Spotlight Series

Topic: From Prescriptions to True Root Healing

Guest Name: Nisha Patel, FNP-C

Guest Credentials: FNP-C and Owner, Aum Functional Health

Discussion Details:

After years of watching women’s chronic symptoms get masked by standard prescriptions, Family Nurse Practitioner Nisha decided to break free from the conventional healthcare mold. In this interview, NIsha shares her passionate journey into functional medicine and the inspiration behind launching her own practice dedicated to uncovering and healing the true root causes of illness. Tune in to hear how her own battle with unexplained fatigue and brain fog fueled her mission to create a space where women are finally heard, validated, and genuinely healed.

Benefits of Watching:

Why You Need to Watch: What’s Waiting for You

The Truth About Invisible Roadblocks: Discover why chasing symptoms with standard prescriptions makes true healing nearly impossible if you aren’t managing the underlying chaos first.

Trading the Band-Aid for Lasting Relief: Walk away with an understanding of how tracing fatigue, fog, and hormone shifts to their exact source can finally help you reclaim your vibrant self.

The Big Takeaway: Tune in to learn how to stop masking your symptoms and start healing your body from the roots up!

Address of Guests’ Business:
Website : https://aumfh.com/
Instagram : @aumfunctionalhealth
Facebook : Aum Functional Health

Thank you. Thank you for having me. Pleasure to be here.

Great. So I’m just going to give a little intro about you. Today, I’m joined by an incredible guest who is doing vital work in the world of women’s wellness. Please welcome Nisha, a dedicated functional medicine practitioner who specializes in women’s hormonal and reproductive health. Nisha’s work is all about moving past conventional Band-Aid fixes and diving deep into the root causes of issues that affect so many women, things like PCOS, endometriosis, thyroid function, and the complexities of IVF or postpartum recovery. She truly takes a holistic approach, looking at everything from the gut and metabolic health and lifestyle and environmental factors to help women restore their body’s natural rhythm. I’m so excited to talk to you today.

Awesome. Thank you for that.

When did you first realize that this work had a deeper meaning for you, beyond the medical side?

Sure. So I’ve been a family nurse practitioner for 16 years. So I did all the traditional work, did the traditional medicine approach, what we’re trained on, which just like you mentioned in the intro, seemed like a Band-Aid to many of the symptoms that people were experiencing, and often making them feel even worse. So, I transitioned into more holistic wellness medicine just because I wanted to look at the person as a whole. I also went through my own personal health journey in the past, and I pretty much healed myself because of that. I didn’t lean on medicine for everything. So I noticed that looking at the person as a whole, making sure that we have the entire picture, filling in all the gaps and the puzzle pieces, is the way to go to make that person feel better individually.

I love that. I love that approach. I think it’s similar to my experience in PT, the practice. The traditional PT, we only look at one symptom at a time, but when you can open up-

Yes

… and see the whole entire person, the healing is much deeper.

Mm-hmm.

So what kinds of conditions and cases do you frequently work with?

So I specialize mostly in women’s health, with a special focus on reproductive health, too. So women facing any challenges with fertility, PCOS, endometriosis, any hormonal changes. So even for women going through perimenopause, menopause, that are noticing changes in the stubborn weight gain around their midsection, or not having as quick of a recovery as before, brain fog, joint pains, and obviously, the list goes on.

Yeah.

Those women that come, we work with them in a systematic approach to somewhat reset the body, get their hormonal balance back into check to make them feel like themselves again and have the most optimal life as possible.

Okay. And what makes your approach and experience different from others in this industry?

So again, I look at the whole person. So it’s a personalized approach. It’s not the traditional textbook answer to everybody. I make sure that I go through the entire medical history with them, as far back as before they were even born, just because, again, the whole lifespan does matter, and it makes up who you are today. And then they have the option of doing personalized testing, because we can go a lot deeper. The more information we have, obviously, the more puzzle pieces that we have to work with to treat their gut health and their inflammation, stress, sleep, hormones, obviously. And again, it’s a personalized approach, but there’s a lot of options just to make sure that we’re targeting whatever the problem areas are for that person.

So in your experience, as you’re working on all these different things of hormonal health and gut health, what kind of shifts do you see that’s different from what you saw before?

So even with… Bless you. Even with nutritional deficiencies and metabolic pathways, in terms of even detox pathways, a lot of that is missed-

Mm-hmm

… in traditional medicine, and even just different approaches, because there’s so many things that makes our body do what it’s doing currently. So when someone comes, and they’re like, “I feel bad. I’m not digesting as well as I used to,” or, “My lab values look like this,” or, “I’m taking the best supplements. I’m eating the best foods as possible.” They may not be doing anything wrong, but their body may not be agreeing with them. So you could be putting the best things inside of you, but if your body’s not ready for it, then it’s not going to do any justice for you. But I’ve noticed just fixing nutritional deficiencies, and gut lymphatic drainage, and so on, every system works together. It’s like a domino effect. So we’ve seen tremendous improvement in labs just by treating the gut, to be honest.

Mm-hmm.

And obviously doing a lot of other approaches, too, but-

Mm-hmm

… just targeting that one system as a whole is big in-

Mm-hmm

… feeling better.

So sometimes, opening up these spaces and treating these different symptoms might be getting to the root cause of why they’re not making those bigger shifts as they’re trying to work on their symptoms.

Exactly.

What are some early warning signs that someone shouldn’t ignore, or signs that should prompt a visit immediately?

So, for a lot of people, especially women, after age 35, we notice a lot of changes happening.

Mm-hmm.

So if you’re noticing that you’re puffy in the morning, or if you’re not able to use the bathroom like you should be, and you’re not emptying as efficiently. If you’re noticing any type of gut changes, even if it’s subtle changes. It doesn’t have to be the classic symptoms is pretty much what I’m getting at. Obviously, a lot of women experience the brain fog and the hot flashes and night sweats and things like that, but some of these other symptoms may be very subtle. Even increased joint pains after a workout because recovery time is slowed. That may feel normal for some people, but it’s probably a change that’s warning you. It’s like a sign like, okay, we need to catch something early on so that it doesn’t get worse over time.

What kind of gut dysfunctions? What do you mean specifically by that? Like reflux or constipation, or?

Yep. Those, and also just if they’re eating something that never bothered them before and now it’s like they’re cramping or if they’re noticing more bloatation. I know bloatation’s not really a word, but you know what I mean.

Okay.

Bloating. If they’re noticing some of those changes that they never used to before, that just means that their gut is impaired in some way, so it might not be digesting as well. And that could all be, honestly, hormone related, too. Not many people relate the two. But it could be lymphatic drainage, it could be hormonally related, it could be a lot of things happening-

Mm

… that’s causing inflammation and stress on the body.

And why after the age of 35, you mentioned? Why 35?

35 is where most of my patients notice, and even I myself noticed a big change, especially with workouts, recovery time. Just noticing change is harder to keep the weight off, it’s harder to recover after a workout. But also noticing some of these changes, like sleep patterns may change.

Mm.

Mood may start changing. Everything starts swinging, right?

Mm-hmm.

Skin may change as well, like skin changes. Pretty much anything that can happen with hormonal changes. So as we age gracefully, not all of our symptoms can be graceful. So we notice some of these changes. But some people it may be after age 40. So the time span can vary per individuals, but it’s usually after age 35 that we start noticing early signs and symptoms that we could catch early on, but not everybody is educated on that.

Mm-hmm. Yes. And I think a lot of women who are maybe having kids at this age aren’t thinking about these effects. They’re thinking it’s going to come much later. But having that-

Right

… awareness for themselves right now, I think is going to really help prevent a lot of things happening to them in the future.

Yeah.

So what’s one simple step someone can take today to prioritize their health, even before they call your office?

So again, noticing the symptoms. I’m a big proponent in just journaling or keeping track of symptoms.

Yeah.

So noticing if there’s anything that’s changed, even within the last six months. And then it doesn’t have to be big changes, but just reaching out to someone, right? Either whether it’s their primary care provider, trying to get at least their basic hormone levels checked-

Okay

… just to see where they’re at. Because again, depending on where they are in their women’s health time span, the symptoms may vary, but taking some of those proactive steps is going to take them a long way.

Okay. I like the journaling because-

Yeah

… you’ll be able to really track and see the shifts over time. It’s like, oh, I used to have this symptom, and I’ve had it for a really long time. And I started-

Yeah

… this intervention, now I feel better. So I like that.

Yeah.

Any final thoughts for someone silently struggling who isn’t sure where to start right now?

So taking all this in, I know it’s a lot of information and something that most people are not taught, but-

Mm

… it’s important to notice the changes that your body’s going through early on. A lot of people are told that it’s normal, that it’s normal changes. For women especially, after a certain age, it’s normal to go through hormonal changes, it’s normal to go through perimenopause and menopause. But you don’t have to be miserable. There is something that you can do about these symptoms. And myself personally, and for my practice, I do offer free consultations for anyone that is struggling with any type of symptoms. Doesn’t have to be specifically related to anything that we just mentioned. But again, there is something that you can do about it. So don’t sit on it for too long, because once the symptoms get bad, it does take a while to get back to equilibrium again.

Mm-hmm. Well, thank you so much, and thanks for joining me today. I think that you have… I love your holistic approach, and-

Thanks

… it’s a pretty revolutionary time for women at this phase, so it’s great to have you as a person who’s educating the community and the women about these health topics. So thank you so much, Nisha.

Good. Thank you, too. I appreciate you being here.