Weâre not broken; weâre just living in a world our bodies donât understand.
Lately, Iâve been wrestling with big questions: What does it mean to be truly healthy? What does it mean to be a provider guiding people toward a life of joy and vitality? As a nurse practitioner steeped in functional medicine, orthomolecular principles, and ancestral wisdom, Iâm convinced weâre living through a seismic paradigm shift in healthcare. For decades, the prevailing philosophy was simple: a pill for every ill. Pop a tablet, fix the symptom, move on. Even in the realms of functional, holistic, and integrative medicineâwhere we pride ourselves on digging deeperâweâre still, at times, tethered to the old paradigm. We swap synthetic drugs for supplements, lab tests for biohacks, but are we missing the forest for the trees?
I believe weâre barking up the wrong tree if we think health is about âfixing a broken body.â Our bodies and minds arenât broken. Theyâre ancient, resilient systemsâhoned over millennia to thrive in harmony with natureâstruggling to keep up with an ultra-modern world. Weâre hunter-gatherers in high heels and cubicles, eating processed carbs under fluorescent lights, sleeping five hours, and wondering why we feel off. This isnât a failure of biology; itâs an evolutionary mismatch. Our lifestyles have outpaced our genes, and the result is a cascade of imbalances: hormonal chaos, metabolic dysfunction, thyroid sluggishness, and minds clouded by stress and fatigue.
As providers, our role isnât to patch up a defective machine. Itâs to create a healing environment where the bodyâs innate wisdom can take over, bringing itself back into balance. Health isnât a destination we force; itâs a state we cultivate. And as patients, you donât need to be âfixedââyou need a map back to human, a guide to realign your ancient biology with the comforts of modern life. Hereâs how we can draw that map together, weaving primal practices with todayâs world to reclaim vitality, happiness, and balance.
The Evolutionary Mismatch: Why Weâre Out of Sync
Picture a hunter-gatherer 50,000 years ago. She rose with the sun, her eyes drinking in morning light to set her circadian clock. She walked barefoot on the earth, grounding her bodyâs electric charge. Her diet was rich in animal fats, organ meats, and foraged greensâketogenic by nature, fueling her brain and body with precision. She moved in bursts: sprinting after prey, carrying water, stretching by a fire under the stars. Stress came in waves, but so did rest, laughter, and connection with her tribe. Her biology was perfectly matched to her environment, and her body knew how to heal itself.
Now, fast-forward to 2025. We wake to alarms, not sunlight. Weâre bathed in blue light from screens, not firelight. Our feet rarely touch the earth, encased in shoes or concrete. We eat processed foodsâgrains, sugars, seed oilsâthat our genes donât recognize. We sit for hours, move too little, and sleep in fragments. Our stress is chronic, unrelenting, with no tribal campfire to soothe us. Our biology hasnât changed since that hunter-gathererâs time, but our world has. The result? Insulin resistance, hormonal swings, thyroid dysfunction, and a vague sense that somethingâs off. Weâre not broken; weâre just living in a world our bodies donât understand.
Even functional medicine, with its focus on root causes, can fall into the trap of the old paradigm. We order labs, prescribe supplements, and chase biomarkers, but are we truly listening to the bodyâs ancient wisdom? Are we creating space for healing, or are we still trying to âfixâ what we perceive as flaws? Itâs time to shift our lens: health is about aligning our modern lives with our primal blueprint, not battling our biology.
A New Paradigm: Creating a Healing Environment
If our bodies arenât broken, what do they need to thrive? A healing environmentâone that honors our evolutionary roots while embracing the best of modern life. This isnât about rejecting technology or living in a cave. Itâs about crafting a lifestyle that speaks to our genes, letting our bodies and minds do what theyâre designed to do: balance, repair, and flourish. As a provider, my job is to guide you in building this environment, not to dictate fixes. As a patient, your journey is about rediscovering your innate resilience, not chasing perfection.
Hereâs what a healing environment looks like, drawn from ancestral wisdom and tailored to todayâs world:
Eat Like Your Ancestors: Our hunter-gatherer forebears thrived on animal-based, ketogenic dietsârich in grass-fed meats, fish, eggs, and organ meats, with minimal carbs. These foods fuel ketosis, stabilize blood sugar, and nourish the brain, as Dr. Georgia Edeâs work shows. Swap processed carbs for nutrient-dense foods: a breakfast of eggs and liver, a lunch of beef and kale, a dinner of salmon and Brussels sprouts. Add bone broth for gut healing and fermented veggies for probiotics. This isnât a diet; itâs a return to what your body craves. Modern twist? Use an Instant Pot for broth or order grass-fed meats online.
Sync with Light and Earth: Our biology is wired for sunlight and grounding, as Dr. Jack Kruse emphasizes. Morning sun exposure (20 minutes +) resets your circadian rhythm, balancing hormones and thyroid function. Barefoot walking on grass (15 minutes + daily) reconnects you to the earthâs electrons, reducing inflammation. These primal practices are free and powerful. Modern twist? Wear blue-blocking glasses at night to mimic firelight, or ground on a park lawn during your lunch break.
Move Like a Hunter-Gatherer: Our ancestors didnât âexerciseââthey moved naturally: walking, sprinting, carrying, stretching. Barefoot walks (20 minutes, 4x/week), strength train or do bodyweight circuits (squats, lunges), and gentle yoga mimic these patterns, boosting insulin sensitivity and stress resilience. Once a week, try a sprint interval (30 seconds, barefoot) to channel your inner hunter. Modern twist? Stream a primal movement class online or join a local barefoot walking group.
Rest and Connect: Stress is the modern predator, keeping us in fight-or-flight. Fire gazing (10 minutes, 3x/week, by a candle) calms the vagus nerve, mimicking tribal rituals. Sleep by 10 PM (at the lastest in a dark, cool room to honor your circadian clock. Connect with a communityâwhether a primal movement group or an online ancestral health forumâto feel the tribal support our ancestors relied on. Modern twist? Use a meditation app for guided breathwork or host a virtual âcampfireâ chat with friends.
Nourish with Ancestral Superfoods: Organ meats like liver are natureâs multivitamins, packed with folate, B12, and B vitamins to support methylation and energy. For those with MTHFR variants, active forms (methylfolate, methylcobalamin) can bridge the gap, but liver remains a cornerstone. Oysters, salmon, and bone marrow deliver zinc, omega-3s, and fats our genes recognize. Modern twist? Take desiccated liver capsules if fresh liver isnât your thing, or sip seaweed broth for iodine.
A Map Back to Human
This healing environment isnât a quick fixâitâs a map back to human, a guide to weave modern comforts with ancient biology. Itâs about small, intentional steps: swapping cereal for eggs, screen time for sunlight, stress for firelight. As a provider, Iâm not here to âcureâ you; Iâm here to walk beside you, helping you create space for your body to heal itself. As a patient, youâre not a problem to solveâyouâre a resilient being rediscovering your roots.
The old paradigmâpills, patches, and fixesâkept us chasing symptoms. Even functional medicine can veer too close to this, with its arsenal of supplements and protocols. The new paradigm is simpler yet profound: trust your bodyâs wisdom. Feed it ancestral foods, bathe it in sunlight, move it with purpose, and rest it with care. Your hormones will stabilize, your thyroid will hum, your weight will shiftânot because we âfixedâ you, but because we let your biology catch up.
Are we all barking up the wrong tree? Maybe. But the right tree is closer than you think. Itâs the one rooted in the earth, warmed by the sun, and nourished by the foods and rhythms our ancestors knew. Letâs draw that map togetherâa path back to human, where health and happiness arenât goals but natural outcomes of living in sync with who we are.
Ready to Start?
Try one primal practice this week: 20 minutes of morning sunlight, a barefoot walk, or a liver-rich meal.
Journal how it feels to reconnect with your ancient biology.
Reach out to a provider or community who sees health as a journey, not a fix.
Hereâs to thriving as the ancient beings we are, in the modern world weâve built.