In This Edition:
- What’s New at FMP Essentials: Stay updated on upcoming courses, practitioner meet-ups, exciting announcements, and new educational content.
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- Private Mastermind Podcast Spotlight: This month’s episode features Dr. Wendy Warner in a conversation on rethinking birth control as the default answer for teen hormone symptoms, including painful periods, irregular cycles, acne, and root-cause clinical considerations.
- Blog Feature: This month’s blog explores how stress, sleep, nutrition, training load, and recovery may influence menstrual cycle regularity in teens, offering a functional medicine lens for understanding cycle changes beyond reproductive hormones alone.
- Stay informed, engaged, and ahead of the curve with this month’s updates!
What's New At FMP Essentials?
- Public Podcast: This month’s public podcast features Natalie Lue, author and boundaries expert. In this episode of the FMP Essentials Show, Dr. Elyaman and Natalie explore how people pleasing, difficulty saying no, and unclear boundaries can impact stress, burnout, relationships, and long-term wellbeing. They discuss how these patterns show up in everyday life, in patient care, and in the healing process itself. Available now on YouTube, Apple Podcasts, and Spotify. Subscribe on YouTube to stay updated with new episodes as they release. Click here to watch now.
- IFM’s Annual International Conference is coming up May 27–30 in San Diego! If you’ll be attending, we’d love to stay connected and meet up during the conference. We’ve created a WhatsApp group for FMP Essentials members and friends who will be there. Click here to join the group.
- Dr. Elyaman contributed a chapter to the new Integrative Nephrology textbook, now available for pre-order. His chapter, “The Cardiovascular Kidney Metabolic Syndrome,” explores the interconnected pathways shaping cardiorenal and metabolic health. You can pre-order the textbook by clicking here.
Clinical Insight: Could Magnesium Status Be Worsening Menstrual Cramps?
Painful periods are often approached as a hormone problem, but in this month’s podcast, Dr. Wendy Warner highlights a simple clinical factor that may be easy to overlook: magnesium status.
While magnesium may not be the whole story, it can be an important piece of the broader dysmenorrhea picture.
5 things to think about clinically
1. Serum magnesium may miss the picture
Serum magnesium is tightly regulated, so it may look normal even when cellular magnesium status is suboptimal.
2. RBC magnesium may be more useful
For patients with significant menstrual cramping, RBC magnesium may provide a better sense of magnesium status. Dr. Elyaman and Dr. Warner discuss aiming for an RBC magnesium level around 6 or higher.
3. Magnesium supports smooth muscle relaxation
Because the uterus is smooth muscle, magnesium status may influence cramping intensity.
4. Diet quality matters
Magnesium is found in foods like pumpkin seeds, chia seeds, almonds, cashews, spinach, Swiss chard, black beans, edamame, avocado, dark chocolate, and quinoa. Low intake of vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds may be a clue that magnesium intake is inadequate.
5. Repletion may take time
If magnesium stores are low, improvement may require consistent intake and supplementation over time rather than a quick fix.
Clinical takeaway
For teens or young women with painful periods, magnesium status may be a simple but meaningful place to assess. Before defaulting only to symptom management, consider whether low intracellular magnesium may be contributing to cramping and whether RBC magnesium could provide additional clinical insight.
Check Out This Month's Podcast Episode
🎧 New Podcast Episode: Rethinking Birth Control for Teens & Young Women
Here’s what they cover:
- Why birth control is commonly prescribed for teen hormone symptoms
- What physiology may be affected when ovulation is suppressed during adolescence
- How painful periods, acne, and irregular cycles can point to deeper patterns
- The role of blood sugar, insulin, cortisol, stress, thyroid function, magnesium, and toxic exposures
- How lifestyle, nutrition, herbs, and targeted support may help address root causes
- Why patient education and developmentally appropriate care matter for teens and young women
This episode offers a thoughtful, practical framework for practitioners who want to move beyond symptom suppression and better understand what may be driving hormonal concerns in younger patients.
How to watch/listen: Log into your account, select the Bronze Mastermind, and scroll down to the "Expert Interviews, Insights & Podcasts" section to find the episode.
Check Out This Month's Blog Post
Stress and the Teen Menstrual Cycle
This month’s blog explores how stress, sleep, nutrition, training load, and recovery may influence menstrual cycle regularity in teens. We take a functional medicine lens to cycle changes, looking beyond reproductive hormones alone to consider the broader physiologic load a teen may be carrying.
The article also highlights when irregular cycles may be part of normal development, when they may deserve closer attention, and how practitioners can think through patterns related to cortisol, thyroid function, blood sugar, exercise, and overall recovery.
Click here to view the article!
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Thank you for being part of our community!
-The FMP Essentials Team
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