Dr. Josh Shields

Dr. Josh Shields Integrative Wellness Centers, located at 38777 Six Mile Road Suite 401, is Michigan's premier functional and naturopathic health destination.

TRANSFORMATION → through Better Thoughts | Better Behaviors | Better Biology
Helping you heal from the inside out by addressing the root cause through a systems-based approach. Our expert team of holistic health professionals offers personalized care to help you achieve optimal wellness by addressing the root causes of your health concerns. As a leading wellness center near you, we specialize in integrative approaches that blend the best of conventional and natural medicine. Discover how our holistic health center can support your journey towards renewed vitality and well-being. Experience the difference with Michigan's best in functional medicine and start your path to healthier living today.

My dad died of a heart attack at 59.His cholesterol panel every year came back “normal.”Nobody had ever checked Lp(a).Li...
09/06/2026

My dad died of a heart attack at 59.

His cholesterol panel every year came back “normal.”

Nobody had ever checked Lp(a).

Lipoprotein(a) is different from ordinary LDL cholesterol.

Its level is largely determined by genetics and tends to remain relatively stable throughout life.

That means you can:

Eat well.

Exercise.

Have a reasonable LDL.

And still have an inherited cardiovascular risk factor that isn't included in a standard lipid panel.

That's why Lp(a) has become such an important part of cardiovascular risk assessment, particularly when there is a family history of premature heart disease.

And because genetics determines most of the level, it generally doesn't need to be checked every year.

For many people, one measurement in adulthood can provide important information.

If you've had a parent or sibling with unexpectedly early heart disease, “your cholesterol is normal” shouldn't necessarily end the conversation.

Concerned about your heart health? Get my Free Balance Toolkit. Comment BALANCE.

Research: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/37586921/

This conversation happens constantly:“I had my thyroid tested.”Then I ask:“What did they test?”Often the answer is:TSH.T...
09/06/2026

This conversation happens constantly:

“I had my thyroid tested.”

Then I ask:

“What did they test?”

Often the answer is:

TSH.

TSH is an important first-line thyroid test.

But thyroid function and thyroid autoimmunity are two different questions.
TPO and thyroglobulin antibodies can provide information about autoimmune thyroid disease such as Hashimoto's.

And thyroid autoimmunity can be present even when thyroid hormone levels are still normal.

That's why I don't want patients thinking:

“TSH is useless.”

It isn't.

I want them understanding:

One test answers one question.

If you're dealing with persistent symptoms, a family history of thyroid disease, or other reasons to investigate further, the question may not simply be:

“Is my TSH normal?”

It may be:

“What's actually happening with my thyroid?”

Struggling with thyroid concerns and not getting the answers you want? Get my Free Balance Toolkit. Comment BALANCE.

Research: https://www.thyroid.org/thyroid-function-tests/

She wore a continuous glucose monitor for two weeks.Not because she had diabetes.Because she was curious.Her oatmeal bre...
09/05/2026

She wore a continuous glucose monitor for two weeks.

Not because she had diabetes.

Because she was curious.

Her oatmeal breakfast—the breakfast she had always considered the “healthy” choice—produced a much larger glucose rise than she expected.

That doesn't mean oatmeal is bad.

It means her response was individual.

That's what I find interesting about CGM data.

One glucose reading doesn't tell you much.

Patterns do.

Does a particular meal consistently produce a large rise?

Does adding protein change the response?

Does a short walk after eating change the curve?

How quickly does glucose come back down?

Those answers can be much more useful than obsessing over a single number.

And there's another piece people forget:

Stress can affect glucose too.

If you're staring at your CGM every five minutes and worrying about every spike, you've potentially created another variable affecting the thing you're trying to measure.

Use the data.

Don't let the data use you.

Struggling with energy crashes, sugar cravings, or blood sugar swings you can't explain? Get my Free Balance Toolkit. Comment BALANCE.

Research: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=continuous+glucose+monitoring+nondiabetic+glycemic+variability

One of the most misleading things I hear is:“My blood sugar is normal, so my metabolism must be fine.”Not necessarily.Yo...
09/05/2026

One of the most misleading things I hear is:

“My blood sugar is normal, so my metabolism must be fine.”

Not necessarily.

Your fasting glucose tells you how much glucose is circulating in your blood at that moment.

It doesn't tell you how hard your body had to work to keep it there.

Think of it like your thermostat reading 72°.

That doesn't tell you how hard the furnace is working.

Insulin can rise to help maintain normal glucose levels. Over time, that compensatory response can become part of the pattern we see with insulin resistance.

That's why I don't look at glucose in isolation.

I want to see the bigger picture:

Glucose.
Insulin.
A1C.
Triglycerides.
HDL.
Waist circumference.
Blood pressure.

One “normal” number can be reassuring.

A pattern is much more informative.

Want to understand what you can do to improve your blood sugar levels naturally? Get my Free Balance Toolkit. Comment BALANCE.

Research: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=fasting+insulin+insulin+resistance+metabolic+risk

Amy Myers is a functional medicine physician who was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune thyroid condition, du...
09/04/2026

Amy Myers is a functional medicine physician who was diagnosed with Graves’ disease, an autoimmune thyroid condition, during medical school. Standard treatment addressed the thyroid output itself. It never addressed why her immune system had started attacking her thyroid to begin with.

That gap became the focus of her subsequent clinical work, centered heavily on intestinal permeability, what’s commonly called leaky gut, as an upstream driver across a range of autoimmune conditions. Her clinical argument is that a compromised gut barrier allows undigested food particles and bacterial components to cross into circulation, triggering immune activation that, in genetically susceptible people, can eventually cross-react with the body’s own tissue, thyroid included.

This model has real support in the broader autoimmune literature, particularly around zonulin and intestinal permeability, which I’ve written about separately through Alessio Fasano’s research specifically. Myers built a structured clinical protocol around it aimed at identifying and removing the specific triggers, food, infection, toxin exposure, contributing to that permeability in each patient.

I don’t treat her framework as the only lens on autoimmune disease. I do think the core premise, treat the gut barrier as part of the autoimmune conversation rather than a separate issue, is exactly right, and it’s the same premise I run this practice on.

Struggling with an autoimmune condition and wondering what’s driving it beyond symptom management? Get my Free Balance Toolkit — comment BALANCE.

Research: Fasano A. “Zonulin and its regulation of intestinal barrier function: the biological door to inflammation, autoimmunity, and cancer.” Physiol Rev. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=leaky+gut+autoimmune+thyroid+intestinal+permeability

I run into this constantly with patients who’ve been taking an iron supplement faithfully for months with barely any cha...
09/04/2026

I run into this constantly with patients who’ve been taking an iron supplement faithfully for months with barely any change in ferritin.

Heme iron, found in animal sources, is absorbed through a dedicated transport pathway and tends to be absorbed efficiently regardless of what else is in the meal. Non-heme iron, from plant sources and most standard supplements, is absorbed far less efficiently and is highly sensitive to what it’s consumed alongside. Vitamin C meaningfully enhances non-heme iron absorption. Calcium, coffee, and tea, particularly the tannins in tea, can significantly blunt it if consumed at the same meal.

A patient taking their iron supplement with their morning coffee, or alongside a calcium-fortified drink, may be absorbing a fraction of what the label suggests, then getting told the supplement “just isn’t working for them” when the actual issue was timing and pairing.

I have patients take non-heme iron supplements away from coffee, tea, and calcium, ideally with a source of vitamin C, and recheck ferritin after a defined interval rather than guessing. Small change. Meaningfully different absorption.

Struggling with low ferritin that hasn’t responded to iron supplementation? Get my Free Balance Toolkit — comment BALANCE.

Research: Hurrell R, Egli I. “Iron bioavailability and dietary reference values.” Am J Clin Nutr. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=heme+non-heme+iron+absorption+vitamin+C

Collagen supplementation is one of the most popular additions to patients’ routines right now, and I don’t think it’s us...
09/03/2026

Collagen supplementation is one of the most popular additions to patients’ routines right now, and I don’t think it’s useless, but I think the missing piece explains why some people see real results and others see nothing at all.

Vitamin C is a required cofactor for two specific enzymes, prolyl hydroxylase and lysyl hydroxylase, that stabilize the collagen molecule’s triple helix structure during synthesis. Without adequate vitamin C, collagen formation is structurally incomplete and unstable, regardless of how much collagen protein or amino acid precursor you’re supplying through a powder.

This is exactly why classic scurvy, severe vitamin C deficiency, produces connective tissue breakdown, bleeding gums, poor wound healing, even though the body has plenty of the amino acid building blocks for collagen available. The building blocks were never the limiting factor. The cofactor was.

Most collagen supplements on the market don’t include meaningful vitamin C alongside the collagen itself. If your diet is genuinely low in vitamin C rich foods, citrus, peppers, berries, that collagen powder may be doing far less than the label implies, not because collagen doesn’t work, but because the synthesis machinery it needs isn’t fully supplied.

Research: DePhillipo NN, et al. “Efficacy of vitamin C supplementation on collagen synthesis and oxidative stress after musculoskeletal injuries.” Orthop J Sports Med. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=vitamin+C+cofactor+collagen+synthesis

One of the most common questions I hear is:"I switched to diet soda. That's healthy now...right?"My answer is usually:It...
09/03/2026

One of the most common questions I hear is:

"I switched to diet soda. That's healthy now...right?"

My answer is usually:

It's probably a better choice than regular soda—but it may not be the finish line.
Replacing sugar with artificial sweeteners can reduce calorie intake and help avoid the blood sugar spike that comes with sugar-sweetened beverages. For many people, that's a meaningful improvement.

But "sugar-free" doesn't necessarily mean "health-promoting."

Researchers are still studying how certain artificial sweeteners may affect the gut microbiome, appetite regulation, glucose metabolism, and long-term metabolic health. The evidence is mixed, and the effects appear to vary from person to person. While some studies suggest measurable changes in certain individuals, others show little or no effect.

That's why I encourage patients not to think of diet soda as the ultimate goal—but as a stepping stone.

If you're looking for a better long-term replacement, try options like:

💧 Plain or sparkling water
🍋 Sparkling water with fresh lemon or lime
🫐 Naturally flavored unsweetened seltzers
🍵 Unsweetened iced tea or herbal tea
🥒 Water infused with fruit, cucumber, or fresh herbs

These choices hydrate you without relying on either large amounts of sugar or artificial sweeteners, making them easier habits to build over the long term.
The goal isn't perfection.

It's gradually moving toward foods and drinks that require fewer ingredients, less processing, and give your body what it actually needs.

If switching to diet soda helped you stop drinking regular soda, that's progress.
Now ask yourself:

"What's my next step?"

When I ask patients to eat fewer processed foods, one of the first questions I get is:"What actually counts as processed...
09/02/2026

When I ask patients to eat fewer processed foods, one of the first questions I get is:
"What actually counts as processed?"

It's a fair question because not all processed foods are created equal.
That's where the NOVA classification system comes in. Instead of lumping everything together, it places foods into four categories based on how they're processed:

🥦 Group 1: Unprocessed or minimally processed foods (vegetables, fruit, eggs, plain yogurt, oats)
🧂 Group 2: Processed culinary ingredients (olive oil, butter, salt, sugar)
🥫 Group 3: Processed foods made by combining Groups 1 and 2 (canned beans, canned vegetables, cheese, sourdough bread)
🍪 Group 4: Ultra-processed foods—industrial formulations made largely from refined ingredients, additives, emulsifiers, flavor enhancers, and ingredients you wouldn't typically use in a home kitchen.

Here's why this matters.

Large observational studies consistently associate higher intakes of ultra-processed foods—not processed foods in general—with higher risks of obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other chronic health conditions. Researchers are still working to understand exactly why, but the association has been remarkably consistent across many populations.

That doesn't mean every ultra-processed food is equally harmful, and it certainly doesn't mean every processed food is unhealthy. In fact, newer research emphasizes that overall diet quality still matters, and some ultra-processed foods may fit into an otherwise healthy eating pattern.

The takeaway?
Don't fear processed foods.

Learn to recognize ultra-processed foods—and make them a smaller part of your overall diet.

It's one of the simplest shifts you can make without obsessing over every calorie or gram of sugar.

I still get patients, mostly women in their 40s and 50s, tell me they've avoided creatine for years because "it's for bo...
09/02/2026

I still get patients, mostly women in their 40s and 50s, tell me they've avoided creatine for years because "it's for bodybuilders" or "it'll make me bulky." Neither is true, and the newer research specific to women makes a stronger case than most people realize.

Creatine helps regenerate ATP, your cells' primary energy currency, most heavily in tissue with high energy demand, muscle chief among it. Women naturally store about 70 to 80 percent less creatine in muscle tissue than men, partly due to lower baseline muscle mass and different dietary intake patterns, which means the relative benefit of supplementing can actually be larger, not smaller.

The muscle and strength data holds up well in trials. What's newer and more specific to this population is research on bone density, several studies show creatine paired with resistance training producing better bone mineral density outcomes in postmenopausal women than resistance training alone. There's also early research on cognitive fatigue and mood during the menopause transition, though I'd call that piece preliminary rather than settled.

This isn't going to make anyone bulky. Muscle growth requires a training stimulus and a caloric surplus, creatine alone doesn't create either one. What it does is let the muscle you're training actually recover and rebuild more efficiently.

Struggling with muscle loss, strength decline, or bone density concerns through perimenopause and beyond? Get my Free Balance Toolkit — comment BALANCE.

Research: Smith-Ryan AE, et al. "Creatine supplementation in women's health: a lifespan perspective." Nutrients. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/?term=creatine+supplementation+women+bone+density+muscle

Address

38777 Six Mile Road, Suite 401
Livonia, MI
48152

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 12pm
2pm - 6pm
Tuesday 2pm - 6pm
Wednesday 9am - 12pm
2pm - 6pm
Thursday 9am - 12pm
2pm - 6pm

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