Episode 181 | May 21, 2026

The Future of Healthcare: Functional Medicine and Collaborative Coaching, With Dr. Will Cole

Could functional medicine reshape the future of healthcare? This week on Health Coach Talk, Dr. Sandi welcomes leading functional medicine expert Dr. Will Cole for a wide-ranging conversation about the evolution of root cause medicine, the growing public awareness around nutrition and chronic disease, and the opportunities that lie ahead for more collaborative, patient-centered care. Drawing from more than 16 years of experience running one of the first functional medicine telehealth clinics, Dr. Will shares how dramatically the healthcare landscape has changed and where meaningful progress is still needed.

“We’re not replacing their PCP, we’re not replacing their specialists. We’re just another tool within their toolbox… because the only person that really it hurts when we are at this sort of war is the patient, is the person.”

Dr. Will Cole

Throughout the episode, Dr. Will reflects on the early days of functional medicine, when conversations about reversing chronic disease through nutrition and lifestyle were often dismissed by conventional medicine. He discusses the growing momentum behind functional and integrative care, from expanding nutrition education in medical schools to increasing public demand for transparency around food systems, chronic illness, and preventive health. Dr. Sandi and Dr. Will also explore the challenges that continue to face the industry, including medical gaslighting, misinformation, and the need for greater collaboration between conventional and functional healthcare practitioners. At the center of the conversation is a hopeful vision for a future where patients have greater access to empowering health information and more comprehensive care options.

For health coaches, this conversation highlights the essential role coaching plays in helping people create sustainable lifestyle change and build confidence in their ability to improve their health. Dr. Will shares how health coaches have become foundational members of his collaborative care teams, helping clients navigate behavior change, mindset shifts, and long-term wellness goals. Their discussion reinforces how coaching supports improved self-efficacy, stronger patient engagement, and more personalized care experiences across a wide range of health concerns. Coaches listening to this episode will find encouragement in the growing recognition of their profession and the expanding opportunities to contribute meaningfully within the future of healthcare.

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Transcript

Dr. Sandi: Welcome to “Health Coach Talk.” I’m your host, Dr. Sandra Scheinbaum. And today, we have a very special guest, somebody who is a true leader in the functional medicine world. He has been doing this a long time, and we get into the past, what it was like, and we talk about what it will be like, his vision for the future of functional medicine, what were some of the challenges, what are some of the challenges we continue to face, and particularly how health coaches feature prominently in the world of functional medicine, and how important and critical they are to a collaborative care team.

So, I am talking to Dr. Will Cole. He is a leading functional medicine expert. He consults with people around the globe, starting one of the first functional medicine telehealth centers in the world over a decade ago. He has been named one of the top 50 functional and integrative doctors in the nation. He provides a functional medicine approach for thyroid issues, autoimmune conditions, hormone imbalances, digestive disorders, and brain problems. He’s also the host of the very popular “The Art of Being Well” podcast and The New York Times bestselling author of “Intuitive Fasting,” “Ketotarian,” “The Inflammation Spectrum,” and “Gut Feelings.” So, without further ado, here is my interview with Dr. Will Cole.

Welcome, Dr. Will.

Dr. Will: Thanks, Sandra. Nice to see you. How are you?

Dr. Sandi: I am great. And it’s always a joy to see you at events and give you a hug. We always run into each other in the hallway, exhibit halls, and travel in the same circles. So, you are the functional medicine expert. You have been in this field a long time.

Dr. Will: For people that don’t know, I started the first functional medicine telehealth clinic over 16 years ago at this point. So, professionally, I’ve been in this space for 16 years. I have a unique perspective in the sense of because I started in telehealth, we didn’t have the language for telehealth 16 years ago. We called it a virtual functional medicine clinic because I was living in the country in the middle of nowhere, and lots of people weren’t living where I was living. So, it was born out of necessity because I was writing online a lot of articles, and distilling research around microbiome and hormonal health and clinical nutrition research and functional medicine stuff. Right? That wasn’t talked a lot about online. So, we had to logistically figure out how do you get people, labs and protocols and support and guidance and coaching in other parts of this world, that place. So, that’s how it was born, which I’m still running and doing still to this day.

So, I have a unique perspective on the diversity of human health and people from all different socioeconomic and geographic areas for 16 years. I’ve seen tens of thousands of labs and people’s lives improve. So, I’ve seen a lot change over the years. It was 16 years ago…plus years ago. We would get calls on the telehealth clinic phone saying, “How could you be…give people such false hope and lie to them that type 2 diabetes can be reversed?” It was heretical for me to say that because you were born with…it was genetic, and there was nothing you could do with type 2, not type 1, type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance. That’s how just showing you a glimpse into the psyche of the average American 16 plus years ago, it was heretical. I was an apostate for saying you could give false hope and lie to people that you could reverse type 2 diabetes.

Now, you don’t even need to be in functional medicine, like the average standard doctors telling people about just eat…they’re making their basic advice, but you know what I mean, the idea that you can reverse type 2 diabetes, especially with this GLP-1 conversation a lot. There’s so much you can do with food and nutrition and peptides that start moving the needle in the positive direction.

So, I think that’s one example of how far we’ve come of just the mainstream awareness of the power that we influence with the foods that we eat and wellness as a whole. And there was no functional medicine centers at the Cleveland Clinic 16 years ago. So, it’s that we’ve come a long way as a specific within functional medicine. I think of the awareness of who we are and what we do. We still are just scratching the surface, but I’ve seen more and more of just the average person understanding more or less. They may not know any deep dive understanding of it, but they have a better clue. They’ve at least heard of the term functional medicine.

But, look, you’re talking to a guy who’s been a health…in my entire life. In the ’80s and ’90s as a kid, I drew up drinking raw milk, and my parents are crunchy. My first job in high school was at the Finish Line at the mall. And I would go and use my paycheck to go to the health food co-op and buy the latest super food. This goes far beyond even 16 years ago. It goes back over 40 years.

Dr. Sandi: Oh, I love that. Well, I was right there with you. I had kids and I had a food co-op. A bunch of moms would get together and we had a truck come down from Madison, Wisconsin. We would fax in…remember, no cell phones in those days. We’d fax in our order and split the cases of the organic foods that would come off the truck, and then brought food co-op years before Whole Foods.

And similar experience in terms of not some thinking that…like your type 2 diabetes example. I remember being in a doctor’s office, a cardiologist, because his practice was starting to refer some people to me when I was a health psychologist. And I was telling him about breathing techniques and relaxation, guided imagery, and I was helping people with panic and cardiology, would be perfect for referring. And he said, “Get out of my office.” He held up a journal. He said, “There is no evidence that teaching breathing is going to do anything for my patients. The day that I see research in the New England Journal of Medicine, that’s when I might refer patients to you.”

Well, fast forward, we have hundreds of articles about mind-body medicine and the power of belief and real self-regulation techniques. So, we have come a long way, and you have been front and center in that.

Dr. Will: Yeah. Trends come and go, but for people like you and I, the world’s paying attention or not, we know what works and what doesn’t. We know the truth and not the truth.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. And I think one of the things I see is very encouraging is that the labels have really not been so strict anymore. We used to have debates. What’s integrative? What’s functional medicine? What’s root cause medicine? And we’re seeing that, oh, it’s root cause. So, less of that internal debates to try and clarify the difference. Now, it’s just root cause and so many doctors are focusing on these areas. So, it’s really great to see those changes.

What about some of the things that are still problematic out there? We can go on Wikipedia and functional medicine is still quackery and you pick up a New York Times article about the reversing cognitive decline and it’ll be very negative. So, do we need better PR in terms of getting the word out?

Dr. Will: Well, I don’t think we need better PR. We need to dismantle the system that is hell-bent on delegitimizing… So, it’s like we can’t expect it because you look at the money that’s spent, you look at the decades, century, really at this point, of the medical industrial complex, it’s not going anywhere. So, we have to realize that’s really what you’re up against, but they doth protest too much, as Shakespeare once said.

So, the stats speak for themselves. The United States spends more on healthcare than any industrialized nation. Yet we have the shortest lifespan, the most chronic disease, and we spend the most for it. Right? You just have to look at the statistics and say, as far as chronic health, how we handle chronic health issues, not acute, not emergency, not ER stuff, how we handle autoimmunity, how we handle metabolic issues, how we handle fertility and hormonal problems, how we handle digestive problems, we are statistically…and this is the American Medical Association, this is the traditional conventionally accepted statistics that I just gave, we are last or dead last when it comes to all industrialized nations.

So, it doesn’t take anyone that’s really adapted aficionado on health to look…it’s like the failing student throwing shade at somebody that’s at least attempting to move things in the positive direction. To me, labs don’t lie. When you see somebody’s metabolic labs improving, inflammation improving, hormonal panel improving, gut markers improving, you’d have to be pretty nefarious to be against that. I’m sure you’ve heard this over the decades, oh, do you believe in natural health? Do you believe in functional medicine? It’s not a matter of belief. It’s just like, are you for somebody getting healthy or not?

So, do we need better PR? Maybe, but I don’t know if that’s going to solve it because I think it’s just committed to misunderstanding us. And it’s their indoctrination. And I’m all for bridging the two. It doesn’t have to be either-or. It shouldn’t be either-or. It should be both-and, the best of both worlds. Emergency care, we need it. Pharmaceuticals, when we need it. And root cause issues, when we need it. Root cause medicine, when we need it.

So, to me, it should be a collaborative. And this sort of toxic tribalism, which has its roots in the early 20th century, and the Rockefellers and all of that stuff with the consolidation and the monopolization of money. We are threatening to this sort of monolithic system. And I think the democratization of health information now and decentralization of health information now with the advent of podcasts and books and the internet, there is the gatekeepers that haven’t liked it so much. Right? They’ve tried their darnedest to keep us delegitimized and relegated to the corners of the world.

But I think, really, just because a guy in a white coat said it, isn’t going to cut it anymore. And the people are voting with their dollars, and when it comes to empowering their health and things that they have agency over.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely. I do direct-to-consumer lab testing. And I was getting my blood draw at Quest for these tests and had a conversation with the phlebotomist. And she said, “Oh, yeah, we get 10 to 15 people a day who are coming through function.” This is such a change. And my daughter also had those tests. And she said, in the waiting room, there were five people, and they were all functioned customers. So, there’s a sea change that is happening.

Dr. Will: Exactly.

Dr. Sandi: So, taking charge of your health. And we’ve seen some movements now in terms of people are becoming more aware of ultra-processed foods, perhaps, or there’s a movement for medical education for medical schools about nutrition, and I just want your thoughts on that. And we get often so much pushback for this, but…and I love what you said about bridging the gap between the conventional world and our world.

Dr. Will: Yeah. What I’ve seen over the years is that my telehealth patients’ conventional doctor, they more and more are understanding functional medicine. And even if they don’t understand it, the…back to my earlier statement is the labs aren’t lying. So, whenever they go back for their team visit, the doctor says the statement that I’ve heard time and time again over the years is whatever you’re doing, keep on doing it. They just see the data improving. And most of the doctors really care for their patients, like, awesome. I mean, they’re not trained in it. And they could be, but they’re not necessarily trained in it, but they’re seeing it and they’re still managing their case.

So, to me, we’re not replacing their PCP, we’re not replacing their specialists. We’re just another tool within their toolbox. And if we all came together…because the only person that really it hurts when we are at this sort of war is the patient, is the person. Because when I was strong with my statements earlier, I’m not talking about individual physicians in the conventional medical model. I’m talking about the system.

Dr. Sandi: Yes.

Dr. Will: Larger multinational corporations, larger corporations, that is who the issue is, because that’s… And then, of course, they train and indoctrinate people. But the reality is, I don’t see this as an indictment against any doctor. Because most physicians, conventional and transition, get into healthcare to help people. So, it’s just a different paradigm. And when all you have is that paradigm, it’s hard to see anything else that it becomes a…there’s a religiosity to it. It’s a fervent belief in some way.

So, yeah. We have to do something different to see something different. And like Maya Angelou said, when you know better, you do better. And I think a lot of doctors that are conventionally trained are having their aha moment, they’re having their come to Jesus moment, and they’re being trained through people like you and through IFM and other institutions. So, most of my colleagues are conventionally trained physicians that realized doing the same thing repeatedly and expecting a different result is insanity.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. Great answer. And I know that a lot of doctors will come to functional or integrative medicine when they themselves or a loved one has a health crisis. And they see the flaws in the system. And our own Dr. Terry Wahls talks about that, where they just sent her home in her wheelchair. And so, she was a convert to functional medicine because of her personal health journey. And there are so many stories like that, where people come to functional medicine. We know most…not most. So many of our graduates come to our school to become health coaches because they discovered the power of functional medicine. And now, they want to give back and they want to…they have a calling to help others. And it’s so, so powerful when that happens.

I think your point about, really, this coexisting and looking at mutual respect, I was at a fundraiser for a major hospital system in the area was a suburban branch that are expanding, and they’re opening this major cardiovascular institute, but it’s for open heart surgery, for example. And so, if you think you’re having a heart attack, or you have a life-threatening condition, you need a procedure, you don’t go to a functional medicine doctor or a health coach. You go to a level 1 trauma center. And so, focusing on the value… And all too often in our field, we see people just routinely dismiss or disparage the traditional world, but we need them for those life-threatening conditions.

Dr. Will: I guess I didn’t…I remember the point of your question of changing things with medical training with nutrition. I think it’s amazing move. I think HH doing some really innovative things, not all of that’s going to stick, obviously, even though I’d like them to do more. They’re doing it and within this corrupt system, but requiring medical schools to provide more nutrition training, because…I mean, the statistics are…there’s a traditional…there’s a pediatric journal, I think, a few years ago. It’s found that the average conventionally trained doctor would fail a basic nutrition test. That’s shocking and disturbing, because most of the people that they’re going to see as a PCP or a rheumatologist or gastroenterologist, food is directly implicated into their pathogenesis of their health problem, the patients that they’re seeing.

Now, the system will say, well, that’s what RDs are for, registered dietitians. But even that system is really…so much of the training within that system, it’s completely compromised big food and big pharma. So, any RD that thinks for themselves will tell you, this is…and they’ll lose their license if they even give advice that’s not the sort of antiquated, low fat, more whole grain, that sort of view of it.

So, there’s so much red tape, I guess. The orthodoxy has so much red tape, that I think having diversity of thought is a good idea. We’re all going to have different views of this. But to have more robust innovation in the RD space in the medical space is a good thing, because it’s helping people. We are helping people outside in the independent space so they could learn about this so much exciting stuff happening in the scientific literature.

And, of course, there’s not randomized control trials for everything under the sun, because there’s no funding for these type of things. But there is…there are…there’s a growing amount of RCTs on the stuff that we’re talking about here. And there’s amazing epidemiological studies. And epidemiological studies are used in the conventional model only when it suits their narrative. So, we’re just saying, okay, look at all the other epidemiological studies that are interesting that you can gain some interesting insight in. And, of course, we should not conflate correlation and causation. But it’s still interesting. The studies are cited when it’s suitable to the narrative. And to me, it’s just like, let’s bring it all in. Let’s bring all the information in. Let’s bring in…let freedom and oxygen and diversity of thought, differing opinions into the health conversation for medical doctors, for RDs, for health coaches, for nutritionists, for functional medicine doctors, because that’s how you will get more innovation and more studies and more access to people. So, we’re moving in the right direction, albeit extremely slowly.

Dr. Sandi: Yes. Well, I could not agree more. We are moving slowly, but in the right direction. And I’m just so encouraged. You mentioned health coaches. There is so much research that is out there about the efficacy of health coaching. Just the other day, there was a study, suicide prevention and a veteran community returning from active duty. Ninety-five percent of the participants who had the health coaching in this sort of pilot randomized controlled trial, they rated the health coaching experience favorably, and wanted to continue. So, that’s just astounding. We don’t think of health coaching with suicide prevention or mental health, but there’s so much research out there that shows it’s effective.

So, my position is, yeah, it’s great that we’re going to get medical education for nutrition. We can bring in nutritionists, health coaches on those collaborative care teams. And that’s such a powerful model. So, I wonder if you could comment about what you have seen with health coaches, because we have the examples of helping people with lifestyle, with behavior change, and how if you’ve had experience with coaches or what your thoughts are about integrating health coaches on care teams.

Dr. Will: Do I have experience? I mean, I only work with health coaches.

Dr. Sandi: I knew you were going to say that.

Dr. Will: Best friends, as far as professional colleagues. They’re the best to work with. They’re so much fun. They have a passion to help people. And it’s exciting. So, my entire telehealth team are all health coaches in some way. I mean, they’re all trained through different ways. But, yeah, they’re all trained in health coaching, trained in functional medicine health coaching, trained in nutrition coaching in some way.

So, yeah, I have a lot of experience working with them over the past 16 years. As I said, they’re some of my best friends professionally and personally, because we’re helping people together. It’s a beautiful, collaborative, fun time that we get to have. It’s a sacred responsibility for me to be a part of people’s health journey. And my podcast called “The Art of Being Well,” the ask me anything episodes, I hosted with two functional health coaches. And they’ve been with me 16 and 10 years, respectively on the podcast. Yeah, we go way back. And, yeah, I recently merged my telehealth with The Health Institute, Dr. Josh Axe, my friend. And there’s now 100 health coaches that we’re all working together. So, it’s a lot of fun. It’s a lot of fun to help people.

Dr. Sandi: Yeah. It’s such a powerful model, because study after study has shown self-efficacy. The health coaches are guiding people to have this aha moment like, yes, what I do does make a difference. I can change my daily habits, I can change these lifestyle patterns and get healthier. And when they have that belief, then they are on their way to making profound changes. It shows up in biomarkers, it shows up in mental health measures. So, it is profound. So, I can’t thank you enough for your support of health coaches. So, looking into the future, if you had a magic wand and can just control, what would you like to see in terms of as we look at the future of healthcare and the future of this root cause functional medicine world?

Dr. Will: I would say that I would like more and more training of functional medicine. My wish list would be…this is in no particular order, everybody. But I would love to see more functional and nutritional training in conventional medical schools. I would love more collaborative unity amongst us all. And I would like to see more democratization of health information, less censorship, and less medical gaslighting that can happen, less delegitimizing what we do. I think that’s…and let the proof speak for itself. Let the statistics speak for itself, because I know if what we do as a telehealth clinic was en masse happening in the public health arena, the country would be a better place. The country would be a healthier place.

And then, look, beyond directly healthcare, you cannot separate the environment and our food supply with what we do. So, if I’m really being my wish list, I think we need to be phasing out herbicides and pesticides and get better options. At least I’m in no illusions that we can ban these things overnight. They’re deeply entrenched in our farming world. But I think, having at least a plan to off-ramp things like glyphosate over time pragmatically is going to be needed for our soil microbiome, which our gut microbiome is intimately connected to.

And I’m not for banning things from a food standpoint. I think that people should have the choice to eat what they want. But I think there should be transparency and education. So, I think people can have informed consent and vote with their dollars with foods, brands that are doing the right thing when it comes to foods out there. So, just increased education of the average American.

And if there are going to be subsidies, move the subsidies away from corn and soy and this monoculture farming, genetically modified world, and increase subsidies to regenerative farmers to decrease the cost of healthy nutrient-dense foods to the average American. So, let’s make eating healthy easier for the average American. And let’s make foods that don’t love the human body back more expensive. It’d be the opposite. It’d be the opposite. These foods should be taxed like cigarettes. These junk foods, these ultra-processed foods should be more expensive. And people still smoke cigarettes.

Dr. Sandi: That’s right.

Dr. Will: People can still have it. But why are we incentivizing it? We need to reform SNAP and the food stamp program. We need to do so much. But you’re getting me started… I’d love to see it… There’s healing in this land.

Dr. Sandi: Absolutely. What is in store for you for the future? Any projects that you’d like to share? Any new books, any new programs, anything in the works that you’d like to tell us about?

Dr. Will: Yeah. So, a lot of exciting stuff. So, as I mentioned, I merged my telehealth clinic at drwillcole.com with The Health Institutes. It’s under its umbrella to help more people. We still see one-on-one concierge with all the labs and all that sort of advanced functional medicine guidance at drwillcole.com. But we’re doing a lot of amazing things under The Health Institute family and umbrella to make functional medicine more accessible, more affordable for people. So, that’s the goal of it all is to help more people and make it more accessible.

And we launched Longevity RX last year, which we’re really excited about. It’s a regenerative organic line of different ways to support these longevity pathways that I’m a super nerd about. So, looking at autophagy and mitophagy, looking at improving gut microbiome health and lowered inflammation, hallmarks of aging, to start to move the needle in people’s labs and lives. So, that’s what Longevity RX is all about. And my fifth book is coming out with Dr. Josh Axe in September, called “Heal Yourselves.” It’s for pre-order now. And it’s all about… Again, this stuff that we’ve seen work for people to heal and optimize and work on these longevity pathways.

Dr. Sandi: We are so excited about that. We’ll really check out your book. And these upcoming projects are great. I will look forward to interacting with you personally at our next and upcoming live events. This has been wonderful. Thank you for being with us. I know this was very valuable for our audience. I can’t thank you enough.