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In this episode, Lauren interviews two health practitioners: Dr. Yariv Rothman, the founder and clinical director of the Vitality Health Center, an integrative health facility in Santa Monica, CA; and Calliope Tsoukalas, nutrition and wellness coach. Together, they discuss integrative medicine, the role of nutrition in this practice, and its distinction from the disease model currently prevailing in the US.   In this episode, Dr. Rothman and Calliope reveal:    - how fatigue and chronic stress are rarely addressed in traditional western medicine  - how a lot of medicine today is symptom-oriented, but doesn’t treat the root cause; and how functional medicine is designed to treat root causes  - the brain-cut connection that is often not addressed in western medicine, and how calories don’t always equate to nutrients  - that western medicine can work in harmony with a more holistic approach to the whole patient  - Dr. Rothmans favorite hypochondria joke (!!) and that he very rarely comes across actual hypochondriacs, but more often meets patients frustrated with the system  - how patient education is empowering, and that in integrative medicine, the patient is an active participant in their healthcare  - that integrative medicine practitioners were into probiotics before they were cool  - that much of nutrition counseling is about teaching a patient to listen to their body, and working through trauma; and Calliope always recommends meditation and journaling as part of the emotional detox - that often, (particularly female) patients have overdone portion control and are gaining weight because they are essentially starving themselves of valuable nutrients - that not every quick-fix detox on the market is effective, but our bodies are designed to naturally detoxify but we can better support detox from a root cause perspective - that the scale measures mass, but doesn’t tell you what mass is composed of so using a scale to measure the success of a diet can be both dangerous and psychologically damaging  - that adding foods back in after elimination is much more important than the elimination itself  - the high-food-sensitivity heavy hitters: dairy, gluten, soy, and corn (95% of which are GMOs)  - that it’s high time we review our farming methods, and educate ourselves as consumers about our food sources  - why Dr. Rothman ate all the bread he wanted while in France - that the worst kind of invisible illness is the one not acknowledged by the doctor or the patient – or the one overlooked because nobody was searching for it - the generational gap, and how it affects a patients approach to their personal care - the gaps in our current healthcare model, and how insurance companies often limit care, constraining doctors in their abilities  - that medicare-for-all would very likely save everyone more money than the current managed care model