Gut Health, Detox, and Building a Practice Your Way with Dr. Judy Toney

Dr. Judy Toney is a functional medicine provider in Boulder, Colorado, and the founder of atoneMD. She got into functional medicine about 12 years ago through hormone therapy, and after her own experience with environmental exposures and complex chronic illness, she shifted most of her focus to autoimmune conditions, environmental exposures, and detoxification. She also does aesthetics work, which she says lets her turn off one side of her brain and use the artistic side.

Outside of the practice, Judy climbs, bikes, and runs. She has been rock climbing for the better part of 20 to 30 years, spends a good amount of time at the hockey rink with her son, and has a daughter in college studying business.

Top Points in This Episode

• Why Judy starts her morning slowly on purpose, and how a few minutes of calm breathing keeps the day from starting anxious
• Her take on Bulletproof coffee, and why she uses ghee and coconut oil instead of grass-fed butter
• How to handle the overwhelm of endless health advice when even the experts contradict each other
• Where the gut actually starts, and the foods she comes back to for gut health
• The honest pros and cons of owning your own practice, plus the one thing she would do differently if she started again
• Her number one habit, and why morning walks with sun on your face count for more than most people think

A Morning Built Around What Her Body Needs

Judy’s morning has a built-in pause. She takes thyroid medication off her nightstand as soon as the alarm goes off, and since that means waiting about an hour before eating or drinking anything but water, she uses the time instead of rushing through it. Some mornings that looks like sitting in bed and thinking through what the day holds. Some mornings it is quiet breathing or a short meditation. As she puts it, if you start the day anxious out of the gun, it is not going to get better.

From there it is kids, lunches, breakfast, coffee, and supplements that support gut function. She does not exercise in the morning, mostly because she trains with her son or climbs later in the day, and as she points out, not many climbers want to be at the gym at 7:00 on a workday. The exercise still happens daily. It just happens after work.

The Coffee Conversation

Ryan admitted his own attempt at Bulletproof coffee did not go well, mostly because the fat kept foaming on top. Judy’s fix is simple. She uses ghee, which is clarified butter, because it mixes in better, plus coconut oil. Coconut oil and MCT oil are solid at room temperature, so if you stir them into hot coffee properly they blend instead of sitting in a slick on top. Her reasoning for the fat is that it gives your brain fuel early, turns on your fat-burning machinery, and helps you use energy better through the rest of the day. She also had a kind word for Ryan’s iced coffee with almond milk, since adding some form of milk helps your body hold onto calcium better than drinking coffee black.

When Health Advice Gets Overwhelming

Ryan asked whether a practitioner ever feels buried by all the do’s and don’ts, and Judy said the problem is not just the rules but the number of conflicting opinions attached to them. Going through her own chronic illness meant sorting through an enormous amount of information, and it was overwhelming even for her as a provider.

Her approach: find one person you trust and feel comfortable with, then try things and pay attention. Your body tells you quickly whether something is working, doing nothing, or making things worse. Beyond that, the basics still carry most of the weight. Clean air, clean water, good sleep, exercise. And be reasonable about it, because trying to check every box means living in a bubble and being miserable. Get it right most of the time.

Where Gut Health Actually Starts

Judy’s view is that the gut starts at your sinuses and runs all the way through, which changes what counts as gut care. Breathing good air and keeping toxins down matters. So does your mouth, meaning cleaned gums, flossing, brushing twice a day, no untreated cavities.

Your stomach is built to digest with acid, so she cautions against anything that shuts that down, including medications like omeprazole, while also avoiding foods that leave you with heartburn or reflux. The small intestine needs nutrient-dense food to absorb from, so good protein, well-rounded grains, vegetables, and fats, with a multivitamin if that helps fill gaps. The large intestine is where most of the microbiome lives, and those bacteria feed on what is not fully digested higher up. That means fiber and roughage, plus fermented foods like sauerkraut, kombucha, and fermented Greek yogurt. She considers gut health the heart of nearly every other health issue.

This episode is a conversation, not medical advice. Talk to your own doctor before changing medications or supplements.

The Honest Pros and Cons of Owning a Practice

Judy started her own practice because she got tired of a large corporation telling her what to do, how to do it, and who to do it for, including rules she did not agree with. The upside is that you get to do the work your way, set your prices, your schedule, and your standards, and contribute the way you feel called to. She said there is nothing else like it.

The hard part is the same coin flipped over. The buck falls on you. Slow months, unhappy customers, supplies, employees who are not up to par, all of it lands on your desk. Her one regret is not getting a business consultant early to walk her through finances, budgeting, office infrastructure, and marketing. She and her team learned it themselves, and it was harder than it needed to be. She has had chances to go back to hospital systems and corporations, and she has said no every time.

Her Number One Habit

Exercise, and she means it in three parts. Movement that is good for your mind, like being outside or training with other people. Movement that is good for your body, like cardiovascular work. And movement that supports your gut and hormones, meaning weight training and building muscle. She started running at 12 and has never stopped, and she credits exercise with pulling her through a few times when life got overwhelming.

Ryan asked whether morning walking counts, especially with the sun in your face. Judy said yes on both counts. Getting up and moving starts your body out right, and morning sun carries a lot of red light that supports your physiology, your circadian rhythm, and early detoxification. Her words for it: a power move.

Connect with Dr. Judy Toney

Learn more about Judy and her practice at atonemd.com, where you can find information about the team, their services, and how to get in touch.