“These days, the patients entering our practices are sicker and sicker. They are no longer just coming in with bloating or a little insomnia. Instead, they are coming in disabled, in wheelchairs, and unable to work, and it just keeps getting worse.”
These words were spoken by Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith, a functional medicine practitioner with over 30 years of clinical experience. Many medical practitioners across the country could likely say the same thing. The problem is clear: people are getting sicker over time. But what, then, is the solution?
Dr. Rajka has a long track record of helping even her toughest patients find healing. But establishing that track record was not easy. She spent years studying under functional medicine experts like Dr. Datis Kharrazian. ”I’m deeply grateful to Dr. Kharrazian,” says Dr. Rajka, “Because one of his courses was the first foundational course I took so many years ago.” She also studied under the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine (A4M) and with various specialists in nutrigenetics, mycotoxin illness, and peptides.
Bringing Healing to the “20 Percent”
Even with all of that training, she still faced a thorny problem. “The traditional functional medicine approach only helped 80 percent of my patients get better,” she remembers. “I wanted to learn what would make the [remaining] 20 percent get better.” She simply couldn’t let her toughest, most complex patients leave her office in the same condition as when they arrived.
So she did the hard work of stitching together all of the wisdom from her mentors with the insights she gained from her own practice. The result became The Executive Edge™ protocol, a proprietary process she developed to deliver predictable, transformational results for her patients—and extend healing to everyone who walked through the door of her practice.
The goal of The Executive Edge is to lay a solid biological foundation to ensure that advanced treatments like hormones or peptides work as intended. As such, the protocol features three steps:
- Laying a foundation by stabilizing the body’s core systems.
- Leveraging genetics via nutrigenetics to personalize care based on DNA.
- Deploying advanced anti-aging and peptide protocols to extend healthspan.
Describing the entire protocol is beyond the scope of this article (but see the inset below), so we will turn our focus instead to Step 1 of The Executive Edge, which Dr. Rajka calls the “3D model”: diet, digestion, and detoxification.
Created by Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith over three decades of clinical experience, The Executive Edge is the framework you need to ensure even your most complex patients receive the care they need to thrive.
It’s also the subject of the first session in Dr. Rajka’s Kharrazian Institute Master Class, “Precision Protocols Unlocked: Guide to Nutrigenetics & Peptide Mastery.” The course features six modules teaching nutrigenetics and peptide mastery through clinical cases, genetic interpretation, and sequenced intervention protocols for practitioners treating resistant chronic disease.
Transform your practice and bring health back to your patients who need it the most. Enroll today!
The First D: Diet
Imagine putting diesel gasoline into a car designed to run on unleaded fuel. The results would be disastrous, and you’d soon find yourself with a non-running automobile—and a hefty mechanic’s bill.
Yet so many people nowadays are doing the same thing with the “fuel” they put into their bodies: too many carbs, not enough fruits and veggies, ultra-processed foods, and more. These poor eating habits cause untold damage to our body’s systems over time, and correcting any deficiencies in a patient’s diet should virtually always be the first step toward recovery.
Dr. Rajka suggests prescribing a varied, whole-food diet such as her Abundant Diet 365, which aims for 35 different plant-based foods per week to support the gut microbiome. (You can read more about this diet in her book, Energized: Feel Fantastic Forever.)
The Second D: Digestion
Digestion is the crucial second step of the 3D protocol. The reason? The gut microbiome must be optimized before proceeding with detoxification or advanced therapies such as hormones and peptides.
Dr. Rajka’s approach to gut health centers on the 5R protocol, a systematic method used to heal the intestinal tract and reverse chronic inflammation. The five Rs include:
- Remove: Identifying and eliminating inflammatory trigger foods and pathogens (think bacteria, yeast, or parasites)
- Replace: Replacing essential digestive components the body may be lacking, such as digestive enzymes and bile salts
- Repopulate: Restoring a healthy microbiome with probiotics
- Repair: Resealing the intestinal lining to address intestinal permeability (aka leaky gut)
- Rebalance: Addressing lifestyle factors to maintain gut health
It is important to note that addressing issues with gut health does take a bit of patience. Dr. Rajka, for example, treats the microbiome for a minimum of two months. She’s found that the typical four-week courses are usually not enough to fix years of dysregulation.
The Third D: Detoxification
Toxins, as well as other sources of inflammation, abound in modern society. Despite our best efforts, it’s virtually impossible to avoid all of them and still function in the real world. Thus, we all likely suffer from more toxins and inflammation than we might realize. This makes it critical to address this issue in our patients before moving on to other, more advanced treatments.
You’ve run all the labs. You’ve tried all the protocols. And yet you still have a percentage of patients who seem to never get better. Why?
This is the question that compelled Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith to create her KI Master Class, “Precision Protocols Unlocked: Guide to Nutrigenetics & Peptide Mastery.” The course distills her three decades of experience treating resistant chronic disease into a replicable clinical system, focusing on four core competencies:
- Sequential foundation building that speeds up symptom relief without lengthy elimination diets.
- Nutrigenetics protocols matched to individual SNP patterns and whole blood histamine status.
- Peptide sourcing, dosing, and cycling that prevent tolerance and adverse events.
- Case-driven protocol systems for fatigue, autoimmunity, cognitive decline, and sexual dysfunction.
Dr. Rajka will teach you why patients improve, not just which supplements to prescribe, based on evidence from clinical outcomes, genetic mechanisms, and practitioner-tested sequencing protocols refined across thousands of patient encounters. Learn more and sign up here.
Dr. Rajka utilizes the STAINS method, which she adapted from the Institute for Functional Medicine, to find and address sources of inflammation in the body. It is a key tool for clinical pattern recognition, allowing her to listen to a patient’s history and prioritize which triggers are most likely moving the needle for their particular health challenges.
STAINS is an acronym comprising common sources of inflammation:
- S: Sleep and stress
- T: Toxins
- A: Adverse food reactions
- I: Infection
- N: Nutrient deficiencies
- S: Sedentary or solitary lifestyles
Dr. Rajka urges functional medicine practitioners to use this method when documenting their patients’ histories. By identifying which of these triggers are most prominent for a patient, one can prioritize specific lifestyle changes or targeted supplements that will most effectively tackle chronic inflammation on a case-by-case basis.
Precision Protocols Unlocked: Guide to Nutrigenetics & Peptide Mastery with Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith
The 3D model—focusing on diet, digestion, and detoxification—is foundational to good health. As such, it should be priority number one for any new patient. But it is often just the first step when dealing with complex cases, which require strategies like nutrigenetics and peptide protocols to truly bring these patients back to full health.
This is the subject of our newest Kharrazian Institute Master Class, “Precision Protocols Unlocked: Guide to Nutrigenetics & Peptide Mastery” with Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith. The course features six modules in which Dr. Rajka will teach you nutrigenetics and peptide mastery through clinical cases, genetic interpretation, and sequenced intervention protocols.
This course is designed to help practitioners treat resistant chronic disease, giving hope to the 20 percent of your patients who never seem to get better.
You can learn more about and register for the course here.
Dr. Rajka Milanovic Galbraith is a renowned functional medicine physician, award-winning international speaker, and best-selling author of Energized: Feel Fantastic Forever. She is a leading expert in hormone therapy, longevity, peptides, and nutrigenetics.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why does the 3D model (Diet, Digestion, Detoxification) need to come before advanced therapies?
In clinical practice, starting with advanced tools like hormones or peptides before the body is stable can lead to poor results or adverse reactions. Establishing the 3D foundation ensures the patient’s biological systems are resilient enough to handle and benefit from more complex treatments.
How does STAINS help in a clinical setting?
The STAINS method (Sleep/stress, Toxins, Adverse food reactions, Infections, Nutrition, and Sedentary lifestyle) acts as a checklist for pattern recognition. By using this during the patient intake and history-taking process, you can quickly identify which triggers are the primary drivers of inflammation.
What should I do if my patient is still part of the “20 percent” who aren’t getting better after foundational work?
When foundational 3D work isn’t enough, it usually means there are deeper genetic roadblocks or cellular signaling issues. To help these resistant cases, you need a systematic way to layer in nutrigenetics and peptide sequencing. You can master these advanced clinical skills by enrolling in Dr. Rajka’s Master Class, “Precision Protocols Unlocked: Guide to Nutrigenetics & Peptide Mastery.”
