State of Well-Being

BY STACIE STANDIFER

Winter is coming. I don’t know many people that look forward to the season. There are upsides like cozy nights by the fireplace or taking in the beauty of the snow-covered landscape—but not much else. Bundling up and going from cold to hot and transitioning from indoors to outside isn’t a great time, and neither is dealing with rounds of colds, infections, and even skin conditions that spring up as the mercury drops. This year, the season is even more threatening as possibilities for more severe pandemic attacks are already being featured in the media. It’s a little scary if you don’t prepare with a strategy to keep yourself and your family strong and well, no matter how cold it is outside or what’s spreading throughout the community. Doing this takes effort, starting with a plan based on your living situation and specific needs. Fortunately, you don’t have to create this blindly or just rely on general internet searches to be proactive about your health. We all know the basics, such as eating right, getting some exercise, and loading up on Vitamin C—but that can still be hard to get right if you aren’t paying attention. For real guidance, seeking help from professionals can make a big difference in how you feel, with the bonus being evident in how you look. Experts are ready to help you take charge of your health, not only this season, but also to stay well for years to come.

DISEASE FIGHTING FUEL

If you’ve done any reading at all on the topic of inflammation, you know that it’s how our bodies and immune systems react to threats. That’s a good thing when an injury or broken bone induces swelling, which protects and leads to alerting us to treat the area tenderly. It also leads to healing. But the type of inflammation that is evident in some bodies (most of ours, actually) isn’t so great. Functional doctors and holistic practitioners worldwide have long realized that chronic inflammation throughout the body is the most devastating condition for our physical wellness. That is especially true in the gut, which often extends to increasing inflammation in our other organs without warning. Hard to detect but easy to prevent and solve if diligent, reducing inflammation is step one for anyone seeking a healthier mind and body.

Our digestive systems are more telling than any other part of our beings. Many life-damaging diseases can be prevented with just some simple daily attention for proper flow and balance in the gut. Rather than popping an antacid, bloating pill, or other over the counter (chemical-laden) remedy, it’s smarter to avoid this habitual self-treatment by avoiding the symptoms in the first place. This starts with eating the right foods and consuming the required nutrients and minerals, which can differ for each person. If you eat to feel energetic instead of to please your taste buds or satisfy your sugar addiction, that’s the basis of the gut-health strategy. Organic produce and grass-fed and pasture-raised meats and eggs in your grocery cart are also determining factors, and something a lot of people blow off as not that important in terms of an eating plan. That kind of thinking is quickly being outdated and challenged by a growing number of experienced professionals in various wellness practices.

The biggest complaint about buying strictly organic and sustainably raised groceries is the expense or difficulty in finding enough choice in those categories. If you invest in quality foods, you’re unlikely to need those weekly drug-store stomach soothers, cough syrups, or pain relievers as food truly is medicine. Basically, you are making an exchange in spending and one that is a much smarter investment as it also prevents even more costly medical treatments down the road.

You will find that many restaurants are taking note of requests for more sustainable and thoughtfully raised ingredients, so always ask before going or research online. It’s becoming almost mainstream for chef-driven and locally owned places to base menus on this type of offering. This is also true of traditional grocery stores where organic and health food sections are expanding bit by bit. Explore the aisles and make comments to the manager to order what you’re seeking, always. People forget that our spending dollars are impactful. The more we purchase a higher quality of produce and meat, the greater the offerings will be in the market— including restaurants.

Here are a few key choices for local leaders in consistently focusing on stocking and serving items for the wellness-minded consumer.

FOOD SHOPPING SOURCES

THE FARMER’S MARKET | The best place to find just-picked, organic produce and farm-fresh eggs.

TURNIP TRUCK | 3 locations in various neighborhoods throughout the community.

THE PRODUCE PLACE | Sylvan Park’s mainstay with a focus on locally made and grown items.

WHOLE FOODS |Downtown, Green Hills and Cool Springs locations of the healthfood mecca.

FRESH MARKET | Brentwood specialty food store also carrying a big selection of gourmet dairy and gluten alternatives.

SPROUTS | Bellevue and Franklin. Organic departments, grass-fed meat source, and strong supplement section.

RESTAURANTS & TAKE OUT

AVO | Vegan Menu with a focus on fresh and organic vegetables with nuts, seeds and herbs.

BUTCHER & BEE | Inventive East Nashville hotspot using exclusively seasonal, locally grown and raised ingredients.

CHOPT | The bowls are filled with what you choose, so load up on the good stuff and trust it’s organic.

TRUE FOOD KITCHEN | A menu filled with delicious creations focused on nutrients and carefully sourced ingredients in the heart of Green Hills.

THE CAFÉ AT THISTLE FARMS | Big salads, hearty and warming soups are filled with organic and locally sourced goodness.

JUICE BAR AND CLEAN JUICE | Both are sources for not just organic and freshsqueezed blends but healthy food choices as well with multiple locations.

NUTRITION ASSISTANCE

Sometimes navigating menus or grocery shelves isn’t easy for those who don’t have time or label-reading know how. If that’s the case, look to local professionals that specialize in optimizing nutrition for clients.

CHEF LAURA RODRIGUEZ | She’s a personal chef but also a big healthy eating resource in the community. From recipes to shopping tips, she’s helpful for all levels of personal assistance needs for those who already know what they need for their bodies.

M POWER NUTRITION | If you are superactive (or want to be), this professionally staffed facility can craft a nutrition program suited to fuel your athletic and fitness pursuits for ideal performance. M Power has locations in Mid Town Nashville, Cool Springs and Green Hills.

NASHVILLE NUTRITION PARTNERS | This is a good resource for newbies who are looking to take small steps on improving their eating habits and need a guide to keep them on track. Priced by the session, this can be as involved or as removed as you would like depending on your willpower and accountability habits.

A DIFFERENT KIND OF DOCTOR

With a major influx of residents relocating from the West Coast over the past several years, the demand for more modern wellness practices locally has resulted in a number of highly trained professionals opening resource facilities and offices. This list continues to grow, ranging from holistic practitioners to therapy providers. These alternative routes to healing and lifestyle management are catching on as we seek solutions to our own issues.

One of the leaders is this arena is the be-well powerhouse, DR. LAURA LILE. After working for 12 years as a certified pharmacist (both in traditional pharmacies and in compounding), she decided to enroll in medical school to learn more about the health problems behind the need for the medicines she was charged with distributing to patients. A busy mother of two small children, pregnant with her third, running an already successful practice, she started down this path and dove into medical school. Talk about determination! After becoming board-certified to practice medicine, she embarked on a new approach combining her skills from both fields along with her vast knowledge from continuous reading on health practices and solutions throughout the world. She went on to open four locations of her thriving LILE WELLNESS PARTNERS offices, which she owns and operates in addition to running two pharmacies. While it is mindblowing to think of all that she accomplishes in a day, leading by example for her staff and patients is all part of her philosophy, deeming it extremely important to show what true health looks like.

On the day of our first conversation, Dr. Lile was actually preparing to leave for Europe. On top of her functional medicine operations in the U.S., she’s taken on a role of advising the Vatican on preventative health programs as well as helping spearhead mobile diabetes prevention units throughout Israel. So, to say she’s got a world of knowledge and first-hand practice experience is an understatement. The fact that she has offices in our market is such a resource to the entire community, and one that most of us didn’t even realize was in existence.

The majority of us are used to dealing with brief appointments (after long waiting room sits) with doctors who are taxed with far too many patients and appointments. This leaves them lacking in time to investigate things outside the scope of their trained approach and far too often leads to prescribing drugs with side effects that just might be worse for our bodies than the symptoms we are experiencing. Fueled and funded by ‘big pharma’ and faced with painfully time-consuming insurance paperwork and protocol, the entire industry in the U.S. is broken in many ways. Our doctors are overworked and exhausted through no fault of their own, which leaves people wanting to take charge of their own health. The concept of concierge medicine fills this void.

PREVENTATIVE MEDICINE

Traditionally, the type of approach that Lile and other functional practitioners follow hasn’t been considered mainstream. It’s a well documented fact that the doctors in various areas of practice are educated and trained to deal with handling symptoms and disease rather than advising patients without issues on how to live life better, longer. Most of us without major diseases don’t even think about going to the doctor unless we’ve been hit with a sinus infection or have a physical injury causing us pain. In fact, we usually put off those visits for as long as possible, too. Jobs, family pressures, and general life hassles are put first, often causing us to put our own wellness on the back burner.

But what if we considered the actual value of our health and put it first? How much time, money and suffering could we avoid if we altered our approach? Staying well and feeling good impacts every facet of our lives— including job performance and the quality of time spent with our families and friends. When thinking about it in those terms, exploring functional and preventative services suddenly feels not only smart but necessary for living well. “Investing in your health is something that I compare to preparing for war. When your internal defense is strong and hard to weaken, there is no fear about things like pandemics,” Dr. Lile confidently states. She explains how focusing on building our immunity is crucial in avoiding not only contagious afflictions such as Covid-19 but also a slew of other diseases of the body from cancer to diabetes.

A CONCIERGE APPROACH

Being healthy starts with our thoughts and is dependent on daily personal habits. For people like me, that doesn’t involve making all kinds of appointments with various doctors in specialties for an array of physical conditions. We can read and absorb the latest saving product or superfood hype on internet sites but how that benefits us as individuals isn’t universal, even when the ‘hype’ is factual. At Lile Wellness, they deal with each individual on a very personal level, from conversation and interaction to the types of supplements and diet suggestions. We are not all the same. Our treatment shouldn’t be either. “I have seen a true shift in the South with people taking charge of their own health. More people are coming to us seeking a better quality of life and they seem to be armed with their own research and intelligent questions,” Lile tells me. She sees this proactive movement as not just positive but absolutely crucial to our seeing a shift in a healthier community overall.

The concierge approach is what a growing number of individuals and families are investigating in the current environment, and for good reason. It’s not only less confusing and time-consuming but ultimately can prevent life-threatening health problems. At Lile Wellness, it all starts with bloodwork, which is done at least 3 times a year. Our situations change and through testing for a variety of things off the radar for typical doctors, discovering imbalances and abnormalities is easy. “Even tumor developments can often be seen in bloodwork if you’re looking for the right thing,” Lile explains. “Far before you feel a physical ailment or pain, your blood tells a story of what is happening in your body as well as what it needs to bring balance to all of your organs and systems for total health.”

In my experience, having Lile’s team of experts dive in during the end of our initial quarantine was the complete opposite of the dreaded doctor visit. Long conversations with not only Lile herself, but with staff member experts who were open to all kinds of crazy questions (based on all of my internet reading on fitness and nutrition blogs) and open to discussing them in-depth as well as sharing their own health challenges and found solutions. An enthusiastic and sweet-tempered nurse stopped by my house to take several vials of blood (no lab visit, hooray!) in under a half-hour and whisked them away to scan and study for every possible telling component. This approach isn’t only more convenient, but so comfortable and definitely healthier than sitting in an office where other patients may have catching afflictions and cases. Select traditional doctors also offer concierge services, and many families choose to pay the fees for those services just for those reasons. But Lile Wellness is quite different as they keep you on track to ensure ongoing health, watch bloodwork, and ask questions to determine if any red flags appear as warnings for something being off balance.

As stated in the previous sections, I firmly believe that this starts with taking the right supplements. Not everyone needs the same ones and finding where to fill the gaps and being advised through Lile’s team solves any mysteries on what needs a boost and those nutrient levels that are in abundance in the system. “We don’t work against the medical community, but in tandem. With our preventative care and screening, we can give your trusted practitioner valuable and useful information to better treat you as a patient. We encourage that relationship and find that it’s so much more beneficial for all involved,” Lile states.

“We aren’t focused on ‘normal’ results but on those that are optimal for our clients,” she goes on to say. This is also true of her own health as she tackles her current roster, makes individual time for long phone calls with clients no matter where she’s traveling, and looks to open facilities in more areas in the near future. “I’m a driven person and feel that we all have the ability to do exactly what we want if you put your mind to it. I’m a firm believer that life begins when you step out of your comfort zone,” she admits. “I also start and end each day with gratitude and take some time for mindless activities like painting or long baths, as emotional balance is part of wellness, too.” While not everyone could juggle all of this, Laura Lile is an incredible example of all that can be achieved within a career and family life—while still putting your health first and following a lifestyle plan to ensure you stay in tip-top condition for any challenge. Isn’t that what we all want?

OTHER SOURCES FOR CONCIERGE FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE

CELPROCEO |This integrative wellness center, founded by natural practitioner Dr. Maggie Berghoff is well-known for incredible results with high-level professionals and athletes. But they can also help with curing your inflammation and pain issues with a unique approach based on personal consultations and test results.

VITALITY MEDICAL WELLNESS CENTER | Dr. Sommer Elgin White tackles nutritional challenges with a culinary approach as well as investigating health issues to design personal health programs. If you want a custom eating plan, this is a first-stop source for getting one that suits your needs.

SUPPLEMENT SMART

Sure, our stress levels can go off the charts and we’re all going to slip and indulge in that birthday cake. It’s human nature to have a bit of ying/yang in our approach to everything. That applies to our eating and drinking habits more so than in any other area. The key is to ensure that continual, daily habits, and intake far outweigh those slip-ups. It’s the 80% rule—which allows for the occasional indulgence. That’s basically, 80% greens and veggies on your plate as a rule for any meal, eating only until you are 80% full to avoid excess inflammation in your digestive tract, and following your healthy eating plan at least 80% of the time.

In addition to that mindset, you can reach those health and nutrition goals faster and benefit long-term from the right supplementation. This might change from month to month, but we are at risk of being deficient in many healing vitamins with fewer sources for colorful, local produce during the winter. The key is to figure out what works for you—either through seeking out an expert or trial and error when approaching it solo. For everyone, a Multi-Vitamin and Vitamin D are sure bets, but you likely need to consider more to boost energy levels during the hibernation months.

INSTANT BOOST

When you feel that your immunity may not be ideal or the hint of a cold is evident, getting an immediate infusion of fortifying vitamins and minerals is a smart move. Several qualified places do this (and some that are not so qualified), including the nurses at Lile Wellness.

One service that our team likes for the targeted variety of injectable choices is ARETE NASHVILLE. They’ll send a professional to your home or office with specific blends focused on pain and inflammation, dehydration, immunity, and energy or anti-aging antioxidants. Some have combinations, including ingredients with overlapping benefits from their menu. It takes under an hour but with health elevating results that you will feel for days. IREVIVE is also a credible supplier of direct injection nutrients, with a convenient Church Street location.

ANCIENT NUTRITION

One of the country’s most trusted sources for online blogs, videos, and daily tips for getting and staying in tip-top condition is DR. JOSH AXE. The go-to guy for keto diet fans and sugar avoiding masses from coast to coast has a lot to say about what we put in our bodies. He broadcasts all of the informative content from his home base here in Middle Tennessee. His website is an incredible source for seeking more information on herbal remedies and foods to heal certain conditions. He’s credited for helping a significant number of people shed excess weight or avoid a diabetes diagnosis. One of his projects, aside from personally addressing health-curious audiences, is a brand of products focused on filling the gaps where our meals can’t quite meet the body’s nutritional requirements.

Dr. Axe co-founded the ANCIENT NUTRITION brand in Franklin, TN, along with natural health expert and author Jordan Rubin (founder of both GARDEN OF LIFE health products and BEYOND ORGANICS companies). It has been wildly successful across the US for potency and producing results evident in patrons' energy and overall health. From first-hand experience, I can share that this line has been a part of my supplement routine for over a year because of the quality and nutrient delivery. I specifically like the probiotic and multi-vitamin capsules for women and the collagen powder blends for protein and ingredients to boost joint, skin, and gut health. Most days, I keep a big bottle of water shaken with a scoop of the STRAWBERRY LEMONADE COLLAGEN blend on my desk. The flavor is fantastic without additives or sugar and not only keeps me hydrated but is a constant stream of nutrients during the day.

I also add the brand’s BEAUTY WITHIN COLLAGEN PROTEIN in guava passionfruit to every smoothie I blend along with one of the greens powder offerings from Lemon Laine. It cuts any bitterness from the greens and the kale or spinach that I toss in the mix. It eliminates the need for adding sugar level boosting fruit. That’s fewer calories, lower sugar, and the bonus of more nutrition. In my opinion, it can’t be beaten. Like supplements, the quality of what you buy is so important, and their blends combine different sources from the interior of eggshells and marine life for better absorption. You can order any of the products (friends swear by the bone broth blends for fighting colds) on Amazon or directly from either Turnip Truck or their Franklin headquarters.

No matter how you supplement, be sure that what you are buying is pharmaceutical grade and that the dose is right for your body. It takes some study and experimenting—but the overall benefits are so worth the effort!

RESOURCES/LINKS — CHEF LAURA RODRIGUEZ: cheflaurarodriguez.com; M POWER NUTRITION: mpowermd.com/ nutrition-partners; NASHVILLE NUTRITION PARTNERS: nashvillenutritionpartners.com; VITALITY MEDICAL WELLNESS CENTER: sommerwhitemd.com; CELPROCEO: celproceo.com; DR. LILE: lilewellness.com; ARETE: aretenashville.com; ANCIENT NUTRITION: ancientnutrition.com; DR. AXE: draxe.com.