Addressing modern medical practices, combining functional medicine with conventional protocols, and exploring lifestyle changes and informed consent for actualizing therapeutic potential.

In this episode, Dr. Joe interviews women's health trailblazer Allison Imel PA to explore how integrating functional medicine into women's health and metabolic wellness can address issues like vaginal dryness, incontinence, and metabolic syndrome by getting to the root cause through detailed lab assessments, lifestyle modifications, and community-based group programs. They discuss the challenges and benefits of using comprehensive diagnostic tools (such as body composition analysis) and personalized treatment plans—including dietary changes and resistance training—to create a more holistic, informed approach to patient care, while also sharing personal journeys and professional insights into transforming conventional practices.

Allison, PA-C, FTNP, MMS, currently practices in Olympia, WA in the fields of urogynecology and pelvic reconstructive surgery and metabolic and lifestyle medicine for women. She educates physician associates and other clinicians in these specialties, furthering her mission to integrate foundational wellness principles into primary care in the conventional healthcare model. Her background includes certification in functional nutritional therapy, a fellowship in functional medicine and treatment of complex chronic illness, and additional training in hormone replacement therapy, complex digestive dysfunction, and mycotoxin illness. Her passion lies in understanding the hearts of her patients in order to promote self-prioritization, self-love, nervous system regulation, and connection to all beings so that we may collectively participate in the healing of the planet.

In this first episode of A Good Man and Thorough, Dr. Joseph Smith, a chiropractic neurologist, sits down with Chesley Heymsfield, producer of the documentary All About ME and founder of the Chesley Initiative. The discussion delves into Heymsfield’s personal battle with myalgic encephalomyelitis (ME), also known as chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and the broader implications of the condition, particularly in the wake of long COVID. Heymsfield shares her decades-long struggle to receive a diagnosis, navigating a medical system that often dismissed her symptoms. Her experience underscores the complexity of ME/CFS, which presents with neurological, immune, and metabolic dysfunction, and how many sufferers, like those with long COVID, face skepticism and lack of effective treatment options.

The conversation also highlights systemic shortcomings in healthcare, from the constraints of insurance-based medicine to the difficulty in diagnosing and treating complex, multi-systemic conditions. Dr. Smith and Heymsfield discuss the need for a more integrative and patient-centered approach, one that considers early detection, personalized interventions, and a shift toward prevention rather than reactionary treatment. Heymsfield’s initiative seeks to raise awareness and push for systemic changes, advocating for research, better patient-doctor relationships, and a more supportive healthcare infrastructure. Ultimately, the episode serves as both an eye-opening exploration of ME/CFS and a call to action for medical professionals and policymakers to address the growing population suffering from these debilitating conditions.