Dr Mitra Tahvildarian, Ph. D.

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What is Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine testing is an approach to wellness that focusing on identifying and resolving the root cause of disease

In this way, functional medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual

It is also convenient, compassionate, and effective care. We offer our programs via telemedicine, which lets you visit your doctor and receive care without an in-person office visit. Online Medical Services, Telehealth is done primarily online with internet access on your computer, tablet, or smartphone through video conferences and internet phone calls.

As the following graphic of an iceberg shows, a named disease such as depression, fatigue, cancer, allergies, auto immune disorder, obesity might be visible above the surface, but according to functional medicine, the cause lies in the altered physiology below the surface.

If health care treats just the tip of the iceberg, it rarely leads to long term relief and vibrancy. Identifying and treating the underlying root cause or causes, as Functional Medicine does, has a much better chance to successfully resolve a patient’s health challenge.

Using scientific principles, advanced diagnostic testing, and treatments other than drugs or surgery, Functional medicine restores balance in the body’s primary physiological process. The Goal is the patient’s lifelong optimal health.

Functional medicine testing is an approach to wellness that focusing on identifying and resolving the root cause of disease.

How Functional Medicine Complement conventional medicine?

The conventional medicine is a medical management model that works well for acute health issues such as accident, heart attack, sudden long infection, septicemia, you certainly need want a quick-thinking doctor to use all the quick acting resources of modern medicine, such as a life saving technology, surgery, and antibiotics.

What are the principles of Functional medicine for chronic diseases?

To combat chronic health conditions, Functional Medicine uses two scientifically grounded principals:

1- Add what’s lacking in the body to push its physiology back to a state of optimal functioning

2- Remove anything that impedes the body from moving toward this optimal state of physiology.

Basically, our body naturally wants to be healthy. However, the body may be missing things needed to function at its best, or something might be standing in the way of its optimal functioning. Functional Medicine practitioner often use advanced laboratory testing to identify the root cause or causes of the patient’s health issue.

For treatment, Functional Medicine practitioners use a combination of natural agents (supplements, herbs, nutraceuticals, and homeopathic), nutritional and lifestyle changes, spiritual/emotional counseling, and pharmaceuticals, if necessary to push a patient physiology back to an optimal state. In addition, educating the patients about their conditions empowers them to take charge of their own health, ultimately leading to greater success in treatment.

What is the downside of treating symptoms versus treating the person?

In the dominant health care model today, medication is used to get rid of people’s syndromes. If the patient stops taking medication symptoms gently return.

For example, conventional medicine practitioners would normally prescribe pharmaceuticals like prevacid, Prilosec to treat acid reflux or heartburn. When the patient stops taking such drugs, the heartburn symptoms come back. In contrast, Functional Medicine practitioner might find that a patient acid reflux is caused by pathogenic bacteria or emotional poisons like anger, greed or envy or structural factor such as tumors or cysts.

What would be your experience of Functional Medicine?

When you consult with us the first step is always your comprehensive health history. We are trained on how to unravel and make sense of a complicated story. Often clues in the story lead to the identification of key imbalances.

The next set of clues comes from advanced laboratory testing, which plays a crucial role in Testing Hormone Levels. Innovating, cutting-edge lab tests help the practitioner look deeply into a patient’s physiology to identify how it has been compromised and how physiological balance can be restored.

After diagnosis and treatment, a Functional Medicine patient can expect his/her symptoms to diminish in severity, along with a renewal sense of well-being and significant increase in health and vitality.

BALENCING OUR HORMONES FROM THE SOURCE AND ROOT CAUSE

Hormones are the body’s chemical messengers, traveling through the bloodstream instructing tissues and organs. Hormones affect many different processes in the body, like metabolism, sexual function, reproduction, and even mood. Hormones are powerful and a small change in their amount can have serious effects on the body. For example, too much estrogen in women can increase the risk of breast cancer, while too little estrogen can lead to low mineral bone density and osteoporosis.

Hormone imbalances can happen at any age and can be caused by many factors. The following outlines some of the common causes and symptoms of hormone imbalances.

There can be many underlying causes of hormone imbalance:

Chronic inflammation.
Methylation impairments like MTHFR.
Gut dysbiosis
Nutrient deficiencies / Unhealthy diet.
Stress overload.
Toxin exposure
Menopause
Andropause
Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
Excess Body fat
Cancer

Signs and symptoms of hormone imbalance include

Unexplained weight gain or loss
Fatigue
Mood swings & irritability
Trouble concentrating
Irregular periods
Reduced sex drive
Trouble sleeping
Hair loss or thinning
Bloating
Hot flashes or night sweats
Infertility

HOW HORMONES AND NUTRIENTS INTERACT

There are two factors that contribute to widespread hormone imbalance:

IN AGRICULTURAL RESEARCH

It’s been understood for some time that many of our most important foods have been getting less nutritious. Measurements of fruits and vegetables show that their minerals, vitamin and protein content has measurably dropped over the past 50 to 70 years. Researchers have generally assumed the reason is straightforward: We’ve been breeding and choosing crops for higher yields, rather than nutrition, and higher-yielding crops—whether broccoli, tomatoes, or wheat—tend to be less nutrient-packed.

As Americans, we struggle with deficiencies in our diet including selenium, magnesium, potassium, iodine, and a host of other trace minerals and nutrients.

For now, let’s gain a better understanding of the different hormones and their functions.

Melatonin

You might already be familiar with melatonin as a common sleep-aid supplement. Melatonin supplements mimic what the hormone melatonin does naturally when it’s secreted from the pineal gland, promoting Natural Hormone Balance.

Fatigue
Difficulty sleeping
Restlessness
Brain fog

Signs of melatonin deficiency include:

Sunshine regulates your circadian rhythm by telling your body when to increase and decrease your melatonin levels. So, the more daylight exposure you can get, the better your body will produce melatonin when it’s time to go to sleep. Also, you can improve melatonin production by avoiding exposure to bright light close to bedtime.

Cortisol

Cortisol is the primary stress hormone of the body. When you produce too much cortisol, it can cause a chain reaction of hormonal imbalances throughout the body, leading to various hormonal changes in women.

The adrenal glands are meant to produce cortisol in small doses during moments of high stress, like when a bear is trying to eat you, for example, but sustained cortisol production can have negative health effects, including:

Increased stress
Poor sleep
Excess fat storage
Increased appetite
Poor concentration
Low energy
Decreased alertness

Over time, elevated cortisol levels can reduce your ability to produce other critical hormones, such as:

Testosterone
Estrogen
Progesterone

These imbalances can cause severe mood swings and migraine headaches.

Common signs of high cortisol levels include:

Increased appetite
Bloating
Acid reflux
Weight gain
Diarrhea
Constipation

Testosterone

Testosterone is primarily a male hormone, but both men and women need certain levels of it for optimal health. Low levels of testosterone in men can lead to low sex drive, mood changes, and softer body composition.

For men, testosterone imbalances are tied to a reduction in:

Alertness
Physical strength
Muscle mass
Energy levels
Motivation
Confidence
Sex drive

High testosterone levels in women have been linked to:

Excess body hair, specifically facial hair.
Balding.
Acne.
Enlarged clitoris.
Decreased breast size.
Deepening of the voice.
Increased muscle mass.

Estrogen

Both men and women produce estrogen, but women produce it in much larger amounts.

Estrogen is the primary sex hormone for women, and it has a massive impact on:

Menstruation
Menopause
Pregnancy
Hair growth
Muscle mass

Common signs of estrogen imbalance in women include:

Mood changes
Depression
Vaginal dryness or irregular periods

Progesterone

Progesterone is another important female sex hormone that the body uses to balance estrogen levels, balance mood, and influence sleep. It’s made in the ovaries, the placenta, and the adrenal glands.

Common signs of progesterone imbalance in women include:

Heavy periods
Severe PMS symptoms
Depression
Mood changes
Weight gain
Changes in appetite

Leptin

Leptin’s job to signal the rest of your body that you’ve had enough to eat when your stomach is full and directs fat metabolism. It’s easy to see how problems with leptin production might cause you to gain weight.

Leptin also helps regulate sex hormones as well as several other important hormones throughout the body.

Thyroid hormones

In a lot of ways, thyroid hormones are the most important hormones in the body. They affect the inflammation response and literally everybody system.

Thyroid disorders can be strongly affected by diet. Certain vegetables, like broccoli and cauliflower, can have negative effects on thyroid production when eaten raw. Always cook broccoli and cauliflower thoroughly if you suspect you may have a thyroid condition.

Thyroid hormones impact your:

Weight
Sleep quality
Energy levels
Body temperature
Libido
Metabolism

Common signs of thyroid hormone imbalance:

Thinning hair
Hair loss
Weight gain
Weight loss

Insulin

Insulin helps the body process sugar by reducing glucose levels in the blood. When you have too much sugar in your diet, insulin production can become fatigued.

Health consequences of chronically high insulin levels can include:

Diabetes
Changes in appetite
Reproductive issues
Elevated estrogen

If this article resonates with you, request a free 20 minutes to see if Functional Medicine might be right for you. We will reach out to you to find a time to connect.

Book A Consultation.

Which of the following problems can we help you with?

Autoimmune & Inflammation

(Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis / Inflammatory Bowel disease (IBD) / Rheumatoid Arthritis / Psoriasis / Lupus / Multiple sclerosis / ALS)

Unexplained Symptoms

Skin Rashes / Depression / Anxiety / Fatigue / General weakness / Allergic Reaction / PMS / Irregular period / bloating / brain fog / joint pain

Mental well-being

Stress / panic attack / headaches or Migraine / chronic fatigue syndrome / burn out / brain fog / acute anxiety / Irritability / chronic depression

Hormonal health

Insomnia / weight changes / low libido / moodiness / depression, fatigue / erectile dysfunction / extreme thirst or hunger / memory loss / cold or hot temperature intolerance / PMS / hair loss / skin dryness / Acne

Digestive Issues

Bloating / Gas / Acid Reflux / IBS / Abdominal pain / Food intolerance / Constipation / Diarrhea/ H.pylori / SIBO {small Intestine bacteria overgrowth} / Leaky Gut)

Metabolism and heart health

High blood pressure / insulin resistance / unexplained weight gain / diabetes type 2 / Atherosclerosis / Appetite disorder

Infection Diseases

Mold | Mycotoxin / Covid / Lyme disease / Epstein bar virus / Candida / Parasites

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