Key Takeaways from the 2025 PLMI Thought Leaders Conference

Sponsored by the Institute for Functional Nursing (IFN) www.fxnursing.com

In this solo episode of The Functional Nurse Podcast, Brigitte Sager, DNP shares her key takeaways from the PLMI Thought Leaders Consortium, a premier functional healthcare conference founded by Dr. Jeffrey Bland.

Brigitte breaks down emerging themes shaping the future of functional nursing and functional healthcare, including immunometabolism, immune system resilience, epigenetics, personalized care, and affordable ways nurses can assess patient health using wearables and basic lab data like the CBC. She explains how tools such as heart rate variability, sleep data, continuous glucose monitors, and immune inflammatory indexes like SII and SIRI can help nurses track patient progress without relying solely on expensive testing.

This episode also explores important conversations happening in the functional health space around trust, communication, prescriptions, GLP-1 agonists, longevity, cognitive decline, and the evolving role of nurses as disruptors in healthcare. Brigitte reflects on what it means to practice functional nursing with integrity, maintain strong patient provider relationships, and support patients using a true root cause approach.

This episode is ideal for nurses, nurse practitioners, and holistic healthcare professionals who want to stay current on functional health trends, apply conference insights to real world practice, and better understand how nurses are helping shape the future of healthcare.

Resources & Links Mentioned:

PLMI Thought Leaders Consortium membership and conference recordings
Podcast referenced by Robert Lustig
Functional Nursing Summit registration
Functional Nursing Program