Dr. Emilie Laplagne, MD

What Dr. talked about

Dr. Emilie Laplagne, MD, discussed why she moved from traditional Western medicine toward functional medicine, arguing that conventional care is siloed and reactive, treating symptoms after disease has already developed rather than addressing root causes. She described using her framework of the '4 Horsemen of executive burnout' — sleep latency, cortisol timing, fasting glucose variability, and heart rate variability — as biomarkers to catch metabolic decline in entrepreneurs before it becomes visible, noting that outward fitness can mask underlying problems.

She talked about how chronic stress disrupts normal cortisol rhythms, keeping levels elevated into the evening instead of tapering off, and how factors like alcohol use and poor sleep timing quietly erode metabolic health. She also addressed hormone replacement therapy for menopausal women, arguing that it was unfairly stigmatized due to flawed studies, and that more recent evidence supports earlier, appropriate use to reduce dementia risk and improve quality of life.

The show

The Total Entrepreneur is a weekly conversation with founders, researchers, and health experts about what actually moves entrepreneurial performance across mind, body, spirit, and business.