Dr. Izabella Wentz, Pharm.D., FASCP is a passionate, innovative and solution focused clinical pharmacist. She has had a passion for health care from a very early age, inspired by her mother, Dr. Marta Nowosadzka, MD.
Fascinated by science and the impact of substances on the human body, Izabella decided to pursue a degree in pharmacy with a dream of one day finding a cure for a disease. An avid learner and goal-oriented student, she received the PharmD. Degree (Doctor of Pharmacy) from the Midwestern University Chicago College of Pharmacy at the age of 23.
Dr. Wentz is trained in functional medicine through The Institute for Functional Medicine, Kalish Functional Medicine, and the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine. She is a Fellow of the American Society of Consultant Pharmacists, and holds certifications in Medication Therapy Management as well as Advanced Diabetes Care through the American Pharmacists Association. In 2013, she received the Excellence in Innovation Award from the Illinois Pharmacists Association.
During her time as a consultant pharmacist, Dr. Wentz worked as part of an interdisciplinary team consulting on thousands of complicated patient cases, often caused by rare disorders. She was regarded as an expert in clinical pharmacology and would be called upon to investigate cause and effect by performing comprehensive medication therapy reviews in an effort to help identify and resolve adverse drug events. She quickly became adept at finding and evaluating emerging research to help address her clients’ unique challenges. Although trained as a pharmacist, she was an ardent champion for lifestyle interventions, which often helped patients much more than any medications ever had.
Later in her career, she was given the opportunity to lead a statewide medication safety initiative, transitioning to a career in medication safety and health care quality improvement. There, she developed an expertise for the whole systems approach, rapid tests of small change, outcomes tracking and root cause analysis.
After being diagnosed with Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis in 2009, Dr. Wentz was surprised at the lack of knowledge about lifestyle interventions for Hashimoto’s, hypothyroidism, and autoimmune conditions. She decided to take on the development of lifestyle interventions as her personal mission in an effort to help heal herself and others with Hashimoto’s.
After two years of researching Hashimoto’s and Hypothyroidism, she decided to combine emerging knowledge with her quality improvement expertise to run rapid tests of change on herself that led her to discover the root cause of her condition. She has summarized three years of research and two years of testing in her book: Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis: Lifestyle Interventions for Finding and Treating the Root Cause.
In February 2017, Izabella launched the wildly successful documentary series, The Thyroid Secret. This nine episode series is the first of its kind, proving once again that Dr. Izabella Wentz is a born innovator. By sharing patients’ stories and practitioners’ experiences, she offers viewers detailed information regarding the misinformation of conventional medicine, adrenal fatigue, mental illness, infections, toxins, hormones and more. Once again, Izabella stays true to her readers, offering them vital information that will ultimately lead to successful treatment of countless cases of Hashimoto’s
In 2017, she published another #1 NY Times bestselling book, Hashimoto’s Protocol: A 90-Day Plan for Reversing Thyroid Symptoms and Getting Your Life Back – a more step-by-step, in-depth plan that streamlines the most effective interventions to reverse the autoimmune damage at the root of Hashimoto’s.
Her most recent publication, Hashimoto’s: Food Pharmacology: Nutrition Protocols and Healing Recipes to Take Charge of Your Thyroid Health, is a cookbook featuring 125 delicious recipes with thyroid-supporting nutrients, strategies for making dietary changes an easy part of one’s life, and protocols that can help transform the body into a safe place so that it can receive the foods needed to heal.
She also developed her own supplement line, Rootcology, which is committed to creating innovative, bioavailable products, that are made with the highest quality ingredients available, to address the needs and sensitivities of people with autoimmune thyroid disease.
Dr. Wentz is dedicated to innovating and life-changing treatment options for managing and reversing Hashimoto’s. She is a proud supporter of ThyroidChange, and believes that every thyroid patient should have access to proper diagnosis, appropriate medication management, and education about lifestyle interventions.
She is a Key Opinion Leader (Medical Consultant) of Pure Encapsulations, and frequently speaks on the subject of Hashimoto’s to patients and clinicians alike. She also co-founded the Hashimoto’s Institute, a forum created for practitioners to study cutting-edge thyroid treatments under her guidance, and acts as a functional medicine consultant for complicated Hashimoto’s cases.
Her work has been featured in publications such as USA Today, MindBodyGreen, The Wall Street Journal, Fox News Channel, The New York Times, The 700 Club, and Men’s Health.
Dr. Wentz’ Mission
“I didn’t want to give up. I thought that all my symptoms were somehow connected… There has got to be some lifestyle factors that contributed to this condition! There’s got to be ways I can make myself feel better! There has got to be ways I can help stop the progression… What can I do as a person with this condition to give myself the best possible life?”
Thyroid patients are not diagnosed appropriately.
The TSH is not a reliable marker of thyroid function as it can fluctuate, especially in those with Hashimoto’s. TPO antibodies become elevated, years, sometimes decades before a change in TSH is seen and may be associated with fatigue, recurrent miscarriage, and many other issues before the TSH becomes affected.
Patients should be better optimized on their medications!
Just because a TSH falls in the “normal” range does not mean the medication is dosed appropriately. We need to treat the patient, not the lab values! Patient symptoms are key! As a pharmacist, Dr. Wentz will tell you that there are many medications that have pro-drugs that do not get converted to the active drugs in the body. T4, by definition, is a pro-drug, and does not always convert to T3! Sometimes combination medications are needed.
Lifestyle interventions are often ignored by mainstream medicine.
Interventions such as eliminating infections, addressing nutrient depletions, reducing sensitizing foods, and addressing adrenal function can help to improve symptoms, and even reduce or eliminate autoimmunity.
“It is my sincere hope, if you have suffered from fatigue, hair loss, brain fog, weight management, dry skin, depression, muscle aches, and the countless other symptoms, that your life will be changed for the better after implementing the research I’ve uncovered. It can help you do what most doctors and most clinicians would consider impossible, to put Hashimoto’s into remission!”
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