The Functional Pharmacist

The Functional Pharmacist I help women connect hormones, labs, energy, brain fog, metabolism, sleep and whole-body health without the brush-off.

For saveable women’s health guides, follow me on Instagram: I'm a Pharmacist, a mom of 2, wife, and pharmacy owner. My passion has always been helping others through my work in pharmacy. Over the last 5 years, my approach has drastically changed. Early on, my role in healthcare was to educate and counsel patients about their prescribed medication at our local pharmacy. While I lov

ed providing education, I always felt there was more that I could do. I hated seeing 1 medication lead to 5 medications and many times my patients never felt any better. This lead me to studying functional medicine and learning how food, supplements, nutrients, hormones, and lifestyle play a major role in health. I am inspired by my patients who made drastic transformations to their overall health. In addition, I experienced what a healthy lifestyle and the right supplement plan did for me. Shifting the focus of my career to functional medicine and helping people achieve balanced health has brought an intensity to my practice to help as many people as I can.

08/31/2026

I think a lot of women assume that if hot flashes have been going on for years, something must be off.

The SWAN study followed women through the menopause transition and found frequent hot flashes and night sweats lasted a median 7.4 years.

For women whose symptoms started before or early in perimenopause, it was more than 11 years.

And even after the final period, they often kept going for years.

That is a very different timeline from what most women expect when this starts.

If you are losing sleep night after night or planning your day around hot flashes, I would bring it up instead of assuming you just have to outlast them. There are hormone and nonhormone treatment options, and how much these symptoms are affecting your life matters.

I’m curious how many women were actually given a realistic timeline when their hot flashes first started.

08/30/2026

If you’re losing weight on semaglutide or tirzepatide, I’d want to know one more thing besides how many pounds came off.

Are you still as strong as you were before?

A 2026 review of 20 randomized trials found that about 25% to 39% of total weight lost with these medications was lean mass. Lean mass is not all muscle, but muscle is part of it. The same review found that resistance training was associated with better preservation of lean mass during weight loss.

So pay attention to very ordinary things. Are the grocery bags heavier than they used to feel? Are you using lighter weights at the gym? Is getting off the floor becoming harder even while your clothes are getting smaller?

If any of that is happening, it is worth bringing up with the clinician managing your medication.

If you’re taking one of these medications, did anyone talk to you about keeping your strength when you started?

08/28/2026

You can have a heart attack, go through an angiogram, and still hear that your major arteries are not badly blocked.

That can happen with MINOCA, a heart attack without the usual obstructed artery. And women experience it far more often than men.

The first test may not show the whole reason. Doctors can sometimes find a small plaque rupture, an artery tear, a spasm, or a problem in the tiny blood vessels feeding the heart.

In one study of women with MINOCA, adding detailed artery imaging and cardiac MRI uncovered a likely cause in 84% of cases.

That is a big difference from simply being told the arteries look clear and going home confused about what just happened.

And it matters because the actual cause can change what doctors pay attention to next, including treatment, follow-up, and whether more testing is needed.

So if someone has clear-looking arteries after a heart attack, there may still be more to investigate.

Had you ever heard of MINOCA before this post?

One reason B12 gets missed is that people still expect anemia to show up first.But nerve symptoms can happen even when y...
08/27/2026

One reason B12 gets missed is that people still expect anemia to show up first.

But nerve symptoms can happen even when your CBC looks normal. And if you take metformin or long-term reflux medication, B12 deserves an even closer look because both can affect levels.

I’m curious how often this is actually being discussed in appointments: have you ever had B12 checked because of tingling, burning, numbness, or balance changes, or was it never brought up?

08/25/2026

You can have a normal fasting blood sugar and still land in the prediabetes range on another test.

That is possible because the three tests are looking at blood sugar differently. A1C estimates your average over about three months. Fasting glucose captures one point in time after an overnight fast. The 2-hour glucose test checks how your body handles a measured sugar drink.

They do not always agree.

For prediabetes, the usual ranges are an A1C of 5.7% to 6.4%, fasting glucose of 100 to 125 mg/dL, or a 2-hour glucose result of 140 to 199 mg/dL.

There is another reason I do not like treating A1C as the only piece of the picture. Certain types of anemia and other conditions affecting red blood cells can make A1C less reliable. If your A1C and glucose results seem to tell two different stories, that is worth discussing rather than assuming one number settles it.

If you have only ever been told “your A1C is fine,” pull up your recent labs and see whether fasting glucose was checked too. A lot of women have never been shown the difference between these tests.

08/24/2026

Only about half of women know heart disease is their biggest health threat, which means a lot of women are still walking into checkups without asking the right questions.

One simple place to start is with a blood test called Lp(a). It is an inherited heart-risk marker, it is not usually included in a standard cholesterol test, and the 2026 ACC/AHA guideline now recommends checking it at least once in adulthood.

Your pregnancy history matters too. High blood pressure or diabetes during pregnancy, giving birth early, and early menopause can all add useful information about future heart risk.

So at your next physical, I would not stop at “my cholesterol was normal.” Ask what your blood pressure and blood sugar are doing, whether Lp(a) has ever been checked, and make sure your doctor knows about any pregnancy complications or early menopause.

A lot of women have never been told those things belong in a heart-health conversation.

08/24/2026

Cardio after 40 does not need to disappear. It needs to be used with more purpose.

One simple way to judge intensity is the talk test. If you can talk but not sing, you are generally in a moderate zone. If you can only get out a few words before needing a breath, you are working vigorously.

That matters because cardiorespiratory fitness is one of the strongest predictors of long-term health. The American Heart Association has even argued that it deserves to be treated like a clinical vital sign.

You do not need every workout to be hard. You need enough easy work to recover from, enough hard work to challenge your capacity, and strength training doing its own job alongside it.

Follow me for more evidence-based women’s health and fitness without the extremes.

Video credit: YouTube, The Shocking Truth About Cardio and Belly Fat After 40

08/21/2026

They did not keep these women awake all night.

In this randomized trial, women who normally slept about 7.5 hours a night shortened their sleep to roughly 6.2 hours. After six weeks, insulin resistance increased by 14.8%.

And the change was not explained by gaining body fat.

That matters because short sleep can quietly change how well your body responds to insulin before there is an obvious change on the scale. Your pancreas may need to release more insulin to manage the same glucose load, which is exactly the direction we do not want metabolism moving over time.

The postmenopausal women in the study had an even larger response, with insulin resistance increasing by about 20%.

So when blood sugar starts becoming harder to manage in midlife, sleep deserves more than a passing question about whether you feel tired. How much sleep you are consistently getting can be part of the metabolic picture itself.

Follow me for more women’s health research that changes how we look at the everyday things affecting your labs.

New dementia data puts a surprisingly concrete number on midlife vascular health.Researchers followed 12,409 adults for ...
08/19/2026

New dementia data puts a surprisingly concrete number on midlife vascular health.

Researchers followed 12,409 adults for an average of 26 years, beginning when they were about 56. They tracked three common risks: high blood pressure, diabetes and smoking.

The difference was not small. People with none of the three averaged about 30 years without dementia from age 55. As the risks accumulated, that time kept shrinking. With all three, the average was about 17 years.

What I find most useful here is that dementia was not being treated as a problem that suddenly begins in old age. Researchers were looking at health information available decades earlier.

High blood pressure can be silent. Diabetes can develop before you feel obviously sick. Smoking is usually discussed in terms of lungs and heart disease. This study puts all three firmly into the brain-health conversation too.

For women in their 40s and 50s, that changes what is worth paying attention to now. Your blood pressure reading and blood sugar are not only telling you about cardiovascular risk. They may also be giving you information about the brain you want to protect decades from now.

The dementia-prevention conversation in midlife may start with a blood pressure cuff and a glucose result long before anyone needs a memory test.

Follow me for more new women’s health research worth knowing while there is still time to use it.

A SCAD heart attack can uncover something doctors were not originally looking for.After SCAD, cardiologists often invest...
08/18/2026

A SCAD heart attack can uncover something doctors were not originally looking for.

After SCAD, cardiologists often investigate arteries beyond the heart because of its strong connection with fibromuscular dysplasia, or FMD, a condition that can affect artery walls elsewhere in the body. The American College of Cardiology notes that screening from the head to the pelvis has become standard practice after SCAD because doctors may find FMD, aneurysms or other vascular abnormalities that were previously silent.

There is another difference most people never hear about. A blocked artery from cholesterol plaque often leads quickly to a stent. With SCAD, that is not automatically the best approach. In stable patients with good blood flow, the damaged artery often heals on its own over the following weeks to months, which is why conservative treatment is frequently preferred.

Then comes recovery, and this deserves more attention than it gets. Women can continue having chest pain after SCAD, and ACC experts specifically warn against simply telling them it is normal and sending them home. Cardiac rehabilitation can provide monitored exercise, education and a safer way to rebuild confidence after an event that often seems to come out of nowhere.

So if you know a woman who has had SCAD, the conversation should not end with, “Your heart attack is over.”

There may be other arteries to check, symptoms to follow and a recovery plan worth asking about.

Save this carousel or send it to someone who has never heard of SCAD. More women need this word in their vocabulary before they ever need it in an emergency room.

Address

Baton Rouge, LA

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5:30pm
Tuesday 9am - 5:30pm
Wednesday 9am - 5:30pm
Thursday 9am - 5:30pm
Friday 9am - 5:30pm

Telephone

+12254257962

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when The Functional Pharmacist posts news and promotions. Your email address will not be used for any other purpose, and you can unsubscribe at any time.

Shortcuts

Share

Category