You can order every lab in the book and still miss the answer sitting in the patient's chart. That is the trap at the center of this episode, and it is one of several functional medicine practice pitfalls host Tracy Harrison and guest Edit Zelkind, PA walk through, using real cases from their own practices.
Zelkind spent two decades in conventional medicine before transitioning to functional medicine practice, then years inside one of the most respected functional medicine clinics in the country. She has watched both systems break down in different ways, and she names the patterns that hurt patients and burn out good practitioners.
Functional medicine overtesting gets the first hard look, including a case that ran $50,000 in labs before anyone found the real answer. From there Zelkind explains why handing a patient fifteen supplements at once backfires, breaks down the root cause obsession in medicine that keeps practitioners chasing a single diagnosis instead of the whole terrain, and unpacks orthorexia in functional medicine patients who have grown afraid of their own food.
If you are building or refining a functional practice, this episode gives you a clearer read on when to test, when to wait, and how to keep patients from walking away. Press play and hear what Zelkind wishes someone had told her twelve years ago.
Episode Breakdown:
00:00 Welcome and Edit Zelkind's Career Path
01:03 From Emergency Medicine to Functional Care
09:16 The Courage Behind Leaving a Stable Career
16:19 Why Leaving Full-Time Practice Felt Harder
22:00 Functional Medicine Practice Pitfalls: Overtesting Patients
33:24 Supplement Overload and the Polypharmacy Problem
48:44 Root Cause Obsession and Chasing Diagnoses
54:26 Fear, Orthorexia, and Food Anxiety in Patients
1:00:26 What Zelkind Learned About Herself
1:04:39 Advice for Practitioners Considering the Switch
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