Unwell in Wellness

Have you ever reached a crossroads in your life? One of those fork-in-the-road, life-will-never-be-the-same-if-I-choose-this-path kind of moments? Yeah, me too. That’s why this week I wanted to share with you the things that I do differently now that I understand Foundational Medicine.

I do not practice functional pill-for-every-ill medicine. Meaning, I do not spot treat abnormal lab values with nutraceuticals. I think it’s only natural coming from an allopathic background to want to KNOW what’s going on under the hood. Although my scope of practice does not allow me to diagnose you with a disease or condition, I’ve based my entire private practice until recently on the “test don’t guess” mantra that was taught in my functional medicine master’s program in an effort to dig up the true “root causes” of your symptoms. 

Nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, imbalances of good and bad gut bacteria, opportunistic infections, mold and other toxins, and more can be identified through functional testing that I offer. People want to KNOW what’s wrong with them, and functional testing offers clues that they often cannot get from their primary doctor.

It’s only logical that after finding abnormal values to want to target them with nutraceuticals. After all, when you go to your doctor complaining about your symptoms, they run some tests, give you a diagnosis, and hand you a prescription. It’s a pretty transactional experience. 

I ran my private practice this way for a while too. The difference was just that we used dietary interventions, vitamins, and botanicals instead of the drugs. It seemed like a logical next step from my early training as a nurse. With the best of intentions, I assure you, the idea was to just put a natural “spin” on things and offer people a more holistic alternative for their ailments.

Well, that works great, until it doesn’t. What I didn’t anticipate in my own journey, and what much of the functional medicine community is still getting wrong, is that the root causes we dig up with functional testing aren’t the real root causes. They might give us a more holistic perspective to explain your symptoms, but giving you adaptogens for your hormone imbalances and a probiotic for your constipation may be better than synthetic hormones and Miralax, but they aren’t addressing WHY the hormones are imbalanced and the gut bacteria are out of whack. 

Sending every client on their merry way with a B-complex, fish oil, magnesium, and vitamin D because everyone seems to be low in these does not address WHY everyone is depleted of these nutrients in the first place. 

Why are you unwell, even though you’re spending all your time and money on your wellness?

Because you cannot heal in a toxic environment. This is why I shifted course in my clinical practice and found so much hope in the functional medicine model. 

I no longer recommend testing as a starting place for most people, because the foundational systems are the same for everyone. Everybody has to start with drainage and opening up the floodgates for their body to release stored toxins and pathogens, regardless of which ones you may have. These are the things that shift the body away from homeostasis and cause dysfunction in the organs and tissues. If we begin by addressing basic elimination and detoxification functions of the body, we are effectively helping the body do exactly what it was designed to do to heal itself. 

When we address gut dysfunction through this lens, tackling parasites with the assumption that “if you have a pulse, you’ve likely got parasites,” we knock out the next biggest hurdle for the body to maintain homeostasis–because not only do these guys slow peristalsis and disrupt normal digestion and absorption–they also clog our bodies drains and filters, making it even harder for us to detox. 

Then, and only then, can we address the real root issues to clean up the body’s terrain by binding up toxins and pathogens for excretion. When you reach this point and you’ve peeled back the layers on your healing like an onion, you begin to see biochemical shifts that you never would have been able to maintain by spot-treating your vitamin deficiencies or hormone imbalances alone.

You enter into a whole new era of sustainable wellness.

Have you taken my Detox Detective Quiz yet? What are you waiting for? It’s hands down THE best way to figure out your next steps on your healing journey, because by answering just 7 questions, I can help you pinpoint exactly which part of your drainage funnel needs the most TLC. Go check it out!