Why Foundational Medicine?

Let’s jump right in and ask the two-fold question that’s sure to be on everyone’s mind: why not functional medicine and what is foundational medicine?

Functional medicine was the catalyst that opened my eyes to an entire world outside of allopathic medicine. As a fourth generation registered nurse, I come from a long line of smart, dedicated, nurturing, and independent critical thinkers, steeped in traditional medicine mindset. You could say it’s in my blood. But the shift for me came after allopathic medicine had failed to help me find any sort of relief from chronic daily migraines. For almost 10 years, I suffered through side effect after side effect of all sorts of pharmaceutical interventions, with zero relief from the near constant pain of migraines. I had all but given up hope.

When a friend suggested that I see the functional doctor who had helped her overcome a chronic seizure disorder and migraines, I was skeptical to say the least (especially because I was a new nurse working on a neurological step-down unit and full of book smarts). I remember praying for answers through this completely different testing than I had ever had done, but I also prayed fervently that whatever the cause, that I would NOT have to alter my diet. And God laughed!

It was the diagnosis of leaky gut, Candida, and hormone imbalances that helped me to see that food and nutrition play an integral role in the health of our bodies–and the transformation that I saw in the months following as I radically changed my diet was enough to convince me that food was a powerful medicine and I wanted to learn more.

If food could be used to mitigate my symptoms, what else could it heal? I started to use that independent, critical thinking that runs so thick in my veins to begin thinking outside the box of what I’d always been taught.

I set out on a path to determine how to use food as medicine for everyone. After graduating from my Master’s in Human Nutrition, I began coaching clients with chronic complex gut issues and I began to see how dietary changes really could improve so much more than digestive illness.

I saw clients improve their blood sugar and wean from their metformin. I saw clients reduce their blood pressure and cholesterol. I saw client after client with autoimmunity find relief from chronic symptoms and reduce flares through identifying food triggers and avoiding sensitivities. I saw clients who were able to keep weight on and eat nourishing, cancer-fighting foods through chemo treatments. I saw clients who were previously struggling with infertility finally carry healthy babies to term. There was so much GOOD coming from discovering root causes and addressing them with food.

But I was still dealing with debilitating eczema on my hands, chronic bloating and constipation, and hormonal migraines. My husband, who had been dismissed by specialist after specialist over the years for random and seemingly unrelated symptoms, was diagnosed with Lyme and several co-infections. None of the dietary changes or supplements that we were using based on solid and thorough functional testing were making a big difference for us. It just wasn’t adding up. What was wrong with us? Why wasn’t food enough to heal us?

Then I found foundational medicine and everything shifted once again. Foundational medicine considers the very basis of someone’s health and wellness–the physical body–as the foundation upon which everything else is built.

Just like you wouldn’t build a house on sandy ground or the face of a cliff without doing some serious prep and scaffolding first, we have to start with the bottom in foundational medicine and build a solid base before we work our way up. Before we can really address named ICD-10 codes (or diagnoses as we know to call them), we have to first address the root issues that lead to that state of dis-ease.

You cannot heal from [insert the name of your condition] until you first address the underlying causes that shifted your body out of homeostasis–that happy balance of stable equilibrium.

No one really wants to be reliant upon pharmaceuticals forever, even if they do bring temporary relief–because why? They’re just a bandaid. No one has ever cured a single dis-ease through their prescriptions, they just help you manage the dis-ease process. Drugs are used to mask the symptoms that your body uses as messengers to let you know that deeper dysfunction is going on under the surface. If all we ever do is hush those symptoms and do not address why the body is screaming for help, the underlying pathology keeps on festering and you keep getting sicker.

So if we think critically about this, it all begins to make so much sense. We want to heal from the deepest, most basic level to set ourselves a solid foundation from which to thrive.

The first step is then to prepare the body by getting rid of underlying causes of dis-ease, which are often infections or toxins. To do this we must first consider the state of our detoxification pathways and organs, and focus on cellular energy and healing at the mitochondrial level, the very basic but mighty first step. We want to support the immune system and make sure that foundationally all systems are functioning well before we try to purge pathogens and toxins so that the body is better able to recover on its own.

Your journey begins with understanding your body as a type of funnel where your detoxification pathways can drain and eliminate waste and toxins that are often stuck and reabsorbed into the body in any state of dis-ease or dysfunction. 

I’ve created a short, unique quiz to help you identify what part of your drainage funnel might need the most attention based on your current symptoms. 

Click here to take The Detox Detective Quiz: 7 Questions Your Doctor Hasn’t Asked About Your Health.

This model changed everything for me. The deep, cellular level healing that I continue to experience is nothing short of extraordinary. I truly cannot wait to share it with you.

*Editor’s note: This blog is for educational and inspirational purposes only. It is not intended as medical advice but should serve to prompt an informed and empowered conversation with your primary care provider about the options that you have in your medical care.