Frequently Asked Questions

Functional Medicine fills the gap between being told “everything is fine” and needing a major medical intervention. Rather than viewing health and disease as all-or-nothing, it sees them on a continuum. Conventional medicine tends to focus on diagnosing and managing disease, often overlooking prevention, optimal performance, and overall wellness. Its emphasis is primarily on structure—what can be seen on scans or through scopes. For instance, a patient with ongoing digestive issues might be referred for an endoscopy, and if no visible abnormalities are found, they're often told nothing is wrong and given a label like IBS, along with a prescription. Functional Medicine takes a different approach by focusing on how systems are functioning. It might involve advanced stool testing to assess digestive health, microbiome balance, and biochemical markers—offering insights into the underlying causes of symptoms and guiding more personalized, root-cause solutions.

Here are some analogies:

Imagine your smoke alarm keeps going off.
Symptom management is like taking the battery out so it stops beeping—you’re silencing the noise but ignoring the real danger.
Root cause treatment is like finding and putting out the actual fire or fixing the wiring that's causing the alarm to go off. That way, the problem is truly resolved, and the alarm won’t keep sounding.

Imagine your sink is leaking and water is dripping onto the floor.
Symptom management is like placing a bucket under the leak to catch the water—it prevents a mess temporarily but doesn’t stop the leak itself.
Root cause treatment is like fixing the broken pipe or faucet causing the leak, so the dripping stops completely and you avoid ongoing damage.

Conventional medicine models typically avoid testing unless it leads directly to a treatment—usually a medication to "band-aid" the problem, or a procedure.

Advanced testing within the Functional Medicine framework can uncover the biochemical imbalances often at the root of chronic illness—such as hormonal disruptions, nutrient deficiencies, immune dysfunction, toxic burden, and hidden infections in the gut. It is also important to understand just how crucial gut health and the microbiome are to systemic well-being.

Genetic testing further elucidates how our DNA can highlight personal susceptibilities, offering insights into disease risk. However, our genes don’t seal our fate—once we understand our genetic tendencies, there are ways to work around them. This is the essence of truly personalized medicine.

What I’ve come to believe with certainty is that by restoring balance in the body and focusing on nutrition and lifestyle, we can not only relieve symptoms but, in many cases, reverse disease processes altogether. My own healing journey revealed that my passion in medicine doesn’t lie in simply prescribing pills—but in guiding patients through a personalized, root-cause approach that helps them unlock their potential for health, longevity, and a vibrant quality of life.

The comprehensive testing and functional medicine consultation program spans 16 weeks and is designed to uncover the root cause of your health concerns—helping you return to feeling like yourself with lasting, meaningful results. While 16 weeks is the typical duration, the timeline may vary depending on your unique health history, the severity of your condition, and how long symptoms have been present.

Here's why I don't take insurance:
When a third party is footing the bill for your healthcare, it’s likely the spending choices won’t align with your personal priorities or needs.

Publicly funded or "insurance covered" healthcare systems often don't support a personalized, prevention-focused approach to medicine. True wellness care requires time—time to understand your full health history, listen to your concerns, and order the right tests to uncover what’s really happening beneath the surface.

When it comes to your health, my goal is to do what’s truly right for you—not just what’s included in a standard coverage plan.

I work with motivated individuals who recognize that their health is their greatest investment.

My approach is highly personalized, combining the most effective elements of conventional medicine, functional medicine, and genetics to support each individual's unique health journey.

I'm especially passionate about:
chronic joint pain

chronic/unexplained fatigue
autoimmune disease
gastrointestinal disorders and gut healing
hormone optimization

Glad you asked -- You can read my full story :: HERE ::