Functional Medicine

Functional Medicine could be described as a science-based approach to the root cause of illness using an individualized approach. Some media reports have placed Functional and Conventional Medicine at odds with each other, but our success is proof that they can peacefully coexist. Sometimes an example is the best approach: consider a conventional physician, faced with a new patient complaining of fatigue and low mood. S/he might order tests to screen for hypothyroidism, sleep apnea and anemia. If the tests were all in the normal ranges, the next step would probably be to try a prescription antidepressant. That's not bad medicine, but it's also not particularly thorough. A Functional Medicine practitioner might order an expanded thyroid panel to look for borderline abnormalities missed by the screening test; s/he might run a salivary cortisol panel to look for adrenal dysregulation, or order male/female hormone panel to review hormone imbalances, and/or antibody tests to look for evidence of Epstein Barr Virus reactivation. Since anemia isn't the only cause of fatigue that can be caused by nutrient deficiency, s/he might order specialty lab tests to look at the patient's nutrient status across a whole range of possible deficiencies. Abnormal findings among any of these tests can be managed with safe, non-addictive, non-prescription nutritional supplements. This approach may or may not cost more or take longer, but effective treatment of the underlying problems could eventually make pharmaceutical symptom management unnecessary.

A Functional Approach to Primary Care is offered in Denver, Louisville and Telemedicine by Dr. Lyndsay, Dr. Diamond, Jodi Yeman, NP and Sarah Tyler, NP.

As we get older, a great many of us begin to experience pain and dysfunction in the parts of our bodies that keep us upright and moving around. These problems stem from many causes and no single intervention or healing modality can hope to address them all. We decided to group two different kinds of treatment under this heading... because four pillars seemed like too many. Musculoskeletal Health: OMT and Regenerative Medicine.

Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment (OMT) and Cranial Osteopathy is offered by Drs. Lyndsay and Krembs at both locations and Dr. Diamond at the Denver office.

Biodynamic Osteopathy is offered by Dr. Krembs at both locations.

Regenerative Medicine Services are offered by Dr. Shawn Naylor in Denver and by Mike Kehoe, PA-C in Louisville.

The concepts of chronic infection and toxic burden are familiar to any Functional Medicine practitioner, but management of more severe and treatment-refractory cases often requires a deeper dive into challenging and controversial territory. For more information, please see The Lyme disease General Information Packet. It is our opinion that cost-effective treatment of these problems is difficult to achieve without guidance from a diagnostic tool known as Autonomic Response Testing. In addition to shedding light on stealth infections, ART also provides insight into which interventions are most likely to be effective and well-tolerated for any given patient. It follows that the three clinic practitioners who utilize ART are also the ones that treat tick-borne and mold-related diseases. An excerpt from the Lyme packet devoted to ART is available in the next section. ART is not billable to insurance. However, the 1st ART session is complimentary.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Tick-Borne and Mold-Related Diseases is offered in Denver by Shawn Naylor, DO and Sheri Fox, PA-C and in Louisville by Mike Kehoe, PA-C.