Understanding a Functional Health Approach

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This approach is for people who are ready to be active participants in their healing. It’s a good fit if you’re willing to make sustainable lifestyle changes, guided by biochemical evidence, and you’re seeking personalized solutions that address the underlying systems driving your symptoms—not just quick fixes or symptom suppression.

This work isn’t passive; it only works if you’re ready to show up and make changes.

I use comprehensive functional lab testing—looking at hormones and metabolites, digestion, the gut microbiome, detoxification, immune function, food sensitivities, pathogens, nutrients, and chemical toxins/mycotoxins—alongside detailed symptom profiles and health history. This helps us identify specific stressors that are disrupting normal physiology.

This data-driven, systems-based approach shows how your body’s systems interact—for example, how gut dysfunction can trigger immune responses that show up as skin issues, fatigue, anxiety, or joint pain.

From there, the work focuses on two things:

• Removing stressors such as toxins, infections, nutrient deficiencies, inflammatory foods, and chronic stress
• Supporting weakened systems so your body has the capacity to heal

When we remove what’s blocking healing and support what’s depleted, your own homeostatic mechanisms can start restoring balance across all systems.

The R.E.A.L.M. Framework: How I Organize Your Case

My work isn’t a one-size-fits-all protocol. Every case starts with your story, your symptom history, and your lab data—and the priorities can look very different from person to person. Sometimes the first step is balancing minerals; sometimes it’s nervous system support, sometimes it’s environment, sometimes it’s gut.

The R.E.A.L.M. framework is a simple way to highlight how I organize information and guide priorities: 

R — Root Causes
Using functional labs together with your history and symptoms, we identify the main drivers of your illness—such as chemicals and heavy metals, mold, mineral imbalances, chronic infections or dysbiosis, immune activation, or unresolved inflammation. This isn’t about slapping on a label; it’s about understanding what’s actually pushing your system off balance. 

E — Environment
Based on what we see in your history, symptoms, and lab results, we explore the role of your outer environment and overall exposure load. When it’s indicated, that can include things like chemical exposures (from food, water, air, home and work environments), irritants, food triggers, environmental mold or water-damage, sleep environment, types of light exposure and stress load. Sometimes the most important first step is making small, realistic changes to reduce what your body is constantly fighting against. 

A — Assessment
Here’s where the lab-nerd part shines. Using comprehensive functional testing and detailed history, we assess hormones, digestion, gut and (if indicated) sinus/oral microbiome, detoxification, immune markers, nutrients, pathogens, and toxicants. I’m looking for patterns across systems—not just single “out-of-range” markers—so we can see how everything fits together and decide what to address first. 

L — Lifestyle
Guided by your history and lab findings, we create real-life structure: nutrition you can actually implement, pacing, sleep and circadian support, nervous system regulation tools, light exposure, and movement that matches your current capacity. This creates the daily rhythm your body needs in order to heal, without burnout. We want progress, not perfection. 

M — Metabolism
Alongside lifestyle changes and based on the imbalances identified in your lab work, we layer in targeted support for your internal terrain: mineral balance, hormone balance, gut and microbiome support, immune modulation, inflammation regulation, blood sugar stability, detox pathways, and mitochondrial function/energy production. Sometimes that means focusing on severe mitochondrial dysfunction first; sometimes it means calming an overactive immune system or supporting hormones so you can function while deeper gut or microbial balancing or eradication work happens later.
As metabolic resilience improves, people often notice more stable energy, clearer thinking, better sleep, improved digestion, and fewer flares. 

This is a 3+ month collaborative journey where we work closely together as I guide, educate, and support you in regaining your health. We monitor progress through symptom tracking and follow-up testing when needed, celebrating wins and troubleshooting challenges as a team.

While everyone’s body is different, people often notice increased energy, improved digestion, better sleep, clearer thinking, and meaningful improvement in chronic symptoms as system balance is restored and the body’s self-regulation capacity returns.