Functional Nutritionist

Are you wondering what a functional nutritionist is? Well, a functional nutritionist is a nutritionist that has been taught to use the principles and frameworks created by the Institute for Functional Medicine. This may now have you asking, ‘what is functional medicine’?

The Institute for Functional Medicine defines the Functional Medicine model as, “an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness. It requires a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors and leverages that data to direct personalized treatment plans that lead to improved patient outcomes.”

Functional Medicine / Nutrition

The functional model of care looks for root cause, the WHY. Conventional care is disease based. Once the body is out of balance to the point where a diagnosis can be made the doctors then work to manage the disease.

Let’s use Heartburn/Reflux as an example. Conventional medicine follows an ‘X’ for ‘Y’ paradigm. ‘X’ is a diagnosis and ‘Y’ is a prescription to treat the symptoms of that diagnosis. ‘X’ to ‘Y’, it’s linear. What’s missing from this equation is the real ‘WHY’. The question, why does the patient suffer with heartburn/Reflux. This ‘WHY’ question digs for root cause and reaches for true healing. Often the ‘X’ for ‘Y’ paradigm fails, the prescription for the diagnosis doesn’t return the patient to their healthy pre-diagnosis state.

Again, from the Institute of Functional Medicine: “…addressing root cause, rather than symptoms, practitioners become oriented to identifying the complexity of disease”.

Digging for and finding root cause helps the patient or client heal. They no longer suffer from the symptoms of heartburn/reflux nor do they continue to have a diagnosis of heartburn/reflux. At this point they do not need a prescription.

The Gap between your Doctor and your Life

Unfortunately, it’s not that easy to find a Functional Medicine doctor. There are more and more docs getting trained by the Institute for Functional Medicine but they are still far and few between. Working with your conventional doctor can sometimes be very frustrating. You know your doctor has your best interest in mind and he/she spends time explaining what you need to do to feel better. The problem tends to develop after you leave the doctor’s office. You leave with all the best intentions of following your doctors directions and making changes to improve your health but once you’re home you don’t really know what to do. 

Let me be clear, doctors save lives and your doctor is an important member of your health care team. He/she is also incredibly busy and often over worked. The conventional health care model doesn’t allow your doctor to spend extra time with you or check in with you to help you make the changes you need to make.

Functional Nutritionist and Lifestyle Practitioner

That’s where I and others like me, in the wellness field jump in. I fill that gap. Using frameworks developed by the Institute for Functional Medicine, I help you connect the dots of your life and health. Together we create your wellness matrix to identify areas of physiological dysfunction. We dig for root cause. 

Again, your doctor saves lives, he/she makes you feel better quickly by treating your uncomfortable symptoms. This improves your immediate quality of life allowing you to function on a day to day basis. I don’t think that’s good enough and you shouldn’t either. I think you actually want to be well not be a slave to prescription medication for the rest of your life. Now, in some cases your prescription medication is going to be necessary forever but what about when maybe it’s not?

I help you investigate your diet and lifestyle. Why do you have those symptoms? What’s going on in there? Let’s help your doctor out. Let’s figure out what’s causing the symptoms and build those areas of dysfunction back to optimal function. Let’s make your docs life easy by attacking your symptoms at their root.

Who me? I don’t need Functional Medicine.

You may be wondering if I’m talking to you. Perhaps you are happy with your current health plan. That’s great, I’m happy for you. If however you are trying to avoid prescription medication or you’re already on medication and would like to try and reduce the need of that medication then maybe trying to dig a little deeper isn’t a bad idea.

People who could benefit from digging a little deeper:

• Those dealing with Autoimmune Conditions: Hashimoto’s Thyroid Disease, Rheumatoid Arthritis, MS, Celiac and more – Autoimmunity starts in the gut. You have to heal your gut to improve your condition.
• Digestive Disorders: Leaky Gut, Acid Reflux, Gas, Bloating, IBS, Constipation, Diarrhea and more
• Weight Loss
• Pre-Diabetes / Type 2 Diabetes
• Metabolic Syndrome
• High Cholesterol / High Triglycerides
• High Blood Pressure
• Fatigue

and more

Your Doc/Specialists Can’t Seem To Help

There is nothing worse than feeling helpless. Not knowing where to find answers is scary. I know, I’ve been there. What do you do when you go to the expert and they don’t have an answer? I was faced with this very problem, twice! Just thinking about it brings back a feeling of helplessness and panic. The first time had to do with my daughter, you can read her story here. I was paralyzed, it was the first time in my life I didn’t have even a hint of a solution. The second time had to do with my husband, you can read his story here. It’s hard to help family. It’s hard to see beyond the panic. Fortunately it didn’t take me as long to figure out how to help my husband as it did my daughter.

Become Empowered!

If you recognize yourself in the list above or even in my daughter’s or husband’s stories and are ready to help yourself and your doc then it’s time for you to become empowered! Make the choice to feel good.

Contact me either through my contact page or my appointment calendar. You can sign up for a free 30-min. strategy session. From there you can book a Full Functional Nutrition assessment where we’ll go through your health/life timeline and start connecting some dots. This will allow us to complete a functional health matrix which is a visual guide to your areas of dysfunction. The matrix allows us to identify where you are out of balance and start to create a plan to address and correct those imbalances.

Be Well,