I had never been taught in medical school

One of the main things that people want to know is, what got you interested in functional medicine?

One of the things that got me interested in functional medicine was seeing how certain patients require more customization, as far as their diet.

I remember visiting a functional medicine holistic practitioner back in Phoenix, Arizona, about 20 years ago. And he was customizing people’s diets based on their food sensitivities on how they reacted to different foods, and how foods cause Inflammation and imbalances in their system.

And I was very intrigued by that at the time. I was very taught very conventional medicine, you know, a pill for an ill, you’re sick there, you have to take a pill or something in that nature. I just got out of residency, and that was back in around 2002.

I had never been taught in medical school. It opened my mind to all these other possibilities and therapies and things that we could do for patients.

And I followed him for a whole week. I saw what he was doing things with his patients that I had didn’t think about doing with my patients in internal medicine. He was testing their blood to see which foods were causing problems and Inflammation.

Inflammation is one of the leading causes of many problems, weight gain, hypertension, anxiety, causing all kinds of imbalances, including hormones.

I saw these people get better in so many ways, becoming less dependent on medications. A lot of them stop taking blood pressure medicine and cholesterol medicine. I was taught at medical school because, once you start these medications, most patients have to stay on them.

But it made me realize that lifestyle modifications and teaching patients how to eat are a huge component of getting people well and bringing them information.

I saw these people eliminate certain foods in their diet and incorporate different ones based on their blood results, and we’re getting better.

That’s how I started my journey into like diving deeper into the patient’s needs and what it is that’s causing problems. It just changed the way I practice.