How Health Coaching Benefits You

Introduction to Coaching and Functional Medicine 0:00

Hello. I'm Dr. Ken Sharlin. You are listening to the Parkinson's Solutions Summit, and I am so very excited to welcome my guest today, a very dear friend and truly through her work and inspiration to so many people. We are going to be talking today about coaching, functional medicine, coaching and how it applies to Parkinson's disease. You know, in my practice, I couldn't have a functional medicine oriented practice without a coach. They are really, in some respects more important than the dietician.

More important than my exercise fitness person. The coach is at the center of this story of transformation and change. And who could be better to talk about this than Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum, the CEO of Functional Medicine Coaching Academy. Thank you so much, Sandra, for joining us. Well, thank you for having me. I'm very excited to talk today to this audience. Coaching is really something that is appreciated by functional medicine providers. But in the conventional world of medicine, having a coach is not typical at all.

You don't find a coach up the road from where I work in one of the neurology clinics. So could you explain to our viewers and our listeners what exactly is a health coach or a functional medicine coach or so? A coach is like a stage coach. That's what the word coach comes from. Coach like a stage coach takes you from where you are to where you want to be. And so what does that mean? It means that when you are working with a coach, you are in the driver's seat. You tell the coach where you want to go.

The coach will help you. They will be your guide. And so the basis is that as you are on this journey, you're the hero. And what happens when a hero is on a journey? If you've seen so many movies where there's a hero on a journey, they have a guide. And that's what a coaches, they're a guide. A coach is not someone who's going to tell you what to do. That's what the expert does. So that's why you may have had a lot of and often you get useful education and useful advice, but sometimes you are told to do things that seem unsurmountable or you don't know where to begin or you don't know if it's right for you.

So perhaps you've gone to a doctor and they said, you need to follow this diet or you need to follow. You need to start moving more. What does that mean? How do you do that? Coach is going to be the listener. They take where you are now and they ask the questions like that where you want to be. And based on that way, based on what you are answering, they will help you to set goals, set goals that are realistic and accomplish reachable and doable. And the field of coaching came from

What Health Coaching Is 3:34

psychotherapy, came from humanistic psychotherapy. And what does that mean? It's not about what's wrong with you. It's about what's right with you. And it's what we call client centered, where, again, you, as the client, are in the driver's seat. So coaches help people change when change is hard. And we know that if you are newly diagnosed with Parkinson's disease and you want a functional medicine approach, it often involves making some lifestyle changes or perhaps following a supplement regimen.

And that can feel difficult or sometimes overwhelming. The coach will help you to get started and will make sure that you are successful by tweaking the plan, by coordinating with your doctor. Now you also ask what is functional medicine coaching? So to talk about that, let's backtrack that. Health coaching is slowly making inroads into conventional medicine and why? It's because there is a body of evidence. Now we get some solid research showing or some of this is international research showing that coaching is remarkably effective.

We also have the AMA, American Medical Association, looking at the feasibility of having reimbursable codes for insurance. When that comes to being, it's a better matter of when, not if. Then you will see coaching exploding with health coaches in every conventional neurologist's office. For example. So what is. Yeah, functional medicine coaching is where a coach guides you to look at the root causes of your condition, to look at how you can implement a protocol that your functional medicine doctor may have created for you and is your guide on that journey of root cause evidence based personalized medicine, which is functional medicine.

Dr. Sandy If I could just kind of unpackand break a couple of things down a little bit for our viewers in conversation with you. First of all, you and I have both come from a conventional background, and there must have been a shift for you. I know that patients who come to me and I say, well, what brings you in? And even if these exact words aren't used, it's sort of the I want you to fix me. Right? Did you experience that in your practice and how does that shift happen from what the doctor or the therapist, the psychologist is going to sort of do for you versus how we go through that, identifying that person's strengths to actually help them to deal or elicit from them their own strategy to change.

Or so way, way back we were talking in the late sixties or early seventies, I got my master's degree in communicative disorders, specifically learning disabilities, and the approach that conventional approach was you do as many tests as possible to find out where the breakdown is occurring. So, for example, I did thousands of batteries and kids with suspected learning disabilities and looking at what's wrong with them. And intuitively, I knew that there was something missing. And so I always those long reports that I had to write, I always added some paragraphs about what were this child's strengths.

And it doesn't mean what were his talents or her talents, what, but what kindness, for example, curiosity. And I was pulling out those and emphasizing them. And then when I was a teacher, I did the same. And when I was a psychologist, I spent many, many years as a health psychologist and really wanted to focus on what's right as opposed to just getting the diagnosis and okay, what type of psychotherapy are we going to refer for medication management for, for example, major depression and found positive psychology, which is looking at how do people thrive?

And that led to then an interest in the what people are doing in terms of their daily lives. Are they eating nutritious food? Are they moving? Are they do they have an exercise program that they're enjoying doing? What about the stress in their life and sleep? And so I was starting to address these factors, which then led to curiosity about functional medicine. And I actually was the only psychologist to be certified in functional medicine, the first class that had certification back in 2013. And that inspired me to start the coaching school.

From Conventional Practice to Strength-Based Care 8:35

But the yeah, it has roots coaching does have roots in therapy, but it's very, very frustrating to be in that world. In fact, I was just at a a fundraising event was a luncheon for a major hospital, and the speaker was the head of behavioral health. And the whole talk was about the antidepressants and the mechanisms of action and people at my table were saying, Well, what about food? Does that play into it? What about anything else? And I said, yes, like, you know, taking a walk has been shown to be a great antidepressant.

And so it is discouraging to look at sometimes where that conventional world is and how slowly things are changing. So then you discovered functional medicine. And I'm sure it was just a big aha moment that this must have been the framework. You were kind of looking for, to give structure to things you had already been, you know, gradually implementing in your own practice. Absolutely. I look back and I had paper files and folders of of cases and I recently went and because they are all so old and was discarding them safely and shredding them, and I discovered like some of the the ways that we were trained, I was giving a Rorschach test and MMPI as the personality inventories and coming up with a diagnosis and focusing on treatments that were all in your head as opposed to the benefit of some of the looking at what you eat and what's the quality of your sleep.

And what about movement in you? In what about putting all of those together, which is what functional medicine does and creating a personalized plan? So I like to think I was ahead of my time because very early on I was looking at stress and I was looking at mind body medicine strategies for many, many years. I had a practice focusing on biofeedback and I was helping teach breathing techniques, for example, years before they called it Breathwork. And it's interesting to look back on some of the articles I wrote back in the seventies talking about things like stress management that and I said, Oh, this is pretty current, even even today.

So it is really wonderful to see how much we have grown, how many people now have discovered functional medicine. And it is my goal to grow the health coaching part of functional medicine because that is where people are really needing support. A guide through to this journey back to health. So you have really been a pioneer in sort of building this army of coaches who then are dispersed throughout the world, I imagine. And if I had Parkinson's disease, I could then find a functional medicine coaching academy trained, certified coach who could then help me on my journey.

Oh, absolutely. And they are they are listeners. And what's so wonderful about the coaching process so people feel heard, it's a safe space where they could feel that they are understood. And we know that people will say things to their coaches that they might be reluctant to say to their doctor. They may be embarrassed, they may feel shameful, they may be embarrassed to talk about, oh, you know, the doctor wanted me to be on all these supplements and I just can't afford it. You know, with inflation, I'm on limited income and I'm going to make this work.

And so they're getting more stressed and they will talk to their coach about some of these issues. And the coach will then help them find workarounds or go back to the doctor. Coaches are the bridge of communication between patients and their doctors, as well as their conventional doctors. They can help them to to get to feel empowered. There's been so many studies on the effectiveness of coaching and almost universal. Sally One of the conclusions is improved self efficacy, and that is crucial where they feel like they have some control over their destiny, over the health care system to be so frustrating, especially when you are in that morass of the conventional medical world.

That the coach is so critical, folks. You know, one of the things I always say in my clinic is there are so many wonderful books. I have books. Sandy has books. You know, Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Terry Walz, Dr. Perlmutter, etc.. We all have written these books, and while they're very inspirational, ultimately books usually not always, but usually don't necessarily transform us or lead us to a place of transformation, the way that a coach can help a person do. So when people say, well, I already know how to eat healthy, I know what I'm supposed to do in terms of exercise, well, you know, how does that going for you?

Because oftentimes it's not really going in the direction we ultimately like it to go. So the coach is going to elicit those strengths out of you and help you pave your own path. I love this quote from your book, actually, where you're quoting Wayne Dyer. Everything is either an opportunity to grow or an obstacle to keep from growing. You get to choose. Can you share with our viewers how they are not their disease and they can begin to rewrite their story from. Yes, I'm you know, I'm Ken Charlton, who happens to have Parkinson's disease rather than Parkinson's disease has me. Yes.

Discovering Functional Medicine 14:38

So important to see your life as a whole and to understand this really comes from formal logic. So if we are something that we can say that's accurate because I have green eyes, I'm I'm five foot tall, I may be shrinking. So it's not as universal. I'm always five feet tall. But we can look at traits that are are part of our gig. And then we look at our totality as a human. And when we have a condition, it is a part of us, but it is not all of us and it is not all consuming. And so we can say that I, I live, I live, you know, this is who I am.

And I live in this location at the moment. This is where I live. But will that be true in ten years and 20 years? Is it exactly the same? And so it's not like encompassing our being and the same thing. I have Parkinson's. I have a condition. What else do you have? I have the ability to laugh. I have sight. I have hearing, I have taste. I have the ability to laugh, I have the ability to feel joy. I can touch, I can move, I can walk. If you can't, even if you walk with assistance, this is something that you can do.

And so if you do an assessment and you start thinking like a growing list of all the things that you have inside you, and you see this as isolated. In fact, I did work for many years as a health psychologist with people in chronic pain, for example, and we would do a lot of imagery, a lot of techniques to help to wall this off and see and be in the part of you that is okay. In fact, there is a other a famous hypnotherapist, Milton Erikson, would work with people who were in severe, intractable pain and focus on getting them to rename it as an itch as opposed and focusing if it's on your right side, how can you put all of your attention on your left side and fully imagine it?

And so there is a famous exercise where you focus all your attention on your right thumb. You close your eyes and you feel it. You feel the blood pounding in your right thumb. And pretty soon, if you do that long enough and really centering your attention there, you're going to feel that thump throbbing and. It's. 10 minutes ago, you had no awareness. You weren't focusing there, but now you've directed your attention there. So what I would do is help people to direct the attention to the part of themselves that they want to focus on, to laugh, to really feel that laughter, to get caught up in it.

And they're so having what we can focus on is living well with Parkinson's, because we tend to think of living well despite Parkinson's. But it really is living. Yes, exactly. In the moment where you have an experience, it could be a sensory experience. You have something good to eat and you really taste it. You're with a loved one. We both have new grandkids. That experience of just being with them, watching them. And it's just it is an incredible joy. And for that moment, anything that you are dealing with physically, emotionally melts away because you are so there with that small child.

So I borrow an expression from my wife, who is, as you know, also a health coach, functional medicine certified coach, and she uses the term Earth journey a lot. And I say, you know, even in the face of this neurodegenerative disease, there is place there is room, there is space for growth and discovery. And, you know, I can quote my friend Dr. Terri Walls, and I don't wish Parkinson's or M.S. on anyone, of course.

Why Coaching Matters for Parkinson's 18:58

But at the same time, she will say, you know, M.S. was the best thing that ever happened to me. Parkinson's. How could we possibly reframe the experience of Parkinson's disease to make it an experience of growth and discovery and even joy? You know, we could even learn to laugh a little bit at our own fumbling things, you know, with Parkinson's. And it's not something necessarily to to laugh about, but it is you know, this earth journey seems to me as one in which there's so many opportunities for growth, discovery, for sharing, for helping others, for inspiring others.

And that's where coaching really goes beyond eat this, not that, to a much more profound experience with another human being. So. Well, well-said because when you have a coach, you have an ally, you also have an accountability partner who will help you stay on track for, let's say you've committed to an exercise plan, but it's hard to follow through and sustain that. And a coach can help you, help you find that. Why? What makes life worth living? What do you want? What in in your future? Can you imagine it?

And you may think well, but I don't imagine a good future with this condition. Culture can guide you to see that, to picture of laughing, to picture having joy. And this has been done even with people with Alzheimer's disease, to focusing on how you can have still some quality of life. And we tend to think that there's no quality of life there. But that's not true with interviews with people who have that diagnosis. So it is that focus and also never giving up hope. Hope is the most powerful you.

Years ago, the work of Bernie SIEGEL with breast cancer hope is always been shown to that's character strength enhancing that is strongly tied to physical and mental well-being. No and we see this also with our ALS patients. But I must say one thing that ALS and Parkinson's share not so much in terms of the physiology or anatomy, but that unlike Alzheimer's, which is predominantly a disease of older adults, we see ALS and we see Parkinson's in a lot of younger people. You know, young onset Parkinson's disease is before the age of 50.

And if you're a man or woman in that age range, there are so many dimensions of your life that are altered in in very striking ways. You're not, you know, for example, you know, intimacy. What if you, as you know, a single young adult still wanting to have partners in your life and Parkinson's sufferers may have various difficulty with intimacy because of the condition. And we have to learn how to manage through that. That may be less of an issue in Alzheimer's, but it certainly can occur in Alzheimer's.

And so the coach can kind of help guide through that. Another area that I wanted to ask you about so often there, let's say there is a partner in that partner is a caregiver. They've made a commitment through marriage or other, you know, ceremonies that they're that person's other person. Right. And how can a coach sort of integrate with the you know, I would say these diseases are more than just the person who has the disease. There are other people. There's the children, there's the you know, there's the spouse or partner.

How do you see the coach working in that context? I'm glad you brought that up, because who cares for the caregiver? And we know that as a caregiver you are experiencing a lot of stress. You may feel a lot of guilt, like, I'm not doing enough. You may neglect your own self care because you want to be the best possible caretaker. And we actually have a whole section when we train people to become coaches and how to care for caregivers, how to coach caregivers. And when you support the caregiver, everybody thrives.

And so they are at risk as a caregiver and giving just having a conversation with a coach, giving them permission to step away, to perhaps problem solve, to see what they how they can have their own support. And they will also reveal things to a coach that they might not want to say to others, like feeling angry that this is happening in their family or being very worried about the future, about finances or so many issues that they may not want to discuss,

Identity, Hope, and Living Well with Parkinson's 24:18

and then the relationship issues. So sometimes working together as a couple can be really, really important. In fact, there was just a controlled study. It was showing they were coaching. This was with type two diabetes, but they were looking at diet. So not just coaching the individual with the condition, but bringing in the a family member, a spouse, for example. And it was very, very successful. Coaching was much more successful when they had the two of them being coached. So the same would apply with Parkinson's or other neurodegenerative conditions as well, but particularly important here so that coaches feel like they are not alone, are caregivers feel that they are not alone, that they have a some support?

Well, Dr. Sandra, as we start to round up our discussion today, can you tell me a little bit about if I want to seek out a coach, how I can find a coach and what measuring stick do you use to make sure that or do you recommend to make sure that this is really going to be a good coach for me? Sure. You can go to our website functionalmedicinecoaching.org and go to find a coach and you can find one in your area. But most coaches work remotely, so you don't need to go to exact in your area. And I would say that you want to find someone who is board certified.

So as a school we are approved by the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching and so our graduates can sit for that exam and meet other qualifications. And that is important that you have a board certified or board certified eligible and then it is a good match. You have a discovery session where you see, do I feel comfortable with this individual? And I also want to add that we have so many students who have a calling to serve others. And what brought that about? They have the condition themselves and they want to give back.

And there is no better way to heal yourself than to support others. And so that is very therapeutic. And so we have many people decide how be a health coach so that I can give back, I can support others with this condition. So there is certification through your academy, but then they can take national boards. So we want to make sure that the coach, wherever they got certified, that they are board eligible or board certified at the national level. And then as I understand, there's even an international board for health coaching, I believe.

Yes. So that would be like if you're in the UK, they have an association there. I believe there's a Canadian association as well. But the main one would be called NBA. WC It's the National Board for Health and Wellness Coaching and we are an approved school or and B WC. And then you can request say what we would call maybe a discovery call or a discovery visit to make sure that it's going to be a good fit. Absolutely. So and that is just, you know, with personalized coaching, personal preference, like who do you feel comfortable with?

And at the end of the day, that is most important, having rapport with that individual. And I would say as a physician, you know, when I approach things just with my neurologist hat, it's usually about making the diagnosis. So someone comes in to see me and maybe they have some tremor and some shuffling gait and a change in facial expression. And of course I'm thinking this is probably Parkinson's disease and our Westernized medical approach is about making the diagnosis and then treating the diagnosis.

That's so important for folks who are part of this interview to understand that actually in coaching and functional medicine, it's a little less about the diagnosis and a lot more about the person who happens to have the diagnosis. So I would say with you, if you agree that while it's important, probably for the coach to have some general knowledge about Parkinson's disease and what sorts of challenges people can have that have Parkinson's disease, we are all different. And I always say if there were ten people in the room with Parkinson's, all ten of them would have kind of a different expression of their Parkinson's.

And so you have to feel that that coach, if you would agree, is really focusing on you as a person. Your belief system. Those character traits and so forth. Would you would you agree with that? And how how could they explore that further? 100% and it is is personalized and it's having a sense, again, that you are not your diagnosis. Who are you as a person? What do you love? Do you love music? Do you love to you have a sense of humor, You love going to movies, and what are the things that bring you joy, family, children, what your work perhaps, and what How can we join together?

We have a partnership to help you have the best life possible. And so it may be offering resources guides, it might be helping you. There are the advocates. They can help you through the medical system. So you may still need to rely on some conventional medical doctors that can be often very stressful navigating the medical system. And so coach can really help you through that. And so that is another way that you can feel supported and really just at the end of the day, feeling heard, feeling like you are just not lost in the system.

That and knowing that you have somebody who is in your corner who's going to help you thrive. Right? So folks who would be a difference as is anyone who's following this interview, who has Parkinson's or knows someone Parkinson's, they know we often use medication called leave a dopa levodopa carbidopa to treat Parkinson's. I in my practice, even when we're taking a functional medicine approach, it's kind of like trying to drive a car without gas in the tank. You got to have a little gas

Supporting Caregivers and Families 30:48

even if you're going to do other things to maintain your car. But my point is, if you have a coach, you're not typically going into the coach and saying, you know, I have some questions about how to take my leave a dope, a carbidopa, or I think I might be having the side effects from my medication. Do you have any advice for me? The coach is probably going to say maybe that's an important question that we can ask your doctor. But on the other hand, if they become the coach and you're like, you know, my doctor wants me to do this X, Y, or Z, but I'm really struggling.

I'm really struggling with actually executing that that plan that my doctor helped me create. Then the coach sort of explores that with you. So we often see in our practice where the coach will defer those medical questions to the doctor or the other provider, and the coach is actually working with you on that mental, emotional, spiritual level, even when it comes to food. I mean, that's functional medicine coaching. So, hey, I don't like vegetables. Why don't you like vegetables? But what is it about vegetables that you don't like?

Right. Rather than saying eat your vegetables, very big difference there, of course. But again, just to reassure folks that this coach is really your success, Coach, your discovery coach, your inspiration coach, and when you have the right coach, you know it down here, not just up here. So well said Absolutely. It is a heart centered communication and that's felt and it contributes to thriving and it leads to transformation, transformation emotionally as well as physically. We've just completed a randomized controlled trial, the effects of coaching and that relationship.

And it doesn't have to be a lot of sessions either. It can be just a few sessions and maybe then you return it another time for more, if that's what you would like. So you're in the driver's seat when you are working with a coach. They are not telling you what to do, and that feels so empowering to know that you have those choices. And that's the conversation with the coach. They will help you weigh decisional balance. So perhaps that drug was recommended and you say, No way, I'm not being on medication.

The coach can sit down and help you to explore and problems out to see, well, if you do this, then that would happen if you did this or the consequences and and really talk it out in terms of a decisional balance. But at the end of the day, knowing it's always you are making that decision that no one can tell you that to tell you what to do. Would you possibly be able to just give us like a quick little vignette of maybe someone you worked with or a client you're aware of? That kind of would be an example of that transformation?

Sure. So we have an example of in the past is somebody who was told that they needed to lose weight and they kept going to the doctor and saying, you know, they need to lose weight and very, very resistant. And then they and they caught the resistant because they had tried so many diets and often people were giving up. They're saying, you know, this, I've just done I've failed in the past. And so I'm just accepting who I am right now. And and but they're told by the doctor and they're they're overwhelmed and they're angry.

They never really are really looking at it is like, I hate being told what to do and then working with a coach to have a sense that it isn't in their control and the coach sitting down what to do is looking at, okay, well, why didn't something work in the past and what were your thoughts around it? And off it would be? Well, they would start plan and then they would go astray and then, oh, it's all over. I failed, so I might as well eat everything in sight, for example.

Finding a Qualified Coach 34:48

And so it's they're going to so they tell things in the coach. So that's one example. Another would be somebody who was having issues and they had two doctors tell them that they needed to be vegan without explaining it at all. One was a cardiologist, one was an internist. They said, Well, I think you should be a vegan. And so this person was just like, I don't know. I mean, they knew what it was, but they really didn't know what it was. Is a nuclear cheese. Can I eat what how long do I have to do this?

And they were the result without a coach was that they were becoming a sugar eater. So they're they're their idea of a vegan was ordering big bowls of pasta and then having dessert. And as long as the dessert didn't, they had to have an animal cry. Well, it's not I, I can't I guess it doesn't have dairy, so. But it's okay. You know, I can have the cookie. I can have the candy because it's vegan. And so and so the coach really worked to help them provide that education. And so there's let's not forget that that is an important role of a coach.

Would you like to learn about the effect of having so much sugar and so giving them references, giving them resources for that, and then they decide that, well, you know, maybe this isn't right for me. So they became empowered to say that there's a different way. And so they started wearing a continuous glucose monitor and started to see the impact of what they were doing by becoming a vegan, how they were actually getting worse. And then they got more information about the the pros and cons of the way they were eating.

They were under utilizing protein eating protein. They were protein deprived because of this way of eating. And so the coach was really giving them a sense in a way like you can be your own advocate, that you can ask more questions of your doctors, that you can feel like you again, you're in the driver's seat, that you don't have to just the doctor says, do it. You just well, he must or she must know what they're talking about. So I'm going to blindly obey. And so that's the success story. That idea ultimately, that we're going to stick with the things that give us the greatest joy, passion that we love doing right.

There's movement and voice programs that are well-established in Parkinson's disease called the Lee Silverman Voice technique. And sometimes they call it a big step, but it's like very big. And these are ways to implement conscious movement and conscious voice projection to improve common symptoms of Parkinson's. And often they're taught by speech therapists and physical therapists, and folks can often use their insurance to get that benefit and go through the course. But and they get DVDs and all this stuff.

And then I will see some folks back and sometimes they'll say, well, are you are you doing it? Like, are you actually do you continue to do it? And they're a little stuck, right? So it's hard. And that's where the coach could come in. When it comes to critical things for Parkinson's disease, is how are we going to be consistent with our big step? How are we going to be consistent with big ways? Because maybe by having a big voice, your grandchildren are going to be able to hear what you're saying.

And when we connect the love that we feel for those grandchildren with the need to project the voice, then it's been connected. Maybe somehow it is something that's greater than just sort of a clinical guideline or a clinical advice, and then it becomes much more readily implemented. I love that. So one other thing I'd like to point out, and that is the power of community where as by asking questions, people like you can get a sense of you ask what matters most to what brings you the most joy. And often it is being with others.

And so our local hospital, I'm very close to a large hospital here in the area and they have programs for Parkinson's, they have water therapy and they have yoga movement classes specifically for Parkinson's.

Coaching, Accountability, and Community 39:28

And I was talking to somebody in there. Her spouse had worked with a coach who encouraged him to start coming to these water classes and other classes. And he had been very depressed and despondent and newly diagnosed. It was the community. It was going to these programs that was really therapeutic. And so, yes, the movement was good, but it was so much more it was socialization that he was getting that was really critical. And I remember my father in law who was on dialysis for years, he became so connected to the others who were getting dialysis with him that he actually looked forward to it.

It was a social experience. They would plan outings together and so that social connection can be really critical and a coach can be that person, that guide to help people, to find those communities with like minded people who are there with them going through that same journey and supporting one another. And that's really important. Folks here have just heard the absolute truth. You know, sometimes I say to my patients, if you came to me for advice and I told you that my advice is you simply stop eating, just don't eat right.

It'll make you really, really healthy. Donate. You'd look at me like, Doctor, you were absolutely out of your mind. Take do a 180 and go right out the door. But if we say, Hey, connection is critical to thriving or having a stress resilience practice is as important as exercise and sleep and nutrition. We don't always immediately buy into that. But Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum is sharing an experience that I too have experienced in my practice where I've seen my patients thrive because they've sought out connection.

Absolutely. Yes. So thank you so, so much. I want to make sure again that the viewers and listeners to the Parkinson's Solutions Summit today with our interview with Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum, CEO and founder of Functional Medicine Coaching Academy, know exactly where to go to find her trained coaches. You have a website and a search tool. I think it's functionalmedicinecoaching.org You can go to find a coach. You can also find us on Instagram functionalmedcoach or I am personally Dr. Sandy, and reach out.

We'd love to connect with you and support you folks. This may be one of the best things you do to help yourself and your Parkinson's disease or those who you know and love who are affected by that condition. I want to thank you so very much for being part of the Parkinson's Solutions Summit today and wish you all the very best. Thank you. It's been an honor. Thank you.