Most of us were raised on convenience food, low-fat slogans, and a medical system designed to put out fires, not build strong homes. This conversation reframes health as stewardship: aligning daily choices with how the body is designed to work, rather than trying to control it with another quick fix. Dr. Dusty Hess draws on a lineage of hands-on, whole-person care to argue that culture, not just science, shapes whether we heal. The takeaway is simple and demanding at once: start small, act on your values, and give your body the conditions it needs to self-regulate. That shift—from passive patient to active steward—changes the questions you ask and the results you get.

Functional medicine sits upstream of symptoms. Think of the ER as firefighters: vital when your house is burning, but not who you hire to design the house and choose safe materials. Functional care looks for root causes before the sirens: nutrient gaps from depleted soil, endocrine disruptors like BPA and phthalates, chronic inflammation from seed oils and sugar, and stress that keeps the nervous system stuck in fight-or-flight. Those inputs bathe our genes. Through epigenetics, our environment can turn helpful genes on and calm harmful ones—meaning your everyday routines, light exposure, sleep, and food quality can literally change cellular behavior. That’s hopeful, but it also puts responsibility back in your hands.

Inflammation isn’t the enemy; chronic, unresolved inflammation is. The body needs temporary inflammatory responses to repair, but when barriers like the gut lining or lungs are compromised, irritation becomes systemic. Add poor omega-3 to omega-6 ratios, processed oils, and toxins, and you create a pro-inflammatory environment that accelerates oxidation, plaque formation, pain, brain fog, and hormone chaos. Endocrine disruption compounds the problem. Plastics and pesticides can mimic or block hormones, nudging estrogen and testosterone off course and affecting fertility, fetal development, mood, and metabolism. When every room in the “house” is a little off, symptoms multiply, but the cause is the same: misalignment with design.

Autophagy is one of the body’s elegant cleanup systems. Through fasting windows, deep sleep, and movement—especially resistance training—your cells tag underperformers for recycling. In a world of constant snacking and blue light, many people never give their bodies time to clean house. Intermittent fasting doesn’t need to be extreme; consolidate eating into reasonable windows, avoid grazing, and prioritize high-quality protein, fiber, and natural fats like grass-fed butter, ghee, olive oil, and tallow. Move daily, lift things, and walk often. Autophagy isn’t about hack culture; it’s about restoring rhythms that our biology expects and our grandparents took for granted.

If this all feels overwhelming, zoom out. Stewardship beats perfection. Swap seed oils for natural fats. Choose glass or stainless over plastic, especially for hot food and drinks. Sleep on a schedule and see morning sunlight. Eat food with a short ingredient list, from animals and plants raised as they were meant to live. Filter water if you can. Strength-train twice a week, walk every day, and build meals around protein, colorful plants, and fermented foods that support the gut. Teach your kids why these choices matter so they can become free thinkers, not checklist followers. Six months of small, consistent changes can reset energy, mood, cycles, and labs more than any single supplement.

Fertility threads through these themes. Sperm counts have fallen dramatically over the last fifty years, a trend linked to toxins, nutrient deficiencies, chronic stress, sedentary living, and light pollution. The fix isn’t a single product; it’s a culture that says no to easy comfort when it costs long-term resilience. Functional medicine respects acute care while reminding us that real health is built at home, one aligned choice at a time. When families put faith, family, and health first—and act on those priorities—their bodies respond. Start where you are, decide one change you can own this week, and let momentum do the rest.