My first colonoscopy & The LaFont Agency’s mission
Trigger warning: cancer & death
Last week was a milestone for me; I had my first colonoscopy.
Not an uncommon procedure, but more unusual for a healthy lady in her 40s.
I won’t bore you much with what you probably already know or have heard from wizened colonoscopy elders:
– the prep was awful (they talk about the raging shits but not the unyielding nausea)
– the procedure was tolerable
– the outcome was, thankfully, unremarkable, a word that takes on a new meaning as I age into the scientific definition and out of the aesthetic one
I’ve had a few people ask why I bring up colonoscopies and mammograms and other often-unspoken-to medical-y stuff.
The answer is directly related to The LaFont Agency’s mission and is worthwhile to share.
Because after reading it, you might decide to approach your marketing (and your practice) in a new way.
When I was working as a clinical nutritionist, I watched two clients-become-dear-friends die of breast cancer.
These were strong, beautiful women just past middle age.
I was in my mid-30s. And it hadn’t yet hit me that chronic illness, much less mortality, was a possibility.
Obviously, I knew that none of us get out of here alive…the whole death and taxes thing.
But for me? Personally? The thought hadn’t crossed my mind until I saw my friends get very sick.
I’m still unraveling how their deaths affected my psyche (shout out to my fantastic Skills for Change coach, Molly Fisk).
But there is one thing I know for sure: I was humbled.
I was pushed to educate myself far beyond my previous beliefs.
And I lost any embarrassment talking about boobs and butts and all the other stuff that needs to be screened and checked so we have a better chance of avoiding serious illness.
I even wrote my master’s thesis on the possible links between metal toxicity and breast cancer (tl/dr: It’s somewhat complicated and certainly not linear) and included a section on mammography—the risks, benefits, and alternative schedules for those at higher risk.
For the general population, this conversation can be…awkward.
But for those who have, sometimes in desperation, turned to holistic health, this conversation can trigger a bias that kept them alive.
Unfortunately, however, this bias underestimates the benefits of conventional medicine and overestimates the power of functional medicine.
I’ve termed this The Functional Medicine Bias, inspired by a more well-known bias called functional fixedness (you can read more about that bias here).

The Functional Medicine Bias: A mental block against using information in a new, more accurate, more effective way.
Many of us have had horrendous experiences in the conventional medical model—my 10-year journey of getting celiac and rosacea diagnoses is a blip compared to what some people with complicated chronic diseases experience.
I understand how the bias is formed.
But when it comes to our long-term health, including screenings like colonoscopies, we have to do our best to see the bias and challenge it when appropriate.
And we have to do the same when we speak to potential patients in our blogs, courses, and books.
Now, this takes hard work.
Emotional work, yes, but also work in sourcing the most accurate, practical information possible about recommended procedures, interventions, prescriptions, supplements, dietary protocols, etc., whether it fits our model of ideal medicine…or not.
And as I’m sure you’ve noticed…anyone can write anything they please on the internet.
Many people are getting wise to this fact, but millions and millions of readers and social media scrollers each year are influenced by content that is about as far away from accurate and practical as The Medical Medium is from being a legitimate source of…anything.
So, where do your patients find well-researched, balanced info?
Whose website do they read?
Whose recommendations do they follow when they, perhaps, feel slighted by conventional medicine but want to take the best care of their bodies?
The answer should be: Your website. And your recommendations.
But many of us are drawn in by the siren song of The Functional Medicine Bias.
I’ve read that mammograms cause cancer and colonoscopies wildly disrupt the microbiome.
I’ve read that all plants are poisonous and that our diets should only contain meat and fat.
I’ve read that celery juice is the most critical medical discovery of our time.
That iron should never be supplemented, even in iron-anemic pregnancies.
And with the help of a continuous glucose monitor, we can track direct correlations between our blood sugar and the food we eat.
The reality is that when we look just beneath the surface of these (and so many other) claims, the wheels, as they say, come off the bus.
Why does biased information exist and spread?
Some reasons include the beliefs we hold based on our own experience of the world, the time and effort it takes to do due diligence, the blinding appeal of pushing increasingly outlandish ideas to make money, and the lack of boundaries offered by board certifications or credentialing for content creators…a weak spot I’d love to work with the American Nutrition Association, for instance, to shore up.
The list is long. And again, it’s complicated.
But, for me, watching my friends die made me think and feel in a new way.
So, now you know: The LaFont Agency’s mission to improve medicine through marketing is, in part, thanks to Suzanne and Susan.
Every time I read a research paper and try to unwind the knot of statistics, I think of how someone else’s life might be improved if I take my time, challenge my biases, learn more than I knew before, and write a balanced blog versus one that spreads a possibly harmful trend.
And while we’re here to help you do that, I promise: There is time in your schedule to accomplish this on your own.
Click here to read a whole blog about how to do it.
You can start by asking: “Is what I believe the most accurate take on a topic? Or is it simply what I believe?”
If you’re anything like me, you’ll find some major riffs between your beliefs and the information that will most effectively support your patients, set a new bar in our field, and maybe even save lives.