I don’t just use the “pill for an ill” type approach to symptoms. After 20 plus years in internal medicine, I was left with the feeling that I “managed” prescription medication lists and kept patients cobbled together by applying band-aid fixes and putting out the fires of illness.
My own journey of disordered eating, irritable bowel syndrome, and anxiety led me to seek solutions when I finally got around to taking care of MYSELF in my 40’s. So much of what I had experienced (Your colonoscopy is normal, Cherise. Sound familiar to anyone?) and my patients suffered could have been prevented or at the least managed so much more effectively by the holistic care in which the art of nursing is based combined with the functional model I aspire to now.
Trust me, this came in handy as I married a guy on the autoimmune spectrum; Steve RPh has managed his psoriasis without a prescription since we got turned on to functional medicine in 2016.
I graduated with my Bachelor of Science in Nursing from the University of Texas as a Presidential Scholar in 1991 and my Master’s degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner in 1999.
Ultimately – functional medicine has given me a whole different set of tools in my toolbox of care. I am so passionate about digging deep and using functional medicine testing combined with those 20 plus years of conventional medicine experience to help uncover why patients are having symptoms in the first place rather than suppressing them.
Disclaimer here: –Yes, I was also one of those providers who thought “statins” should be in the water. Yikes! What a total feeling of empowerment I have now for myself and my patients! We are in charge of helping our beautiful bodies heal themselves!
So.. feeling flabby, foggy, flatulent, frigid, forgetful, and fatigued? Remember that I’m your hormone-guru gal using diet, lifestyle, supplements, mindfulness, detox, exercise, fasting, and a rare prescription or two to help you regain your Fiery and Fabulous (and yes, you guys can be Fiery and Fabulous also-as per Steve RPh reminding me of the many males I am privileged to treat.)
And if you want to geek out on all things health, check out my blog posts and videos!
Caring for your health properly is so much more than just the basics of eating right and exercise. With current medical research, we have discovered that the body is a complex collection of organs and systems and even bacterial colonies (the microbiome) that greatly impact each other.
While the standard of care hasn’t quite “caught up” yet with most of the current science, conventional health care providers and “specialists” are still treating parts of the body separately without taking into account the fact that these areas greatly impact each other.
When you are healthy, they work together like a symphony in perfect harmony. But when one of
these systems is off-balance, the whole symphony is out of tune! When you need a “tune-up” so to speak, not only do you need to look at areas that aren’t working right but also be sure everything is balanced with the rest of your body. Sadly, most people receive medications to treat symptoms associated with a body part that “isn’t working” when in reality, it’s a systemic issue that needs to be treated in a completely different way.
At my practice, I follow a more modern “functional medicine” approach that does advanced testing, treats your body, and uses up-to-date nutritional science to help you rebalance and finally heal.
This in-depth approach is the only successful way of treating chronic illness because most chronic illnesses have many causes. Instead of simply addressing different symptoms across separate areas, functional medicine seeks to treat the underlying root cause – while looking at lifestyle factors such as diet, environment, emotional health, and mindset that usually brings on the illness patients are seeking to heal.
At Wellness. Balance. You., you and I work together to create a personalized healing plan that works with the care you have already received. The difference is that I go further to figure out why you are still struggling with chronic wellness issues, working to resolve them for good.
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