Optimize Your Health

The biochemistry of the body for the body is actually pretty straightforward. For the body to work, it takes nutrients. Unfortunately, with standard American diets, most people are nutrient deficient. We aren't eating enough good quality food. Even if we’re taking standard commercial supplements, we are often nutrient deficient in some things. What we need is to identify the deficiencies and fill their buckets back up so the body can work at optimal rates. That’s what I do.

 

Functional Medicine: Definition and Practice

I am a functional medicine practitioner certified by the School of Applied Functional Medicine. Functional medicine is all about the root cause resolution. It's a practice that, unlike traditional medicine that treats symptoms, figures out the biochemistry of the body and gets to the root of the symptom, and helps to resolve it. For instance, when someone comes to me with migraines, a traditional practice would probably just prescribe a medication to help them alleviate the migraine. That kind of treatment, however, can’t determine that they might be getting the migraines because they have a food sensitivity, or there's mold exposure in their house, or their nutrient deficiencies are so great that the migraine is their body's way of saying, “Hey, I need something.” The traditional model in Western medicine doesn’t  look for any of those deficiencies, nutritional gaps, or any toxic overload that might be there. Functional medicine does. That’s its strength, and it is in chronic illness where it works best.
​
So how does functional medicine work?  I always tell people it's best practice to do a test and then make the changes. And then 90 days later, take another one to make sure that it's shifted. As we identify and address the stressors, we can relieve the root cause of the symptom. We put the body’s systems back in alignment with supplementation and lifestyle changes and, because the body wants to live in homeostasis, we can resolve the root cause of the issue. But it all starts with the test.

What We Want Today

I have done testing in my office for years, but this generation wants something different. They realize that they have the power to heal. They know they can do it and all they need to know is what needs to be done. They want to do things at home. They want to take back control of their health. 

I agree.

​This is where My Optimizer comes in. When you return one of your hairs, complete with follicle, with the kit, a certified lab tests its epigenetics, or the way environmental influences actually affect  how genes express themselves. For instance, if someone has celiac genes, that doesn't mean that they're a celiac sufferer. The celiac gene can be there and it can be dormant, just as with breast cancer genes. Hair follicles are great places to capture the body’s epigenetics and therefore what it's utilizing. The test exposes nutrient deficiencies and the food sensitivities. It also reveals what I believe is the top priority: the body’s stressors. We all know we have them, but this test allows us to identify the one most important to your body. 

The Mechanics of the Test

It does this in a number of ways. My Optimizer tells you the following:
​

• Primary Nutritional Indications
• What Foods to Avoid
• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Antioxidants
• Amino Acids
• Fatty Acids
• Interference (virus, bacteria, mold, fungus)
• Environmental Challenges
• Resistance 

It is, quite simply, a picture of what your body is dealing with and the nutritional tools it has to work with. 

Why is this important? For instance, three people could have IBS for three different reasons. One of the reasons may be that they have parasites. Don’t think that applies to you? Well, have you been to Mexico? Might you have accidentally drunk the water there? Do you have pets? Some of these questions sound irrelevant, but they help us get to the root as to why the body is responding the way it is, and that's the whole goal in functional medicine. We're very preventative. We're about education. We want to educate the world to understand why things work the way they do and to empower and inspire everybody to know what's going on in their body so that they can make long lifestyle changes.

Helping You to Live

You can be empowered to take their health back into your own hands.  Your body already knows how. We just need to help it. My Optimizer literally gives you everything that you need. It gives you your top stressor, your top system, all your nutrient deficiencies, and the top ten foods that you need to let go of. There is no other test that tells you this much about what your body needs.

A lot of what is wrong with us is caused organically by the way we live and what we eat and how we react to stressors. It has to do with lifestyle, with diet, with deficiencies, with mold exposure, with your weight, and with that cabin you go to every summer that's causing you to be out of  sorts. You’ll never figure that out without some help. Functional medicine, with the help of tests like My Optimizer, specializes in chronic issues. We help you to live.