Untitled - February 24, 2026
00:00:00 Speaker: Today's conversation is one I know that I so desperately needed two three months ago, and now we get to bring that to all of you today. Hey, it's Denise and you're listening to the Working Moms Redefined podcast, and today we are joined by Doctor John Kim. He is a board certified physician that specializes in integrative and functional medicine. And what does that even mean to all of you? Well, finding the root cause maybe of some of the issues that you're having, rather than masking or trying to fix the outcomes, it's hormonal health and hormones are such a topic that so many of us one don't know about, two want to know about, and three might not know where to go and what to believe. We brought the expert to you. Doctor Kim is here to really explain clearly what might be going on. The conversation is going to be guided towards really answering some of the questions that all of you had to better be able to optimize our health and the way in which we show up. Doctor Kim, thank you so much for joining us. Oh, Denise, I'm so happy to join you. As you know that I served that area, um, for about two years, and I lived in Quincy in one. Hormonal health for women is something that I think a lot of us are really talking about mainly and wanting to to do something that's maybe not so traditional in the sense of medicine. And for me personally, that journey began back in November, and I was referred to Doctor Kim by a good friend of mine, and it has been such a fun journey thus far to learn about my body and to have somebody to bounce questions off of. You have been instrumental in that, Doctor Kim, and before we get into more questions, what is it that you hope people will walk away with after our conversation today? Oh, it's just one thing that we're not machines. We're not machines. Yeah. I think that in our culture, we have this idea that we're we're like robots or machines. And in that paradigm, it is frightening what's coming. The invasion of AI, invasion of the robot. And if we focus on that, I think that they're right. I mean, we're done for. But if we focus on the fact that we're people and focus on people, then actually more things open up because there's so much that AI cannot do, like AI cannot do, like what we're doing. AI cannot build relationship. AI cannot build trust. So I think that it's going to be more exciting that in the future that we, we human beings can be more human beings because all of us will have like help. Like, for example, I don't think too many women now look and look at the washing machine dryer and say, oh my God, that's a threat or automatic vacuum machine and say, oh my God, it's taking my work. So I think it will be somewhat like that. And, and and then if you focus on being human being and try to work with AI, you'll do great. Otherwise, I think it'll be challenging. And and what I'm saying is that all of us, most of us, including me, I think we just have a linear view. We just think that our body is a machine. Hormonal systems are a mechanistic approach, but really it isn't. Where do we start? Doctor Kim, I think so many high capacity women wonder if one. What am I feeling? Is it burnout? Is it exhaustion? Is there something else wrong? What would you say to these women about their bodies and where to start and what to do and what questions to ask? And I think, like all you, you may recall, I talk about shine, uh, and it's an acronym for um. If you are not feeling optimal. You have to look at your sleep. Um, you have to look at your hormones, which we're going to talk about today. And I is hidden infections and is nutrition and is autoimmune disease. And these are all linked together. And after Covid, actually, uh, our issues with hidden infections and autoimmune diseases have gone through the roof. So even if you don't, you're not diagnosed. Chances are we have we're walking around with hidden infection, autoimmune disease that or the process that is ongoing. And of course hormones will get affected. It's not like hormones are in isolation to our body. It's part of our body. Um, and I think that there's also an idea that there's one thing, one supplement that can, um, the hack, one hack that is going to fix everything, and it just doesn't work that way. I think that that almost makes me wonder if that's what we as a society are oversimplifying when it comes to hormones. There are so many ads that we see about, oh, take this and this will help all of your problems. Or read this and you'll now know everything. Would you agree with that? Or are we oversimplifying hormones in general too? I think that, um, that is hormones. Actually biological aspect of hormone isn't that difficult? It's the, um, clinical understanding. I'll come up with that. The is a perfect example. Thyroid. Everyone knows what thyroid is. So what? What's really interesting is yesterday I saw a patient who, uh, is hypothyroid, is taking medication and is hyperthyroid. So, um, it's pretty simple. You're going to say, oh, whatever reason, uh, you're hyperthyroid and reduce the dose. And I think that's the most way if you went to your doctor, they would stop at that. But in the shrine model, I'm asking them, how are you sleeping? I palpitations. Oh, she's really hyper. Thyroid or other hormone levels are getting compromised. No, it's all good there. And then infectious disease. Like, how did you do with Covid? I got a couple of times. Um, how are you eating? It's like the standard American diet. You know what that's called? That. And they're fixing it. They're fixing it. I think good things are happening, but it's going to take time. So. And then the last is autoimmune. And she kind of cocks her head. It's like I have Hashimoto's. But doctors tell me that everything is normal, so I think it's good. I said, no, it's opposite. Your Hashimoto's is normal because your thyroid is kind of burnt out. That's why it's normal. The antibodies are normal, so I don't know if it's automatically a good idea, but let me be crazy, doctor and order one more thing. Looking at the root cause and this, this crazy idea that you can have hypothyroidism and hyperthyroidism in one, which is Hashimoto's and Graves in one. And so I've seen it a couple of times. I'm sure you don't have it. Let me check it. And guess what? She's got Hashimoto's and Graves. So, um, and then I talked to a doctor that works with me because, you know, I recently saw that, too. And again, it's an example that things don't work in isolation. I think the Covid, um, has changed things. And if you ask me, how many of us have been exposed to Covid unless you live in a bubble, I think all of us were affected. We just were affected differently. Most of us asymptomatic. Some of us probably converted, but. And then some of them are us. We got sick and then, you know, tragically, no longer here with us. So I think that that's one example that hormones don't work in isolation. Let's start base level. I have some questions and we'll use examples that I've been able to learn from tests with all of you. But what would you say are the biggest symptoms that you are hearing and seeing from those that you work with? So I think fatigue is a big one. And um, and the way that I think that we work, I always say to my patients, is that yin before yang never yang in, always yin and yang. But in our culture, I think it's almost shameful that we have to rest. It's almost shameful that we have to sleep. Um, like in my household, our household, um, sleep is so important. We prioritize that. And Saturdays and Sundays we try to actually get naps. Um, and we eat around that so that, um, a little bit heavier lunch makes insulin go up, and then you get sleepy, and then we just we don't fight that. We we take it as a gift. We sleep. When I was directing a program, um, near Quincy and, um, we, we had enough team members, enough nurses, um, we would take create shifts and, um, and I would give someone eleven to one break, and it doesn't matter what they do. And a lot of them times they catch up on sleep if they have to. They do other things. But. And then twelve to two I would have another person go out and then um, and that like makes it more, um, doable for everyone. I know that it's only one hour. The company wise, um, they may be losing one hour, but I think it's an investing in my team so that they that their afternoon is easier and and believe it or not, when you get depleted that way, it's like even when you sleep, you don't get a good night's sleep. So I feel like they go home and they have better sleep and uh, because they, they get better sleep. I think everything gets regulated better because sleep is the magic. A agent that controls the cortisol or growth hormone, insulin. Thyroid hormone, um, is, you know, you say, I think that sleep has an impact. Melatonin and serotonin. So more than except for the maybe female hormones, because everything else. Sleep has an influence. And I do think that, um, sex hormones have a relationship because we, we are taught that progesterone helps you to go to bed. Uh, estrogen helps you to stay in bed. So, I mean, gross overgeneralization. But that's an example that I think that sleep is, um, systematically, uh, attacked in our culture. You know, we sleep our with our phone. Um, and I think that one of the greatest things that I love about iPhone is do not disturb mode. So I can put that on. And then I think alarm works, but everything else doesn't work. So then the world is going on. But I you know, it doesn't it doesn't, uh, buzz me. So I think that that's what happens. How much sleep shouldn't the average person get? So I think it's not a number, but it's how you feel in the morning. If you feel like you get up, your brain is clear and you're happy to get things started. I think you're getting an optimal amount of sleep. One of the things that I try to do is that if I if I'm sleepy, I don't fight it like before. Before, uh, doing this, uh, interview about noon, I felt really, really sleepy, so I just thought, I'll put my phone on Do not Disturb. And then I just close my eyes and then about twenty five minutes. Uh, but, you know, there was an alarm on, so I can relax. Twenty five minutes later, I got up and my brain felt enough rest. And I think that's the way that I look at it is do you have enough energy at the end of the day? Like yesterday, I came back from work about an hour drive. I still have energy to, um, cook for my wife and then do the dishes and then clean up the kitchen. Um, because I think that a lot of things that men don't know is that women notice that men, as men, are ten years behind Mentally, emotionally. The second thing is that we're clueless. I mean, we don't come house housebroken. We're like puppy. We're super excited. But we do not come house trained so that once we figure things out, then we understand that, um, we're stronger most of the times. So then use the energy to help your spouse. Um, the things that if she looks tired, let her go rest, let her sleep, um, feed the animals, uh, you know, wash the dishes, do the laundry, fold them. So. Because the reason why I say it is not just, um, like a sexist way of looking at it, it's biology. The thing is that, um, in Chinese classical medicine, they say that the complexity of women, if men is one woman is ten in mind, complexity is one hundred if men is one. So women have that complex system. And who can get pregnant? Who can breastfeed, right. So who does children run to when things are right? Not right. And guess what? My son is self-reliant. Air force. Guess who he calls? He's upset. Not me. So I think God's given us are given Proverbs thirty one for a reason. I didn't write about hormones, but I think he knew that women have it tough because of their. The changes they have is bigger. I mean, it's a big change between, um, cycling versus all of a sudden not cycling. And like in, like in, uh, Bible, they talk about Sarah saying that, hey, um, like I'm postmenopausal, I can't have children. And Abraham's like, oh, God, thank you for, you know, Sarah's going to get pregnant. So, you know, it's little things like that. You know, how complex, um, a woman's body is. And part of that is hormone. It's not just hormone, but hormone definitely play a role. That was one thing that you and I spoke with quite a bit, Doctor Kim. I had gotten a full blood panel workup and everything was fine. Looked phenomenal. But yet I didn't feel that. And that's where we have to take the initiative of ourselves to go ask questions and potentially get help. So when I got to meet you, that was where we started. And you had me do a Dutch test. Mhm. And then you looked at sex hormones and you looked at cortisol levels and micronutrients and not the, not even, you know, two weeks later when I was able to get back all of those results, just knowing peace of mind that, hey something is off that a normal blood panel would not have shown. And so for me, I was low on ferritin on some important vitamins and my body would not release cortisol. And it was almost as if, like you telling me all of those things was like, it's okay to not be okay. And it's silly to need those types of, you know what, maybe it's not. It was hard for me to give myself permission to be okay with knowing that, and then knowing that you were going to take care of me moving forward. When you meet with individuals and you walk through those. Tell us, what do those types of tests show? So, like I said, the idea of shine, um, means sleep or which gets influenced by hormone, which are our energy level is influenced by hidden infection. Because if your body is fighting hidden viruses and other parasites, and a lot of people think that they have worms. What they don't understand is that actually the viruses, um, of some of us are carrying still Covid virus around. Some of us, all of us probably have chickenpox virus. That's why we get shingles. And we even have a lot of Epstein-Barr viruses. and we're finding out that they are related to autoimmune conditions, uh, and whatnot. And so I think that, uh, doing the tests tell us that, like integrative medicine major fallacy is that your history is going to tell you everything. History does say a lot, but you can't look for those things that I just talked about or you cannot know, um, hidden infections. You cannot know vitamin deficiencies. Um, and those things are all important because they, we are a complex, um, not mechanism, but we're complex beings and there are multiple nodes of influence that if you can. So if you're asleep, you're not sleeping. Everyone knows what that feels like. If your hormone is messed up, I think you feel it. Especially women in perimenopause, they begin to feel like young mothers. Also, they feel that their patience is slipping away from them. But the feeling of rage building in in the head. So controlling that is another. That's cortisol trying to run out of control and just holding on to that. Well, that's extra energy you have to spend to make sure that that's not an issue. And then on top of that, imagine, um, you are having issues with your sex hormones and all of a sudden, um, things will change. Like one woman came to me, said, my doctor is giving me all hormones, but even I'm not a doctor. But I can tell it's low. And then she's trying to talk to me like it's age appropriate for you. And then I said, how does that make you feel? Like my skin is turning into, like, old hag. And she won't, she won't, she won't help me. So we checked again, and then it's like, ma'am, you have no estrogen. And I think we I mean, because I know that we use desogen cream for face, and that works like magic, but the rest of your body needs it, too. So, um, you know, we we we we are now. And I said, you know, you're the boss. I'm going to check in two to three months. But you I'm going to give you baby doses first and then you correct yourself. Um, and and then in two to three months, if we go overboard, we'll cut down a little bit. But just. I just want you to feel like you're in charge again. That that that you are empowered to make these changes not dependent on me. And I'm going to be permissive because you're smart. You figured out that you had estrogen depletion even without the labs. And that is hard to give ourselves space to really sometimes even think and feel and evaluate. Like, how am I feeling? I think at one point in time you asked me, we're like, well, how would you describe your health? And I, I had to take a beat because I'm like, I don't know, the last time that somebody asked me that question because you're either taking the kids to the doctors for ear appointments, or you're going to the chiropractor or you're going to, you know, all of these other things for people besides us. And then when you really sit down and evaluate how you're feeling, you get to then put words to ideas that then you can help. For me, lately, the inflammation was a topic of our discussion. And so inflammation was showing up for me when I would first wake up in the morning and I drink plenty of water. So we knew that that wasn't an issue. The tightness in the skin, the feeling of PMS, symptoms around times that were not the menstrual cycle and other things. Brain fog that we all talked about. Yes, you go back to sleep is your number one and I am working on that. I always have areas to improve as any of all of us do, but something along those lines was really nice for us to discuss too, was what can you do to help inflammation? So the inflammation, um, I think, is that there are multiple ways of dealing with it. Supplements is one way of doing it. Um, and those are patients that I have worked with. Um, know that that fat burning state is known as ketosis, and you don't have to eat all fat to get ketosis. There are different kinds of ketosis, but not eating sugar the way that, uh, Robert Kennedy Jr has proposed, um, restricting carbs is one way to reduce, uh, anti-inflammatory diet. And one of the reasons why I grew is when things don't work, then you really grow. For example, when I got out of Doctor Weil's program, anti-inflammatory diet sounded so wonderful, I put everyone on it and people with autoimmune disease, I got to see it getting worse and worse and worse. So then it hit upon me that we don't. He doesn't have all the answers. And then I found the thing called low dose naltrexone, which is almost like magic for autoimmune, uh, immune inflammation, brain inflammation. And that, uh, has really changed the way I approach things. And I realized that, you know, I'm not functional medicine physician. I'm not integrative medicine physician. First and foremost, I'm a root cause, medicine first and foremost. That means I want to I want to dive. And I don't really care about the what integrative medicine doesn't like, which is use. Use prescription medication. Because naltrexone is functional medicine. LDN doesn't fit in either, but it just happens to solve my patients problems. Because if I can catch the, um, hypothyroidism or Hashimoto's thyroiditis, we can reverse that. If you have a woman that with like graves disease, we can use that to reverse that. And we don't have a lot of tools like that. We have a lot of anti tools. It's like uh anti-inflammatory. Well but it the LDN doesn't do that. It just brings everything into balance. It addresses the root cause which is the overactive microglia, which is the policeman in the brain, policeman in the immune system. And you don't want your like Quincy, Illinois police to be all pissed off and looking for a reason to pull people over. It's just not a good thing. And yet we walk around like that and then. And then we're like, oh, why is like, everything so much harder? It's like, well, because you're the inflammation is just like having a peace officer who's pissed off and, and like, had a fight with your spouse, and now he sees you feeling like five miles an hour pull you over, you know. So I think that that that's kind of an example that our body goes into overdrive. Um, cortisol, um, is something like that. And um, and I think that that inflammation and hormones are really related. Inflammation and immunity really related. Um, and inflammation and sleep is really related because if you're inflamed, your brain is inflamed. Um, because histamine reaction. What do we take to, uh, go to treat histamine reaction? Benadryl. Benadryl makes us happy. Why? Because that that feeling of overstimulation is histamine thing. So, um, and that's that's a form of inflammation. People think inflammation means the classical idea of it's hard, it's swollen, it's painful. But that the brain overstimulation not able to do that is inflammation. That's brain inflammation that I think is directly connected with, uh, what do you call the brain fog? React directly. Long time, uh, connected with Alzheimer. So when patients come in first to me and they say I'm tired and I always ask them, do you have brain fog? One hundred percent. Because I have brain fog, right? Or or they will have pain. So I tell them, if you don't take care of brain fog, I am unable to help you with the tea. We have to tackle all brain fog. If you have brain fog that first. So there are very high functioning people. They are protected from this. So then that's not really an issue, right. Because they can't survive. They can't afford to have brain fog. So they they compensate. But usually either their true protection comes from their genetics or their burning their, um, vital essence even more. You know, it's like burning candles on both ends. And then it's like, I wonder why Bernardo candle very quickly. I wonder, I mean, as if you're watching on our YouTube channel, right? Like, obviously we're raising our hands with those types of things because ultimately we know a lot of this stuff is in our control. And yet, when we take into account and do what is in our control and we still need help, that's where you come in. And I'll be honest, sometimes I need you to just lead me to water, too, because all drink once I get there. But just help me get there. And that is something that you are so, so good at. What what do women do if they are? What's their first step? Right. Like we went through what they might be experiencing. We went through what you test for, how you test for it. What then might come of it? What's their first step with you then. So I think um, not all, but sometimes we talk about meaning a lot. Why? To suffer? Um, because it's it is really hard. It is hard to be a woman. I think it's in some ways, when I studied with Doctor Bernie Siegel, his wife used to say, um, behind every successful man, there's a very tired woman because. And there are studies that show that, too, that if you're a physician, guess how much less housework they do compared to non-physician women? Zero percent they do the same amount. Or if your house and you know these two things. If you are a successful businesswoman with multiple businesses, um, you do the same amount of housework as if you were a house maker. If you're a neurosurgeon, a woman, you do same. If you're a pharmacist, it's the same amount. So then how are women supposed to survive? You got you got you you you're burning on both ends. And then, uh, men are about ten to twenty years emotionally younger than them. Um, but body wise, they're probably ten to twenty years older than they are. It's it's really not like a it's a miracle that we don't have more issues or like divorce rate is not one hundred percent. Um, so I think that that's kind of one of the assessments I do do, like I had a patient come in and the husband is just really committed to the family business. It's killing him. And her comment is, you know, I'm going to go down with the ship. I mean, that's a loaded question, right? And she says no. Um, she says two things. Number one, I'm not getting a divorce. I'm not doing that. But I am disengaging. And that's what I tell men. It's like just because your spouse is Proverbs thirty one spouse, and she looks like she's flexible. What you don't understand is beyond that flexibility is a glass there. The women will be flexible to a point, and then they'll turn into glass and they shatter. And then I said, that's why if you look at the statistics they're filing, divorce is more more women than men because they are flexing. They're flexing, they're flexing, they're shattering. So I tell I tell men, just be very. That's why I do everything I do, because I don't want my girl to say, honey, I shattered and you're so fired. bye. But that's a hard conversation to have because really, I think a lot of us would like to just take you and go say, hey, go talk to our partners, go talk to our husbands. And that's not going to happen. So what might you say for those of us who need to have a conversation with our partner about asking for help? Ultimately, I think education, education, education, and what I'll say is that you need friendship with your partner. I mean, again, once again, um, the in the in the time of AI where AI is threatening every place, I don't think that I think that department is wide open for human beings. Sincerity. Um, like our friendship, trust building. And I think, you know, the feeling when we were. I was asking for your help, and I just said, here's the project. I don't want to know what you do. I just trust you. I'll see you later. And that makes you feel differently, I think than than than, um, most clients you do, they're thinking about it, and they're small business people, so they have to be sensitive. And I am too. But we budgeted for it, so we just are. My program is I trust the program and vice versa. I mean, yeah, trust is so, so important and trusting that that other person has you when you have either a business conversation or a personal life conversation. And I think, Doctor Kim, it's proven to be true through our conversation today that. You've got us when we come to you with struggles it. I'll describe it best. It was like I could word vomit, everything that was going on. I don't need to be the one to figure out if it's connected. I don't need to be the one to figure out how you're going to help me. I don't need to be the one trying to search supplements. You do it because there's trust and relationship there. And those who are listening. I can strongly encourage you to take that next step. Make the investment in yourself and in your health because that is what you have long term. And with that being said, Doctor Kim, how can people reach out to you? Website social media accounts will have all of that linked in our show notes, but can you go ahead and share those? So, so actually, our website is probably the best way because I have a, a, um, telemedicine multiple state practice. So it's the website is everything is driven to the website. And I have pretty good, uh, presence in, um, in, in our social media. I think I have about more than twenty thousand people that I influence over, but it's all all on what I call freemium. Uh, you know, I am a physician, I have responsibility, I can't practice medicine in other states. So. But I can guide them like the, the LDN ah group that we have, uh, that we do a lot of guiding, educating. And of course, people don't want that. People want like, hey, what's the answer? And it's like, well, I can't really tell you that because I'm not your doctor. So I think the website is a great way to get the conversation started. Um, there is a contact us form that is secure so that, um, and technically they're not my patients yet and it costs money to have secure system. But I think it's just like what you said. It's honest medicine, it's trust. Then I have to go on extra mile. Like when you and I talked about, um, the calendar system, the first one isn't HIPAA secure. So we decided not to use it. But I do have a HIPAA secure automatic calendar system, because I think that these little steps carry over to bigger, bigger trust things. And then so I would say just contact me and what I what happens after that is I don't charge people to talk to them, and I. I took an hour. And if then we are not there yet, I book another hour because I only have like I want to just have ninety nine patients. Um, active patients only. And, uh, every month I aim to have just two patients that's new that the big difference is before I took all comers. Now I don't I'm interviewing them. So these couples like I have this issue. So that's a very complicated issue. And that's called small intestine bacterial overgrowth. And it's very very difficult. But it's very easy. It can be one hundred percent if you use antibiotics or functional medicine, integrative medicine you get fifty percent. But you do it my way. You can get up to one hundred percent. But the thing is I need they buy in. So I said we would talk for thirty minutes and then I give them the websites and I go, here, it's all free information. Or you can even do it yourself. Um, so I come back next week and they say it's like, did you read that? Because I read all of them. The wife goes. I read all of them. And then. Okay, you know, I did tell you I'm going to quiz you. You know, I'm a very busy businessman. And then the wife doesn't say anything. So I said, I don't think I can work with you because you didn't do homework. And then if you said you didn't do homework, just explain to me one more time, please. Or do you try to say that you did it, and then I have to call you out? It's like, I don't think we're a good match. So I let him go and I keep since they are really disappointed. But, um, I think it's better that way. So I invest a lot of time in finding. Are they good? Good match for me or not? Direct integrative Care.com is the website to go so that you could visit the contact us form and connect with Doctor Kim himself. Doctor Kim, thank you so much for investing into all of us listening and wanting to help us shine, if you will, the best possible way. If you are in need of taking that next step of maybe identifying what is going on in the root cause behind that, do not hesitate to contact Doctor Kim. You can visit more at our Working Moms Redefined dot com. We'll have it in the show notes for you to be able to directly connect with him. Because let's be honest, this is hard and yet you can do hard things. Thank you for listening to the Working Moms Redefined podcast. It is not lost on me that you chose to spend time together. Thank you. Let's connect outside of this space on socials. We'd love for you to follow us on Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest. We've got it all to connect with you. If you feel as if someone in your life could be impacted by this message, feel free to share it. That is the biggest compliment as we part ways together. Remember, you can do hard things.
