh, almost 25. It's amazing 'cause you look 25. So
Julie Howton: well done.
Angela Simpson: That's
Julie Howton: nice.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. I mean, I do, having said that, I do feel possibly better now than I did when I was 25. Me too.
Yep. Yeah, and and that's actually when I started to. Discovered that there were some things going on with my health. Uh, early twenties I started to have a health crisis and no one could figure out why. You know, I went to every doctor at every test. Um, no one could figure out what was going on. I was, you know, put on drugs for asthma.
Um, you know, I was getting iron injections, um, all these things just to try and band-aid, um, what was going on for how I was feeling. And it wasn't until I got to a, an actual functional medicine practitioner that I got to the root of what was going on for me, and there was multiple layers to it. But really, I actually did have autoimmunity, um, already, so I had Hashimoto's, which is a very autoimmune condition.
Um, and I had no clue, so I wasn't managing it properly. And sure enough, practitioners knew either. So, you know, fast forward to now, I've learned a lot about myself, a lot about what, um, makes my system tick and operate correctly. And I, I feel a lot better 20, 25 years later than I did twenties. Yes, yes. Yeah.
And, uh, super passionate about helping people discover that for themselves as well.
Julie Howton: Amazing. I very much understand that passion. Um, yeah. And so I'm excited. And you, you work, I work. WI work with more women than men as well, because as we all know, when you look at the numbers in, in the autoimmune world, it, it ends up shaking out to being mostly women.
Um, but you, you specialize at least for right now. Yes. Um, in helping women in their like forties, fifties, right. 40 to 60 something. Um, navigate the changes that they're dealing, you know, as hormones are changing and, and shifting. Um, yes, and we all know there's just so much overlap between hormones and autoimmunity and, and, um, and so I know you see what I see, which is that the approach you take, not necessarily, people aren't coming to you sometimes, like you said, don't even know they have autoimmunity, right?
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Um, so tell us a little bit about that, because I think we have a lot of similarities. I know you do some in-depth testing and just like, nobody found your Hashimoto's before because they weren't looking for it. Right, exactly. Um, you know, share with us a little bit about, about how you're helping women.
I, I say feel like their, their best selves.
Angela Simpson: Yeah, for sure. Um, I think, you know, given the number of women that I've worked with over the years, which is, you know, hundreds and hundreds, um, I'd say, you know, up to 80, possibly even more, 80% or more are either teetering on the edge of autoimmunity and they don't know it, or they've, you know, had a recent diagnosis.
And it is definitely more common as you get older, for sure, um, into your forties and fifties. Um, yes, there is changes that are happening with hormones that can influence that. Um, but there's various other factors as well. So, you know, the way that I look at it with women and, and how they find me really is they're struggling just with health in general.
They're, they know their hormone levels are lowering. Many women I work with the top concerns and why they seek me out and find me is they have, you know, debilitatingly low energy, regardless of how much they sleep. Um. Often that overlays with, uh, brain fog and low brain energy. They're not functioning, not focusing a lot of fog.
Um, they think it's all hormonal overlay. The hormones are lowering. They've been told it's, uh, you know, tied into them needing more estrogen or progesterone, or a combination of the two. Um, and many women have mood imbalances, weight gain, they're just not feeling like themselves and, and they wanna figure out why.
And, and often when we, you know, kind of pull the curtain back beyond the blood labs, we can start to understand why. And, and that's where Optum, we find out that people are either, again, teetering on that edge of autoimmunity, or in fact, they have markers that already show that they're in that category.
Julie Howton: Well, and as you're listing, you know, the, the low energy, the brain fog, the weight gain, the mood, and I mean, it's Sure sounds also fair. It's just, I like a spectrum. Right. And, and all of those things also fit with autoimmunity and most of them are the things that were, that have been normalized. Right. With aging.
And like you said, oh yeah. It's just a part of. This is, suck it up buttercup. That's just how it is. And here are two people in different countries with completely different experiences that both feel better now than they did in their, you know, twenties, thirties. Definitely. My, for me, my forties, my fifties have been amazing.
Um, and, and so I, I, I love that you talk about pulling, you know, like the layers because. It, it a, it's never just one thing, right? Yes. Um, and, and so I used to, in the beginning of my practice, um, it would frustrate me when clients would come in and it's like their driver was weight loss. And I'm like, well, that's a, that, that's like when we get to the root, that'll go away on its own.
And now I realize like whatever they show up with. That's fine because we can help. Um. Mm-hmm. And so, yeah, and it, it's rare. I'm not saying food is not important. Food is very important. Um, but it, it's not typically, you know, that the kind of stereotypical, well, you know, just put less food in your mouth.
It's like, no, it's all of these things going on in the body.
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm. Agreed. Yeah. Yeah, the food's an interesting one for females, right? Yes. You know, I think just as a societally we've been programmed from, as a, as a child, even like. How much to eat, how to, you know? Yeah. Not that, you know, all those things.
Right. Um, and then we really focus on the foods and the calories and, and that kind of
Julie Howton: Yeah. Well, and then it, it, it turns into that blame of like, oh, well I did this. I, I, you know, and it's like, well, no, probably things aren't optimized. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. And so, so, so where do you start with your women,
Angela Simpson: with your ladies?
Yes. Um, again, like my practice has evolved over the years as well. Sure. As you know, your, your clients are your best teachers. So I've learned a lot from them along the way. Um, and what I have learned, which makes sense too, when I think of myself and my health journey and how I could have really shortened it up if I would've known this ahead of time.
Um, is, it's important to get out in front of understanding what's going on internally in your body. And, and for that you really need to do customized detailed lab testing. Um, you know, it's never enough to just check the surface slur, which is your blood labs. Uh, you know, well-trained functional medicine practitioner can, can really dig even into those blood labs to understand some imbalances and nuances and you know, where things could potentially be coming from.
It's never gonna get you to the full picture. So I, I know that the first place I start, we talk about the goals, we talk about where you wanna get to, um, regardless of if you come to me with autoimmunity or not. Mm-hmm. Um, and then from there we do the detailed labs to start with. So, um, you know, there's a cost upfront, but I, I always say, you know, you can't change what you don't know.
Right. Sure. Sure. Um, that's our starting point is comprehensive functional lab testing. So we check the gut, the gut microbiome. We check urine and check for different toxin loads. We check to see how the mitochondria are functioning, nutrient levels, digestion, ability to absorb. Um, you know, we really strip it back to the basics, um, with understanding these, these labs.
Julie Howton: Yeah, it, it, it is so important and, and typically especially the people I work with, but you know, by the time they don't wanna try something and then have me say, well that didn't work as well as we were hoping. Now let's, you know, spend the money on the next layer of testing. Um, and, and, and so I understand the, you know, that honest, like yep.
It's, it is a cost upfront, but it's, it's time, energy, health, all the things. Yeah. Um, and so, so you really are, you're just getting that comprehensive look at, okay, what is, where's the body right now? What is going on?
Angela Simpson: Yeah. And I love solving puzzles. I, I always have on my coffee table upstairs, a new puzzle I'm working on, you know, connecting the dots together.
Mm-hmm. Um, and that really sometimes is what it is. By the time someone gets to a diagnosis of autoimmunity and they're teetering on that edge, um, what's going on inside can be quite complex. Right? Sure. So we need to understand how to, to put those complexities together. Um, you know, ironically in a simplified plan for people, right?
Yes. Because it can be overwhelming. You know, I've got this wrong, I got this wrong, I got all these things I gotta do, you know, what am I gonna do, right? How am I gonna take that first step? So it's that complexity and making it simple and guided so that people have a, a structured plan that's that's customized for, for success.
Julie Howton: I love that. Um, and before we started to record, you were talking about the importance of consistency. And so a a and I actually, I'm gonna be quiet. I'm gonna, because I want, I want you to share more about your approach with listeners. Um, but, but you said this and it just jumped out at me. So, um, what do you mean by that?
Angela Simpson: Um, I mean, I also just reflect on my own health of course, too. Sure. So many people I've worked with over the years, um, I never see those success stories with people that are not consistent with their health strategies. Um, okay. But with that consistency, there needs to be a highly customized strategy because I find people I work with, probably you as well, by the time they get to us.
Mm-hmm. Um, they say I've had consistency, like you say, like I've been doing all the things with the diet, the lifestyle, trying to stress less, sleep more. Um, I've been consistent yet I'm still not well. Right. But it's not customized enough to them, so. Gotcha. I find when people are consistent with their strategies, lifestyle wise mm-hmm.
Typically over a period of anywhere from three to six months, they can actually get their autoimmunity into full remission. And I've seen that several times. So Amazing.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I always love the that. Kind of time period where the things that you said that, you know, they kind of didn't believe. Yes. But they have their own motivation.
Right? Like, I mean, who, who I, I wouldn't have believed if you told me I could feel this, well at 56 when I didn't think I'd lived a Z 50. Like, I, I wouldn't have believed you. I would've mm-hmm. Done the things I, because. Any forward motion with the needle moving would've been an improvement. Right. But, um, yeah, it is so much fun.
Um, when yes. You know, people get to really experience that the body is designed to heal. Um, and so
Angela Simpson: Exactly. Yeah. It wants that. Um, I think the other thing too is, you know, there is human behavior we always have to keep in mind as well. Very complex. Um, yeah, it's complex and it, there's various challenges for reasons why people find it hard to have that consistency.
Mm-hmm. Um, with their strategy, even if it's laid out in front of them and, you know. Detailed yet simple follow through strategies. So, um, I usually find with people that start to follow through, as you know, as well as they can, 80, 90, a hundred percent, um, within about three to four weeks, they start to have less symptoms.
They start to feel better, right? So I find from a behavioral perspective, you know, and I'm sure you'd be the same, like for example, say the goal was weight loss. If you've, you know, been in this highly detailed plan for four weeks and you haven't had any change on the scale, right. It's hard for you to continue to follow through.
Sure. We need that reward, that
Julie Howton: motivation.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, uh, you know, people that are just daunted by even starting to make these changes, um, I, I do find almost every time I work with someone who puts the strategy in place that we lay out. Within three, four weeks, they're noticing symptom change.
So it's, it's pretty consistent. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Is there anything that you find that, for you, do anything different for somebody with autoimmunity versus not? Or is it just Yes. Customized, individualized, um, but is, is the approach the same when you're looking to optimize?
Angela Simpson: Yeah. It's interesting you say that. And I would say.
The approach is very similar. Yeah. You know, in functional medicine with our training, we have very specific history taking strategies. The ways that we break down the root causes of what's going on in the body and put together a plan based on labs that's very personalized and their health history and their timeline of events that it may have happened as far back in their body as when they were in the womb.
Mm-hmm. Um, you know, and we help them trace that back to where they are now. I would say that it's not a, an autoimmune specific plan or protocol, right. If you will. It's just highly personalized. Um, I mean with, as far as looking at trends, you know mm-hmm. In regards to labs, and I do run genetic testing as well.
Um, I often do see, especially with people that have autoimmunity developing earlier in life, that they have, um, you know, a potential for. Higher triggers, higher toxin loads in the body. Sure. You know, recirculation of things. They may have had a lot of antibiotic use as a child or, you know, there's sometimes some really specific history that can lead you to the, the why.
Right. Quite a bit sooner.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Angela Simpson: Um, but no, I wouldn't say that what I do for autoimmunity when I work with women is different than someone who doesn't. Um, it's just personalized to them to get them the results they need. Um. The main thing, me too
Julie Howton: was kind of a loaded question, but I, I think people need to hear that.
'cause I, I hear all the time, well, you know, do you work with people with this diagnosis or that diagnosis? And it's like, well, I'm not working with your diagnosis, I'm working with you. And, you know, I, I'd actually prefer, you know, there's, the work we need to start with is like, you are not your diagnosis.
Mm-hmm. And, and so, and it's person life
Angela Simpson: error, right? Yeah. I mean, how many times probably for you as well, have you come, someone come to you as saying, I've been on the a IP diet for the last five months and nothing's changed.
Julie Howton: And I am a certified a IP coach. Um, and and what you said right there is the problem.
It's not a diet
Angela Simpson: Exactly,
Julie Howton: because it also does take into account, you know, the stress management and movement and sleep and toxins and all the things, but everybody, but you talk about, you make the complex, you simplify it for people and everybody gets so caught up in this, you know. Oh my gosh. A IP it's all these things and, and, and it, that's the, and I started there too.
What do I need to avoid? Mm-hmm. Right. To feel better. Mm-hmm. Um, and a IP is so much more than that. It's also about what you need to include and, and I think it's a great framework and some people get great results, but I like you, I do a lot of testing and I've had so many people. Come to me and you know, I've, I've been on a IPX amount of time and I, I, you know, I just don't feel better.
And we, we do testing and it's like, yep. Well, because all that spinach, you've been pounding every day to be so healthy. You are sensitive to right now because you didn't heal your, you know, like it just, yeah. Um, it's not one thing. No. Yeah, no.
Angela Simpson: And, and I find too, usually, you know, the root for most people, even though it needs to be customized and individualized, but the root always starts at the gut.
Yeah. Right. Starts at that interface of the gut. And you know, for one person it may be that they have a big overgrowth, um, you know, and the gut microbiome's really outta balance. Where the other person, they may have, you know, a lot of disruption in the gut lining and that may be the main thing. They don't have a lot of overgrowth.
Um,
Julie Howton: right.
Angela Simpson: Know some, someone might look like their gut microbiome. Okay. On labs. Um, but then you run a, a toxin load test and you see that there are parabens, phthalates, BP, A, you know? Yeah. All those toxins from our environment are through the roof, and that's their trigger. So, you know, the way that we understand what's going on in the body and then personalize their strategy, it really is the way to, to get them back to health.
Right?
Julie Howton: Yeah. That's so well put. So where we, we talked, I know we both said it's not just food, right? Then we talked about food. Um, a little bit. Yeah. Uh, uh, my approach when, again, back to the customized right? I've had people say, well, just tell me what you eat. You healed. And I'm like, well, you're not me.
Mm-hmm. You know, and, and so definitely, but I do say across the board. The starting point. If you're, if you're listening and you're not al already there, whole real food, consider the sourcing, you know, you, you want, if, if you're eating, hopefully, I, I, my preference, hopefully you are eating animal protein. Um, but hopefully it is pastured, wild caught all the things.
Yes. Um, just think of, and, and I find this actually with. Most pillars that we're talking about, think of how we used to live. You know? Yes. How did animals used to live? They didn't live in a feedlot. Like that's not, they weren't eating. Yeah. Cows weren't eating corn because they, they can't, it makes them sick, you know?
Totally. So it, we, that, that's a way of simplifying something complicated, right. Is like, wait. Mm-hmm. Is this, is this. Fill in the blank, how nature intended. Mm-hmm.
Angela Simpson: Like, do you agree with that? Oh, yeah. I even think of, sometimes I use my pet as an analogy, my dog, um, you know, what keeps them happy and healthy?
It's not living off patch, processed foods and, you know, sitting in, in the house all day watching tv. Yeah, yeah. It's getting them out for some daily exercise. It's, you know, you know, a bit of a variety of food, not just those dried up crunchies that are highly processed, you know? Yeah. Um, and their life is quite simple.
Right. You know, they're, yeah. They're not high-paced, stressful life. But, you know, I also think of a, a pet I had that was part wolf and, and we'd go in nature and the animal would be eating off the bushes, be eating the berries. Um, would bring, they do gain. I had a,
Julie Howton: I had a golden retriever who used to wait, this was.
Back when I was still growing and eating peppers. Now we, we grow a couple, a little, but we used to grow a lot of bell peppers in the summer. And, and she would, she always knew when they were ripe, she would, you know, they weren't ready to pick. She would not touch them and we'd go out to harvest them and they were gone and she loved bell peppers.
Angela Simpson: Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I, I, I didn't
Angela Simpson: teach her that, you know? No, no. We're so far away from what, uh, you know, innately the body needs, we're sort of tuned with that. Right. But yeah, if we can strip it back to the basics, um. We're, we're animals too, right? We're, we're really not a lot different. So yeah, I do think it's the ultra process.
Packaged foods that are, are the big one. I agree with you, the Whole Foods, it may or may not be that they need to have the nightshades removed, you know? Which is that big. Oh, maybe not nights,
Julie Howton: you know, and I always, I still like reintroduce. Right. Mm-hmm. Because again, and there's no across the board, but, but consistency, but what we need changes over time.
Right. And so yeah, I, I will, when the spirit moves me, be like, okay, I wonder if now or like I can to, I'm totally fine eating the tomatoes we grow over the summer. Yeah,
Angela Simpson: yeah. Totally fine. Yeah. I mean, I do think, yeah, how it's grown, the nutrient density has a lot to do with it as well.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Angela Simpson: You know where it's coming from.
You know, I do think there is a connection there too with us growing our own food. Right. You know, and, and there's a kind of a spiritual emotional connection to that as well. Absolutely. Kind in the store. I mean, those tomatoes are such a good example. Any tomato you buy in the store tastes like water when you go it.
That's the difference. So, um, yeah. Types of foods matter. But I find for the most part with people, when we get really restrictive, it actually increases the stress in their environment, which affects their gut and fat parts. Yeah. Because
Julie Howton: it, it brings and sleep and all the other things. Yeah.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. So there has to be some rotation of foods, whole Foods.
Um, some people may find that certain foods are, are aggravating to them, so they should keep them out for sure. Um, or at least limit them.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Angela Simpson: But it's that rotational diet and, and kind of going back to intuitively what our bodies need, um, is really what helps calibrate that immune system over time. I find.
Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I, I totally agree and I'm glad you brought up, I was gonna go there next, the, the, the stress piece, right? Because that, that's how I heard you describe what you do is you, you try to best, you can reduce the stress while getting really good results. Um, and so. You know, what is, what is your approach with, like, do you always start with food?
Do you, what are, what are the other things that impact our, our wellness?
Angela Simpson: I mean, I would say generally speaking, I always start with food. Okay. Um, I always start with incorporating an anti-inflammatory diet. Um, which may be different for some people than others, the types of foods that they're, you know, either reducing or even completely eliminating, sometimes short term.
For example, if you have, you know, a test come back where they're, you know, sensitive, reacting to gluten, I say, well take it out a hundred percent. It's not a half point at this point. Right? Yeah. So, like I say,
Julie Howton: being kind of gluten-free is like being kind of pregnant, like it's just not a thing. Yeah,
Angela Simpson: kind of brushing your teeth once or twice a week up with cavities, right.
I mean, um, yeah, so I'd say I almost always start with diet, but of course beyond that, um, it's really where the customized lab testing comes in. And I do definitely lab test around hormones and checking the adrenals and, and cortisol as well. Mm-hmm. Um, now there isn't a, a way, I always tell people this too.
There isn't a way to supplement yourself out of stress. There isn't a, a diet. I like that. That's true Stress. Yeah. Um, and there's different stressors on the body when we see even higher cortisol results on lab testing, right? So there's emotional stressors and then there's those physical stressors. And sometimes it's hard to know when you see those high cortisol results, what's what.
Um, when people have a lot of inflammation in their bodies, it can be that, that's driving that high cortisol. They can have, you know, a lot of blood sugar imbalance and that's driving their cortisol up. They're not necessarily pulling their hair out because they're so stressed, right? Mm-hmm. Um, whereas some people are right.
They've maybe got past or current trauma going on. Their, their nervous system is always activated. Yes. Um, far under a lot of emotional and chronic stress. Um. Which puts a lot of pressure on the immune system because it ramps up that inflammation over time, and there's lots of research around how cortisol starts to break down that gut lining, which is that sensitive barrier that helps us to manage our immune response.
Yeah. It's
Julie Howton: so, so important. And I, I love that you said that. I, I also wanna add one more type of, of person who's not aware that, like, that, that whole, you don't have to feel stressed out, and you said it like with the cortisol, right. It, it may not be coming from, but even, even the people that are experiencing a lot of emotional, psychological, and physiological stress.
Yeah. Um, and it's a coping me mechanism. You know, it's why they, they show up at our virtual doorstep. Yes. But I've had so many people say, you know, they show up. Oh no. You know, I'm like, let's talk about your stress. I'm not stressed. And then they, you know, tell me about their lives. And I'm like. I am like, wow.
Yeah. You know, because they've kind of just shut off. It's the same thing with ignoring the really quiet whisper symptoms.
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. Is
Julie Howton: it's a coping mechanism or I, I say all the time, like when I was in so much pain every day, like, you ha I was a single mom with three kids. Like, you have to shut that
Angela Simpson: out, right?
You form adaptations around stress and then you, you kind of. Almost act like it's not even there. Yeah. You know, I know you normalize that response so much that it seems like it's not there. Um, I'll never forget when I had a call with one of my clients who I was just getting to know, but she said, I said, how's it going?
She said, oh, it's pretty good. Um, my dad died yesterday, but besides that, things are fine. And she just kind of kept going and we, you know, she just wanted to talk like business as usual. And I was like, I said, oh my gosh. Like, do you wanna reschedule the call? No, I'm fine. You know,
Julie Howton: fine. As a four letter, four letter F word right there.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. So people have different ways of coping with stress, I guess, as well. Yes. Um, but yeah, definitely women are, are infamous for internalizing those stressors. Right. And, and that does start to break down and affect the physical over time. And that's, I think that's a, a real key reason for doing lab testing.
Yeah. Because people can say they're fine and you see it on, on paper, I'm fine. Yeah. And then you're like, you're not fine. Here's why. Um, and then, yeah. What are the strategies around that that I use? I mean, there, there are various different strategies depending on the person in front of you, of course. Um, you know, there are some proven strategies around meditation.
It's been well researched, well studied. Mm-hmm. Um, one of the best ways to recalibrate the nervous system. Some people are much more resistant to it than others, but. Yeah. Anyone who's, who's truly been able to develop a meditation practice that I've seen has had a consistency.
Julie Howton: Right. There is the key. Yeah.
Angela Simpson: So key. Yeah, so true. So true. Yeah. Like I had one client replace her phone scrolling at night with meditation.
Julie Howton: Oh
Angela Simpson: my gosh. Life changing night and day. Yeah. Their immune system response. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Amazing. Yeah. And, and what is your perspective on, and I'm gonna say both, even though we just said, you know, we're, we're talking about whole health, right?
But as you're working with women with, you know, either going into or dealing with hormone changes, um, I know one of the things impacted. From that it can be sleep or vice versa. Mm-hmm. Yes. Um, but same with autoimmune. Whether it's, you know, from the inflammation and the pain, you're not sleep, it just, everything, pretty much everything is a two-way street.
Angela Simpson: Um, it's, but with the hormone shifts specifically, you know, as estrogen and progesterone drop, progesterone drops quicker as we know, and then estrogen kind of oscillates down a rollercoaster and then it, it really drops off when you go into menopause. Mm-hmm. Um, but as those hormones drop, um, you know, your insulin and cortisol naturally rises a bit.
And so, you know, when those hormones get outta balance, even just with the natural change that's going on in the body, um, that automatically creates more inflammation in the body. Right. If you don't have a great balance there, when those hormone levels are starting to shift and change mm-hmm. That often is the triggers.
For development of autoimmunity. Right? It's, we know autoimmunity is a 10 to 15 year, you know, years in the making development behind the scenes.
Julie Howton: Yeah.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. But the drop in hormones can be a big trigger for women. And, you know, just to understand those connections, it really has to do with that natural rise in inflammation.
And we know if cortisol is on that higher side, we're not gonna sleep that well. And, and that's a big reset for inflammation in the night, right? So, yeah.
Julie Howton: Mm-hmm. And, and do you, do you hear, I, I find this. Actually probably more in the men that I do work with, but, um, do you have people show up that say, well, I just don't need, you know, I only need four hours of sleep?
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Yeah. What do you, what do you, what is your, or
Angela Simpson: I haven't, I mean I've definitely worked with people that have four hours of sleep. I haven't worked with any that say they feel well, that think it's okay hours. I, I do work with women though that often have five to six hours of sleep on average. Okay.
Um, and. They only, they're coping to a point. Um, yeah. But when you really break down the detail with them. They're often not coping that well. Gotcha.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Yeah. I I
Angela Simpson: think it
Julie Howton: again, layers, right? Like they don't know because they haven't experienced good restorative sleep. Um, yeah. And so, or it's been so
Angela Simpson: long, they forget, right.
A lot of women, they, you know, end up having children right in the middle of their career, in their early to mid thirties or even late thirties. Um, and they're already starting to have the hormonal shifts. Come in there. Right. So they potentially haven't had really great sleep for 10 or 15 years.
Julie Howton: Yeah, that's true.
Angela Simpson: That's true. And then the drop in hormones just really, you know, accelerates that. Right. So they, they don't remember what it felt like to have that asleep all night feeling, waking up, feeling rested.
Julie Howton: Yeah. And that's the waking up feeling rested. That's on the. As people are telling you, they feel better.
Like I feel like that's sometimes the last one. Right? Pain will be better and weight will start to fall off and you know, the laundry list starts to get smaller and then we get to that. Yay. I'm waking up with energy. Yeah.
Angela Simpson: Exactly. Yeah. Um, I actually just got off a call with someone this morning who she started out with her hba one C, which is that measure of blood sugars over three month time period, uh, at 6.4.
So she was in that diabetic category. Mm-hmm. She knew she needed help. She was feeling terrible. Yeah. Um, and she wasn't sleeping well. She was using sleep medications to, to help kind of, she said drug her to sleep was her quote. Right. Um, but you know, again, working through some very specific protocols and plans.
Three months later, her A1C is down under 5.8 already. Mm-hmm. So she's you in that pre-diabetic category still, but big decrease in the So close. Yeah. Yeah. And the first thing that improved on her from a symptom perspective was sleep. As soon as she said the inflammation down in her body, her sleep improved.
Yeah. She doesn't use medication anymore. Her blood sugars are getting more balanced. She's feeling more energetic. So sleep's a big one. It is
Julie Howton: a big one. And I, I, I feel like it's one. Because then they're the people that aren't shorting themselves, but they haven't had good quality sleep and they don't know it.
Right. Just with, again, when I think back to, okay, how are we designed to live and what do we need to compensate for today and, and I feel like that's the almost like hidden, unless people are tracking. Yes. You know, the, that, that sleep quality, same thing like as progesterone drops even, so even early on, that's sometimes one of the first things people feel is like, ugh, it's just my sleep.
Angela Simpson: Yes. And like you say, it's such a revolving door because people can be, you know, kind of following a sleep hygiene strategy. Like they're going to bed on time. Right? They're staying in bed long enough. They can't get that quality sleep no matter what they do. And again, back to, yes, the hormones play a role, they can trigger some of that poor sleep, but underneath that, the root usually comes down to imbalances and inflammation.
And we've gotta go to gut to look for where that's coming from and gotta go way upstream from the, the hormone symptoms.
Julie Howton: So, so true. I just had a, like a flashback to probably six, seven years ago. Like, Ugh, come on. Everything's the gut. Is it really all the gut?
Angela Simpson: It is. Yeah. I mean, you could say, right? Yeah. I, I think it's the same, like it was this grand discovery when I first became a functional medicine practitioner.
Oh, I just fixed the gut and everything improves. But years later, you can see it's still the case. Yeah.
Julie Howton: Yeah, yeah. Well, and it's again, everything, especially like all we thought, we had all these one-way pathways, right? And everything is, is a two-way street. And um, the gut is really. You know, and I don't think it's the second brain.
I think it's the first brain.
Angela Simpson: It's ground zero. Yeah. It really is. Yeah. It's ground zero. Yeah. You really can't get anything going with your health until you get that gut, at least back into some sense of balance, you know? And, and it takes, I don't know about for you when you got your health on track, but for me, within about six to nine months.
I started to notice feeling more like myself again, but it really took about two years, you know? So, yeah, got me remodeling and rebalancing. I mean, it's not just some quick fix with a, you know, a dietary strategy and a few supplements over, you know, a month or two or three. It takes time,
Julie Howton: right? Yeah. Well, and I, I say for me, it, it took, I mean, honestly, I, I, to feel better, um, like I felt the needle move.
But I was so depleted of healthy fats. You know, I grew up fat phobic, I was super, super toxic. I was celiac and didn't know it. I mean, you just name it. I I was that. Yeah. And I didn't have you to work with Right. Or me to work with. So I, I say that I like you. I do what I do to shorten. The path, right. My approach was throw spaghetti at the wall and thank goodness, and, and that's where I feel very sure and certain that this is what I'm supposed to do because I didn't, I didn't take it all into account.
I didn't do, you know, I got enough movement with the right diet change and consistent meditation.
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: Together. That then my brain could work again and I could go back to school and learn, because that alone was life changing. Yeah. And so I still say like, at 56, I feel better than I felt at 55. Mm-hmm.
Um, so at first six years I've been like, oh, you know, ah, you know, I'm here. And then I look over my shoulder and I'm like, no, actually I feel even better this year. Mm-hmm.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. So well on itself over time. Right. Either for better or for worse. Yeah. Um. I'm sure you've had those calls with potential clients and so have I where they say, I just don't know if I can do this right now.
Um, yeah. I'm going to chat with you again in a, in a bit, right? Mm-hmm. Inevitably, you do talk to them in a bit and they're not better. They're worse.
Julie Howton: Yeah. I had a client that I worked with many, many years ago, sweet, sweet, sweet gal, and I can't remember honestly how many diagnoses she had. 'cause again, I don't pay a lot of attention to that.
Yeah, and she just, you know, she, we did work together and, and she learned some things, but can, she couldn't, the consistency. Um, and, and the diet was a really big piece for her. She was, you know, extremely carb addicted and had a lot of stress, and it just, she couldn't, she couldn't do it. And she did circle back many years later, probably four years later.
That number. I do remember she had eight diagnoses.
Angela Simpson: Mm-hmm.
Julie Howton: And she was ready and she did it, and she, you know, feels amazing. She's still a, a patient at our clinic. You know, it, it's, so sometimes I say like, I want it too much for client showing up at the door because I know it's possible. You know, like I, I am not.
We're all special, but we're all also designed to heal. Mm-hmm. And, and so it, it's sometimes really hard when, when. People aren't ready, but when they're not ready, they're not ready and, you know
Angela Simpson: Yeah. No, no. And they, they need the right tools, but they need the tools at the right time. Yeah. Um, yeah.
Absolutely. Absolutely. And I find, I, I mean, I do find sometimes women, um, you know, if they're in a really crummy relationship or marriage and Yeah. There's, there's a lot of stress around that, you know, and I talk to them, you know, one or two years later and either things have resolved in their marriage or they've gone their separate ways.
Right. Um. They're at that stage to heal their bodies. Right. So there's, there's often a lot of barriers with relationship challenges, either at home or, you know, it can be in the workplace too. It's just not allowing them to take that step.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Don't you find that, that one of the gifts with the population you, you work with is that as they learn and they heal, like I, I feel like it's, it cha ends up changing generations.
Because families are learning to go back to real food and stress management isn't self-indulgent and you know, all the things.
Angela Simpson: Yes. Um, I mean super commonly, 'cause I work with women primarily, and a lot of them are moms. Yeah. I work with their daughters, you know, I work with their children. Um, yeah. So yeah, it can definitely start to snowball in the right direction versus the wrong direction.
Right. Yeah. That's the far as the foundations for help, which is. The goal. That is, the goal is absolutely the goal. Um, but I mean, we have a long ways to go there in, in society. It's
Julie Howton: an uphill, I I joke 'cause I, you know, between the podcast and then the clinic, um, I, I live in this bubble of, you know, functional medicine and wellness and like-minded people and, and um, and then I drive home and I see the line around the corner at the fast food restaurant and I'm like, oh yeah.
Right. It's progress. We have more work to do.
Angela Simpson: Yeah. You see the lineup out the door at Starbucks, you know? Yes. And all those things. Yes, absolutely. So, yeah, I mean, again, it's, it's just back to, I mean, you gotta want it, you gotta be in a place to accept it. Um, but you have to be consistent with making the changes needed.
Yeah. And in your opinion, does consistent mean perfection? Um, it's a good question because I actually was just on a call with someone. We were talking about that as they'd come through three months of being very consistent with, I would say, pretty close to perfection. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and she was having amazing results of course, but she's like, I can't keep this level of perfection forever.
Right. You know, what's, what's the way to open this up? Um. So we don't just decide, you know, when the client feels like they're kind of getting done, that's when we open it up, right? Right. We've really got labs and where they're at and have some objective measurements for understanding when they can open things up.
But I find people do well initially at the start when they're 90 to a hundred percent on the plan. Absolutely. Absolutely. Which could be anywhere from three to six months. Most people do well, I find they can sustain something really specific for on average, two, three months. Um, a lot of people after that, they find it more challenging for various different reasons.
Yeah. Um, from a mindset perspective for so. Sure.
Julie Howton: Like going in, knowing this is, you know, this is time limited. I can do anything for x whatever your limitation is. And, and we have to remember, we're, we're talking about specifically today, women, like women can do anything. Come on, you know, look true. Yeah. I, I did.
Well, I shouldn't share that story that recently overheard a conversation and I was laughing 'cause I didn't have to have the conversation. Um, it, it was a, a a a a male, um, who had done a food sensitivity panel and he didn't like the results, but he did the panel 'cause he didn't like the symptoms. And so I.
To just, yeah. Doesn't that keep saying, I can't do that. I don't, I I can't do that. That doesn't sound good. I don't want it. It's like, whoa. You know? Um, but again, timing. Right? And, and in a month he might decide, you know what? I should probably just try giving that food out for a little while. And, and seeing, um, it was just, it was kind of, kind of funny, but I, I feel like so many women come in with per perfectionism.
Being one of the factors that got them to my doorstep. Yes. Um, that it's a really hard balance, especially when, now I was gonna say people with autoimmunity, but really any, when you haven't felt well and you don't feel like yourself mm-hmm. And then you do things that, that, oh my gosh, you know, I'm back. I was in there the whole time.
Um, it's hard to open back up. It is. And, and so it's funny because in the beginning I, I always tell people like, you don't believe me right now, but I am going to have to convince you. It is time to, to open up because Yeah, like they're scared. Yeah. It, it's, they're comfortable. And, and my husband always used to say, and it used to drive me crazy.
Um, and now I'm like, oh, he was right. You know? True wellness is resilient. And, and so we shouldn't have to hold so tight in a little box at be into the bubble
Angela Simpson: forever. Yeah, for sure. Yeah. It reads, yeah, it's not good for your gut microbiome too, which is one of the hallmarks of maintaining your immunity, right?
Yeah. Diversity with your foods, rotations of different things coming in. So yeah, those different microbes from all the different types of foods. Right. So, um, I mean, I usually do suggest that people move into an 80 20 rule. Yeah. Um. I, I find a lot of women, especially if they already have known autoimmunity, if they slide back, you know, to even the 70 30.
Mm-hmm. Um, too much, they start more symptomatic.
Julie Howton: Yeah. Also with women, there's a little bit more of, I I, I find a slippery slope too, where 70 30 really just means it's back in, you know? Exactly. Exactly. So there's a, and I joke like I. Uh, because we're talking about real whole nutrient dense foods, and I am right there with you, like the most varied diet that supports your body is, is the ideal.
And that may change over time and be, it's definitely gonna be different for you than it is for me. Um, and I joke, but like processed foods and, and sugar are not in that ca like they're.
Angela Simpson: No, I know. It's like you're trying to do that. They're just inflammatory, period. Can I food, challenge alcohol or can I food challenge cookies?
It's like, right. Well, you can, but,
Julie Howton: but we're not holding that a challenge.
Angela Simpson: No. It's not providing any nutrition. So Yeah. I love that. Yeah. Yeah. Um, but yeah, I mean there's, there's that combination approach, right? There's a time to tighten it up. Yeah. And then there is a time to open it up and, you know, it's up to us.
Julie Howton: Sometimes have to tighten it back up a little bit again. I call, you know, it's time to uplevel or reset. Mm-hmm. And that's okay because yeah, life probably threw something different at you. And so it's, it's, yeah, this is an ongoing, like there is no, I got this figured out check on the board and I'm just gonna live this way for the rest of my days because we're not static.
Angela Simpson: No. And I mean, I often have women, I'm sure you do too. Come to me and say. I did this detox protocol, I did this plan, I did this plan, and now I'm off it and I'm back to what I was doing before. You know? And so there isn't really any change, right? Over time they're just thinking they've gotta kind of compress and do this little protocol for time being and then they can
Julie Howton: go back one that wasn't
Angela Simpson: even like
Julie Howton: designed for them.
Yeah, yeah. No, absolutely. Uh, well, we speak the same language. I could talk to you all day long, but I promised I would get you out on time. So listeners are leaning in right now because they know, I'm going to ask you for one step that they can take starting today to move the needle on their journey.
Angela Simpson: I mean, we talked about it definitely.
Um, the biggest needle mover I see mm-hmm. Autoimmunity combined with many different conditions and symptoms I see is an Whole Foods anti-inflammatory diet. Love it. If you don't have that in place, any of those other fancy protocols and strategies and detoxes and supplements and all the things you can try that are quite complex.
Yeah. They won't take hold. And that's part of that consistency over time, right? It has to, the dietary strategy has to be in place at least 80 20, sometimes even tighter when needed. Yeah. Ah.
Julie Howton: Such amazing, amazing gold. Angela, for people that are listening on the go and aren't gonna check the notes, where is the best place for them to find you?
Angela Simpson: Best place on my website, uh, www.angelasimpsonfunctionalmedicine.ca. I've got lots of information on there and there's a way to contact me there as well. Fantastic.
Julie Howton: Thank you so much for your sharing your wisdom, expertise, and kindness with us today. Thanks, Julie. It was great to chat with you as
Angela Simpson: well.
Julie Howton: For everyone listening, remember, you can get those show notes and transcripts by Visiting Inspired Living Show.
I hope you had a great time and enjoyed this episode as much as I did. I'll see you next week.
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My Guest For This Episode
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Connect with Angela Simpson
Angela Simpson
I am a Health Care Professional of over 20 years, and have trained in Functional Medicine, as a Practictioner, to support women, with rebalancing their bodies from a root cause perspective. I worked in my Health Care Profession for a long-time, Conventionally, and saw so many women that were suffering, without getting the answers they needed, to heal their body's. I also struggled with my own health, and autoimmune diagnosis, in my mid-thirties, and healed myself with Functional Medicine. I am passionate about sharing what has worked for me, and countless women that I have worked with over the years, to rebalance their body's naturally.
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