Episode 180 | May 14, 2026

The Truth Behind Wellness Trends and Misinformation, With Dr. Donese Worden

How can health coaches and consumers make informed choices in a wellness industry overflowing with supplements, testing options, and conflicting advice? This week on Health Coach Talk, Dr. Sandi welcomes internationally recognized integrative physician and researcher Dr. Donese Worden for an eye-opening conversation about the realities behind direct-to-consumer testing, supplement quality, and the growing need for accountability in health and wellness. Drawing from decades of clinical and research experience, Dr. Worden shares practical insights into how coaches can better support clients while navigating an increasingly complicated healthcare landscape.

“Supplements can be amazing, but I’d rather you be on nothing than on a poor-quality supplement because we may be causing more harm than good.”

Dr. Donese Worden

As more people take their health into their own hands, the wellness space has expanded rapidly, along with the confusion that often follows. Dr. Worden explores the rise of direct-to-consumer lab testing and why validation, reproducibility, and clinical utility matter far more than flashy marketing claims. She also discusses supplement contamination, misleading labeling, storage concerns, and the growing scrutiny from the FTC and FDA around testimonials and wellness claims. Throughout the conversation, she emphasizes the importance of asking the right questions, understanding scope of practice, and prioritizing evidence-based information over hype.

For health coaches, this conversation offers valuable perspective on how to advocate for clients responsibly while building trust and staying within scope of practice. Dr. Worden shares practical considerations for evaluating supplement and testing companies, thinking critically about marketing language, and helping clients avoid unnecessary overwhelm, expense, and anxiety around wellness products and testing. Her insights reinforce the important role coaches play in helping clients navigate today’s increasingly crowded wellness marketplace with greater confidence and discernment.

Watch The Episode

Listen Now

Transcript

Dr. Sandi: Do you ever feel overwhelmed by the number of supplements that are available, increasing numbers, where it can be just really hard to navigate? And if you’re having difficulty, think about your clients. How do they know? And where are they getting their advice from? How do you know if a supplement is doing what it’s supposed to do? What about issues like storage and transportation and even adulteration? There’s that happening. And then the whole field of direct-to-consumer lab testing. This is equally as confusing for you if you’re a health coach and for your clients.

That’s why I am really excited to bring to you my conversation with Dr. Donese Worden. She is a true expert in this area. She is an internationally recognized integrative physician. She is a researcher, an entrepreneur, a media host. She’s had more than two decades of experience transforming healthcare through science, innovation, and patient advocacy. She’s widely known for her expertise in integrative cancer support. She is guiding patients through conventional, as well as metabolic, therapies while helping them make informed decisions. She is recognized worldwide as a leading trusted authority in metabolic oncology strategies. She is the founder of REPOWER Medical Clinic in Arizona, and co-founder of Prove It Research. This is a contract research organization that specializes in rigorous third-party validation, accessible for the health and wellness industry. She continues to lead clinical trials for novel therapeutics, medical devices, and nutraceuticals. I know that you are going to find my conversation with Dr. Worden extremely valuable.

Dr. Donese Worden, welcome to this podcast.

Dr. Worden: Thank you, Sandi. Glad to be here because coaches are amazing. They make all the difference in the world with outcomes for patients. So, glad to be here.

Dr. Sandi: Thank you. You have such wisdom in this industry, and have seen it all and are really the voice of reason. So many times I have heard you speak about things that are just not on anybody’s radar and often have to do with being cautious. So, first, I’d love to hear what you are currently up to. What’s exciting for you? What are some of the things that you are working on?

Dr. Worden: Well, a couple of things I think the coaches might be interested in, I am working on. We’ve got some big platforms that are looking at my “Hot Seat” show, and that is a debate show between conventional and alternative medicine so that we can hear both sides at once because people will go hear their coaches or their integrative doctors. Then they go to their traditional doctor and they’re getting conflicting information. They don’t know who to listen to. They don’t know how to interpret. So, I’m excited about that because we need to hear both sides, and see strengths and weaknesses. So, that’s one thing.

Another thing is the Moore Foundation. It’s an alliance. It is metabolic oncology, research and education. It was with Tom Seyfried, Dominic D’Agostino, all the top researchers and clinicians in the world from… Let’s see. Isabella is at Cambridge. There’s a whole group of us. We have about 80 that are physicians, researchers studying and pulling forward more information and research, honestly, on metabolic oncology. That’s ketogenic diet, hyperbaric oxygen, repurposed drugs. So, that’s very exciting. I’m running that, heading that up, getting our group of amazing clinicians and researchers, but pulling it together so we have an actual nonprofit and going forward with that. So, those are a couple of things I think your group would like to know about.

Dr. Sandi: Wow. Well, we’ll be following those. And we’ve talked before about some of the issues that we’re facing today. Everybody says healthcare is broken and we are losing doctors and there’s a shortage of doctors. And people are taking their health into their own hands, which is a good thing. And we also have the rise of…just an explosion of direct-to-consumer testing. People are just going and ordering their own tests and often bypassing the doctor completely. So, if you can just touch on what do you see are some of the advantages, and what are some of the risks that people should be aware of?

Dr. Worden: The minute a patient is invested in anything for their health, that’s a step forward. Right? It might even be incorrect information, but they’re thinking about it and trying. So, we’ve got to be careful with that. But when that patient invests their time in the research and the money, I think that’s…they’re highly motivated. But it is that double-edged sword that you’re talking about because if they are changing their lifestyle or taking supplements or stopping a medication, all this because they’ve done a test, a direct-to-consumer test, they’re either interpreting it incorrectly or the test itself is not validated. It’s not reproducible. It’s not an accurate test.

And so, that’s part of what I would love to talk about today, what are some things that coaches can look for and ask these testing companies, and what can they teach their patients or their clients, I should say.

So, I will say that the primary concern is that accountability gap. I’m always delving into research and testing it. I have for years. Twenty-five years ago, I was double-blinding tests. That means I was sending in the same patient’s data same day and it better…those results better come back the same. That’s how I’ve narrowed down the companies that I will work with. So, there are many steps that…you know, it’s beyond CLIA certification. CLIA is proficiency testing, those kinds of things, but it doesn’t let us know the reproducible…the reproducibility. Try that, try to say that 10 times in a row. That or how valid it is.

And so, there’s quite a few little checklists that I go through. Any company that I decide to work with, I’ve got an accreditation and certification checklist that they have to go through and it’s quite extensive. They have to show me their proficiency testing, the programs that they do, their validation data. They have to show me their coefficient of variation. That means that if we did multiple times in the same test, it better come back the like. So, this is being a researcher in me. Remember, I’m not just a clinician, but a researcher. So, I know those questions to ask, but those are things that your coaches can ask. They can teach their patients if they’re going to go there. These are just, is there validation from how good is the test?

And then there’s, is there clear clinical utility? Just because you ran a test, have they…we looked at…if you do that test and you follow certain guidelines, does it change anything in the patient’s management or their outcome? So, there’s two things you’ve got to be looking at with all of these tests. And if your companies are skeptical, they won’t answer clearly those questions… You don’t have to be an expert. You just have to know that asking those right questions about quality are very important. Again, their accreditation and certification, proficiency testing, the coefficient of variation, those are basics that they could ask. I go way beyond that because I’m just a researcher. But those are basics. Right?

And what they’re really asking, what…show me the reproducibility of your test, not, oh, it could be, this kind of testing shows this. No. Your lab, your test kit. Show me your test kit, this information for, because there’s another big reason that your coaches need to know is that if they are utilizing it, they’ve got a little bit of risk if they’re talking about it just to their clients or if they even talk about it on their websites or their marketing materials. And it might be a whole other session, but the FTC, which is the Federal Trade Commission, and the FDA are really looking at companies. And every coach is a company. They’re a business. And if you can’t defend the reproducibility, the clinical validity and the exact claim that you’re making, you should not be building your recommendations or marketing around that.

Because one of the biggest misconceptions, Sandi, is that, well, I’m safe if I just use the labs language. I just have on my website that this test kit said this and I just use their language. That is false. If you repeat a claim on your website, in your programs, in your recommendations, you’re now responsible for those claims. And because the FTC is evaluating the overall message to the consumer and not just the…not just from the original source, we’ve got to be careful.

And there’s testimonials. A new major risk as of 2024 is that…is now enforcing strict rules on testimonials. And if you’re using testimonials as a proof of your effectiveness as a coach that I’ve helped this many people or I’ve coached other coaches and I’ve increased their revenue, this is a whole other recording that we might need to do, Sandi, because that right there is a big thing. And now that they’ve got AI, they’re combing. They’re going to find your website. There are certain words, certain things. I do a lot of coaching to companies and other just to look at their regulatory risks. So, I just want you guys to be aware of it.

Dr. Sandi: It is really such a scary world out there. And I see this all the time where a coach might say, I have a proven method for helping you with blah, blah, blah, or tons of testimonials where they say, I was suffering from this and this. And then this coach helped me when no one else could or… Those would all be claims.

Dr. Worden: Those are all red flags. They are. And if they can’t back it up, the thing is if you got audited, they came in with their guns, FTC or FDA and said, okay, show me your data. And it can’t be your data. You have to get third-party-validated data. So, you have to say, I sent off all my testimonials or all my statistics, got it third-party-validated to say 88% of my clients, whatever your clients are, whether it’s health or wellness or coaching other coaches, whatever that is, you’ve got to show validation, third-party validation. It’s not rocket science. It’s just awareness. And I think you’ve been in entrepreneur groups with me, Sandi, when I’ve been talking. I don’t care if you’re an accountant. It doesn’t matter what your business is. You’ve got to back up every claim you’re making.

And back to the direct-to-consumer test, that’s a claim. If you’re not saying you’re doing medical, you’re doing all the careful things that you’re teaching them, Sandi, you’re trying to help them be safe, but there’s this whole little underlying, what about when they’re recommending the direct-to-consumer testing and how are they talking about that in their market and be careful.

Dr. Sandi: And that also crosses over to boundaries in terms of the coach scope of practice. And so, right off the bat, they would be out of alignment if they are recommending a test or they are recommending a supplement. And so, the process, really, to be safe is you are asking the questions of the client and then the client is saying, okay, I’m interested in this or what are your thoughts on this? And back in the day when I was working as a health psychologist, the rule of thumb was always you give three names. If you’re referring out, you have three names of…if I was referring somebody to couples, there were three names or if I was recommending anything, it was like, here’s three that have been well-validated. You choose. But I don’t see it that much anymore.

Dr. Worden: No. And even that, even with three recommendations, you still need the statement. It’s up to you. You’re not saying that these are legal language that you use because you can’t 100% know those recommendations are actually right, for another physician even. Or you can say, here’s Dr. Worden, here’s all these names, but you’ve got to qualify it to the best of my knowledge. And this is where, yes, we’ve got AI right now, put it to work, but then it’s worth $200, $250 or $500 to get an attorney to review it at that point and say, look, there’s my website, here’s what I’m saying, this is what I’m doing. Am I safe?

Because here’s the catch. The FTC and FDA aren’t really bad guys. They are a watchdog. If it’s done correctly, can be helpful for us because they’ll keep bad players out of the mix. So, what they want to see, Sandi, is that you’re trying, that you’ve thought about it. You didn’t just go, oh, I didn’t know. I was just trying to help people. That’s not an excuse. They want to see that you’ve done some work, that you have a binder, we used to call it a binder, now you can have a folder. Right? Electronic folder.

Dr. Sandi: Sure.

Dr. Worden: You asked your questions that you’ve done as much as you can, because even if you haven’t done it all, you might get a slap on the wrist as opposed to a million dollar fine, or you can never be a coach and work in this again. You can never be in this industry again. So, it’s worth spending some time doing as far as you can is what I would suggest. Use you and your sources, Sandi, right? Start there, trust the community, run it through AI, look through all your stuff, and then it’s worth getting a legal representation because if you did get the knock on the door, you would at least say, I have tried, here’s what I’ve done so far.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah, absolutely. So, always doing that due diligence, not making any false claims, and really not outright recommending, and always documenting. We teach people to have in your notes. If you didn’t document it, it didn’t happen. So, you can document that this was something the client asked you about or they were interested in. It was not something that you directly brought up and recommended. Yeah.

Dr. Worden: But then as coaching, even if it’s lifestyle, even as whatever is within the scope, nowadays, it’s like…and I think of it…everything, every recommendation that I do…and I’ve got almost 30 years of clinical experience and research. But every recommendation I do, we’ve got a three-point system. We run it back through. What are the validated data sources, quality sources that would back up what I just said? And so, with AI now, that’s not that hard. Make a good prompt and put it in there. I told this client, this is where you can find good food at blah, blah, blah, blah, whatever it is. Right. Can you back that up?

Dr. Sandi: Yeah.

Dr. Worden: Maybe you can.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. And some of the ones that will share their sources, where it came from.

Dr. Worden: That’s what you want. And you can tell in your prompt, give me level A sources. Is that coming from a medical journal or a prestigious journal or is it just some…was it something that an influencer said? That’s a level C, not worth it. So, you teach your prompt through your prompt, the level, and you try to…at least try to get two or three level As to back up what you’re… And then most of your coaches probably have some templates they’re working off of.

Obviously, it’s personalized for the person they’re working with, but they’re probably grabbing language and different things instead of having to rewrite it every single time. And that’s where they can get those references. And you don’t have…they don’t have to show it with the client and overwhelm them. They’re going to go, oh, my God, unless they’re one of those that want to see it. Don’t overwhelm them, but you need to be able to back it up.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. Well, we have a compendium of research, but it’s just a running list. We keep having addendums to it every time I see a new study. And you can always point to there’s so many studies, for example, a recent one about GLP-1s and they have people who had health coaching along with the GLP-1 and they did better, and they were sustained, they were able to engage in strength training more. And you have that study to back it up.

Dr. Worden: That’s right. You’re doing such good work, to have you. They’re really lucky. But they got to understand they’re ultimately responsible, FTC, FDA, and I want to say again, responsible for the quality of the…now, maybe you didn’t recommend the test, but if they’re coming in with the direct-to-consumer test, to be able to teaching your clients, did you ask these questions? You know about this with that test. Before we talk about making changes for you, let’s talk about the quality of the test.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely. Yeah. And also the over-testing. Some of the companies, there are so many testing, so many things are being assessed. Okay. Well, is this important? Do you need this? What are you going to do? And sometimes it’s just creating anxiety. They’re imagining they have all these conditions, find if they didn’t have the test.

Dr. Worden: That’s what I said. If you keep testing, you’re going to find something. And you’ve got to go by what are the actual symptoms that they are feeling in their body, the intuitive in their body. But you’re absolutely right. I mean the anxiety from the overwhelm of the test. And then there’s conflicting information in the test for the physician as well, not just the patients and clients, but everybody. I mean the coaches, it’s like there’s conflicting information. You have to go back to what can we see? What are they feeling and doing? So, I think we…there’s a fine line, over-test and under-test, but you know what? Financial toxicity, especially the patient populations. I work with critical disease and cancer. Right? And so, they’re already overwhelmed. Then there’s financial toxicity.

If I’m going to do a food sensitivity test, if we’re going to be changing diet, maybe that’s worth it, but maybe not at this moment because I can’t implement certain things right now. I’m just using it as an example. It’s money, it’s financial toxicity, stress, and we can’t use it. So, it’s timing, and I get any and everything I can through insurance first. I always start there in insurance-based labs. And then we say, are there specialty labs that make sense right now? And can I utilize it right now? If not, we’re going to wait. We’ll wait.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. Such a good point. So, turning to supplements, which is… And health coaches can now have accounts on Fullscript, for example. They just submit their certification and they can open up accounts. Many of them are having links on their website. And this industry, I mean, it’s just… When I first started, it was confusing, but every time I go to a conference, there’s more and more companies that are offering supplements. And it is really just wild west out there. And I know this is an area that you’re quite passionate about. What are some of the things that you’re seeing that are really scary?

Dr. Worden: Well, let’s start with the basics as meta-analysis and other studies are showing 75% of the products out there are contaminated, mislabeled, misrepresented. It doesn’t have in there what it says. It might be an herb that looks like another one, even on a certain type of analysis, if they’re even doing that. And it’s not the right quantity, quality, and some of them are spiked with drugs. So, people feel better because they were spiked. When you say the wild west, it is…there are some bad players out there. And when I use that 75%, I think it’s low. I know, on my end, when I have…and I don’t care where your distributor is, WholeScripts, I don’t care where you’re getting your distributor. Don’t think, well, I got it from distributors. It’s going to be clean. Again, I’ve got a list that, boy…companies say, boy, if we can get past you, we can get past anybody. I have a huge list and I require it every single year, the big list of what they’re doing, but here’s what I do, full-time person that does this.

Every single bottle… I’m not talking once a year manufacturer. I can tell you by the lot number, if it was tested, how it was tested and what it was tested for, every single pill. I know from the minute it comes to raw materials, it might look good at the beginning. It sits in the warehouse for two years before they make the capsules. I want to know that in capsule, what’s going in your mouth. It’s a lot of work and it’s… There are many companies that won’t comply and I don’t have those on my website. I don’t. And I tell patients, I’ve done the quality control for you. But it’s a full-time job.

Again, the same thing with the testing. Right? How clean and how good is the product to start with? And that is a…it’s a billion dollar industry. Supplements can be amazing, but I tell people that I’d rather you be on nothing than on a poor quality supplement because we may be causing more harm than good because of those toxic ingredients, missing information, having drugs put in there to make them feel better. So, it’s all about quality. And do we need 10 supplements instead of looking at is there one supplement that would cover three things? So, that’s where really always looking at the patient’s pocket book and saying, can I choose one supplement that will cover three different areas of concern instead of three different supplements? I think that’s a big piece.

But there’s a fun story here about this. What can coaches do? They go, I don’t know. How am I going to regulate this supplement industry? Well, you can ask the questions. We’ll do a separate one of these and be glad to share. These are the questions I would be asking any company that you are selling their products. Again, the distributor is not responsible. You are. You’re the one selling it.

The other is that if you white label, if you put your label on it, you are now the manufacturer. And that means all the responsibility, which you’re supposed to be going and touring the manufacturing facility and doing your own regulatory control. Now, if you don’t know what I know, that’s going to be almost impossible. So, you can at least get the in batch run.

But here’s the fun one that we can do. So, it was years ago. Oh, gosh. It’s been over 20 years ago. I noticed in my patients that people were taking the greens drinks, they were doing the greens drinks to be healthy. And I noticed, why is their blood sugar starting to rise? I’ve never had issues with that in them before. And I kept tracking. I thought, I’m going to do an internal little mini-case study here. And I did it and I tracked it back. It was the greens drinks doing it.

Now, the industry knew about it, but they’re quiet about it. So, I did a talk. I was the chief medical officer of a boutique supplement line at that time. We had it at the Expo West. We had a…he took out an ad. This is the marketing people that do this and said, your greens drinks are…it was something like killing people or making people worse, something like that. My room for my talk… Because that was the biggest seller, it’s still one of the biggest sellers of these drinks, powder drinks. My room had people angry, arms crossed out. Okay. Here we go.

But I had the data. I showed them what I had found and I said, this is what I found with this number of people. And I said, but we’ve got it figured out. We found pea protein. Nobody had heard of it. Nobody knew of it. We changed the industry by saying you need protein and you need fiber to slow down all this wonderful greens and fruit things that you’re having people take. We changed the industry because as a person working with people, I noticed it. Coaches can do the same thing. They can do the same thing and say, I’m seeing this trend. What’s the issue here?

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. Wow. I’m glad you brought up those green powders. I used to love them. I still do smoothies. For years, I was dependent on a greens powder, different brands and they have everything under the sun in them.

Dr. Worden: And that’s the thing. There’s not enough of that ingredient to get to the level that’s supposed to help you anyway. It’s marketing. It’s called marketing. Look at all the stuff. And so, you…we figured that out years ago knowing that, but coaches need to understand that, too. There are really good players in this space that are doing the right kind of research, quality control.

And here’s another thing. I have this ability to help these supplement companies and I belong to several organizations about it. And some of the companies said, well, how much would it cost to do a trial to prove the claims that I’m making to show that I can back this up? I have a way of doing it very affordable, way less than any other way that they’ve been doing it, but they would still come back and go, yeah, they do the math and say, I’m making millions in a day or in a week. I’d be better off, just wait. If I get an FTC or FDA action, I’ll just pay the fine. I’ll take care of it then. So, they’re putting the risk of not knowing if they’re effective and safe waiting on the fine because they’re making so much money.

So, I need all of us that really care about that person in front of us. We need to be advocates and we need to say, are we working with companies and supplements that have third…not just third-party testing. But beyond that, can they show us the validity of the quality of their product, and are they putting their money into the research where they should be? We are the ones that will change the industry.

Dr. Sandi: Yes. And I always look to people that I really respect, who are chief medical officers or who have their own line and look at…that they are adamant about quality. And that is the role of the coach. Primary role, to act as that advocate, to help people understand because we’re talking about nutraceutical brands, but we haven’t even gotten to the you order from Amazon, Costco.

Dr. Worden: You have no idea what you’re getting. No idea. I will say this. Big companies like Walmart and Costco, they have a little bit more robust checkpoint because they have more to lose and people would sue them and go for big money, class action lawsuits, all that. I hate saying it, but I don’t know where it’s been stored. Quality may not be there because it got too hot in transit, all the things, right? But quality control, they’re better than some other places. Amazon, you don’t know what you’re getting, where it’s been stored. It’s third party. You don’t know where they’re getting it. But the big box stores, they’re not…it’s not perfect. It’s better going, if you can…I know it’s easier to go through a distributor and get everything in one call and order it all. I get that. But a lot of mine, if they’re ones that I know, it’s very, very important to keep the quality and this…the heat and all that. I go direct to the manufacturer. I get it directly shipped to me. I know where it’s been, how it’s been stored. It’s not in a huge warehouse. I know all of that. So, that’s just my personal.

Dr. Sandi: Wow. This has been so enlightening, such an important conversation. You are just such a voice of reason. Where can people find you?

Dr. Worden: Yeah, drworden.com. That’s my website. But I have a YouTube channel and Instagram and all that. So, if they find me, I will start doing more on those things. But I do have a great newsletter, by the way, that a lot of your people might enjoy. And I did just start. It’s the fourth month, once a month, “Truth in Medicine Live.” It is an hour. And I’ll take a topic and I will lecture on it, deep lecture, but in a way that people can understand, because they’re clients and everybody’s there, as understanding the real science, what it means to them. And then they get to ask questions. I know you have a lot of educational content for them, but it’s just something I’m doing and I’d be glad to have them come in. Because I know they would be asking good questions.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. I love it. Well, we will make a note of that and make sure we note that in the show notes. Check it out everybody. Well, thank you so much for being here.

Dr. Worden: Thank you, Sandi. I appreciate you and all that you do. And all the coaches, thank you for having me as well.

Dr. Sandi: Thank you.