FAQs

Functional Medicine FAQ’s

What is functional medicine?

Functional medicine is an approach to health that considers lifestyle, environmental exposures, and genetic factors to evaluate and treat the whole person. This approach helps with disease prevention and treatment. Dr. Rowley is a highly-skilled, functional medicine doctor and board-certified family medicine physician. She and her team:

Address the root causes of your symptoms with specific nutritional ad lifestyle recommendations
Order and interpret advanced and conventional lab tests when needed
Prescribe supplements
Prescribe medications only if you need them

Family Medicine physicians, like Dr. Rowley, complete at least 7 years of medical training before functional medicine training, so you can trust the KALE Functional Medicine team with your care.

Who can benefit from functional medicine?

Everybody can benefit from functional medicine! If you’re well, a functional medicine approach can help with the optimization of your health and disease prevention. If you’re not well, then a functional medicine doctor can help restore your health. Common health problems functional medicine can effectively address include:

Autoimmune disease
Gut health (including leaky gut, gut dysbiosis, GERD, and more)
Asthma and allergies
Eczema
Thyroid problems
Hormone imbalance
Chronic fatigue, and many more

Rather than treating a disease, Functional Medicine re-creates health. A disease is named based on a set of symptoms and Functional Medicine doctors focus on identifying and correcting the cause of those symptoms. The KALE Functional Medicine team offers a consultation and health assessment to assess triggers that contribute to undesirable symptoms.

What happens during my appointment?

Before appointments at KALE Functional Medicine, patients fill out a Root Cause Analysis form to dive deep into your medical history and establish a starting point for your medical evaluation. This form reviews your family and personal medical history, symptoms, past diagnoses, toxic exposures, major life events, current lifestyle, supplements and medications. This is essential to effective treatment and helps prevent you from forgetting to tell the doctor something you wanted her to know. During the appointment, the doctor will give insights into how you arrived at your current state of health.

Dr. Rowley also completes a comprehensive physical exam during the first visit. She may recommend urine tests, blood tests, or other diagnostic tests as needed. She will never recommend costly tests that she does not think you need. Finally, you will get a customized treatment plan including recommendations for your diet and nutrition, exercise, stress-management, supplements, necessary detox protocols and more.

Which functional medicine treatment is for me?

Your personalized functional medicine treatment depends on your lifestyle, genetics, medical history, results from lab tests, levels of inflammation, food sensitivities, and chronic disease risk factors. Your functional medicine specialist might recommend:

Personalized therapeutic diets
Exercise and movement
Supplements
Stress-relieving strategies
Detox protocols
Bioidentical hormone therapy
Tips for improved sleep
Spiritual or mind-body techniques
Medications only when necessary

After treatment, your provider follows up with you in-person or via telemedicine, depending on your preference. They repeat diagnostic tests when necessary, discuss your symptoms and any challenges to implementing your program, and make sure your treatment is effective.

Dr. Rowley adjusts your treatment plan whenever necessary. If you need conventional medication to get your illness controlled, she can prescribe medication or can refer you to highly qualified specialists when needed.

Don’t let disease diminish your quality of life when effective, holistic treatments are available at KALE Functional Medicine. Schedule a consultation over the phone by speaking with a friendly team member today to request an appointment.

Gut Health FAQ’s

Why is gut health important?

Your gut, another word for intestines, is arguably the most important organ in your body. It affects just about everything! It houses two-thirds of your immune system and the majority of your body’s neurotransmitters. Neurotransmitters send various types of signals throughout your body like pain signals, signals for movement, thought, and emotion. Your gut also contains tiny microorganisms together known as your microbiome that maintain the balance of good and bad bacteria. When this balance is off, or you are exposed to foods you are intolerant to, you might experience unpleasant symptoms at first. This can lead to leaky gut which means the lining of your gut stops working the way it should and lets things pass through that can harm you. Over time this causes inflammation to increase and if uncorrected may lead to chronic illnesses like autoimmune disease, Alzheimers, or Crohn’s Disease for example. Treatment at KALE Functional Medicine can help prevent or reverse this process.

What are the symptoms of poor gut health?

Common symptoms associated with gut health problems include:

Weight gain or weight loss
Heartburn and acid reflux
Brain fog or depression
Diarrhea or constipation
Bloating and excessive gas
Blood in your stools
Low energy and fatigue
Vomiting or nausea
Abdominal pain

What are the top causes of gut problems?

Your gut’s job is to allow in nutrients and keep everything else out, especially things that can harm you. Poor dietary choices, stress, infection, exposure to toxins and medications and so many other factors contribute to damaging your gut over time. After repeated trauma, the gut lining can become compromised and allow too many harmful things into your body. This is known as leaky gut and this is one of the biggest contributors to gut problems. In addition to leaky gut, an imbalanced microbiome causes poor gut health. The microbiome, is made up of microscopic organisms like bacteria, yeast, and viruses that lives along the wall of your gut. Certain bacteria are associated with good health, lower weight, and more energy. Others are associated with weight retention, fatigue, food cravings, gas, bloating, and other unpleasant symptoms. An overgrowth of these types of bacteria cause symptoms that if not controlled eventually lead to chronic disease.

How are digestive problems diagnosed?

To diagnose gut health problems and their root causes, your KALE Functional Medicine provider has you complete a health history evaluation called a Root Cause Analysis. They review your medical history and symptoms, lifestyle, diet, stress-relief, complete a physical exam, and may order tests such as antibody tests for food sensitivities, comprehensive stool analysis, organic acids blood test, candida immune activity test and many more.

How is gut health restored?

To optimize gut health your KALE Functional Medicine specialist might recommend:

FOODS

Depending on your unique needs, your Functional Medicine doctor may recommend including or excluding certain foods to restore your gut microbiome. In some cases it makes sense to do an elimination diet for a few weeks to help reset your gut then slowly reintroduce foods to identify food sensitivities. Alternatively, blood testing can be done to reveal what foods you are sensitive to without the elimination diet. When your doctor helps narrow down what foods are best for your unique gut, then an entire meal plan can be prescribed with recipes and shopping lists to support you with implementing the changes.

LIFESTYLE CHANGES

Making lifestyle changes helps reduce many gastrointestinal problems. Your Functional Medicine specialist might suggest regular exercise, adjustments to your sleep regimen, dietary supplements (such as fiber, probiotics, or prebiotics), or stress management such as mind-body or spiritual practices. Your brain and you gut are connected through nerve pathways that run between the two, sharing information back and forth. This means that when you brain is calm and happy, usually your gut is too, and vice versa.

SUPPLEMENTS

Supplements can help build and protect your gut lining. Dr. Rowley will prescribe medical-grade supplements as necessary which will be shipped to you directed. You control whether you have your shipments automated or log into the portal to reorder and receive a discount off store-front prices.

MEDICATIONS

In some cases, medication is necessary. Dr. Rowley is a board-certified Family Medicine doctor who can prescribe or maintain medications as needed. However, the goal will be to wean you off unnecessary medications or prevent you from having to take them as you optimize your health.

SURGICAL PROCEDURES

At times, surgical procedures are necessary for certain conditions. If a surgical procedure is right for you, your KALE Functional Medicine provider would refer you to a highly qualified specialist. Functional Medicine recommendations can help strengthen your gut health in preparation for the surgery and help support your recovery.

Stop the vicious cycle of poor gut health causing increased inflammation and poor brain function which eventually leads to chronic disease. Call today to schedule an appointment with the experts at KALE Functional Medicine for an evaluation.

Autoimmune Disease FAQ’s

What are autoimmune diseases?

The job of your immune system is to survey your body for molecules that are not supposed to be there. With a healthy immune system, after these invasive molecules sneak into your body your immune system neutralizes them, usually before you even have symptoms. Triggering molecules your food can either be part of the food such as gluten or sugar, or chemicals in the food that your body can’t recognize like dyes and preservatives. They can be microbes. Microbes such as bacteria, viruses and yeasts cover all surfaces. You breathe these microbes, eat these microbes, have them on your skin, and on every surface around you. The immune system constantly surveys to determine if the molecules and microbes are friends or foes. When they find a foe, they wage an attack then repair any damage. When this process starts to attack your own cells instead of attacking enemies or has a response that is disorganized or too strong for the insult, this is an autoimmune disorder. Common autoimmune diseases include:

Thyroid disorders
Lupus
Psoriasis
Rheumatoid arthritis
Eczema
Inflammatory bowel disease, and many more

The KALE Functional Medicine team confirms evaluates your symptoms and develops a customized treatment plan considering your diet, lifestyle, genetics and toxic exposures to uncover the root cause and help you get healthy again.

What are the symptoms of autoimmune diseases?

Symptoms of an autoimmune disease vary, depending on the condition. Signs and symptoms can range in severity from mild to severe and might include:

Low-grade fever
Chronic fatigue
Muscle aches
Joint pain, stiffness or swelling
Digestive issues
Abdominal pain
Swollen glands

You might experience flare-ups or worsening symptoms cycled with remission when symptoms appear to get better. Your functional medicine specialist personalizes your autoimmune disease treatments to offer you lasting relief.

What are the risk factors for autoimmune diseases?

Anyone can develop autoimmune diseases as their cause isn’t entirely clear. However, certain factors can increase your risk, such as:

Diet high in processed foods
Sedentary lifestyle
Excess weight and obesity
Genetics
Family history of autoimmune diseases
Reactions to some medications
Smoking
Other unhealthy lifestyle habits

How are autoimmune diseases treated?

Substantive changes in diet and lifestyle (how you live, work, sleep, play and move) and supplements can help control autoimmune symptoms tremendously. In many cases symptoms can be stopped altogether. At KALE Functional Medicine you will complete a Root Cause Analysis (provided online) which the physician will review to help determine what is causing your immune system disfunction. When you come to the office, the physician will listen to your history and glean any more information that can help understand your particular state of health. Diagnostic tests such as blood tests, saliva tests or send-out stool tests may also be ordered if needed. After reviewing all your information and results, the functional medicine doctor will give you a Functional Medicine Prescription which might include:

Nutrition counseling
Dietary supplements
Stress relieving strategies
Regular exercise
Medications when needed

Your provider monitors you regularly to make sure your treatment is effective. They can alter your treatment plan as needed to give you the best outcome and maximize your quality of life. You might even be able to slowly reduce or eliminate medications with lifestyle changes over time.

To understand the cause and establish the right treatment for your autoimmune disease, schedule an appointment with the experts at KALE Functional Medicine by phone today.

Thyroid Disorder FAQ’s

What are the risk factors for thyroid disorders?

Anybody can develop a thyroid disorder, but certain factors increase your risk of getting one. Examples include genetics and environmental factors that affect your gene expression, toxins, poor nutrition from processed nutrient-poor foods, infections, chronic stress and sleep deprivation. Being a woman also increases the risk.

What are the symptoms of thyroid disorders?

Symptoms of an autoimmune disease vary, depending on the condition. Signs and symptoms can range in severity from mild to severe and might include:

Enlarged thyroid gland
Lumps on the thyroid gland
Cold sensitivity (hypothyroidism) or heat sensitivity (hyperthyroidism)
Constipation (hypothyroidism) or diarrhea (hyperthyroidism)
Excessive unexplained weight gain (hypothyroidism) or weight loss (hyperthyroidism)
Excessively dry skin and thinning hair (not associated with male-pattern baldness)
Irregular periods in women

How are thyroid disorders diagnosed?

Thyroid disorders are determined by blood tests which measure your thyroid hormone levels and for some patients also blood tests to look for antibodies against thyroid hormone. To help uncover the root cause of your thyroid disorder, your KALE Functional Medicine specialist reviews your symptoms and your medical history, then develops a personalized treatment plan.

How are thyroid disorders treated?

Your customized thyroid disorder treatment depends on your specific condition and its severity. Your Functional Medicine MD might recommend:

Diet and other lifestyle changes
Stress reduction
Addressing toxic exposures
Dietary supplements
Conventional therapies such as medications, radioiodine therapy and thyroid surgery when needed

If you exhibit symptoms of thyroid disorder, call KALE Functional Medicine to make an appointment today.

You don’t have to suffer through conventional treatment of thyroid disorder which involved taking medication at increasingly higher doses which cause greater side effects. Treatment at KALE Functional Medicine offers holistic solutions which can decrease or possibly even stop your need for medications and help you thrive again. Schedule an appointment by phone and speak with a friendly team member today.

Genetics
Immune system
Adrenal Health
Nutrition
Toxicity
Women’s health
Pediatric and adolescent care
Food sensitivities
Gluten
Hormones
Optimal health and wellness

Insurance FAQ’s

Do you take insurance?

At our clinic, we are dedicated to providing you with comprehensive, personalized care that goes beyond the constraints of conventional medical practices. To ensure that we can offer this high level of care, please note that we do not accept insurance. This decision helps us focus more on your health needs without the limitations often imposed by insurance plans.

However, you can use Health Savings Accounts (HSA) or Flexible Spending Accounts (FSA) for purchasing supplements. Additionally, while we do not directly deal with insurance companies, we can provide you with the necessary documentation for labs conducted through CPL, Quest, and Lab Corp, which you can submit to your insurance for potential reimbursement on your own behalf.

This approach allows us to dedicate our efforts fully to your health and wellness, unimpeded by the restrictions of traditional insurance coverage. Thank you for understanding and supporting this aspect of our care delivery model.