Why The Change?

As a practicing Chiropractor, which is a physically demanding job, I knew I had to take care of myself.  For years I’ve exercised religiously, I’ve been a runner, a cyclist, a weigh lifter and a boot camper, I’ve also tried many different diets, (vegan, vegetarian, mediterranean, and sometimes the not so healthy) to try and maintain my health.  And then a couple of years ago I started to have some mild stomach pain, as months went by the pain got worse and worse.  My primary doctor sent me to specialist after specialist.  They poked and prodded, using every tool and diagnostic study they had.   After a couple visits to the emergency room,  2 colonoscopies, an endoscopy, a MRI, numerous blood tests and finally an ultrasound, It was determined that the cause of my symptoms was a hemangioma on my liver.  A benign tumor with no treatments needed or available.  But that was the end of it!   As if the diagnosis was supposed to be the cure.  I was basically told to deal with it…  I was sent home with a shrug of the shoulders.   These doctors did exactly what they were supposed to do, and they did it very well, they went above and beyond what the current medical model would allow, but I was still suffering.  And I realized that nowhere along the line had anyone ever suggested that I might be contributing through my diet or lifestyle choices.  I realized that the problem was that modern medicine, while excellent in finding and treating life threatening diseases, isn’t useful with treating chronic diseases.   They had successfully ruled out anything that would kill me,  but I wasn’t getting any better.  There had to be someone who had an answer.   There had to be some kind of a solution.  My frustration and experiences drove me to look further into the state of healthcare, and drove me to look for a different and better way. 

This came at about the same time as I could no longer ignore the trends I had been seeing with my own patients: 

• They weren’t responding to treatment as quickly.
• Many were asking what I could do with their chronic conditions because their primary doctor or specialist had tried everything and they were running out of options.

These people were in trouble, they felt horrible and truly sick, but as long as their conventional lab tests were normal or could be normalized with a variety of medications, they were considered healthy by their physicians. I decided someone had to do something, and after searching for the answers to their questions, and mine, and looking through study after study for some way to help my patients, I stumbled onto a new treatment model, it was called Functional Medicine, and seemed to have the answers I was looking for.  I knew I could help people live a happier, healthier and longer life by using the principles already being used by Functional Medicine practitioners.  So I started looking into different options to becoming trained as a functional medicine practitioner. After some research, I found the Institute for Functional Medicine, the worldwide leader in Functional Medicine training.   Also at the time I was introduced to and started working with one of the pioneers in Functional Medicine, Dr. Daniel Kalish. I’ve trained with many different kinds of healthcare professionals, including: MD’s, pharmacists, Osteopaths, and Naturopaths.  It has been extremely rewarding to collaborate with such a diverse group of colleagues.  I believe my training and experience in Functional Medicine allows me to bring my patients cutting edge healthcare.  I look forward to helping more people live longer and fuller lives.   I know together with my patients we can change lives, theirs and others, for the better.  I look forward to serving you!

Why is Functional Medicine Different?

Chronic diseases are spiraling out of control, and it’s become increasingly evident that a different healthcare approach is needed and warranted.  It makes much more sense to prioritize the prevention of disease instead of treating it once it’s already present. 

Functional medicine is one of the few healthcare disciplines that views and treats the body as a whole.  This is vitally important to understand, because every system in your body depends on every other system to function properly. 

Functional medicine is truly preventative medicine!  We take our role as a health care teacher very seriously, in latin the word “doctor” means “teacher”.  Our goal is not just to treat your condition but also to educate you on your issues, allowing you to take control of your own health!   After all, it’s you that’s suffering from the condition, so why shouldn’t the focus be on you, rather than the approach conventional medicine takes by treating every diagnosis with the same treatment?

Functional medicine is unique in that it focuses on variations in metabolism to not only find the underlying cause of the disease, but to also identify any predisposition to its development in the first place. 

To take this holistic approach we must consider all variables, including; your extensive personal history, genetic make up, occupation, nutritional and lifestyle.   Ever single factor that plays a role in the expression of disease is analyzed!

Finally, once the cause of your condition has been diagnosed, a functional medicine practitioner uses the best resources from many different health care disciplines to properly treat the cause.  For example, once the necessary biological, or genetic laboratory testing is completed, we review your results and at which time a practitioner will recommend a combination of dietary changes, supplements, exercise programs and lifestyle changes to treat your condition.  Our goal is to make you healthy, but to do it in a sustainable way.  We are here to help you make the changes necessary to becoming healthy and staying healthy. 

If you are interested in learning more about our Functional Medicine services we offer at Vital Health and Body in Saratoga, please call our team today.