Naturopathic/Functional Medicine Consulting

My Medical Philosophy

I’ve been around the block, having tested a huge array of approaches to healing on myself and with my patients. I’ve found many therapies, supplements, diet, etc. that are much more hype than healing. I’ve also found other things to be surprisingly critical to wellbeing when I didn’t expect them to be. That’s why I don’t subscribe to every health fad. I align myself with what truly works, not what sounds good on paper.

I do believe that the body is designed to heal on its own when you give it what it needs to function optimally, and don’t have too many physiological or psychological stressors impeding the body’s natural healing ability. I like to conceptualize this as the body being like a bucket, each stressor adding water to the bucket, and each of the foundations for healing being like a drain hole. Chronic illness occurs when the bucket overflows, so to stop that from happening, it is important to increase drain holes and reduce stressors that add water to the bucket.

That being said, the first order of business is to make sure that the basic foundations for healing are in place: healthy, clean diet (this is a nuanced one), regular movement, sufficient darkness in the evening & sleep, clean air at home & work, sufficient hydration with clean water, regular relaxation time, regular sunshine exposure, social connection, and fun/play. These make a bigger difference than people want to give them credit because they’re “inconvenient” in to maintain with today’s modern lifestyle. It doesn’t make them any less important. Our bodies have not evolved for the modern era.

Beyond that, then we begin assessing for the primary stressors that I see instigate chronic illness for most of clients. Almost all of my patients have had at least three as underlying causes for why they got sick.

1. Toxins: Mycotoxins, Heavy Metals, Chemicals, Oxalates, some Pharmaceuticals, non-ionizing EMFs and ionizing Radiation

2. Nutrient Deficiencies: These are becoming more common every day due to our modern lifestyles, dietary confusion, and nutrient-depleting farming practices.

3. Limbic/Autonomic Dysregulation: This one is usually instigated by intense chronic stress, stress programming, and/or trauma. Less often this is caused by a connective tissue disorder, brain injury, or vagus nerve injury.

4. Bodily Injury: Traumatic brain injury, Vagus nerve injuries being very important, Visceral scarring can disrupt normal organ function. Changes in the brain can lead to some injuries resulting in chronic pain.

5. Certain infections: Some infections can setup shop & wreak havoc even in someone with a very healthy immune system, though most chronic infections only occur in the setting of a weakened immune system.

Sometimes when we address these top stressors to the body, the body can self-regulate and heal all on its own - kicking out or putting into dormancy chronic infections, re-regulating immune function and other organ function, repairing tissues, etc.

In other cases, the body needs help rebalancing/rebuilding and addressing secondary stressors that are causing problems BECAUSE OF the primary stressors that weakened the body first. In other cases, the body has gotten into a biochemical habit of operating in a dysfunctional way, such as getting stuck in an inflammatory cycle, being unable to repair tissue damage fast enough before more occurs, epigenetic changes are perpetuating dysfunction, or the body keeps encountering new stressors and in its weakened state, that sets healing back.

Here are just some of the secondary stressors I often see occur as a result of the primary stressors weakening the body:

1. Chronic infections - parasitic, bacterial, viral, and fungal —> can lead to cell danger response, chronic inflammation, tissue damage, and poor mitochondrial function

2. Gut Dysfunction/Inflammation/Microbiome Imbalance —> malabsorption, food intolerances, systemic inflammation

3. Other organ inflammation/damage/dysfunction

4. Mitochondrial Dysfunction: Not enough energy production in the cells leads to all organs functioning sub-optimally.

5. Neurotransmitter Imbalances: leading to depression, anxiety, insomnia, OCD symptoms, etc.

6. Hormonal Imbalances: Elevated cortisol, adrenal fatigue, estrogen dominance, progesterone or testosterone deficiency, hypothyroidism, etc.

7. Secondary nutrient deficiencies: from increased need/utilization as the body is trying to heal

8. Immune System Imbalance: Leading to autoimmunity, mast cell activation disorder, environmental, food, EMF sensitivities or allergies

9. Epigenetic triggering of genetic weaknesses: Many of our genetic SNPs don’t cause us problems when the body isn’t in a stressed or ill state, but once it is, these can become more problematic and may benefit from support to help the healing process.

10. Chronic pain due to changes in the brain

Many docs focus more on the downstream effects of the original stress, rather than addressing the original stressor itself. Instead of finding the toxic accumulations, they’ll just say, “your liver function isn’t optimal, let me give you liver support” or “your mast cells are overactive, let me just give you some mast cell stabilizers”. The problem with that approach is, if the original stressor isn’t dealt with, those secondary issues will continue and likely get worse EVEN WITH supplemental or medication support. Trust me, I’ve done this to myself many times, and learned the hard way! That’s why I ALWAYS look for the primary stressors and insist on addressing that as early on as we can. It may be harder work than taking a pill, but you’ll be SO thankful when your recovery takes months to a few years instead of decades like mine!