The Lauren Castle Show

Are you too spiritual for the scientific crowd but too grounded for the spiritual one? If you've ever felt like you have to leave half of yourself at the door, this episode is for you. My friend Dr. Marina Buksov, pharmacist, clinical herbalist, and FMPhA regional coach, is back on the show. We've known each other since 2020, and for years we've talked about creating a space for women who trust th...

This week is my very first live on-set interview, recorded at the Mindshare Summit in San Diego, with my number one dream guest: Dr. Izabella Wentz, PharmD, the Thyroid Pharmacist. Izabella is a New York Times best-selling author whose books include Hashimoto's Protocol and, most recently, IBS: Finding and Treating the Root Cause of Irritable Bowel Syndrome. Izabella takes us back to her twenties,...

My guest this week is Dr. Jen Belew, PharmD, founder of Beyond the Dose, FMPhA's Georgia state leader, and one of our very first FMPhA members. After 18 years in hospital pharmacy, most of them in the ICU and operating room, Jen built an integrative practice for high-performing women. She focuses on the connections between hormones, gut health, metabolism and cognition. We talk about how Jen found...

My guest this week is Dr. Kym Klimek, a functional medicine practitioner, certified hormone restoration specialist, and FMPhA's Wisconsin leader. Kym's story is proof that functional medicine can open doors you never even knew existed. After years of surgeries and being told her only options for endometriosis were more surgery or a lifetime on birth control, she found functional medicine and built...

My guest this week is Dr. Jesica Mills Thomason, PharmD, ND, MBA, a pharmacist, naturopathic doctor, educator, and Regional Director with the Functional Medicine Pharmacist Alliance. Jesica's path into functional medicine started with her father's cancer diagnosis in 2016, which eventually led her to open her own holistic wellness center alongside her independent pharmacy. In this episode, we talk...

Dr. Lara May built her career in emergency and acute care pharmacy, but her own struggles with IBS, hormone imbalance, and chronic migraines eventually led her to functional medicine. In this conversation, Lara and Lauren revisit how they first connected while building FMPhA's West Coast community, then dig into what it actually takes to run an integrative practice: the real scope-of-practice line...

My guest this week is Marina Buksov, a functional pharmacist, mind-body health coach, and clinical herbalist. Marina and I have known each other since 2020, back when we were both at the very beginning of our entrepreneurial journeys. In this episode, we talk about how pharmacy and herbalism started as the same profession before industrialization split them apart, what it actually takes to train a...

My guest this week is Nicole Grams, PharmD, FMCP, Central Region Lead for FMPHA. Nicole's path from community pharmacy to functional medicine to veterinary pharmacy to Human Design coaching is proof you do not need one job, or one straight path, for the rest of your life. We talk about following your curiosity, what Human Design is and how it changes the way you make decisions, and the real behind...

In this episode, I sit down for my very first guest interview with a dear friend and FMPhA's new Executive Director, Dr. Veronica Riera-Gilley. Veronica shares the tragic loss that first drew her toward pharmacy, the yoga class that unexpectedly became her doorway into functional medicine, and the years of chasing education, community, and purpose that carried her from chain retail burnout to lead...

What is a functional medicine pharmacist, and why have most pharmacists never even heard of this role? In this episode, I'm breaking down exactly what functional medicine is, why pharmacists are clinically positioned to practice it, and what this looks like in real, everyday practice. We cover the actual definition of functional medicine straight from the Institute for Functional Medicine, why our...

Welcome to the very first episode of The Lauren Castle Show. I'm Lauren, functional medicine pharmacist, founder of the Functional Medicine Pharmacists Alliance and host of this podcast. And in this episode, I'm sharing everything: the whole, unfiltered story that brought me here. We're talking about how I went from pharmacy tech in a small Michigan town to climbing the corporate ladder at Walmart...