Blog - Collaborative Medicine

Article I Wrote for TAPA on My Functional Medicine Business Journey

The following is an article I wrote for the Texas Association of Physician Assistants. 1) What got you interested in functional medicine? When Dr. Jeffrey Bland coined the term “functional medicine”, it was intended to be a hybrid of molecular biology,…

Green Allopathy

The other day, I was shopping at my local Natural Grocers. As I walked through the supplement section, I heard a customer discussing some allergy-type symptoms with the employee. The employee was well-versed in which supplements to suggest, and recommended…

Tall Poppy Syndrome: Handling Criticism in Integrative Medicine

As practitioners learn and reap the benefits of functional medicine, they will inevitably encounter colleagues that try to belittle their efforts. Any practitioner that goes beyond the constraints of allopathic medicine (particularly if they have received training in Western medicine)…

Standard of Care and Functional Medicine

I once read a Facebook post in an integrative community group that asked members what natural “go-to” remedies were recommended to give her husband (who had been in an accident a few hours earlier, and was “showing signs” of…

The Science of Reversing Alzheimer’s

"Betty" was 65 years old when she was diagnosed with progressive memory loss. Two years later, her condition had progressed to the point of unemployment, she wasn’t eligible for long term care insurance, and was told by her family physician…

Evidence based medicine in functional medicine

"First do no harm" We rely on evidence-based-medicine (EBM) to determine safe and effective treatments for our patients. This is ideal for pharmaceutical drugs that are potent and carry many side effects/risks, herbal medicines and supplements that are utilized in…

Teaching vs Treating

When we go to the health care clinic, we expect to leave with a cause of our illness (aka diagnosis) and a treatment to feel better. But there should be one more thing you get from your doctor - education.…

Proving Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is rooted in evidence-based scientific research (aka "proof"), which helps those of us who have chosen this path back up our choices for labs and treatments. For any practitioner who has attended an Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM)…

Insulin Resistance: The Facts

In our medical education, we learn about insulin resistance, and what parameters "define" insulin resistance syndrome (aka metabolic syndrome). But how do we measure it and identify it? Let's start with a basic biochemistry reminder. Insulin is an…

What Most People Fear as We Age…

I once asked my mom what her biggest health fear was, as she gets older. She said she is not scared of cancer or osteoporosis or gaining weight. She is scared of losing her mind. I believe as clinicians that…