Functional Medicine
I use a combination of naturopathic medicine and functional medicine, in order to bring you the highest quality, most evidence-based care.
Functional Medicine is individualized medicine, addressing the root cause of illness with a science-based approach that focuses on the patient rather than the disease. It is a unique and comprehensive form of medicine that starts at the roots with nutrition, sleep, movement, stress and relationships, and then moves up through genetic susceptibilities, environmental triggers, and life events. Functional medicine organizes your health information and symptoms into systems which can become imbalanced, rather than labeling as a disease. What this means is that by creating balance within the systems, creating a stronger base at the roots, and eliminating obstacles, we can reverse disease and restore health. It puts you as a patient into an empowered position of health optimization for the long-term. This method of starting at the root is illustrated below with the Functional Medicine Tree graphic.
A Systems-Biology Approach
Rather than an organ systems-based approach, Functional Medicine organizes health data into 7 different systems:
Assimilation of Nutrients
Digestions, absorption, microbiota/GI, respiration
Communication
Endocrine, neurotransmitters, immune messengers
Biotransformation and Elimination
Toxicity, detoxification
Defense and Repair
Immune, inflammation, infection, microbiota
Transportation
Cardiovascular, lymphatic systems
Structural Integrity
From subcellular membranes to musculoskeletal structure
Energy Production
Energy regulation, mitochondria function
Integrating Functional
Medicine And
Naturopathic Care
Naturopathic and Functional medicine together create a dynamic system of care bringing together a strong foundation in natural health, with the latest science and evidence-based medicine. You can expect a very thorough health assessment, targeted lab testing and the best in integrative health care.
How It Works:
Before Your First Appointment
- You will be sent an in-depth health assessment to complete in advance of your appointment. This intake organizes your health information, events, symptoms and history to give us an excellent starting point for your first visit.
- The time spent gathering information and answering the questionnaires will bring you to your first appointment prepared and ready for next steps. Please allow sufficient time to complete this intake form in detail.
1) Initial Appointment
(1st visit – 1 hour duration)
Naturopathic & Functional medicine assessment:
- Your initial visit lasts 60 minutes and includes a detailed overall health assessment based on your current health, past health issues, family history with a focus on cognitive risk factors.
- Review of your health timeline in detail to see triggers, patterns in your health, and changes with hormone transitions.
- Initiate lab testing. This can range from hormonal bloodwork, a urine hormone panel, organic acid testing, stool analysis, SIBO breath test, or others functional medicine assessment. As much as possible, testing is precisely targeted to your primary health goals.
- Starting your treatment plan: At the end of the first appointment, you will begin the first step on your personalized roadmap, along with beginning consistent self-care habits. Your body can’t heal if you’re always stressed, not moving regularly and under-sleeping. The self-care basics form the core foundation for your health, so it is essential to begin here.
2) Review Of Findings – 2nd Visit
(2nd visit – 30 minutes duration)
- Thorough review of all lab assessments and how this fits into your treatment plan.
- Integration with Functional Medicine Matrix – mapping out your current health, susceptibilities and family history into the context of Assimilation, Defense and repair, Biotransformation & elimination, Transportation, Communication, and Structural integrity. These are all tied into your current health issues, so you understand thoroughly our road map together.
- Initiating your full treatment plan, addressing inflammation, hormones, infections, toxins, lifestyle factors and more.
- You can expect a treatment plan including explanations for each intervention – lifestyle changes, nutritional supplements, using food as medicine, and targeted treatments for infections, toxins, gut health, hormones and more.
3) Personalized Nutrition Plan
(Dedicated visit – if needed – 30 minutes)
- An appointment 100% dedicated to your personalized nutrition plan.
- Targeted to address personal risk factors – blood sugar metabolism, detoxification pathways, hormone optimization, inflammation, gut health, activity level and current cognitive function.
- You will be provided with nutrition guidelines, menu plans, recipes and resources.
- Food is so important to your wellbeing, and in order for you to concretely see how powerful nutrition changes can be, we will track your symptoms before and after 4 weeks of nutrition changes with a “Medical Symptoms Questionnaire.”
4) Self-care And Emotional Wellness
(Dedicated visit – if needed – 30 minutes)
Revisiting Self-Care & Moving around the Matrix:
- A deep dive into self-care in this visit – sleep, relaxation, work-life balance, stress (HPA axis), exercise, and looking at mindset and beliefs. We start with a Self-Care Questionnaire to understand where things are out of balance. Examining this part of your life is essential to create the right environment to heal.
- Going back to the Functional Medicine Matrix for next steps. This may involve detoxification, hormone balance, mitochondria function, gut rebalance, reducing inflammation, immune system balance or adrenal / HPA axis support. The Matrix provides the direction, and order of treatment.
- Checking in with emotional wellness – self-compassion, addressing fear and anxiety, making changes with kindness, preventing overwhelm.
- You can expect resources for support in any areas of self-care where you need assistance: sleep optimization, guided meditations, stress-management resources and more, targeted exercise programs and more.
5) Follow-up Visits
(Follow-up visits are booked every 8 weeks or so, until we reach a maintenance phase. Visit length is 15- 45 minutes, depending on required time for interventions).
Ongoing personalized care:
- Our next visits will continue to address your health issues, from a root-cause perspective.
- Regularly assess progress – through symptom questionnaires and follow-up lab testing.
- Continuing to support and coach you with self-care practices.
- Moving through obstacles and roadblocks as they arrive: acute stressors, travel, life changes, and more.
- Adapting our plan to normal life transitions such as pregnancy, post-partum recovery, perimenopause, menopause.
Maintenance Phase Of Care
Once you are feeling like you’re in an optimal state of health, we turn our focus to prevention:
- Maintaining a balanced approach to self-care.
- Regular lab testing to ensure your labs are in optimal ranges for you.
- Addressing any newly presenting health issues.
- Continuing to integrate the latest health research into your optimal wellness plan.
- Think of this as your "annual health assessments" - it is important to check in 2x per year to take a proactive and preventative view on your health.
Ready To Book?
Naturopathic & Functional Medicine Approach
If you’re ready to book and experience a Naturopathic & Functional Medicine approach to your health, please use the following link:
Phone: 437-562-7220