This Is How Working With a Practitioner Should Feel

Most of you have never experienced healthcare the way I’m about to describe. Not because your doctor doesn’t care, but because fifteen-minute visits and insurance codes can’t deliver it.

So let me show you exactly how I work with my patients. Because this is how it should work for you too.

Most primary care providers are not ordering comprehensive labs. A CBC, a basic metabolic panel, maybe a TSH. That’s it. And when we skip the full picture, we lose the ability to catch disease early or prevent it at all.

I’ve written about what I consider comprehensive testing in past posts, and you can order it yourself. I like Function Health because anyone in any state can use it. Here’s $25 off.

Normal is average. And the average American is tired, inflamed, and running on empty. By the time your labs hit average, a disease process has most likely already started, and the most common one I see is insulin resistance.

Optimal ranges tell us where your body thrives. The gap between normal and optimal is where disease develops quietly, for years, while everyone tells you you’re fine.

So I read every marker against optimal ranges, and I look at patterns across years of labs, not just today’s result. A ferritin that’s been sliding for five years tells a story a single draw never will. This is the other way we miss disease developing. Nobody is watching the trend. Never one number in isolation.

Labs are the what. Epigenetics is the why.

Labs show what’s happening today. Epigenetics shows the strengths and vulnerabilities you were born with. It’s a cheek swab you only ever do once in your life. My favorite company is 3X4 Genetics. Use code DAGMARA for $20 off. I earn nothing from that code.

This is why two women with the same diagnosis and the same labs respond completely differently to the same protocol. Nobody should be on a protocol. Everybody should be on an individualized plan.

Maybe you don’t metabolize estrogen well, so birth control or HRT needs much closer monitoring in your body than in your best friend’s. Maybe you’re prone to blood sugar imbalance, and that’s why prediabetes came so much easier for you than for your partner. Maybe you don’t detox well, and the glyphosate on your lawn matters more for you. Poor detox pathways are associated with fertility struggles, dementia, and cancer risk.

Your blueprint guides everything I build for you.

Not everyone needs this one. But if you suspect your sex or stress hormones are affecting your health, if you’re on HRT, or if you spent years on birth control, I think it’s essential.

Blood work shows hormone levels. The DUTCH test shows how you’re metabolizing them, and that’s where the answers usually live. It also shows me your cortisol and what your nervous system is doing, which matters because HPA axis dysfunction is a huge part of healing, as I wrote this week. I also learn how you methylate and whether you make enough melatonin.

The labs, the epigenetics, the hormones, plus an intake form so long it’s annoying, because I want to know everything about you. Then we meet, and I get to know you as a person, not a chart.

From all of that I build one plan. Comprehensive, detailed, and simple to follow. Built for your body and nobody else’s.

And hear this part. The relationship is part of the healing. The trust is part of the healing. My patients have access to me through a secure portal to ask questions at any point in their plan. They are never left alone wondering what to do next.

This is how you deserve to work with a practitioner. I know it’s not how it usually goes. That’s why I keep teaching you to advocate for yourself with the providers you have now.

Today I opened the doors to the fourth cohort of my Her Better Way Mastermind, for women only.

The waitlist is over 200 women. On October 5th, I start with the next 12.

Those 12 women get everything I just described, an individualized plan built from their own comprehensive labs, epigenetics, and hormone testing. They get lifetime access to my prerecorded women’s health masterclass, hours of teaching to watch on your own time, forever. And we meet live as a group, six one-hour sessions, where I teach how we don’t just survive but thrive and prevent disease. No BS.

But what you get isn’t the point. The transformation is.

This is the work of turning insulin resistance around before it becomes diabetes. Of supporting your thyroid instead of watching it struggle. Of losing the weight that never budged because nobody ever looked at why it was there. And underneath all of it, something bigger. You will understand your own biochemistry. You’ll know what your labs are saying, why your body responds the way it does, and what questions to ask in every appointment for the rest of your life.

The plan I build you lasts a season. The education lasts forever. Nobody can take it from you, and no future doctor’s visit will ever feel the same.

If that’s you, here’s where to learn more.

And if it’s not your season for this, keep reading. Keep learning. Take what I teach here into the appointments you already have. That’s the whole point.

This post is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. Please work with your own healthcare provider for personalized care.

The most radical act in a sick society is to heal yourself — and then gently help others heal too.

— Dagmara