Jul 10, 2026
Dr. Shilpa Sayana is a board-certified internal medicine physician with advanced training in functional and integrative medicine. Born in Zambia and raised in Botswana by physician parents doing foreign aid work, she trained at Yale, the University of Vermont, and UCLA before an HIV fellowship took her to Haiti, Nigeria, and Russia. In this episode, Dr. Sayana explains why normal lab results and optimal health are not the same thing, how high-performing women are often running on depleted hormones and elevated cortisol without knowing it, and what her own health crisis taught her about treating root causes rather than symptoms. Learn how to read your own numbers, ask better questions at your next appointment, and take your health from normal to optimal.
Timestamps:
00:46 Meet Dr. Shilpa Sayana
02:16 Roots in Botswana
04:00 Switching to Functional Care
06:02 Normal vs Optimal Labs
07:19 Patient Experience Pivot
11:39 Meditation and Stress Reset
14:26 Midlife Health Playbook
18:42 Genetics and Longevity Triangle
23:11 Antibiotics and Gut Health
23:58 Sleep Hacks and Hormones
27:02 Daily Routine and Breathwork
30:23 GLP Drugs and Nutrition
32:41 Motherhood
34:32 Scaling Functional Medicine
36:39 Entrepreneur Stress Mentorship
Links:
Dr. Shilpa’s Website: https://drshilpa.com/
Sayana Medical & Wellness Center: https://www.sayanamedical.com/