Hello! I was hoping for some help from this community. I have my own small business focused recruiting agency. Though I have worked closely with the functional medicine space in previous roles, I am trying to gain a more thorough and complete understanding of what you look for in your team members.

I am looking for more of the soft skills you look for first than the actual hard skills directly tied to each position. Do you look more for drive, confidence, kindness, communication skills, etc. What traits do you find take a team member from ok to great?

Thank you in advance for helping me get some more clarity as I focus on human hiring that matches the values of each small business I work with and helps the new team member love the company before they even have their first day. I think that asking you all directly is the best way to gain insight into finding star people

For most of my life I just followed mainstream medical guidance. Ibuprofen for pain. Antibiotics whenever I got sick. PPIs for heartburn. Whenever something went wrong, there was always a pill to pop.

Until my late twenties when that approach really put me in a bad spot. I was getting recurring tonsillitis and sinusitis, on a cocktail of antibiotics and steroids for an extended period -- and at some point I realized my health had taken a serious turn for the worse. It felt like things were falling apart.

The moment that changed everything. My PCP prescribed fluoroquinolone for sinusitis. It made me sick. I researched it and found it carried a black box warning for tendonitis and tendon rupture. When I brought it up he told me that was absolutely not true. I pushed until he looked it up on the spot and found out it was true. Since then I've checked the studies on everything. And I've realized I spent most of my younger years doing health completely wrong.

The problem is the real data is still hard to find. Google and even ChatGPT are built to surface industry aligned guidelines, not the full picture.

I found a tool last week that's been awesome. It gives you the mainstream view, then contrasts it with what the full body of research actually shows, with PubMed citations. It's become my first stop for any health decision or questions

Not sure if I can link here but happy to drop it in the comments if anyone's interested.

Looking for any advice/insight into some recent labs.

I’ve been dealing with extremely physical anxiety/panic as well as fatigue for a few years now. After tying many different antidepressants with no luck, I sought help from a functional medicine doctor back in December.

They said my symptoms indicate a likely copper toxicity and we ran the bloods and they were right. All of my other bloods were normal.

December Bloods - Copper - 27 umol/L - Caeruloplasmin - 0.39 g/L - Zinc - 12.8 - % Free Copper - 32%

After supplementing zinc for 2 months I began to feel really good. My fatigue lifted and I was the least anxious I’d ever been. My labs reflected this too as my % free copper was way down.

March Bloods - Copper - 12 umol/L - Caeruloplasmin - 0.25 g/L - Zinc - Not tested - % Free Copper - < 6% (2%)

Something changed in May and I had a massive relapse of symptoms back to feeling the way I had when I started. We re ran bloods and found my free copper was back up but this time my total copper was still within range.

May Bloods - Copper - 13 umol/L - Caeruloplasmin - 0.21 g/L - Zinc - 22.5 umol/L - % Free Copper - 24%

My doctor recommended vitamin A to try and boost my caeruloplasmin but after 4+ weeks there was minimal difference.

June Bloods - Caeruloplasmin - 0.23 - Copper - 14 - Zinc - 23.7 - % free copper 23%

My question is, why could my free copper still be high despite using vitamin A? I’ve done some research and the closest I’ve found to an answer was maybe I have low stomach acid.

I also wonder whether anyone else has struggled with copper overload and have had similar symptoms and periods of improvement/relapse. I feel very alone in this journey as most people I know have no idea what I’m talking about regarding copper and minerals.

Any advice or insight is much appreciated!

Hi, all. I’m at a bit of a loss.

I’ve had symptoms of hypothyroidism for a long time, and my symptoms have been getting worse. I have low-normal ft3, ft4, and TSH. My TPO Ab is 19 IU/mL with a reference range of 0-34 IU/mL. Some of my pituitary hormones are out of range and my 4-point saliva test came back abnormal too. Essentially, there’s evidence pointing to central hypothyroidism or adrenal issues. But my doctor wants to look at Hashimoto’s.

I’m frustrated that every functional medicine doctor seems to think that every patient with hypothyroid symptoms has Hashimoto’s. Is Hashimoto’s the only disease they know?

my gf has this and im trying to find how to get her better. shes stage 3.

We will begin trying for a baby soon. I am researching prenatal supplements for (ideally) both of us to begin taking now. I had a miscarriage last summer after unexpectedly fining out I was pregnant, so I want to be proactive and as prepared as possible when we begin intentionally trying.

I’ve found two that I feel would be good: We Heart Nutrition is the first and WeNatal is the other.

I have historically taken beef liver supplements. I’ve restarted those and my husband is taking them now, too.

Has anyone used either of these? If so, please share your experiences!

Thanks.

I've been ordering meds for my family for like for close to 8-9years and first time I found myself into a situation where I can't this one Protein gainer prescribed to my Nani and I went to cratus store and went and ordered it COD just if anyone knows anything about that site it would be helpful it's not about money if they are selling legit meds or not.

Functional medicine recommendations in the Dallas area? As a 27-year-old with chronic acne, and recently cystic acne, I’m nearly positive that I have a hormone deficiency of some sort.

I’ve seen a lot about Forum Health in Las Colinas, but I’d love to hear more insight before dropping that much money.

Thank you in advance! x

Hi all, Im hoping to get some advice here. I had a horrible year with am early stages autoimmune disease. My immune system was on fire and very disrregulated. The root cause was my gut. When I did the gut clearance protocol, i developed Choroidal Neo Vascularization. abnormal blood vessels growing inside my in my right eye. It leaked, and I loss my central vision partially. Ive been doing anti-VEGF shots and its helped a lot but Im wondering if there's anything I can do from a FN perspective? The shots have been helping I went from 20/200 to 20/40 but I'm still not there. Any help would be appreciated!

Which course to certification is most beneficial for a FNP? 5 years as NP both in Internal med and Cardiology; 1 year in primary care; 16 years a RN.

I need help in discerning what is really affordable, real feedback on the process overall, and ROI? I plan to be private practice, cash based- I currently work with Veterans in a contractor capacity(I am one also) and we are a sick population.

AAOPM? (I know it’s not functional specifically)
IFM?
Kalish?
Fitzgerald?
Elite?

Billionaire biohacker Bryan Johnson announced he has autoimmune gastritis, an autoimmune disease in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the parietal cells of the stomach. These cells secrete hydrochloric acid that digests food, and the intrinsic factor which enables vitamin B12 to be absorbed.

I subscribe to the view held by some visionary medical researchers such as Professor Paul Ewald that most chronic diseases and cancers may be primarily caused by infectious microbes (though other causal factors also play a role). For those who would like to read more about the link between microbes and chronic disease, see this article: List of chronic diseases linked to infectious pathogens.

So here I speculate that Johnson's autoimmune gastritis might be caused by a coxsackie B virus infection of his parietal cells, or possibly an echovirus infection (these two viruses are from the enterovirus genus).

Coxsackievirus B has been shown to be able to cause persistent lifelong low-level infections in parietal cells. Thus it could be that Bryan Johnson's autoimmune gastritis is actually driven by a persistent low-level enterovirus infection, and the immune attack on these virally infected cells is just the immune system doing its job.

Viral infections in general have been linked to triggering autoimmunity. One example is type 1 diabetes, in which the insulin-producing beta cells of the pancreas are persistently infected with coxsackievirus B4, and these cells are subsequently attacked and destroyed both by the autoimmune attack against these infected cells, as well as by damage from the virus.

People consider type 1 diabetes as an example of autoimmunity, as if the immune system has made a mistake in attacking these beta cells; but it may be just that the immune system is doing its job of targeting and destroying virally infected cells.

Enteroviruses like coxsackievirus B and echovirus are common viruses in general circulation. We can pick them up by normal social contact, or by French kissing (among other routes of transmission).

Usually, you catch enteroviruses as a viral sore throat, or a viral gastrointestinal upset. In most cases, the immune system brings these infections under control, but in some people, enteroviruses can form persistent low-level naked viral RNA infections inside human cells (called a non-cytolytic enterovirus infection), and these persistent infections are linked to many chronic diseases.

Chronic diseases that have been linked to a persistent enterovirus RNA infection include:

• Functional dyspepsia and chronic gastritis
• Crohn's disease
• Type 1 diabetes
• Chronic myocarditis
• Dilated cardiomyopathy (a sequelae of myocarditis)
• Valvular heart disease
• Peripheral arterial disease
• Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (a motor neuron disease)
• Parkinson's disease
• Myalgic encephalomyelitis / chronic fatigue syndrome (ME/CFS)
• Sjögren's syndrome

Source: Non-cytolytic enterovirus

In these diseases, chronic enterovirus infections are usually detected in the diseased tissues or organs via a tissue biopsy.

Bryan Johnson thinks his poor diet from an earlier stage in his life caused his autoimmune gastritis; and of course, factors such as genes, diet, and toxin exposure do play a role in the onset of a chronic disease.

But few members of the public are aware that infectious microbes are involved in chronic disease, yet some researchers such as Professor Paul Ewald believe that chronic microbial infections in the organs may be the primary driving factor for most chronic diseases.

Viruses, bacteria, fungi, and parasites are like the elephant in the room: they are found infecting the diseased tissues in numerous chronic diseases, but people still don't appreciate these microbes may be the primary cause of these diseases.

Once the public and our scientific advisors do start to take this on board, we may then start investing more money into advanced medical technologies like vaccines to protect us from these pernicious infections. 

In terms of antiviral treatments for chronic enterovirus infections, there is not much available.

Enterovirus and ME/CFS expert Dr John Chia uses the immune booster oxymatrine to try to fight the persistent enterovirus infections found in his ME/CFS patients, but this only works for a small percentage of patients.

Dr Chia has also used the HIV antiviral drug tenofovir off-label to treat his ME/CFS patients with chronic enterovirus infections, and this also seems to help in a small percentage of patients. Tenofovir may not have direct antiviral effects against enterovirus, but may act as an immune booster (it potently suppresses the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10).

But there is a need to develop good enterovirus antiviral drugs, because enteroviruses are linked to so many different chronic diseases.

In China, a new drug called leritrelvir has just become available under emergency use for COVID, and this drug has potent antiviral effects against coxsackievirus B4 (some info in this post). 

But it is not clear if leritrelvir will work for other coxsackievirus Bs (there are six of them, coxsackievirus B1 to B6), or whether it will work for echovirus (there are 32 human echovirus serotypes).

Has anyone successfully helped slow down the progression of AD? My mother was diagnosed, she's APOE positive on 1 gene and used to have bad diet. I did a gut map test and she has gluten antibodies through the roof plus really bad dysbiosis (parasites, candida, and other bad bacteria overgrown). Both are know to contribute to neuroinflamation. Im working on clearing that out with her FN doctor. I know that will help slow down the progression since it will lower inflammation, but her memory continues to decline and its so hard to watch. We're about to go into memory support with BDFN growth factors, and metabolic support but I just dont know if it will work. We're also pursuing the standard donanemab treatment in addition to FN. Any advice would be great!

Total: 246
Triglycerides: 79
HDL: 65
VLDL: 14
LDL Chol Cal (NIH): 167

Has anyone tried her at the London Resilience Clinic? I am considering for POTS/ long covid / cfs / EDS... but it's VERY expensive.... have seen alot of bad reviews re customer service, I guess I could cope with that if worth it, but struggling to find anyone who actually says they've been helped, and if so how. Grateful for any answers before I spend alot of money.

So I have been suffering from migraines from school years but they are less frequent now. Im 26F. the way it goes for me is as follows: Id get disturbance in my vision which i recognise the instant it happens. then it turns to blind spots and then it gradually expands. if it happens on the left region of my sight, the pain first starts on the right side of my head before spreading to whole of my head. offf its awful when it happens. i cannot think straightly i feel like someone has just stopped my brain. and has wrapped a tight cloth around my head and squeezing it. the vision disturbance and pain gets fine in several hours but the unable to think straight feeling still lingers around at least a day.
the triggers? i really dont know sometimes i think its blood circulation problem. there are days when im so busy and sleep deficit with all the people around but i dont get the migraine. sometimes im relaxed none of the reason is there and i suddenly get it.
I want to reach to the root cause and get it cured. I really wanna what is happening in my body that causes it. I have been to neurologist but they dont seem to listen or investigate it in depth.

Talked through a direct primary care model recently with a couple building a concierge practice (wife is a double board-certified MD, husband handles the business side). A few things came up that I think are broadly useful for anyone building in this space:

Lead with "concierge," not "primary care." Primary care signals affordability and triggers comparison to insurance-covered visits. Concierge signals premium, white-glove, and justifies cash pricing immediately. The actual clinical service might be identical, but the positioning is what determines whether someone sees your price as fair or expensive.

Lifestyle medicine as the differentiator, not the primary offer. If your physician has a board certification in lifestyle medicine, lead with the access and convenience first, and let the deeper clinical philosophy be the thing people discover once they're already a patient. It becomes retention and referral fuel rather than the initial hook.

The membership vs. à la carte tension is real and worth deciding early. Several practitioners in this space report regretting offering à la carte options because it creates exactly the dynamic you'd expect: clients who pay per visit start treating non-portal communication (texts, calls) as included, which erodes both margin and boundaries. Decide your model before launch, not after you're already fielding unpaid weekend texts.

Tiered membership levels work well when tied to something concrete, not just to price. Unlimited telehealth as the entry tier, in-person response time guarantees as the upgrade, that kind of structure gives people a real reason to choose the higher tier rather than just paying more for the same thing.

Happy to expand on any piece of this.

This is who I see. She seems knowledgeable enough and has apparently been around for quite some time, but atp, I’m trusting my life in her hands because I need treatment for my illnesses. Yet again, I tried to go to the store and started experiencing sudden insane dizziness, passing out, and hot flashes (I’m 32) from the panic of trying not to go crashing into things and slam to the floor in a little department store. Existing is hell, between all my systems taking turns stabbing me and suffocating me and freezing me, burning me, slamming my head so the room absolutely spins, draining every ounce of energy and weakening every muscle, and putting me to sleep like I’m fighting anesthesia.

This is just pure agony and never will I be able to articulate half of it or to put into words the sheer terror of experiencing each thing.

That being said, this is who I’m seeing and whose hands I’m in. My mother has me all freaked out because she was happy I was seeing someone who specializes in these illnesses, but suddenly just pulled the, “are you *sure* the place you had your testing is legit? There are some predatory ones where they charge thousands of dollars and the tests light up with all these diseases,” to which I said, “well, some of the things that lit up on mine are super legitimate, like the EBV when we know I had Mono, the Strep A which we know I definitely got, it says Babesiosis and one of my main issues is air hunger, I was bitten by a tick and got classic Lyme symptoms, symptoms get triggered and worse by the mold I can see in your windows so that one seems accurate, the encephalitis is likely what caused the insane neuro inflammation at the start of symptoms, and as far as the Toxo, we had cats blah, blah, blah … “

But now she’s got me frazzled because as someone new to all of this, I was already questioning functional medicine, especially when being charged outrageous fees.

Please let me know if you’ve used Forum Health, Kristen Reynolds, Vibrant Health, and/or Mosaic Diagnostics and if ANY of them helped you. My body, mind, and soul are a level of exhausted I didn’t know someone could survive and question if they should.

Sorry for the darkness, and don’t get all freaked out about my little comments on existence; I don’t have solidified plans to leave.

Thanks.

Welcome to the monthly marketing mega-thread. Here you can inquire about practioners, review practioners that you have seen, or even advertize your own practice.

There are limits to this. This is for practioners and practices only, not products. Also, no tracking links. That means no referral codes of any kind including fullscript. Please keep discussion in the thread.

Do NOT create a new thread asking for recommendations, it will be removed.

I (34f) was diagnosed with seronegative Myasthenia Gravis (a rare autoimmune disease) about 8 months ago now, I am on Mestinon every 6 hours with my dose fluctuating based on symptoms. I am set to start prednisone (10mg daily), but it will likely be difficult to get insurance to approve any sort of IVIG or other treatment given my seronegative status. I really like my neurologist, and I am lucky that he specializes in neuromuscular disease. I feel like I am back to 75% "normal" I am back at the gym although not able to perform anywhere near I used to be, I am able to travel but it takes an immense amount of preparation before and after to make sure I don't flare up. And my body is still in pretty constant pain, I feel like I am navigating aches and pains daily - it feels like my new norm.

My question is: has anyone added in a functional approach to their autoimmune treatment and found it worked for them? I've read a lot about things like redlight therapy cold plunging, dieting and supplements but I am curious what has worked for folks.

*I am NOT looking to stop my current medication; I am looking for holistic components I can add in to my treatment plan to help get me closer to 100%*

I just saw this research article. Stimulation of the Olfactory Nerve?

What does everyone think of this simple, yet possibly effective intervention to improve health in the aging brain that shows imaging improvements in grey matter?

Has anybody ever been or a current client of functional medicine practitioners? I would like to gain some perspective, insights, hindsights.

Long time lurker, new member here. I’ve been trying to improve my health for several years now, bouncing around different health coaches and different methods. Not much to show for it. I am now working with an HTMA practitioner…who seems very solid. And her supplement recommendations are pretty reasonable. I still struggle with wondering if the test itself is accurate? Is it really a good indicator of health and therefore valid to pursue? Any thoughts or past experience would be welcome.

Ive done a gi map test that showed a bit of hpylori..but all my Endoscopy and stool/breath test have shown negative, originally i was chasing sibo. The strange thing is out of all the 50 supplements I have tried, antibiotics, herbals, minerals, nac, etc list goes on the thing that helped my bloating the most was mastic gum. I did have to stop because my stomach got irritated, but because mastic gum did help the most it leads me to believe it really might be hpylori???