Dr Pat Boulogne — Functional Medicine, Intermittent Fasting & Performance at 71

**Adam Walker:** I'm Adam Walker, a biometrics consultant, and this is the Pharma Prescribed podcast, where leaders, innovators, and hidden voices in healthcare open up. No sound bites, no spin, just raw insight, one prescription at a time. In an industry driven by data, protocols, and pressure, we rarely pause to ask the human questions: what drives us, what breaks us, and what truths live behind the titles we wear?

**Adam Walker:** Today's guest is Dr. Pat Boulogne, a performance optimization strategist, functional medicine expert, and international bestselling author with over 30 years of clinical experience. Unlike traditional approaches that start from scratch, she works with high performers who already have momentum and want to accelerate their results. Her integrative strategies help executives and leaders achieve their goals faster with greater resilience, energy, and sustainable performance. Dr. Pat, it's a delight to welcome you to Pharma Prescribed today. For those of our audience who are not familiar with you, what is the mission you're on?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Thank you very much for having me here today. I really appreciate it, and I am really looking forward to sharing some insights that help support and elevate your group of people who listen to you. My main mission is saving lives. It's simple, it's short, and there's a lot of different ways that I look at how to accomplish that — through physical, mental, emotional, spiritual, social, and even financial. I'm always looking at what's the solution, and how do you get to a solution that is safe, quicker, and more efficient so you're not having downtime and you're not getting burnt out.

There's a lot of different venues of how I've done that in my career as a physician, as a coach, as a consultant. I've worked with professional teams, with major events like marathons and Special Olympics. Nothing makes me happier than to see somebody elevate and really do their life unapologetically.

**Adam Walker:** I know you have a background originally in medicine which has developed into all manner of complementary and holistic therapies. Could you elaborate on the career path you've taken and how you got to where you are today?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** My father wanted me to be an electrical engineer, and because I was a woman, I could name my own price. I never thought that was ever gonna happen. I decided to become an engineer of life and of health. I went to chiropractic school, graduated, and opened up a practice with my husband on Cape Cod. We excelled very quickly and had a very prosperous and eventful practice with a lot of really great people.

When I worked in University of Michigan Hospital as an intern, I couldn't understand how people got well, and I decided there had to be a better, more efficient way. A friend went to chiropractic school and said, 'You should do this, you've got all the prerequisites.' I said, 'Chiropractors are quacks.' He said, 'You know better than that.' I told my father, and he said the same thing. I said, 'You have a master's in engineering — you know better than that.' I went, and I never looked back.

I'm 71 years old right now and I have tons of energy. I do not take any medications at all. I take supplementation, very targeted for my health goals. For the last two days, I got up at 5:30 in the morning and worked till 7:00 at night, and I got up today and I've had meetings since 8:00 this morning. My brain's sharp, and I keep it sharp by doing specific things. I'm always looking for the way to do something in a simpler, safer, quicker fashion. I like solving problems. I'm solution driven.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** I just found that in Western medicine I didn't see that. At University of Michigan Hospital, I ran into people who I just thought, 'What are you doing here? If someone told me I was gonna die in six weeks, this is the last place I would hang out.' I had that actual conversation with somebody one day, and that was the last day they invited me back to be an intern.

Over the years, breaking in and having conversations with Western medicine doctors, we were the outside-the-box people. I wanted to stay there because I saw better results — people who were happier because they weren't taking medication and they didn't go under the knife for back pain.

**Adam Walker:** That's brilliant. Ironically, the title of the podcast is Pharma Prescribed, but what you're talking is pharma unprescribed, isn't it? Quite literally.

**Adam Walker:** It's about taking out medicine and getting to the root cause of those symptoms and the underlying issues within patients and people. Over the years you must have seen some incredible stories.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** One of the things is that I never underestimated my ability, being the outside-of-the-box thinker, to listen in between the lines. The communication issue between Western medicine and their patients versus my communication with patients is — I talk to them in their own language. Eye to eye, knee to knee, heart to heart, I'm listening: 'What have you got going on, and what have you really got going on?' You have headaches. Did you know 85% of headaches are metabolically involved? That means something that you eat. And what about your emotional side?

A woman recently came to me taking sleep meds. She could go to sleep but couldn't go back to sleep. I researched it and said, 'That sleep med has a part of the methodology in it that I think is affecting you. You might ask your doctor to lower the dose.' I gave her a white paper to share. She came back yesterday: 'Thank you so much. It's the first night I've slept through in weeks.' A lot of times people are told, 'Okay, that's not working — let me give you another drug,' masking the symptomatology. Ask your pharmacist or doctor the right questions, because if you don't ask the right question you're not going to get the right answer.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** When nobody was doing intermittent fasting, I was intermittent fasting. I was 17 years old then and I had no idea it was called intermittent fasting.

**Adam Walker:** What do you mean when you talk about intermittent fasting?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** I do one meal a day and then I drink water. What I didn't know at the time but know now is that I was drinking the right amount of water for my body weight. The rule of thumb is one ounce per body pound. If I weigh 150 pounds, I aim for 75 ounces of water. In this day and time, I would tell you not from the tap — there are chemicals in there that are not good for your brain.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** I look at my best brain time to eat. For me, my high-performance brain time is in the morning. If I study in the afternoon after I eat, I have a thing called alkaline tide — your body becomes more alkaline after eating. That's why a big turkey dinner or Christmas dinner makes you want to sleep. Very few people pair their foods to what they actually need.

I don't count calories or weight — I look at dress sizes. I ate very Mediterranean: protein and vegetables. I stopped eating rice, bread, and pasta completely. Once in Sorrento I ate pasta puttanesca and a colleague — an excellent chiropractor from Rome — said, 'Patricia, I just saw your neck change. You can't eat pasta.' She called the waiter over and ordered me different food. Pay attention to how foods affect you.

A lot of people have digestive issues and don't realise it — they're bloated and think it's normal. It doesn't have to be that way. There are ways to combine foods so your body isn't stressed. When your body isn't stressed, you'll handle stress differently. So that one meal a day was my main meal, and then I would exercise.

When I was 17 my favourite exercise song was In-a-Gadda-da-Vida — 17 minutes of pure moving. I still walk to it because it's uplifting and has a two-four-eight count that's good for your heart and brain.

**Adam Walker:** So you're talking about limiting the eating window and reducing carbs. I'm a terrible person when it comes to bread — I love fresh bread. Is it marketing, self-regulation? What pushes us down these routes?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Part of it is self-regulation. It's like learning to say no. My father taught me an exercise as a chubby teenager. He'd push himself away from the table and say, 'Do this exercise. Take control.' If you want to eat bread, wait until after your meal, and have a protein on it. In Italy they call it scarpetta la piatra — taking your bread and scraping the plate. Carbohydrate, oil, then protein. Simplistic, and you won't eat so much.

Have a large glass of water — at least six ounces — before you eat to feel fuller and more satiated. Put lemon juice in it; it will help you digest your food better.

**Adam Walker:** With regards to the gut microbiome, do you have a position on that, or has your understanding developed alongside the current research?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Look at your ingredient list. To up the chemistry of your body, you need the right proportion of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins. If you don't handle carbohydrates, you're not metabolising fats either. If you're injuring your gut with synthetic foods or foods from unknown sources, you don't have the microbiomes. People say, 'But I have yogurt.' Yogurt is a dairy product — where does it come from?

In the UK you have Heinz ketchup, and in the US the ingredient list is different. There are foods that cannot be used in Europe that are used in the United States. People still use corn syrup — why is it still being sold? If your gut is injured, you can take all the probiotics you want, but you have to fix the gut first, because what you eat will leach into your blood and create autoimmune diseases over time.

You know when you've eaten the perfect meal — you feel happy and satiated. That's different from comfort food, which leaves you bloated. Food should energise you and sustain your energy. If you eat lots of carbohydrates you get the alkaline tide crash about an hour and a half later. Avoid that by eating proper proteins and faster carbohydrates, and by saying no.

**Adam Walker:** With regards to dairy, in my family we don't have any dairy in the house anymore. Could you elaborate around your thoughts on dairy and the inflammatory response?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** A lot of people don't metabolise lactose, and there's also the milk fat. When you have ultra-pasteurised and homogenised milk, what you're drinking is already dead. Where I live there are more cows than people, and dairy farms sell raw milk. I can metabolise raw milk but not regular milk. Your body understands natural things like butter — and higher-quality butter at that.

If you actually looked at a lab sheet of what a glass of milk looks like, a lot of it is mucus. I don't remember the last time I had a glass of milk. I always tell people, 'If it's brown, don't eat it in the morning.' If you're going to have dairy, have low-curd options like goat cheese rather than cow's milk products, and nothing that's processed. Someone asked me about cheese the other day — I said, 'You can have cheese, just don't have it from this country,' meaning the United States.

**Adam Walker:** What are some of the clues that people are not tolerating things like dairy or other aspects of their diet?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Pains. Bloating. Lethargy. I remember a patient with her 20-something daughter, both describing the same symptom for 20 years and thinking 'it's just the way I'm supposed to feel.' Joint pain, calf aches, cramps at night — look at what macro and micronutrients you're deficient in. People say 'it's magnesium' but it might be magnesium and calcium together.

I adjusted a woman's foot recently and it went clunk. She said, 'That hurt!' I said, 'Of course — it's been stuck for 30 years.' She told me, 'Five days of no pain after 20 years, and I slept through the night.' When you have imbalances and your right side isn't equal to your left, stand on two scales side by side and have someone read them. You'll see how unbalanced you are. Then you have to recreate harmony and balance.

Your body always gives you signs and symptoms — you just have to pay attention. You intuitively know that something's not right, you just can't always put your finger on it.

**Adam Walker:** I very much believe that the body keeps a score. Recently I had back surgery that escalated so much in the last four months I wasn't able to stand on my right leg. I can draw that back over many years of poor movement, over-lifting, even something as innocuous as lifting a cup. Now I feel better than I've felt for years, but through surgical intervention. I wonder if I'd been under your care whether there were things you could have done for me.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** I still can. I've had people defer surgery. Their orthopedic doctor didn't like me — but why would you go under a knife? After you go under a knife, you can't change things, and they're going to want to go in again and again. When someone has carpal tunnel on one side, eventually they get it on the other side, because your body is always accommodating. It has to adapt. If it doesn't adapt, you're dead.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** There are three brains that I talk to. The first is the lizard or primitive brain. The second is the mammalian brain, and the third is the conscious brain. The mammalian brain stores everything that happens to us — every moment, every event — so when something similar comes up, it says, 'You've been through that before. Don't lift that box — it blew your back out.'

The primitive brain is the saber-toothed tiger, the person who pulls out in front of you and you slam on the brakes. The primitive and mammalian brains talk to each other all the time. Your conscious brain can change how your mammalian brain perceives things.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Your conscious brain is where people do affirmations. I say, 'I'm a healthy, vital, active, successful human being. Honesty. I give myself unselfishly to help others.' I say that every day driving to work. But then I ask the most important question at the very end — why. If you do affirmations, this is crucial. Ask why. Your mammalian brain scrambles: 'Why is she healthy? Oh, she hydrates, she exercises, she has a positive mental attitude, she gets adjusted, she practises what she preaches.'

When people have a bad experience, it stores in the mammalian brain. So when similar circumstances arise, your body responds in the same way. Until you break that through the conscious part of your brain, it loops. Focus on successful events to change past mistakes, so you can elevate your life. You can live your life unapologetically.

**Adam Walker:** That's wonderful. I think it's living your life as an exclamation and not an explanation. The lizard, mammalian, and conscious brain all resonate. I love the conscious mind and the affirmations — those sit very centrally with me, with faith, with repetitive actions.

**Adam Walker:** There's a simple thing I do every morning. When I'm walking my dogs first thing, I walk to the same spot and look at a group of trees at the bottom of the bridle way. They were planted when Queen Victoria had her coronation. They're in the shape of a V — you can see them from a plane. I make an affirmation for the people that matter to me most, and that centers me every day. The days that start best are always those where I go to the V and do the affirmation.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Can you touch them while you're doing the affirmation?

**Adam Walker:** I can't — they're about a mile away. But I've got a special ring, and I kiss the ring and look to the sky twice.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Ritual. Rituals are so important.

**Adam Walker:** When I'm loading the dishwasher and I know my back's gone, I put one hand on the work surface and use the other.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Oh, you do a golfer's pickup. Same principle — protect your back. Also put one foot ahead of the other, like a ballet stance. It creates stability in your pelvis. When you rock side to side, there's a big shearing force in your SI joints from your sacrum to your iliums, which translates right up your spine. Just saying.

**Adam Walker:** So I am rocking from side to side in my standing desk at the moment.

**Adam Walker:** When you look at the current healthcare landscape, what do you think is the biggest misconception people have about being healthy?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Just in case I ever get to your house, I'm going to open your refrigerator and look in your medicine cabinet. Recently a guy with diabetes — I'd sat down with him a month before and given him an actual diet to follow. Everything I told him not to eat was in his refrigerator. He said, 'My doctor told me I didn't have to do that.' Your food is what's nurturing your body. If you can't nurture yourself, your organ systems all get into dysfunction.

In my book Why Are You Sick, Fat, and Tired? — available on Amazon UK and US — I cover all the systems in your organs. It creates more awareness about what's working and what's not. There's a link to schedule complimentary time with me, because when you get better information, you can make better decisions and choose a different path.

**Adam Walker:** I love that. Food is medicine, isn't it? In this day and age it's difficult to find food in its natural state that's not ultra-processed.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Some people love me or hate me when I go into a barista shop. I'll ask, 'Where's your bean source? Is your water filtered? If your water's not filtered, I'm not drinking your coffee.' Up here is big farmland — there's atrazine, a hormonal disruptor especially for women's reproductive systems. When frogs are subject to it, they become hermaphrodites. You have to know your source of what you're putting in your body. That's why food is medicine. You've got to ask questions and be willing to draw the line.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** I was in a grocery store during COVID buying broccoli. I had two heads — one organic, one typical — and I'm thinking, 'No wonder people are confused, they look exactly alike. Why spend an extra buck on organic?'

A woman came up and said, 'You look very pensive. Are you meditating?' I said, 'No, I'm thinking about how broccoli's like dating.' She said, 'Dating?' I said, 'The traditional broccoli is the guy who keeps you out till 2am, doesn't like you eating snacks, drinks Budweiser, eats crappy food. You get in at 2 and have to be up at 8. If the covers fall off, he doesn't care.'

'The organic broccoli is the guy who makes sure you're nurtured and taken care of. Covers fall off, he throws them back on. Nothing's too much to make sure you're nutritious and healthy and you look great.' She said, 'Which one's the organic?' I said, 'This one.' She grabbed it out of my hand and said, 'Go get your own. I never understood why I should buy organic. Thank you.' Then she walked away. It is my lifestyle — I help people have the same lifestyle so they can be 71 going on 41.

**Adam Walker:** That is a rich and compelling insight, and I cannot better that example.

**Adam Walker:** What's the most important thing we haven't spoken about today?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** How do you get started? What motivates somebody to elevate their life? People get stuck. They take themselves out of their environment, and instead of researching how to sustain it, they say, 'I can have this one time,' and then they're back with 10 or 20 pounds on. If you see something, say something — like shopping for clothes with girlfriends who'll tell you, 'Never wear that again.'

Motivating people and giving them resources — 'I have this issue, what's the solution?' — without feeling like you're punishing yourself. Do you want to play with your grandkids, or watch them?

**Adam Walker:** It centers around motivation, but also understanding in the moment your why — that's going to serve you the longest.

**Adam Walker:** What is the one piece of advice you would give to your younger self?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Go to school sooner. Go be a chiropractor sooner. And be outspoken — say what you're thinking, forget about whatever they're thinking.

**Adam Walker:** What are the top three qualities you value most?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Honesty, integrity, and action.

**Adam Walker:** What is your favourite thing outside of work?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Cooking. I'm a foodie. And travel.

**Adam Walker:** And your go-to dish?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Salad. I make a really awesome salad. The Greek Horiatiki salad — the insides of the salad: radishes, tomatoes, onions, garlic, shredded carrots and beets, mostly raw, topped with a lean protein.

**Adam Walker:** What is your number one golden rule?

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Be true to yourself.

**Adam Walker:** We've covered so much ground in this conversation. It's been fascinating to hear how in your career and life you've applied those lessons to the decisions you've made throughout those 71 extraordinary years.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Yes — I learned how to lead by example.

**Adam Walker:** And you're absolutely leading by example and speaking your truth. I commend you. It's been an absolute delight to get to know you a little bit better today, Dr. Pat. Thank you so much for taking the time today.

**Dr Pat Boulogne:** Oh, it's been a pleasure. Anytime.