Making Nutrition-First Healthcare a Standard, Not a Luxury w/ Dr. Cheryl Lee Eberting

0:00Welcome to the Just Ingredients podcast. I'm Cara Lynn, and here we dive deep into the journey of healing and wellness. If you're ready to learn, feel empowered, and take charge of your health, you're in the right place. Welcome back to the show, everyone. Today, I'm really excited for you to hear about something that we're launching and to hear about maybe a whole new way that you can do your health care at your home. So I'm super excited to introduce this to you. And the amazing doctor that has created all of this is here with us. And it's Dr. Cheryl Lee Ebertine. So welcome to the show. Thank you.

0:38It's nice to be here with you today. So before we get into this whole new thing that you have created and that we're going to launch, let's just start from the beginning because you've been a dermatologist for years. And so what took you from being a dermatologist to wanting to make a computer software platform? Okay. Well, it's been a long journey, first of all. When I was in my training, my last year of training I did what's called a clinical research fellowship at the National Institutes of Health. It's the largest research hospital in the world. And when I was there, I was focused on a population of patients who have a disease called Job syndrome, named after Job in the Bible.

1:15And they have all kinds of horrible problems, but their worst problem is the worst eczema in the world. and I was already obsessed with chemical toxicities and chemical allergies as my area of specialty and it is a big driver in people who have eczema and people who have any problem right frankly is really understanding what you're exposing yourself to in your environment so from that perspective I'm trying to treat these patients who had really bad eczema and I thought I could really benefit from having some products that fix your skin barrier from a from a scientific standpoint. So I spent about five years developing some skin barrier biology-based products to help people heal their skin barriers.

1:55I launched them. It was 2014 when I launched them. I launched them with a mommy blogger. And within three days, we had people from all over the world emailing photos of themselves and their kids to my sales guy, asking him to ask me to diagnose and treat them over the internet. Oh, interesting. And that's when I was like, oh my gosh, healthcare over the internet, right? I mean, you know e-commerce. This is e-commerce plus healthcare married together. Then it was actually a picture of a baby from Algeria. Okay. So this baby doesn't have access to care, right? Baby's mom sends in this picture, hey, could maybe someone in America could help me.

2:29Oh my goodness. Right. And I thought, oh my gosh, what if I could teach this baby's doctor my protocols and this baby's doctor could help her patients over the internet? But then my brain just exploded. Wait, not just this baby's doctor in Algeria. What about every doctor. What if we could connect the entire healthcare ecosystem around you, the patient, so that you, the patient, could see all your doctors in one app, could have all your data in one app, and even more importantly, that your doctors and your pharmacist and your therapist can collaborate in your care? Wow. It's logical, right? Like, why isn't healthcare like that?

3:05That would be amazing. So that's how it all started. Okay, so you already have a platform right now. Yes. Called Azova. Okay, so tell them what happens on Azova. Okay, so we call Azova a fully connected digital health ecosystem. Okay, and it is a place where you can go, you can get primary care, you can get urgent care, you can get pediatric, psychiatry, therapy, dermatology, sleep medicine, home sleep testing, at-home lab testing, nutrition, health coaching, all in one place. Incredible. So that connected ecosystem. All in one place. And so anyone from anywhere in the U.S. can log into this and become a member and get this type of care.

3:47Yes. So they never need to leave their house to go see a doctor. Correct. Correct. We have spent the last 12 years really innovating on, okay, what could we do from home? That's incredible. And every month there's another thing we can now do from home that you didn't used to be able to do from home. So people are doing blood work and sending it in? Yes. and then getting the exact diagnosis of what to do online. Yeah. Yeah. We have many different at-home lab test kits. We also offer all the functional labs, you know, so if you need a gut biome test or a SIBO test or a genomics test or a food sensitivities test or an oat test or a mycotoxin test, you can also get that through your functional medicine provider on Azova.

4:31So all these people that DM into me saying, I can't find a good doctor like you've found, or I can't find a functional medicine doctor, I can't find a doctor who will treat the root cause, they can just sign up at a Zova and find one. Yes. That is amazing. Okay, so now should we tell them what we're launching together? Yes, let's do it. Okay, why don't you explain it? Okay, so this has been in the works for a long time. It has. It is called Nutrition First Healthcare. I love it. Okay, so why Nutrition First Healthcare? Well, that's what healthcare should be. And it's not out there at all. Right.

5:06It's drug first health care, but it shouldn't be drug first health care. Right. It should be nutrition first health care. And so it's really giving that a name. I love it. It's the best name. And making that a norm. Okay. So explain to like a mom that's listening to this. I have lots of moms listening to this. So let's say we've got a mom who feels cruddy. Her hormones are all over the place. She's tired. She's gone to a doctor. Her labs say they're normal. She's listening to this show. What is she going to do? Okay. So she would go to our website and navigate. We have eight nutrition-first programs, okay?

5:41All of the programs are comprehensive. So all of them are going to look at your gut, your inflammation, your immune system, your thyroid, your everything. However, the programs are problem-focused, okay? So there's a thyroid health program, gut health and digestion, muscle and metabolic mastery. So if you're trying to increase muscle or lose weight, hormone balance for women and men, skin health, mental health, those are all included. Okay, so you choose which one is most problematic for you, noting that all of them are, you're going to get comprehensive, you know, everything's going to be addressed, but you're going to get special emphasis on that thing.

6:20So if you're dealing with Hashimoto's, pick the Hashimoto's one. If you're dealing with Crohn's disease, pick the gut health one, for example. What if they're dealing with multiple? Because I'm thinking like, oh, okay, I want to do the muscle mass one, but mental health might be interesting. Hormones. How do they know which one to pick? We actually have a little, my AI assistant on there that helps you. Her name is Zovie. Okay. Zovie for a Zova. It's like the baby of a Zova, Zovie. Cute. Okay. So Zobie, she takes you through a two-minute quiz. Okay. And she'll help you identify your primary drivers and your secondary drivers.

6:55Okay. And which one of our programs is going to be the most impactful for you. But all of our programs address all areas of your health. So if you're in the gut health program and you need hormones, that's not a problem. It's a functional medicine program. So functional medicine is de facto whole person care. Okay. Perfect. Okay. So let's say I signed up for the hormone one. Okay. I mean, I'm in perimenopause, so my hormones are all over. Me too. So then tell me what happens. Okay. I've now signed up on the website or I've gone to your website, which is what? It's azova.com, A-Z-O-V-A.com. Okay, azova.com.

7:31I've gone to azova.com, entered my info. I've clicked hormones. So you chose hormones and then you choose which level of care you want. So there are three different options. It's very affordable. It starts as low as$55 a month, up to$310 a month with your own functional medicine doctor. So the$55 a month option, all of them actually, include an initial consultation with a functional nutritionist. A functional nutritionist is a nutritional biology nutritionist. So it's more than just a basic nutritionist. It's someone who is trained in the functional med labs as it pertains to nutrition. So all the programs include an initial consultation, one-hour consultation with a functional nutritionist, a comprehensive assessment that's based upon the 22 domains of health.

8:17And you think, 22 domains of health? Well, I only have a couple organ systems, right? Well, there's more than just your organ systems coming into play, right? There's your energy. There's your mood. There's your motivation. There's all of those things come into play. So this assessment is looking at all of those things. Your nutritionist goes through the assessment and creates a plan with you. On the initial tier, you now have access to the community. So you have a whole year's worth of access to the community that is a live, moderated community that is expert moderated. So you have functional nutrition and functional medicine providers that are actually answering your questions and things like that.

8:52In America, for a doctor to give you medical advice, you have to have, it's called a physician-patient relationship. okay so in the community we can give you very specific medical advice but not just for you okay so we have to be careful to be compliant to get one-on-one medical advice you would need the top tier okay and that is the transformation program that includes eight functional nutrition sessions and then four functional medicine sessions and the community and all the assessments and the root cause analysis test. That top tier is for people who really have something going on. They're going to want to have lab testing.

9:30They're going to want to have one-on-one established physician-patient relationship kind of a thing. Okay, so let's go back to the first tier. Okay. So they get help from a nutritionist that completely understands the biology, the cells, the organs, everything. And so let's say we're in this hormone one and she's looking over the 22 different systems of the body. So then she looks at my report and is like, oh, you're lacking protein or you need some herbs or you need more fruits and veggies. You need more fiber. She's going to walk through all of that. She's going to walk through all of that. So functional nutrition is anywhere from identifying what your root cause drivers are.

10:09I mean, it is as a foundation, identifying your root cause drivers. That's the whole point, right? Identify your root cause drivers. Identify how you can treat them with nutrition, first of all. If you need more care, then you can upgrade to the program that gives you the lab testing and your own functional medicine provider. But the functional nutritionist is going to do things. So if you get the second tier, so the second tier is eight functional nutrition sessions. Your nutritionist will do things like go on a grocery store tour with you. She'll help you set up your pantry and your refrigerator.

10:39Oh, wow. She'll help you do menu planning. Wow. And everything as it pertains to what you're trying to solve. Oh, that's amazing. Yeah. Oh, menu planning. I'll sign up just for the menu planning. You got me some meals. That's incredible. Okay. So let's talk about this community. Okay. As a community, you get on tier one. So I could say I've signed up, I've picked hormones. I can say something like, I am really struggling with energy. I feel like my hormones aren't keeping my energy at the level they used to be. And then people chime in or the nutritionist chimes in. Yeah. So that, I mean, you're familiar with a Facebook group or a Reddit group.

11:15The difference here is it's information you can trust. Okay. Love it. It is a, an expert in that area that is going to share advice. You know, it can't be medical advice. Okay. Unless you have the top tier with your medical provider, but they're going to share specific advice. So things like, Hey, you know, how do you balance your zinc and copper ratio? Okay. Cause they've got to be in balance in order for either of them to work correctly or, Hey, I'm having bloating, you know, what would be the best thing to do. Okay. So maybe you need a SIBO test or things like that. They can make those recommendations for you.

11:49All of the tips and things that you learn from practicing medicine for a long time, it's not stuff that you can just read from a book. Love it. Right. The value of a community is that you learn from each other. Right. And I can't stress enough how important that is. Right. Well, and I love that there's a moderator though, because I mean, I even have a Facebook group and I try to have moderators in there, but still sometimes can get out of control really easily. So a moderator will always just bring the truth, which will be nice. Yep, exactly. Okay. So in these tiers, say I'm in the first tier, is there like blood work done?

12:24Are there labs done? How does that work? Yeah. So if you want to order blood work, so from your membership dashboard, you can choose lab testing and get it ordered. It does require a telemedicine visit because it's a prescription. Okay. So, but that is all provider from your dashboard, from your membership dashboard. So do you have this physician appointment as part of the tier or they're paying extra for that? So if you have the functional medicine tier that includes prescribing, lab ordering, prescriptions, all of that kind of stuff, the first two tiers are nutrition-focused tiers. Okay. If you just need a prescription for something, we also offer all kinds of telehealth services.

12:59So just straight up primary care, virtual urgent care. It's very affordable. You know,$59 for an urgent care visit. You know, so if you just need a prescription for something or you just need a lab order for something, you can get that from your dashboard as well. But if you really want to get into it and solve your problems and work with a functional med provider, you would need that top tier. I am now curious because our supplements are part of some of the protocols or recommendations. And so if you're tier one, how do they know which supplements to recommend? Okay. So for example, if you already know you have Hashimoto's, okay, or you already know you have a methylation problem or something like that, that's incorporated into your plan with a nutritionist.

13:37But when you do that assessment, the 22 domains assessment, we've created an algorithm that actually identifies, you know, our whole physician group has been deeply involved in creating this algorithm. It's not just an AI that spit it out. It's months and months of work. An algorithm that will make recommendations of what lab work that you need. Okay. From your dashboard, there's actually an appointment, a lab ordering appointment that's just for getting your lab orders. but if you want a functional med provider to go over it, because that can take hours sometimes, right? Yep. We'll get you a lab order and, you know, we provide lab results management and things like that as we legally have to.

14:14But if you want someone who's really going to work on that with you, you would want to either get a primary care provider on the platform who can do that with you longitudinally or a functional medicine provider. Okay. So I love getting my blood work read by a provider. I just always think it's fascinating. I do it sometimes like quarterly, sometimes twice a year, just to be like, I want, it's almost like a report card for me. Like, how am I doing? And so instead of going somewhere, I can just get the semi-annual blood work done on a ZOVA and meet with a doctor online who's going to read it all for me.

14:47And then they're going to recommend like, okay, your thyroid is struggling. Maybe here's a Justin Green's thyroid supplement or you're low in iron. So here's the Justin Green's iron to take. Exactly. The domains assessment is also built into nutritional protocols that I personally have been deeply involved in. So I am ultra obsessed with nutritional biology, always have been. That's why this is so exciting for me to do this. But your products are by design built into the protocols for the patients. I love it. So, you know, if you have functional hypothyroidism like I do, for example, your thyroid support supplement is the bomb.

15:23Thank you. It's like the perfect thing you need. Many mental health disorders, your methylated B vitamins, perfect for that. It's not the only thing they need, right? They need other things also. But these things are by design overtly integrated into the protocols appropriately based upon what you need. This is an amazing resource for people. We're excited. You know, it's something that we all need it, right? Yeah. I need it myself. I am a doctor and I don't have time to take care of myself. Right. But we all need it. You know, we need the convenience. We need access. We need the affordability, the efficacy.

15:57Yeah, we need all of that. Yeah. We also need this because so many doctors don't have time to be trained in nutrition and they don't know the nutrition aspect of it. We're going to change that. Yeah, I'm loving this. Yeah. So our program includes education for providers as well. So if you are a functional medicine provider or a functional nutritionist or a primary care provider, a psychiatrist, a dermatologist or a therapist, you can actually join our network. It is a nutrition first healthcare provider network. And we also have a community and a forum where we educate each other as well. It's pretty awesome.

16:31That is amazing because I know that there's a lot of therapists out there who with depression don't even talk about the nutrition side of it. And yes, I totally get that there are amazing treatments and things to do through talking and other types of therapy. But I also think nutrition needs to be discussed at the same time. Yeah. And so, but some of the therapists don't even understand the nutrition aspect of it. Right. And so I love that you're providing this to the providers as well. Okay. So let's talk about these moms with kids now. Okay. Is our kids allowed to do this as well, or is it only for adults?

17:11Yes. So children can do the program. The at-home lab test that comes with the top tier, we substitute that with any other lab testing. So we give you a credit towards other lab testing because that at-home kit is for 18 and up. So if we're doing a pediatric one, we give you a credit towards other lab testing because if you're enrolling in a functional medicine program, you're going to need some lab testing. Right. Right. Right. And so, but yes, we take children down to age six. There may be some states where we don't have someone for you. Right. You know, because it's, we have providers that are, you know, specifically trained in this, but we'll let you know when you sign up.

17:46And if we don't have someone, we can often find someone. It might take us a week if we don't have someone in pediatric, you know, functional pediatrics in that state, for example. Okay. So you, in this network, you've got doctors from every single state. Yeah. So there's different types of medicine. Doctors, nurse practitioners, PAs, and clinical pharmacists that are all certified, trained, and experienced in functional medicine. If it is a clinical pharmacist, we pair them up with a prescriber because they can't legally order the lab work or prescriptions. So we pair them up with a prescriber.

18:16But they're very, very good at this. Let's talk about what we're prescribing. Can you prescribe anything? Yes. We do not prescribe controlled substances. Okay. We will be doing testosterone in the future, but not yet. Okay. But in general, we're not going to do pain pills, things like that. That's very regulated and has nothing to do with what we're doing. Okay. But if someone's on a thyroid medicine, you can do that. Hormones, thyroid, low-dose naltrexone, GLP-1s, peptides, all of that is accessible through the program. Antidepressants, anti-anxiety. Okay. Yeah. So people can come to you and still get prescriptions, plus do their lab work and see if there's anything else that they should be on.

18:58Yes. So we also have a functional psychiatry program. So that's one of the eight programs. And these are providers who are specifically trained on the psychiatric functional medicine side. Oh, I love it. It's a different, you know, different lab testing that's involved. We launched it earlier this year. It's been amazing, you know, seeing how it can help people. So let's talk about this department. So someone dealing with anxiety, someone dealing with depression, bipolar, this is who they would go to. Yes. and then it's like online therapy sessions. It's not therapy. Okay. It's functional psychiatry.

19:33So functional psychiatry is looking at the biological drivers of your psychiatric disorder. Okay. So for example, we had a patient, 20-year-old male, severely depressed, and we ran his lab work. So for the functional psychiatry program, we're doing urine organic acids. We're doing food sensitivity testing. We're doing celiac testing. We're doing full thyroid testing. We're doing hair minerals and heavy metals testing. We're doing fatty acids testing, like the whole gamut. So you're sending all of these tests to this person and they do it. And they take it. And then mail it in. Yes. It's all the testing that is known to influence your mental health.

20:08Okay. Lab data that is, it's about 250 different biomarkers. In this case, this guy had no precursors to serotonin. His vitamin B6 was gone. He had overgrowth of a bacteria in his gut called Clostridia. Okay, Clostridia metabolizes the vitamin B6 that's used as the precursor for serotonin. Okay, his fatty acid profile was shifted towards the arachidonic acid pathway. So he had very inflammatory red blood cells. Okay, so he's been eating poorly. You know, highly processed foods is what turns on your arachidonic acid pathways. Anyway, we were able to help him fix his diet. Now got him on your omega-3s, got him on your vitamin D.

20:49His vitamin D was low. He also had a genetic, so a COMT. T, okay, met COMT mutation, okay, so he metabolizes serotonin differently and dopamine differently. So his nutrition was optimized towards that, okay? Love it. And if you need psychiatric medications, that can be added to it too. But let's look at your biology first, because we know your biology can be influenced by so many things. So many things. That can be improved with food. I love it. There aren't many people doing this. because I have a lot of extended family members and just family friends that are dealing with psychiatric issues.

21:29And some of the doctors don't really even know what to do. And they just give them a bipolar label. And so I have one really close relative who's like, yeah, I was just diagnosed with bipolar. They don't really know. And I'm like, no, we can do better than this. Now let's go see. Yeah, let's go see what's going on. So they're going to sign up for your program and then do all the lab work at home. And you guys are going to be able to figure out exactly what's going on. Yeah. I mean, we can't help every single psychiatric disorder, right? But anyone who is experiencing any sort of psychiatric disorder should have this lab testing done.

22:00This is incredible. And not just having it done, but also having it done with someone who knows what to do with the information. Yeah, that is incredible. Okay, so this seems like the answer for everybody's health confusion, health issues, all the excuses I get of I can't find a doctor, my doctor didn't know what was wrong, I can't find someone who looks at the root cause. This answers it all. It's healthcare the way it's supposed to be. Wow. You're going to change, hopefully, the whole healthcare industry with this. That's our goal. We actually trademarked the term, our healthcare system is too broken to fix, so we built a new one.

22:34Oh, you really did? We own a trademark on that. That is amazing. I love that. Okay. I'm curious about your eight programs that are on Azova. So I get a lot of people every day wanting medical advice, and I can't give them the medical advice, but it seems to be a trend over and over. So like one I get all the time is energy. By three o 'clock, I've crashed. I have no energy. So where would they go in this program? First of all, take the assessment with ZOVI because energy can be associated with a whole bunch of systems. It can be thyroid. It can be immune. It can be metabolism. All of those come into play.

23:11It can be hormones. It can be cortisol. It can be, I know that's why It's so hard when they DM in. I'm like, I don't know. There's like 20 different answers I could give you. Right. So have them do the little chat with Zovie. Okay. Because Zovie's going to ask you more questions than, hey, I am exhausted. Okay. And Zovie's going to help you identify your primary drivers and your secondary drivers, and we'll recommend which program to sign up for. Remember, all the programs cover their whole health programs. Okay. So we're not just going to do your hormones if you sign up for the hormone program.

23:42Okay. We're going to look at your thyroid. We're going to look at your gut. We're going to look at your immune system. But if you're signing up for the hormone program, that means, hey, menopause is my primary thing. I'm getting fat. I'm tired. I'm hangry. You know what I mean? Hot flashing. You know, sign up for the hormone balance program. Okay. But you're also going to get help with all the other things. It's functional medicine. Okay. Well, that is one question I get a lot because a lot of my followers are in the 40, 50-year-old range. So the perimenopause, I've got weight around my belly.