Telemedicine Visits for ALL of Oklahoma! Cash Pay Services & Superbills/HSA Insurance
Functional medicine is a different approach to medicine that views the person as a whole entity versus different body parts. We all need each organ working properly to function (heart, brain, liver, kidneys, pancreas, intestines) as a whole, connected system. Functional medicine aims to find the root cause of illness to align your body and mind to work together. I call it the “old school” way of medicine. There are medications that truly save lives, but most medications are not needed for health and wellness.
Functional medicine practitioners focus on lifestyle changes, limiting toxins (and America is full of toxins!), focusing on proper nutrition, maintaining hormone balance, focusing on proper sleep, optimizing labs (I don’t just accept “normal”), and ordering tests that conventional medical providers will not order.
Traditional medicine focuses on symptoms unlike functional medicine that views the body as a whole system. Functional medicine is the holistic medical approach for each person with focus on treating the body, mind, and spirit. You have been to the doctor and know the drill. They spend 7 minutes with you on average (seriously this is the average according to studies), listen to your symptoms, and send a script to the pharmacy to treat the symptom but likely did not try to figure out the root cause of illness. Unfortunately most doctors, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants are stuck in the muck of the American healthcare system and it is not their fault (I did this work as well for many years).
Health insurance companies dictate the amount of pay to healthcare providers and many of them do not pay well. This means your doctor must see many patients per day to keep up with the bills and deal with the pressure of upper management to see more patients. Traditional medicine is wonderful for acute situations such as trauma, motor vehicle accidents, and fractures but this type of medicine is failing those with chronic medical conditions.
I may check for adrenal cortisol levels, genetic mutations, chronic viruses/bacteria, mycotoxins (mold exposure), oxidative stress (cell damage), heavy metals, thyroid labs, detailed cholesterol levels, inflammatory markers, hormone levels, autoimmune disease labs, and stool tests.
For example, Jill, 52 years old, sees me because she is sick and tired of taking all these diabetes medications such as metformin, pioglitazone, and glipizide. Her BMI is 29.0 (overweight), she feels tired all the time, and her recent hemoglobin A1c is 6.9% (too high!) despite taking all of these medications. Her doctor keeps throwing pills at her and has not educated her how to eat properly. She doesn’t know what a carbohydrate means when I ask her. She had a visit with the dietician, but her blood sugars increased after eating the oatmeal and rice the dietician recommended. She is frustrated and looking for answers. I inform Jill that the pioglitazone can cause weight gain and she is surprised by this information. I check her labs (thyroid, vitamin levels, fasting insulin, hormones) and find that her fasting insulin level is elevated indicating insulin resistance (very common in those with diabetes), her thyroid labs are not optimal, and she is experiencing symptoms from menopause. I come up with a nutrition plan for her of time restricted eating, limiting carbohydrates, address the hormone issue, and optimizing her thyroid function. Jane loses 20 pounds over the next few months and feels much better. She is off all her medications but her A1c remains 5.9% (again, too high). She wants to lose more weight, her gut function is better after changing her diet, so I decide to start her on compounded semaglutide to help her lose more weight and decrease the A1c level. She sees me again each month and is happy to lose the weight and stop the diabetes medications. Jill reports she did not realize how bad she was feeling and now reports her moods have improved and the joint pain she was having has improved as well. She also has more energy to exercise since cutting out the processed foods. I start her on bioidentical hormones as she is in full blown menopause and is finally feeling like her true self again. We mutually decide to stop the semaglutide after 9 months since her weight is better with proper nutrition and hormone treatment. Jill’s case seems easy, but it takes a mindset change from Jill and a little bit of frustration to finally want to change, eat properly, and stop the medications.
Initial 90 Minute Virtual Functional Medicine Visit: $400
Initial 90 Minute Home Functional Medicine Visit (Owasso Only): $475
Follow Up 45 minute Virtual Functional Medicine Visit: $190
Functional Medicine Package: One 90 minute virtual visit plus Two 45 minute follow up Visits: $720
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