I Am Tula Health

I Am Tula Health I Am Tula Health

08/29/2026

Your cholesterol came back “normal.” That doesn’t mean your heart disease risk is zero.

The standard lipid panel doesn’t test for Lp(a) — a genetic lipid particle linked to early heart attacks and stroke, independent of your regular cholesterol. It’s not diet-driven. It’s not exercise-driven. It’s a one-time blood test almost nobody has ever had ordered.

Here’s what makes this more urgent in perimenopause: estrogen has protective effects on your blood vessels. As it declines, cardiovascular risk rises — quietly, without a single symptom, while your labs still say “normal.”

You can’t lower Lp(a) with diet or exercise. But that’s not the point — once you know it’s high, everything else we can control (LDL, blood pressure, inflammation) gets treated more aggressively. And because it’s genetic, it tells your kids and siblings something too.

So the full picture isn’t just cholesterol. It’s Lp(a), hs-CRP (inflammation), and insulin resistance markers — the numbers that actually explain risk your standard panel misses.

This is root-cause medicine: not waiting for the number to go wrong, testing for what actually predicts it.

📌 Save this so you know what to ask for at your next physical.

🌐 www.iamtulahealth.com |
📞 904-990-6211 |
✉️ [email protected]
📲 Katherine Roy, FNP-C | Functional Medicine | Nutrition Coach

You’re eating well. Moving your body. Doing what you’ve been told works. But the weight won’t move — or it comes right b...
07/31/2026

You’re eating well. Moving your body. Doing what you’ve been told works.
But the weight won’t move — or it comes right back. And the frustration builds because
effort and outcome don’t match.

Here’s what’s often missing from that conversation: inflammation.

Not the sprained-ankle kind.

The quiet, persistent kind driven by poor sleep, gut imbalance,
blood sugar instability, or stress that never fully resolves.

When low-grade inflammation becomes chronic, it changes how your body handles energy.

Leptin — the fullness hormone — gets ignored. Insulin becomes less effective, so more of
what you eat gets stored instead of burned.

Your metabolism shifts into a defensive,
storage-dominant state no calorie deficit can override.

This is why some people do everything “right” and still don’t lose weight.

The strategy is
sound. The inflammatory environment is blocking the result.

Addressing it means looking beyond the plate: gut health, sleep quality, stress load, and the
markers that reveal whether your body is in inflammation or resolution.

If your effort hasn’t matched your results in a long time, book an evaluation —
inflammation may be the barrier no one’s checked for.

Follow Katherine Roy, FNP-C | Functional Medicine | Nutrition Coach for the hidden metabolic drivers most diets miss.

904-990-6211 | [email protected]
www.iamtulahealth.com | Katherine Roy, FNP-C | Functional Medicine | Nutrition Coach

This is the cycle nobody warns you about.You restrict. You lose. Your body adapts. You regain. So you restrict harder — ...
07/30/2026

This is the cycle nobody warns you about.

You restrict. You lose. Your body adapts. You regain. So you restrict harder — and this time
it barely works.

That’s not a character flaw. It’s metabolic compensation.

When intake drops below what your body considers safe, it orchestrates a full survival
response:
Thyroid slows conversion of its active hormone
Cortisol rises

Ghrelin (hunger) spikes while leptin (fullness) drops

Daily energy burn quietly decreases without you noticing

Each round of restriction deepens the pattern. Your body gets better at defending its set
point — and harder to move with willpower alone.

That’s why the most effective strategies don’t start with cutting more. They start with
restoring the hormonal and metabolic signals that let your body release weight without
triggering the survival response.

If every diet works less than the last one, your metabolism isn’t broken — it’s adapted.

Book a Metabolic Evaluation and let’s build an approach your body won’t fight.

904-990-6211 | [email protected]
www.iamtulahealth.com | Katherine Roy, FNP-C | Functional Medicine | Nutrition Coach

Nobody talks about muscle the way they should. It’s framed as aesthetics. Gym culture.Optional.But muscle is the single ...
07/29/2026

Nobody talks about muscle the way they should. It’s framed as aesthetics. Gym culture.

Optional.

But muscle is the single largest site in your body for processing blood sugar. Every pound
of lean tissue raises your resting metabolic rate, improves insulin sensitivity, and expands
your capacity to burn fat — even at rest.

And here’s what doesn’t get enough attention: you start losing it in your 30s. Slowly at first.

Then faster with age, hormonal decline, caloric restriction, and inactivity.

Every crash diet that drops weight without preserving muscle costs you metabolic capacity
you may never fully get back.

Protecting muscle actually looks like:
Resistance training 2–3 times per week

Adequate protein timed around activity

Hormonal support when levels decline with age
Strategies that prioritize fat loss, not just weight loss

This isn’t about looking a certain way. It’s about maintaining the tissue that keeps your
metabolism functional for decades.

If your plan is about losing weight without protecting muscle, it needs a second look.

Book a Metabolic Consultation.
Save this as your reason to strength train this week.

904-990-6211 | [email protected]
www.iamtulahealth.com | Katherine Roy, FNP-C | Functional Medicine | Nutrition Coach

07/06/2026

Ashwagandha is one of the most evidence-backed adaptogens for stress support. But most people take it without considering the one variable that determines how effective it actually is: when their cortisol dysregulation is showing up.

Ashwagandha doesn’t “lower stress hormones” in a blanket sense. It modulates how your stress response is expressed — helping the system become more regulated without suppressing it entirely. That distinction matters because your stress response pattern determines when the support is most needed.

Two common patterns — and how to align your timing:

If your stress response runs high during the day — you feel reactive, wired, overstimulated, difficulty focusing, tension that doesn’t ease off — morning or midday dosing helps modulate the daytime activation before it compounds.

If your stress shows up at night — you’re tired but can’t fully wind down, you wake between 2–4am, your mind won’t stop — evening dosing supports the shift into recovery and improves the quality of your overnight cortisol reset.

But here’s where most people miss the bigger picture.

Ashwagandha supports the stress response. It doesn’t replace the conditions that allow the system to actually recover. If sleep remains fragmented, stress inputs stay consistently high, or recovery never fully happens — the adaptogenic effect will be inconsistent and limited.

The complete strategy:
✔ Timing ashwagandha to match your specific dysregulation pattern
✔ Addressing the sleep and recovery deficit that limits its effectiveness
✔ Reducing the inputs keeping the system activated in the first place
✔ Using it to support a system that’s already being addressed — not to compensate for one that isn’t

☑️ If adaptogenic support hasn’t been producing consistent results, context and timing may be the missing variables. Book a consult and let’s assess your cortisol pattern.

📲 Follow Katherine Roy, FNP-C | Functional Medicine | Nutrition Coach for functional medicine insights on stress physiology, cortisol, and metabolic health.

📞 904-990-6211 | 📧 [email protected]
🌐 www.iamtulahealth.com | 📲 Katherine Roy, FNP-C | Functional Medicine | Nutrition Coach

You used to power through the afternoon without a second thought. Now you’re reaching for coffee at 2:45pm because your ...
06/01/2026

You used to power through the afternoon without a second thought.

Now you’re reaching for coffee at 2:45pm because your brain feels like it’s running through wet concrete. The 3pm meeting takes twice the focus it should. By 4pm you’re not sleepy — you’re depleted.

Here’s the actual mechanism.

Cortisol is your “get up and go” hormone. It peaks in the morning and gradually declines — by design. But summer changes the equation.

Sustained heat increases cortisol demand. Your body is working harder to regulate temperature, manage hydration, and maintain energy output through longer, hotter days.

By mid-summer, your adrenals have been running at elevated output for weeks — and cortisol production has a ceiling.

When demand consistently exceeds supply, the afternoon crash stops being a slight slowdown and becomes a wall.

This isn’t a discipline problem or a sleep hygiene problem. It’s a production capacity problem.

The right clinical question isn’t “how do I push through the crash.” It’s: what’s depleting my cortisol reserves, and how do I rebuild production capacity before the pattern worsens?

At I Am Tula Health, we evaluate cortisol rhythm alongside thyroid function, s*x hormones, and recovery markers — because the crash is a signal, not just an inconvenience.

☑️ If the 3pm wall is getting worse every summer, it’s time to investigate why. Book your consult today.

📲 Follow for cortisol science that actually explains what your body is doing.

📞 904-990-6211 | 📧 [email protected]
🌐 www.iamtulahealth.com | 📲

The weight loss industry celebrates the before-and-after.Nobody photographs the two-year follow-up. Research consistentl...
05/30/2026

The weight loss industry celebrates the before-and-after.
Nobody photographs the two-year follow-up.

Research consistently shows that most weight lost through aggressive caloric restriction is regained within 2–5 years.

And the reasons are physiological — not motivational.

When weight is lost through severe restriction, the body adapts to protect itself:
→ Metabolic rate drops
→ Hunger signals intensify
→ Muscle mass decreases
→ Stress hormones elevate

This is why people regain weight while eating the same amount they were eating to maintain their loss.
The body’s setpoint has shifted — and willpower isn’t the variable.

Long-term weight stability requires a fundamentally different approach.
One that restores the systems that regulate metabolism:

→ Blood sugar stability and insulin sensitivity
→ Adequate protein and muscle preservation
→ Hormone optimization
→ Sleep and nervous system recovery
→ Sustainable nutrition patterns — not protocols you cycle in and out of

When those systems are working, your body becomes far more capable of maintaining results without constant dieting.

✅ If your goal is not just losing weight but keeping it off, the strategy has to go beyond restriction.
Let’s build something that lasts.

Book a consult: www.iamtulahealth.com | 904-990-6211 | [email protected]

05/21/2026

You haven’t dramatically changed what you eat.
You’re still exercising.
You’re doing the same things that worked for years.

But your body is storing fat differently now — especially around your abdomen.
And nothing you try seems to shift it.

This isn’t a discipline problem.
This is perimenopause physiology.

Here’s what’s actually happening:

As estrogen fluctuates during perimenopause, it directly affects three systems that regulate fat storage:

CORTISOL SENSITIVITY
Declining estrogen makes your body more reactive to cortisol — the stress hormone that preferentially drives fat storage into the abdomen.
The same stress load that was manageable in your 30s now triggers a stronger fat-storage response.

INSULIN SIGNALING
Estrogen helps regulate insulin sensitivity. As it fluctuates, carbohydrate metabolism becomes less efficient — fat storage increases even without dramatic dietary changes.

INFLAMMATORY SIGNALING
Hormonal shifts during perimenopause are accompanied by increased systemic inflammation, which further alters appetite regulation and metabolic efficiency.

Together, these changes don’t just slow fat loss.
They actively shift WHERE your body stores fat — regardless of what you’re eating.

This is why the strategies that worked in your 30s stop working in your 40s.
The physiology has changed. The strategy has to change with it.

Addressing midlife body composition changes requires evaluating hormones, metabolic function, cortisol patterns, and inflammation — not just diet and exercise.

✅ If your body composition has shifted in ways that don’t make sense, a metabolic and hormone evaluation can tell you why.
Book a consult.

Book a consult: www.iamtulahealth.com | 904-990-6211 | [email protected]

05/20/2026

You took the vacation.
You slept more. Unplugged from work. Did all the ‘right’ things.

And for a few days — you did feel better.

Then something frustrating happened.

Within a week or two of returning to normal life, the exhaustion came back.
The same overwhelm. The same feeling that even small demands take too much out of you.

That pattern is a clinical signal.

It usually means the problem isn’t fatigue.
It’s cortisol dysregulation.

Here’s the distinction:

Fatigue from overwork resolves with rest.
You take time off, you recover, you come back feeling normal.

Cortisol dysregulation doesn’t work that way.
When the stress response system has been running without adequate recovery for too long, the rhythm that governs cortisol production — rise in the morning, fall at night, recovery between — breaks down.

Rest removes the stress temporarily.
But it doesn’t restore the regulatory system.

So when normal life resumes, the system struggles to keep up — because the underlying capacity hasn’t been rebuilt.

In our practice, we evaluate how the HPA axis is actually functioning:
→ Cortisol rhythm across the day
→ Sleep architecture and timing
→ Metabolic and hormonal signals that influence adrenal recovery
→ Nutrient status for key adrenal cofactors

Then we build a protocol to restore the regulation — not just manage the symptoms of losing it.

Because burnout isn’t simply about working too hard.
It’s about a stress response system that’s been operating without proper recovery for too long.

💾 Save this if vacation never fully restores you.

✅ If time off doesn’t fix your energy, your cortisol rhythm may be worth evaluating.
Book a consult.

Book a consult: www.iamtulahealth.com | 904-990-6211 | [email protected]

Your labs came back ‘normal.’But you still feel off. Low libido. Fatigue. Brain fog. Mood shifts. All there — all dismis...
05/18/2026

Your labs came back ‘normal.’
But you still feel off.

Low libido. Fatigue. Brain fog. Mood shifts. All there — all dismissed.

Here’s what may be missing from the conversation:

S*x Hormone Binding Globulin. SHBG.

Think of it as a traffic controller for your hormones.
It binds to estrogen and testosterone and determines how much of each is actually FREE and available to reach your tissues.

SHBG TOO HIGH → Less free hormone gets through.
Symptoms of deficiency appear even when total labs look ‘normal.’

SHBG TOO LOW → More hormone stays active.
Symptoms of excess appear even without elevated total levels.

This is why two women with identical hormone panels can feel completely different.

What drives SHBG up or down?
→ Insulin resistance (lowers it)
→ Thyroid dysfunction
→ Systemic inflammation
→ Liver function
→ Certain medications — including oral estrogen and thyroid meds

Real hormone care doesn’t just measure estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone.
It understands how those hormones are being regulated inside your system.

SHBG is a critical part of that picture — and it’s almost never ordered on a standard panel.

✅ If your labs look normal but your symptoms persist, SHBG may be the missing context.
Let’s take a deeper look at what your hormone panel is actually telling us.

Book a consult: www.iamtulahealth.com | 904-990-6211 | [email protected]

Address

Fort Lauderdale, FL
33301, 33304-33306, 33308-33309, 33312-33313, 33315-33316, 33334, 33394

Website

Alerts

Be the first to know and let us send you an email when I Am Tula Health 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