Functional Medicine Services
Dr. Beth Bartlett is an IFM Certified Practitioner (IFMCP) from The Institute for Functional Medicine. With functional medicine, she looks to identify the root cause of your illness, pain, or chronic disease by assessing your body for imbalances and recommending personalized remedies to address the root cause(s).
What is Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine is a holistic health care approach to identify the cause, treatment, and prevention of illness and chronic disease. Essentially, it is the science of creating health, which seeks to identify the root cause of illness and chronic disease by focusing on the whole person and their unique bio-individuality. Functional medicine helps identify the complexity of inflammation (disease) by addressing patients’ genetic, biochemical, environmental and lifestyle factors.
What to Expect at your Functional Medicine appointment:
- Gather information: During the consultation (intake), Dr. Beth will gather information through health history forms, questionnaires, physical exams, and objective data.
- Establish a therapeutic relationship: The functional medicine experience fosters a mutually empowered patient/practitioner partnership.
- Assessing lifestyle factors: Functional medicine can be described as lifestyle medicine. A goal is to identify and address a patient’s modifiable lifestyle factors and environmental exposures, along with genetic predispositions.
- Systems Biology approach: The body is made of a complex network of systems that connect different biologically relevant entities or systems that work together to carry out a function or a task. Functional medicine looks to organize a patient’s clinical imbalances (and root causes of disease) in a systems biology matrix framework:
- Circulatory System (Cardiovascular)
- Gut Microbiome (Digestion, as well as Absorption)
- Communication System (Hormone and Neurotransmitter Imbalances)
- Immune System and Inflammatory System
- Energy System (mitochondrial health)
- Detoxification System
- Personalized Recommendations: Each patient will receive a peronalized recommendation/treatment plan to guide them towards health and wellness.
By seeking the answer to “what’s not right?”, functional medicine treatments are holistic and may focus on nutrition, exercise, sleep, stress, and other lifestyle choices. As an experienced functional medicine practitioner, Dr. Beth understands the origins and treatment of chronic disease, and can also identify early markers that can help to prevent disease.
One Condition, Many Causes. One Cause, Many Conditions.
When being treated by a functional medicine practitioner it is important to understand that one condition can have many different causes and, likewise, one cause may result in many different conditions. For example: depression can be caused by a number of factors including inflammation. And inflammation can also be caused by depression as well as a huge number of other factors. Anxiety, fatigue, genetics, and stress can be both a cause and a condition.
Functional Medicine Tree
The Functional Medicine Tree from The Institute for Functional Medicine illustrates connections between the principles of the functional medicine approach. Each patient has a unique genetic blueprint and different lifestyle factors, as well as different predisposing factors to an illness or pattern, triggering events that provoke the symptoms/signs of illness and contributors to pathological changes/dysfunction. Dr. Beth will work with you to help remove what causes imbalance and provide what creates balance for YOU. (Click for a download PDF of the functional medicine tree).
Conditions We Treat
Functional Medicine can address imbalances in your body; by assessing the following six systems and your genetics. Click on the “read more” in the blue blocks or contact us to schedule an appointment.
1 – The Circulatory System (Cardiovascular)
Cardiovascular Health
Environmental and/or food triggers can alter the function of our immune system. It can upregulate or downregulate our body’s response to inflammation.
Have you been exposed to environmental allergens, toxins, stress, infection, trauma? Are you consuming a balanced diet, rich in phytonutrients?
2 – The Gut Microbiome (Digestion, as well as Absorption)
Digestion and Absorption
Over 70% of your immune system is located in your digestive tract. The digestive system is responsible for assimilating food and deciding if the body will use it as fuel, discard it as waste or store it as fat or inflammation.
Are your symptoms associated with food/eating? Are you taking medications that may impair digestion and/or absorption? Are your food choices deficient or insufficient?
3 – The Communication System (Hormone and Neurotransmitter Imbalances)
Stress
All of the processes in our body require energy. This energy is provided by the mitochondria within each of our cells and needs antioxidants to function properly/efficiently.
Are you eating foods rich in antioxidants? Or supplementing with proper antioxidant support for your body?
Thyroid Conditions
All of the processes in our body require energy. This energy is provided by the mitochondria within each of our cells and needs antioxidants to function properly/efficiently.
Are you eating foods rich in antioxidants? Or supplementing with proper antioxidant support for your body?
READ MORE
Hormone Imbalance
Hormones and neurotransmitters are essential in regulating our body’s functions, including sleep and our response to emotions/stress.
Does your family or personal history of cardiometabolic or cardiovascular disease? Do you have insulin dysregulation? How about a history or suspicion of sleep apnea or sleep disturbance? Or maybe depression, anxiety, irritability or fatigue?
Blood Sugar Imbalances
All of the processes in our body require energy. This energy is provided by the mitochondria within each of our cells and needs antioxidants to function properly/efficiently.
Are you eating foods rich in antioxidants? Or supplementing with proper antioxidant support for your body?
Depression / Anxiety
All of the processes in our body require energy. This energy is provided by the mitochondria within each of our cells and needs antioxidants to function properly/efficiently.
Are you eating foods rich in antioxidants? Or supplementing with proper antioxidant support for your body?
4 – The Immune System and Inflammatory System
Inflammation
Environmental and/or food triggers can alter the function of our immune system. It can upregulate or downregulate our body’s response to inflammation.
Have you been exposed to environmental allergens, toxins, stress, infection, trauma? Are you consuming a balanced diet, rich in phytonutrients?
5 – The Energy System (mitochondrial health)
Immune System / Chronic Fatigue
All of the processes in our body require energy. This energy is provided by the mitochondria within each of our cells and needs antioxidants to function properly/efficiently.
Are you eating foods rich in antioxidants? Or supplementing with proper antioxidant support for your body?
READ MORE
6 – The Detoxification System
Detoxification
The body’s main organs of detoxification are the liver and the kidneys, followed closely by the intestines and the skin. If the body cannot excrete waste via urination, defecation or perspiration, it will be processed through phase II detoxification in the liver. Several minerals/vitamins and other nutrients are required for the processes to take place.
Do you have a history of toxic exposure to chemicals, heavy metals, pesticides? Are you ‘sensitive’ to heavy perfume, certain smells, etc?
Heredity, Genetics, DNA
Genetics
A new service that I am offering my patients is based on a partnership with 3X4 Genetics, who offer a personalized plan that gives you insights that help you understand your health better, with clear and actionable recommendations to help you improve your quality of life. It’s not invasive at all, it only requires a cheek swab that takes 30 seconds.
Are you ready to take control of your health?
Functional medicine treatments are customized for each individual, addressing your unique bio-individuality