About Embody by Shelly
About Shelly
Muscle-centric functional medicine for gut, hormone, and metabolic health
A physician assistant combining functional diagnostics, nutrition science, and strength physiology to help people better understand their bodies and build lasting health.
Welcome
Hi! I’m Shelly Satizabal, PA-C, and I’m so glad you’re here.
If you’ve found your way to EMBODY, there’s a good chance you’re looking for answers—whether you’re navigating fatigue, digestive issues, hormone changes, metabolic challenges, or simply feeling like your body isn’t functioning the way it should.
My work at EMBODY was born out of my own journey through hormone imbalance, gut dysfunction, and the search for answers when conventional medicine could not provide them.
I created EMBODY because I believe people deserve more than symptom management. They deserve to understand how their bodies work and to have a thoughtful, physiology-focused approach to building lasting health.
My hope is that through EMBODY, you find clarity, education, and a renewed sense of ownership over your health.
A Personal Beginning
My journey into integrative health began long before my medical training.
Growing up, I struggled with painful menstrual cycles, severe acne, hormone symptoms, and digestive issues that affected my energy, mood, and overall well-being. The primary solution offered at the time was birth control pills to manage symptoms. But my Korean mother—grounded in cultural beliefs that emphasized natural approaches to healing—declined medication-based treatment when I was younger, and no other solutions were offered. No other solutions or work-ups were offered, and I was left suffering for many years.
As I grew older, these challenges began affecting my performance as a Division I athlete, making recovery and consistency increasingly difficult.
By my mid-twenties, my health had deteriorated further. I was experiencing fatigue, brain fog, anxiety, GI distress, weight fluctuations, and severe cystic acne, and during that season of my life I had begun relying on alcohol to cope.
At 25 years old, I made the decision to stop drinking and started pursuing a deeper understanding of my health.
After nearly a year of medical evaluations with various specialists, I was told my labs were normal but that I would likely never conceive naturally due to premature ovarian failure. I was advised to return in the future if I wished to pursue alternative reproductive options.
I was devastated—but I refused to believe that diagnosis defined my future.
Our Clinical Approach
Over the following years, I focused on rebuilding my health through nutrition, lifestyle changes, and learning everything I could about how the body works.
Eventually, I was blessed to naturally conceive and deliver two healthy children—something I had once been told would never happen.
Through that experience, I learned one of the most profound lessons about health and medicine:
God is bigger than any diagnosis, and the body has an incredible capacity for resilience and restoration when given the right environment and opportunity.
Years later, when digestive issues and cystic acne returned, I discovered functional medicine & functional diagnostic testing, which helped uncover the root causes behind my symptoms. Through targeted testing, nutrition, and lifestyle interventions, I was able to restore my gut health and support my hormones.
That experience changed everything.
For the first time, I saw a model of care that looked deeper—one that asked why symptoms were occurring rather than simply managing them.
It ultimately led me to pursue a career in medicine so I could help others find the answers they were searching for.
Clinical Training & Experience
I am a board-certified Physician Assistant (PA-C) with clinical experience across multiple areas of medicine.
After graduating PA school, I served as a Physician Assistant in the United States Navy, where I gained broad clinical experience across emergency medicine, trauma care, sick call, and primary care, including deployments in austere environments.
These experiences reinforced the critical value of modern medicine in acute and lifesaving care, while also revealing a concerning pattern. During my time in service, I also completed advanced training in orthopedic surgery and musculoskeletal rehabilitation, which deepened my understanding of human movement, recovery, and performance.
While working in orthopedics, I began to notice something surprising. Many individuals—including younger, active-duty service members who should have been among the healthiest and most resilient—were struggling with fatigue, digestive issues, hormone symptoms, weight changes, chronic inflammation, and persistent pain, even when their lab work and imaging were considered “normal.”
In many cases, patients were told nothing was wrong, despite clearly feeling otherwise. As I began incorporating conversations around nutrition, movement, recovery, and lifestyle, I started to see meaningful changes in how some of these individuals felt and functioned.
After my time in the Navy, I continued to see the same patterns appear across all ages and demographics, not just in military populations. That experience sparked a deeper curiosity about what might be driving these symptoms beneath the surface.
As my clinical career progressed, I became increasingly interested in understanding the physiological drivers behind these patterns, which ultimately led me to pursue extensive additional training in integrative health, functional diagnostics, and metabolic physiology.
Additional training includes:
- Certified Personal Trainer (NASM-CPT)
- Certified Sports Nutrition Coach (NASM-CSNC)
- Integrative Nutrition Coach, Institute for Integrative Nutrition
- Functional medicine training through the Institute for Functional Medicine
- Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner (FDN-P, in progress)
- Menopause Society Certified Practitioner Candidate (MSCP, in progress)
- Menopause 2.0 and NExGen Performance certifications, Dr. Stacy Sims
- Advanced education in strength physiology, metabolic health and peptide therapies
- Continuing education in women’s hormones and menopause medicine
Through this combination of clinical medicine, functional diagnostics, nutrition science, and strength physiology, I integrate multiple disciplines to help individuals better understand their bodies and build sustainable health.
The EMBODY Philosophy
Through EMBODY, I help individuals better understand the patterns influencing their health and physiology.
Rather than focusing solely on symptom management, my work centers on identifying the factors that may contribute to inflammation, metabolic stress, and system imbalance.
A central principle of EMBODY is the recognition that skeletal muscle plays a critical role in metabolic health, hormone signaling, and long-term resilience. For this reason, I emphasize strength training and strategic nutrition as foundational components of sustainable health.
Outside of medicine, I’m a proud wife and Navy spouse, mom of two athletes, and former Division I athlete now mom-athlete, and I understand firsthand the demands of balancing career, family, training, and health.
My work is guided by the belief that caring for our bodies is a form of stewardship. When we nourish, strengthen, and care for the body well, we are better able to live with strength, clarity, and purpose.
I created EMBODY because I believe people deserve more than symptom management—they deserve understanding, partnership, and a clear path forward.
And above all, I believe that when we steward our health well, we are better able to live out the purpose we were created for.