Welcome And Guest Introduction

Dr Andrew Greenland 0:00

Welcome to Voices in Health and Wellness, a space where we go practitioner to practitioner, sharing the real stories, clinical insights, and business lessons that shape how we deliver care today. I'm your host, Dr. Andrew Greenland, and each week I sit down with clinicians from around the world to uncover what's working, what's not, and how we can better support each other as a global community of health professionals. My guest today is Dr. Yasmin Areida, a uniquely qualified functional medicine practitioner whose journey spans continents and disciplines. Yasmin began her medical career as a plastic surgeon in Egypt. After really cut relocating to the US and finding that her credentials weren't recognized, she rebuilt her career, driven by her own battle with rheumatoid arthritis, into one that now blends functional nutrition, advanced diagnostics, and aesthetics. So with that, Jasmine, I'd love to welcome you to the show. Thank you very much for joining us today.

Dr Yasmin Areida 0:50

Thank you.

Dr Andrew Greenland 0:51

Thank you. So maybe we could start with your journey, if you mind, taking us back to your original training in Egypt and what drew you to plastic surgery in the first place.

heumatoid Arthritis And Gut First Care

Dr Yasmin Areida 1:00

Okay, so yeah, that was a long time ago. Um, starting with the with my medical um bachelor to begin with. Uh in the beginning, I want to say I didn't want to be a doctor in the beginning, uh, but I really didn't know what to be. But my my uh my dad influenced me and he wants to be me to be a medical doctor. So I went into the medical doctor with no no not knowing if I'm gonna continue or not, but I fell in love with medicine from the first year. And uh I started uh my um bachelor's degree in University of University of Cairo or Cairo University. Uh and um the minute I started doing the clinical part in our fourth grade of medical school, I was just fascinated by surgery. So I wanted to be a surgeon to begin with, and um when in our internship I continued doing going to the surgery room every day and all night. Um, and then I met some plastic surgeons who were really very creative, which created my um passion to be um a plastic surgeon. So I went I started my career there in Egypt as a resident in um plastic surgery, and then I continue my education. I went to Malaysia to do a master's degree in reconstructive surgery. And what happened is I met my husband, so he convinced me he is a US president, so he convinced me to come here and that I will have a better career here, and then when I came to USA, I was just um I faced the the thing that I they don't recognize my credentials and I have to start from the beginning. So as a female, I got pregnant, I had a baby, so it was so hard to go into the the exams again and then residency again and then continue this job. So in Egypt, while I was in surgery, I also had a nutrition diploma, which I was also very fascinated about, nutrition. I always believed that nutrition is very important for all our aspects of life. So I did a diploma from the univers from the National Um Nutrition Institute in Cairo University, and I was so fascinated about how much nutrition can change our life. And I started taking care of myself and my family, like my dad, my mother, everybody around me, nutrition-wise. So when I came here and I was not able to continue my career as a surgeon, I decided to continue my career as a nutritionist. Um, went back to school. Before going back to school for nutrition, I went back to school for a master's degree of science of health and administration just to continue my education. And I was so passionate about teaching, so I did a higher education teaching certificate, and I started teaching anatomy, biology, any medical um subjects. Um, and then I went back to the University of Western State in Portland, Oregon, to continue my education as a nutrition and nutrition and functional medicine. And that's what where I actually became more fascinated about nutrition and functional medicine and how really functional medicine can change our life and can change all aspects of chronic disease. Um, and starting with myself, because I was diagnosed with rheumatoid asthritis when I gave birth to my kid. Um, and really the conventional medicine didn't do much for me. So I started searching as a doctor how to take care of myself. And um then I knew that I can take care of other people with my journey, with my education. Um, so I finished the graduate certificate of in human nutrition and functional medicine from University of Western State, and I decided to continue with my doctorate in clinical nutrition as well. Um, a few months away from graduating, so excited about it. In June, I'll be graduating from the nutrition, the uh grad the doctorate of nutrition of clinical nutrition, and I'm so excited about this. But um I'm already practicing nutrition since um like since 2013 here in USA, about four years now. I am licensed as a CNS, uh certified nutrition specialist, and licensed as a um LDN, so uh licensed dietitian nutritionist, and that's my my my speciality or my license um in USA. But I'm originally a doctor in my country, and um I do also practice medicine in my country. I do have my patients, online patients, and when I go back to there, I I do have a clinic that I do uh in our property. I do have a clinic, so I see patients over there as well. Um so I'm uh also licensed in my country as a doctor and as a nutrition specialist.

Dr Andrew Greenland 6:18

Wonderful. Thank you for sharing that journey. Really, really interesting and really interesting how here hearing how it spans different continents. But what was it like personally to start again as an expert in a new country?

Dr Yasmin Areida 6:29

It was very hard. It was very hard, and it took me a while to figure out what to do because originally I was just going to go the normal route of USMLE, residency, and then continue as um as uh uh as best career, but um I was faced with the long time of studying and then another residency, which I already done. So I it was like too much to to get in the beginning, and I had a baby and a family to start, so it was like a lot. So it took me a while to figure out the way how can I proceed and be licensed in in here in this country and work as a health professional. Um, but it was so it was so hard in the beginning.

Dr Andrew Greenland 7:17

Okay. And you spoke openly about your um experience with rheumatoid arthritis. I'm just interested to know how that shapes how you now approach patient care. When you've talked about um looking after yourself, but I'm just wondering how it's kind of changed the dynamic in the way that you treat patients now.

Dr Yasmin Areida 7:34

Well, it's changed the way that I can feel them. Like I can feel how to have an autoimmune disease and how it is it's it's an autoimmune disease, but it also shapes all everything. So it it shapes your nutrition support, um, the movement, the physical activity, sleep, um, stress management. So it has a lot of aspects that you have to contribute together to be well-being, to be good and function. It's not just one thing that you could do, it's not it's not just a medicine that you can take it and then you're gonna be fine. I just realized for a few years being on medicine that it will not do anything for me. I mean, I had a nutrition background since 2013, but it I was not fully trained in autoimmune disease and GI symptoms, and how really 90% of our problems start with from the R GI. So you have to fix your GI first before deciding to go to other aspects. Um, so now I can understand how people feel, how they like they feel, how they know, or how they um feel like it's not medicine and just not one thing that I can do can solve the issue. It's just a number of things. Um and they have to understand this that it takes time. Um, yes, food is medicine, but it's not like I'm gonna change in one day what I have been doing in a few years and I'm gonna be fine in one second. It takes time for all our nutrient deficiency to be covered for our pains and aches, and especially if they are in uh specific parts of their life as a matter of age.

Dr Andrew Greenland 9:20

Got it. So uh can you kind of walk us through what your model looks like in the US at the moment in terms of how you set things up? What does it look like from a patient's journey perspective and the sense of how you treat them and look after them?

Dr Yasmin Areida 9:34

Okay, so I see my patients um either in the clinic or online, and uh, before I see them, I give them my intake form, which is pretty comprehensive, and another intake form that they will put uh they will journal their diet in the past three to seven days, and another uh intake form that highlights the main symptoms that you want to they want me to see, and they want to see me for. And then we sit and our initial consult is anywhere from 45 minutes to an hour plus to talk about everything that happened in his in their life. We do like a timeline. When did it start? How did it start? What did you do to fix it? Where did you go? Did you seek other practitioners? And then if they have any lab work done with other practitioners, uh we can talk about it as well. Uh what, like if of course, if it's a female different than male, the female has, you know, she goes through different ages, and every age has its issues and problems. And so if she has any hormonal problems, it's going to be discussed if they had any thyroid issues and nutrient deficiency that she knows of from the beginning, that she that I didn't know yet about. And then male is more straightforward than female, less complicated. But it takes us about 45 minutes to an hour plus, and sometimes more, with patients who have really complicated or more history of diseases or family history of diseases. Um, and we sit together and we talk about her their issues and uh what's really concerning them today, and we talk if we're gonna do any advanced lab, like you know, there's the stool analysis, there is the Dutch test, the hormone test, there's plenty of things, and then the mold and the lime, and there's a lot of things. So we decide if we we are going to start with um an advanced lab, or she just wants normal lab work and then we go from there, and depending on what she wants to do. So if she has the finance to do more advanced, we will go for that. If um, if she just wants to go with insurance, like normal lab work, we will go with that. If she wants to change her diet for now or or lose weight, so it's really depending on what she came for or what she what her goals are for seeing me today, and then after that, um we will have a plan together if there's something like very obvious, and if it's not, then we will um we will do the lab work and everything, and then we will have a follow-up appointment and we go from there.

Dr Andrew Greenland 12:20

Thank you. Now I guess you're a doctor at heart, you were trained as a doctor, you can't unknow what you know. So, how do you navigate what you're allowed to do and what you're not allowed to do in a functional medicine kind of setting? Um, because you said that you don't you're not licensed to be a doctor in the US. How do you navigate all of that?

Dr Yasmin Areida 12:38

It's very hard. It's extremely hard. But luckily, I am in a uh in an organization. So the organization has other licensed MDs and other HRT specialities, so we kind of work together for the patient. So if I if the patient needs lab work, then she will be referred to the licensed MD and she's gonna get her lab. Uh, we also in USA have other ports now that you can not and you can order labs, not as a uh physician or like special at MD. So there is an online portal where I can, with my license, order labs through these portals. Um so, but like you say, you can't know what you what you know. So I'm always looking at the bigger picture, which I see as a privilege. Uh it's hard to like really put lines between the two things. Uh but I but I try with my experience of everything to to kind of um direct the patient where to go because I know where where is the symptoms or where's the ink written exactly. Like if she has hormone problems, then I have the other partner in my job that takes of hormones. If she has uh endocrinal issues, then I know where to send. So I can I kind of have a whole network of people. Some of them are in my same uh office, and some of them are otherwise else where I can like track her if she has stress, then I will track her to somebody who can help her. Um I also I'm also licensed as um as a heart maths practitioner, which is deep breathing techniques. So I can manage things like high cortisol level, um, high stress things. So, you know, I try as I as I can to be in my scope of practice, but it's very hard.

Dr Andrew Greenland 14:45

Must be very, very tricky. And I'm trying to understand where the kind of the lines are. What are the things that you can't really do at all and you have to refer on? Is it is it quite well defined?

Dr Yasmin Areida 14:57

Um like I can't say that you have Hashimoto or thyroidism, like I can say you have hypothyroidism, hyperthyroidism, but I can't really diagnose her with a Hashimoto if she has high uhimmune antibodies. So I kind of like say it between the lines and direct her to somebody that can really give her the big diagnosis um thing. Uh and and in and in my country, I'm I'm fully licensed and as an MD, so it kind of makes the balance between both of them. Um, yeah, so what is helping me is and I I belong to a whole big organization uh called the Balanced Woman, where we have different, we have PA, we have nurse practitioner, we have you have they have me, they have, we have licensed um practitioners. So all of these people together will kind of balance what I can't do.

Dr Andrew Greenland 16:01

Great. So you're obviously well supported in the organization you're in. Um does it change the dynamic of the patient journey? I mean, is the patient aware of you know your the training you've had before and the limitations you have, or is it seamless? How does it work for the patient?

Dr Yasmin Areida 16:15

Yeah, I do, I I'm I I say I'm um I am uh I'm an MD in my country, I'm but I'm here licensed as a CNS and LDN. So um I will tell you what I need to tell you, and and then sometimes I will just say the other things, and but you have to that but you have to go to this person to be fully diagnosed with this. It doesn't change anything in in my treatment because everything starts with a nutrition, everything starts with the GI. So whether she's diagnosed with Hasimoto or any kind of other things, of course, I can't treat cancer, but I can support her on her cancer journey. Um, I see a lot of patients post-cancer treatment that they need to take care of nutrition support and all of that stuff. So it doesn't change anything in my perspective because I'm not gonna give her medicine anyway. It's not my it's not my thinking. Like I think the way that you have to start with nutrition first and then go from there. But she's already, if she comes already with with diagnosis of any kind of thing and she's already on her medication, then she's already following up with other doctors and other providers on that. But if she comes to me and I diagnose her with something, then I will refer her to the somebody that can give her the conf conventional medicine, let's say that way. If she wants hormones, then it's easy because it's the same office. I'll just send her to the next door and she will get the hormones.

Dr Andrew Greenland 17:55

Um so what does your practice look like in Egypt? So I know you do an online um clinic there, and you said that you you go back and you're able to do some practice there. What does the practice look like in Egypt? So trying to compare the two.

Dr Yasmin Areida 18:07

So in a few beginning years, I used to go back and do some small practice uh surgery, some small plastic surgery things like um like nose job or something like this. But then I realized it's not it's not me anymore. I'm not I'm not training anymore in this career, so I'm not gonna do this. So I I am a consultant, I'm a nutrition consultant in Egypt, where I have my clinic. So I have my patients who I just consult them for other things, and and there I can give them medicine and I can give them antibiotics and I can give them everything. But the difference between our country and here is that in Egypt, medicine doesn't have to come from a prescription. I mean, it's available in the pharmacies. So if I say take this antibiotic or take this medication for thyroid, then they just go to the pharmacy and they get it from there. It's not like I have to send a prescription to the pharmacy and the pharmacy approve it, and the insurance and all of that stuff. So it's kind of easier over there. But I'm fully practiced to go to do anything, you know. I say I always say the doctor can do anything. So it's kind of wide open for me over there. I mean, it's not my practice here, is really not any difference because I will start the same way because I'm I'm like I said, I'm always gonna start with the gut, which is fully in my scope of practice. Um, I'm always gonna start if I need avoid with an advanced, which is fully in my practice, uh fully in my scope of practice, like I can order a test, like stool test, mold, lime, like all of these things are open to me as a functional medicine nutritionist.

Dr Andrew Greenland 19:56

And what does functional medicine look like between the two countries in terms of the perception and understanding and uptake of um functional medicine in Egypt versus the US?

Dr Yasmin Areida 20:05

It's very new, it's fairly new in Egypt. It not not a lot of people know what it means, and it's very fairly new, and um people really still cannot get the idea that they can treat themselves without medicine in Egypt. And as an Egyptian, uh born in Egypt, an Egyptian, um, I kind of want to deliver this message to the people over there. I just started with my friends and family members, so most of my family members or my husband's family members, they they kind of consult me for their issues, and they kind of understand now what is functional medicine and how you can really um treat yourself with food and and and medication is not something that you have to fully be on, except if you really need it, like for example, to replace your hormones, you need you need medicine, you need medicine, thyroid medicine or hormones or all of that stuff. Um but Egypt, but in Egypt, people do not really know yet what this functional medicine is. They know, of course, nutrition, nutrition has been there for a very, very long time. My actually, my diploma from um the institute of uh nutrition in Cairo was in 2013, so it was a long time ago. And uh we did study about sports nutrition, cancer nutrition, just weight loss and weight gain nutrition, so uh kidney nutrition, so different kinds of nutritions. Um but I fully established the idea of the interconnection between all the nodes here when I started studying here more in depth and more how your there is a brain and gut connection, there's a connection between all your body, how you how your structure. Levels are how your nutrition are, how your sleep is. So it so in Egypt it's really fairly new, and we're still establishing the idea of functional medicine over there.

Dr Andrew Greenland 22:14

So your clinic in Egypt and your clinic in the US, they're obviously businesses, you're you're running a healthcare business essentially. So what's working really well from a business perspective in the clinical work that you do?

Dr Yasmin Areida 22:26

Because I'm here more, I'm here most of the year. I'm just in the summer in Egypt. So I I'm developing here more clients and more results. Um and um of the advanced, like the stool kit and these things, are not in Egypt yet. So for example, if I I have a clinic, I have patients who travels all the time, I would send them to other countries to do stool analysis, like for example, Dubai, UAE, because I originally was living in Dubai for such a long time of my life. I did all my school in Dubai, and I have a sister that still lives over there. So um, so I kind of have a connection between here and in there. So and they have all the advanced, like the um total body MRI, they have the food sensitivity tests, they have the mold and the lime and the stool kit. So some of my patients I actually send them there if they already travel around the world and they need advanced techniques, I send them there to do them, to do, to do these advanced techniques. But in Egypt, we still are not familiar with these things so much.

Dr Andrew Greenland 23:40

Interesting. And does that mean that there's problems of shipping? You can't get the patient to do the tests locally in Egypt and have them shipped to the labs elsewhere?

Dr Yasmin Areida 23:47

It's very expensive.

Dr Andrew Greenland 23:48

Oh, really? Okay.

Dr Yasmin Areida 23:49

I tried I tried to discuss this before, it's very expensive. Um, I thought I I'll take the the kids with me to Egypt, but then how am I going to deliver them in the right time? Because there is a specific time that you have to get the sample back to the lab so they can give you the correct results. So, yeah, so even my husband gave me an idea like, why don't you develop it? Like do a third company or do a company over there that has these kits and everything. I thought maybe, maybe this is a future project that we could do since it's not there yet. Um, but it's in it's in other countries, like if people are traveling, but if people are local in Egypt, it's hard to do it.

Dr Andrew Greenland 24:33

So is it from what you're saying, it's cheaper for them or it's the only way for them to have these things done if they travel?

Dr Yasmin Areida 24:40

It's the only way. We don't have them in Egypt.

Dr Andrew Greenland 24:42

Yeah, okay. No, I just yeah, okay, I got it. Um so that's interesting. Are there any other sort of challenges or bottlenecks um that are most impactful in either the Egypt clinic or where you're working in the US at the moment?

Dr Yasmin Areida 24:56

Um the challenges in Egypt is just to establish the idea of functional medicine and what does functional medicine mean? Because we currently, like if you think about it, functional medicine kind of treats everything. It can't make surgeries, of course, but we can help people who are going to do surgeries or recovering from surgeries with their with their health and nutrition and all of that. So the idea of having one practitioner in Egypt that can do can manage your health is some kind not established yet. And um here I I'm lucky to have to be in my where I am because I have the whole set of team. So I kind of don't find lots of challenges here, just the challenges with the with the new patients that sometimes is really really like in-depth, and I have to study for them like to know the case, things like this. But I have a whole big network, like my colleagues that really can support me with ideas if I need to.

Dr Andrew Greenland 26:09

And if you had a magic wand, then you could fix one thing in either of your practices, whether it be in Egypt or the US. What would that be? Fix one thing, you mean like a disease or no, any anything really, anything from a logistical side or a business side, a clinical side, the one thing that kind of is one of your biggest niggles that you'd love to just be able to wave a magic wand over and it would suddenly be fixed.

Dr Yasmin Areida 26:32

Well, it's hard, but I wish they can recognize us here as physicians coming from other countries, because that's a challenge, that's a huge challenge. Because we already had our schools from there, we had our training, we had our residency, we and you know, there's there's a healthcare shortage everywhere now. So I feel like if they take if they take advantage of us that we have already experienced and we already have studied the things and take advantage of us by any means rather than going into not going back into studying for such a huge amount of time and going into these tests for very long hours, you know, they assimilate tests is like eight hours. It's very challenging, you know. So I wish they can take advantage of people who you have already experienced from other countries that they you have you don't have to redo everything because that's what we do in Egypt, actually. We recognize people from other countries, and um, they got they get licensed and they can work because they have already been, I mean, it's the same medical school, there's no different in medical schools everywhere. You were still gonna start anatomy and biology, and uh, and there's you're still gonna study everything. So, and and you went through the test and you went through the internalship and residency and all of that. So, I wish if this could be considered something here. The challenge in Egypt is just the idea that people can understand that nutrition can really change everything in their life, and sometimes it's very, very small tweaks, very, very small, that can really change a lot of things. I I have here, I have I do have um um patients as doctors, as surgeons, and other kinds of doctors that you know, because we don't we don't study nutrition in medical school, so we don't know anything about nutrition in medical school. So, yes, they are an MDs, they are doctors in specialty, different specialities, but they don't know anything about nutrition. Or what they know about nutrition is that we have to eat protein and eat less carbs, but they don't know why we have more protein, how do we have more protein? What we what that we need carbs, but we need the smart kind of carbs rather than just bread and pasta and all of that stuff. So so I wish and everything, and I I heard that they are now implementing and will put nutrition courses in the medical school so the doctors can know that more because nutrition everything starts from nutrition.

ime Drains Capacity And Workload Reality

Dr Andrew Greenland 29:24

I couldn't agree more. That's you're you're speaking my my language being a functional medicine practitioner myself. I can completely get that. So, what's your biggest time drain at the moment in the work that you do? Is it around clinical stuff, admin stuff, marketing stuff, or maybe something else?

Dr Yasmin Areida 29:39

Um sometimes marketing. Um I'm I'm I'm so busy, so I'm wearing a lot of hats. I'm studying, I'm a mother, I'm I'm I I I have a like the clinic, so it's kind of being too busy is very hard because some days I will have to be awake for the whole night to finish what I have to finish, um, regarding if I have assignment or if I'm having reports for my patients, or I have things to do at work, or my son is sick, like anything. So my my my biggest challenge now, or my biggest thing, is to coordinate between everything and also help myself to be well-being, because I have to be well-being to to help other people, which I mean, which with all of these things is very hard, very, very hard. So I'm just waiting to finish at least studying so I can put something aside and continue with my with helping patients more. Um, yeah.

Dr Andrew Greenland 30:53

So if suddenly you had a wave of um new patients coming along, which might be a nice problem to have, I don't know. What would happen in your situation? Because it sounds like you are wearing lots of hats, you cram a lot into your time. But what would happen if you know 20 new enrollments turned up next week?

Dr Yasmin Areida 31:09

I will not sleep. I'm just gonna be awake. That's what happens. That's exactly what happens. So what happens is like I wake up in the morning and see what has to be done today, and I just schedule it and do it. So it's not like it's not like I'm going to say, Oh, I put this aside. No, I will prioritize. So if that if I have an assignment that has to be done today, I will do the assignment first, and then I will look at after the things. I if I have a patient that needs a report right now because she came to me like a couple of days ago, I will do that first. So I kind of wake up in the morning and see what has to be done today. Like, you know, what I I look at today's problem and then I look tomorrow's problem. So and then I sacrifice by not sleeping.

Dr Andrew Greenland 32:01

And if you were to start over again with everything that you now know, and hindsight's a wonderful thing, would you do anything differently in terms of your journey to where you've arrived at now?

Dr Yasmin Areida 32:12

I would help my father to be better. Because we lost my father in 2017, and I didn't have the knowledge that I have now. I couldn't help him. I I know that this is his journey and it finished, but I feel like if I knew what I knew now, I would have helped him in his journey to feel better. Um, I would help a lot of people around me in their journey instead of suffering too much with what I know now, because I feel like now I know more, more, more a lot than I knew four or five years ago. And I feel like now I can help people more, I can help myself, I can help my family. So that's one of the things that I really would have changed. And I don't know if it if it would change anything in my dad's journey or dad's time to go, but I this is the thing that I wish I can have done.

Dr Andrew Greenland 33:16

Thank you for that very um personal reflection. And I guess finally, where are you looking to take things in the next 12 months or so? What's next for you, the clinic, the the um yeah, but where are you looking to go?

Dr Yasmin Areida 33:28

I'm looking for finishing my doctorate degree to be fully doctorate in functional medicine and nutrition. Um and then I don't know if this is something I'm gonna do now or not, but I am also interested in mental health so much, and I know it's very linked to our um health. Um so I'm thinking after a while of not studying, I might have a degree in mental health as well. But what I'm really looking forward now is to finish my doctorate degree and concentrate more on my clinic to grow it in a way like more um marketing, more helping more people. One of the things that I I don't take insurance now, and I I think and why don't they take insurance? Because they don't embarrass as much as I spend time with patients. But I feel like if I dig with insurance a little bit more, I would be able to help more people because not everybody can afford to pay out of pocket. So these are the things that I think I'm gonna be looking forward to dig more in when I have more time for my patients or for my clinic.

Dr Andrew Greenland 34:53

And with that, Yasmin, I'd love to thank you so much for joining me today. It's been such a rich conversation, really interesting hearing about your journey uh across two continents the pivoting in your um expertise from plastic surgery to functional medicine nutrition. Um, very grateful for your time. So, thank you for joining me.

Dr Yasmin Areida 35:10

Thank you.