Podcast Summary

Achieve Your Goals with Hal Elrod

Episode 608: Empower Your Body to Heal with Functional Medicine with Dr. Philip Oubre
Date: October 22, 2025
Host: Hal Elrod
Guest: Dr. Philip Oubre

Episode Overview

This episode centers on empowering listeners to take responsibility for their health by understanding and addressing the root causes of chronic illness, as opposed to just treating symptoms. Dr. Philip Oubre, a board-certified physician and functional medicine expert, joins Hal Elrod to explain the principles of functional medicine, share real-life examples of healing chronic conditions, and offer practical advice for anyone seeking to reclaim their health and longevity. The episode contrasts functional and conventional medicine, highlights key lifestyle and environmental factors affecting health, and emphasizes the transformative role of nutrition.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Difference Between Functional & Conventional Medicine

• Root Cause Focus:
  Functional medicine investigates the underlying causes of illness rather than only treating symptoms.

  "Conventional medicine doesn't believe most of the things we do are truly reversible, but we've proven it." — Dr. Oubre [04:11]

• Conventional Medicine’s Limitations:
  Most conventional practices provide medications to manage symptoms and rely more on early detection than prevention. Functional medicine works to literally reverse and prevent disease.

Six Root Causes of Chronic Illness

Dr. Oubre’s practice addresses six primary root causes:

1. Gut Issues
2. Biological Toxins (e.g., bacteria, parasites)
3. Mold Toxins
4. Environmental Chemicals (e.g., plastics, fertilizers)
5. Heavy Metals
6. Emotional Toxins (psychological and emotional stressors)

"In our world, every brain fog, fatigue, autoimmune condition, whatever it is, is one of those six root causes." — Dr. Oubre [07:14]

Real-Life Example: Reversing Diabetes

• Hal recounts a documentary where 26 type 2 diabetics reversed their insulin dependency through a strict raw vegan diet, illustrating the body’s capacity to heal when root causes are addressed.

“100% of them did not need insulin anymore, except for the one that left because they needed McDonald’s.” — Hal [05:19]

The Role of Toxins: Mold & Heavy Metals

• Heavy metal and mold toxicity are common, hidden causes of neurological and systemic health issues.
• Examples include Mike Dillard (another of Dr. Oubre’s patients) and Hal’s own improvements after detoxifying heavy metals.

Nutrition as the Foundation for Healing

• Nutrition education is alarmingly lacking in medical training; doctors receive about one hour of nutrition education in medical school.

“One physical hour was dedicated to nutrition. And everything else was pharmacology and pathology.” — Dr. Oubre [16:07]

• Dr. Oubre and Hal discuss the shocking indifference toward nutrition in conventional cancer treatment.
• Changing one’s food plan is responsible for about 80-90% of the improvement in chronic conditions.

“Nutrition is simply the thing that would save America.” — Dr. Oubre [13:27]

The Influence of Big Pharma & Medical Training

• Medical schools' curriculums are shaped by pharmaceutical interests, leading to medication-centric training.
• Most doctors earn no direct profit from prescriptions (except in some specialties like oncology), but their approach is still driven by their training.

“Big pharma has bought medical school, basically. So we're indoctrinated... We're trained to use medication.” — Dr. Oubre [15:10]

The Danger of Delegating Health Responsibility

• Both Hal and Dr. Oubre stress the importance of being one’s own health advocate.

“You have to take 100% responsibility for your health, your healing, your recovery. I am not delegating my health and my survival to this person in the lab coat.” — Hal [24:29]

Practical Advice for Listeners

• Begin by adopting a balanced, clean food plan like Paleo or Whole30—focus on real food, not “paleo muffins.”

“When you look down at your dinner plate, you should see real food that needs sunlight to grow.” — Dr. Oubre [34:51]

• Avoid gluten and refined sugars, especially while healing.
• Self-experimentation: Listen to your body and track how foods and interventions impact you.
• Don’t blindly trust doctors—seek second opinions, and use emerging tools like AI-based research platforms (e.g., openevidence.com).

Diet Debates: Veganism, Carnivorism, and Balance

• Dr. Oubre does not support extreme diets (vegan or carnivore); he advocates for balance.
• Vegan diets are particularly challenging due to vitamin B12 and protein deficiencies.

“Completely agree. [Veganism] is the only nutrition plan we're truly against because...it’s really hard to get your protein.” — Dr. Oubre [38:19]

• Supplementation is required for vegans, especially with B12.

The Future of Functional Medicine

• Functional medicine is a patient-driven movement, growing fast because patients demand better outcomes.
• Most functional medicine is cash-based and not yet broadly covered by insurance.
• Dr. Oubre predicts AI will play a larger role in making root-cause medicine accessible to more people.

“Functional medicine has grown...as a movement of the people. The demand is growing, and more practitioners are getting disillusioned with the old system.” — Dr. Oubre [39:13]

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Reversing "Irreversible" Disease:
  “Once you see something reversed that you were told is irreversible, then it really makes you wonder, like, well, what else is reversible?” — Dr. Oubre [09:30]

• On Conventional Medicine’s Nutrition Blind Spot:
  “I can literally tell you God’s honest truth how I'm not a fish story person. We had one hour of nutrition. One hour of nutrition.” — Dr. Oubre [15:56]

• On Medical Mistakes:
  “One of the top killers of people in America is actually medical mistakes...It's real. The medical mistakes that are killing people.” — Dr. Oubre [26:36]

• On Balanced Nutrition Instead of Extremes:
  “I really don't like extreme in general. So, yeah, that's the main thing. Getting your protein as a vegan is really hard.” — Dr. Oubre [38:19]

• On Personal Responsibility:
  “You have to be an advocate for yourself and...have a family member, especially if you're on chemo and your brain’s chemo brain, you can't think for yourself.” — Dr. Oubre [26:04]

Timestamps for Key Segments

• Difference between Functional & Conventional Medicine: [03:08–04:11]
• Six Root Causes of Disease: [07:14–09:12]
• Detoxification & Cognitive Recovery (Mold, Heavy Metals): [06:01–09:12]
• Importance of Nutrition/Flawed Medical Training: [13:27–17:09]
• Pharma Influence on Medical Education: [15:00–15:56]
• Responsibility & Advocacy for Health: [24:29–27:28]
• Practical Advice for Listeners (Diet, Food Plans): [33:56–35:26]
• Discussion on Vegan, Carnivore, and Balanced Diets: [35:26–38:46]
• Future of Functional Medicine & AI: [39:13–42:18]
• Resources/Where to Find Dr. Oubre: [42:45–43:22]

How to Connect with Dr. Oubre

• Website: ouBremedical.com (Oubre is spelled O-U-B-R-E)
• YouTube: Search "Oubre Medical" for educational content.
• Virtual appointments available for patients worldwide via Zoom.

Final Encouragement

Hal Elrod urges listeners not to wait for illness to seek functional medicine but to pursue proactive, root-cause approaches as a foundation for lifelong health.

"I encourage you to pursue functional medicine in your life, not when you have to because something came up...but to prevent things going wrong in the future." — Hal [43:58]

For show notes, resources, and more, visit HalElrod.com/podcast.