How Functional Medicine Changed my Life

Although I am a doctor now, my future didn’t always look too bright; more like a dismal dark tunnel spiraling towards death—seriously. A series of health mishaps and medications led me down a dark road, a road with a dead end sign and (what I thought had) no possibility of a u-turn. But through years of education, perseverance, and help from a form of natural healthcare called functional medicine, I am now proud to say that I am the healthiest I’ve been in my entire life. While suffering through health problems as a teenager and young adult wasn’t what I would have asked for, there is always a reason for everything. What I would find out later…you all were the reason. Through the struggle, I have found new hope and inspiration to drive me to help others fulfill their dreams, goals, and purpose.

The day that changed my life

My story started when I was 13. I was a healthy boy (for most standards). I was very active in sports: basketball, baseball, soccer, tennis, and roller hockey filled my evenings and weekends. Then one day everything changed. One evening, before basketball practice, I felt a twinge in my lower back- a sharp pain. I eventually skipped practice, but the pain didn’t go away. Not knowing what else to do, my parents took me to an MD where I was evaluated and prescribed physical therapy and muscle relaxants. So I persisted like any young boy would. I continued to play sports, but I seemed to constantly be a step behind. This may not seem like a big deal, but to a 13 year old boy? Well, it’s just as much mental torture as the pain is physical torture.

With a bear in a cave

Years go by, and at age 15 I started developing headaches; which eventually progressed into migraines. If anyone has had a migraine, they know how debilitating they can be. Like you would rather crawl into a cave with a bear than have to face daylight. When my migraines came on, I would have to lay down in a dark room until they passed, usually for hours. Back to the MD I went, this time leaving with no answers, but with a fresh pad of prescriptions. One med to prevent migraines, another for when the migraines started (in hindsight the fact that I needed meds for onset when I had meds to “prevent” should have been a red flag). Nonetheless, I seemed to manage to get by while juggling medications, but I for sure wasn’t “living” the way I wanted to.

No answers

Age 17, on my birthday, I was getting ready to go out for dinner to celebrate when I started becoming lightheaded. This led into extreme dizziness. I can still remember the room spinning so rapidly that I couldn’t help but vomit. At this point, I started to become worried, as did my parents. As intermittent episodes went on for weeks, we sought out conventional medical doctors again. This time, I had seen multiple different family medicine doctors and neurologists. I had (it seemed) every test under the sun ran on me: CTs, MRIs, electronystagmogram (ENG) (horrible!), x rays, hearing tests, vision exams…everything except a prostate exam! After all the testing, pokes and prods- I received a diagnosis of vertigo. This would require ANOTHER medication to keep in check. At this point, I was beginning to question my doctors, as no one seemed to have an answer for any of my health problems.

Just to make sure you got all this so far…

I’m now 17 and taking: muscle relaxers, migraine prevention medication, migraine onset medication, and now vertigo medication. I was really dreading seeing what that list would look like at 60. Heck, at that rate, what it would look like by 30!

The infamous “It’s all in your head”…a.ka.—they have no idea what it is

The following year, I started having GI symptoms such as gas, bloating, constipation and a fog of depression. Of course, back to the doctor I went. You guessed it, another medication, this time an anti-depressant (add that to the list above). It was all in my head they said. I was too young to have all those symptoms. By my senior year in high school, on a handful of medications and seeing dozens of different doctors, I was frustrated and feeling completely defeated. Although there was the initial reaction to dive into a state of complete apathy and give up, I didn’t. Instead I started looking elsewhere, and my exploration lead to the natural health field.

Deciding what to do with my life

I knew I wanted to help people with my career, but I didn’t know which path to take. The physical therapists seemed to help people, the MDs not so much (from my perspective). The chiropractors seemed to have a great philosophy about the body. This is what changed my perspective on health and life (and began to lure me out of my apathetic state). Like with most natural health methods, the theory is that our bodies are made to be healthy, we just need to get rid of the bad stuff and fill the body with good stuff, and we heal. It sounded simple enough, and I had little hope at the time, so I had an inclination that I wanted to become a chiropractor.

Sometimes we need a little push…or giant shove

After I met my beautiful wife, she strongly encouraged me (pretty much coerced me) to apply and go to chiropractic school. Chiropractic school was intense. I tell people it’s kind of like trying to take a drink of water from a fire hose. It meant long days, little sleep, pressure, AND stress was the norm. I fell back into sickness…hard. Fatigue, brain fog, poor memory, terrible gut pain, and headaches filled my days. I remember one day, I laid in the shower, and it was there that I asked God if I was going to live the rest of my life this way, because I didn’t think I could. I had a  dream of healing and getting better so I could help others with the same problems I had. My prayers were answered later, in the form of something called Functional Medicine.

Functional medicine is different

Functional medicine is a totally different way of thinking about healthcare. Instead of focusing on symptoms and drugs, the focus is on the patient and the body systems, and how they interconnect. Instead of costly surgeries, empty diagnoses and 7 minute visits, functional medicine patients are treated on an individual basis. The time is spent figuring out WHY the body is out of balance. You see, conventional medicine is the medicine of WHAT: What symptoms do you have? What drugs should we give? Functional medicine is the medicine of WHY: Why do you have high blood pressure/ diabetes/ autoimmune thyroid in the first place?

Health conditions aren’t raindrops

There is a cause for every happening in the body: vertigo, migraines, pain, and constipation don’t fall from the sky like raindrops. The body has systems (immune, gastrointestinal, hormonal..etc), and when the systems become imbalanced- health goes away. To bring health back, you have to find and fix the root causes. Functional medicine shines in detective work- doing the work that others won’t do, or don’t have the time to do. Things like chronic infections, stress, and poor dietary choices can drive disease. For instance, my root causes included poor diet (turns out spaghettios don’t really count as clean eating), infections (parasites, bacterial overgrowth in the gut) stress causing hormonal imbalance (chiropractic school), and poor detoxification (genetics).

Being able to see on paper what is causing your health problems is so rewarding. I can’t explain the feeling I had when I finally found out the source of my frustration! I was elated! And to think, so many people go through this life without knowing how to fix their body and regain their health. What’s even better is applying the natural health principles of functional medicine to truly heal the body and get your life back. That is where the magic is.

And now I know

I didn’t know at the time why I was put on a path of poor health, and in reality probably an uninvited trip to an early grave, but now it is 100% clear. I have become a better friend, husband, and doctor now that I am healthy. I truly believe that we are made to be healthy. That’s why I do what I do. I’m here to help people put their health back in their hands because I know what it’s like to feel you have no control and no options regarding your health.
Be well.