About William
My journey into functional medicine actually started over 20 years ago when working in wound care and hyperbaric medicine, I just didn’t know it yet. I saw firsthand the devasting effects of chronic disease. Witnessing amputations due to uncontrolled and unchecked chronic disease was a daily occurrence. I knew back then that even though conventional medicine is important and necessary, it wasn't really doing much to stop the devastation of chronic disease. I asked my colleagues if there was a better way but honestly, I was met with dumfounded looks. Back then I hadn't heard of functional medicine, but I decided to look for an alternative. In spite of seeking alternatives to conventional medicine over 20 years ago, I didn’t start my practice of functional medicine until about 4 or 5 years ago.
Initially, I pursued chiropractic medicine as an alternative to conventional medicine after leaving the practice of wound care. This was a paradigm shift that was met by a lot of skepticism by family and friends however, when they witnessed my passion for health and helping others improve their lives they came around and became more accepting. Frankly, after 16 years of chiropractic, I was improving the quality of people’s lives, but I knew in my heart of hearts that I was still not truly helping people live their best life. I knew I still needed to make an additional shift in my paradigm. I knew how to take care of myself, but I didn’t know how to turn that into a way of practicing healthcare and medicine.
In 2018, I began the journey of obtaining my PhD in physiology and human performance. It was during my PhD studies that I encountered many authors and other like-minded professionals focused on optimizing human performance that idea of functional medicine suddenly became clear to me. You see, in conventional medicine, we study pathophysiology, essentially the disordered process that results in the symptoms of disease. In studying human performance, I had an epiphany that what if pathophysiology was really just adaptive physiology. Meaning that human physiology is really a smart process and chronic disease is actually just a reaction to not living a lifestyle congruent with how our physiology is supposed to work.
I was mostly living a somewhat healthy lifestyle but I still suffered from regular fatigue, but I just assumed that was still just natural. Once I started looking at my own life through the lens of adaptive physiology, I took a deeper dive into why my physiology would adapt to being in state of fatigue. I began to uncover hidden sources of inflammation that were affecting my sleep quality. As I made corrections and removed the inflammation, I slept better and my fatigue went away. But that’s not all, my vigor for exercise returned and I'm back to training for triathlons in my 50's and my thinning hair has even started to grow back thick and healthy.
I consider myself a lifelong learner, so I am always trying to learn more and grow more. The biggest learning curve to functional medicine was the shift to understanding the concepts of adaptive physiology and vitalism. Conventional medicine views human physiology as a mechanistic and reductionistic process, the parts don't always equal the whole. However, functional medicine considers that our entire physiology is an interconnected web and that problems in one area are going to create adaptations or compensations in other areas of our body. When we correct the root cause, the entire system functions and works optimally.
I recall treating a chronic pain patient for over a year using all of the conventional medicine approaches, yet nothing was working. As it turned out, the patient stopped drinking sugary, processed soda as part of a challenge at their place of work. After 30 days of being soda free, their chronic pain began to disappear. Something so simple as removing soda that had such a life changing effect really validated for me the paradigm shift I needed to make as a healthcare practitioner to focus on helping patients find the root cause of disease to change lives. As a professional and expert in human performance, functional medicine is human performance optimization at its finest. Every time I help a patient uncover the root cause of their suffering, I'm reminded of my own healing journey into fixing my own burnout and fatigue. When I see the light return to their eyes, when they tell me they finally feel heard and understood, I know this is exactly where I'm meant to be.
About Lily Ann
I began questioning traditional medical approaches after losing my mother to breast cancer in 1994. When my mother was being treated for breast cancer, I noticed how negatively the doctors interacted with her; she lacked the knowledge in what treatment would look like and what to ask. She did not know what to ask for therefore she did not know what options she had. When it came to her treatment, they explained she would get chemotherapy, when to come, and side effects. I was living in NYC at the time and reached out to Memorial Sloan Kettering to obtain information and what questions to ask. When I returned to California and accompanied my mother to the hospital for her treatment, I was able to address her doctors, request alternative options for her treatment, and they complied. She eventually died from the breast cancer.
Years later I began to attend free educational programs I would find in the community that addressed how changes in lifestyle could prevent the progression of illnesses and diseases. As a result of learning about healthy lifestyle changes, I realized I wanted to do more to promote health, and it would be something I would like to integrate into my practice as a professional counselor. I returned to obtain a second Master’s of Science degree in Health Studies. I also received a Certification as a Health Education Specialist and concurrently obtained Health Coach Certification from Institute for Integrative Nutrition.
I became interested in functional medicine in 2016 when I began visiting a functional medicine doctor. I experienced extreme fatigue, weight gain, allergic reactions, and joint pain. I struggled with irritable bowel syndrome for most of my life. Doctors would offer medicinal prescriptions, but I knew there had to be more than being prescribed medication for my symptoms.
My own experience has validated my path into functional health. After completing an elimination diet and re-introducing foods back in, I was able to determine what foods my body was having a negative reaction to. I have become in tune with foods my body does not approve of; I can usually feel a change in my body and specifically in my joints; I feel some pain and think about what I ate and note of it so I do not make the same food choices.
The other area I have struggled with is sleep, I notice when I do not have optimal sleep, choices that I make are not well thought out. I have learned I need to get to bed early and, on the days, I have not had the best sleep, I make sure to remove myself from poor food temptations and not to interact with certain individuals. I realized I needed to make changes in my lifestyle. Many of my symptoms were related to stress, once I began to meditate, do yoga, and learn to relax many of my symptoms went away.
I believe fatigue and burnout for myself, and others are the result of multiple factors, such as their intrapersonal relationship, interpersonal relationships, and lifestyle choices. When it comes to our intrapersonal relationship with ourselves, some individuals grapple with negative self-concept and negative self-talk. When this occurs, individuals may struggle in other areas of their lives: personal and working relationships. When it comes to interpersonal relationships there are communication challenges and an inability to connect with other people. Lastly, I believe poor lifestyle choices are a catalyst in fatigue and burnout. If individuals are not sleeping well, they may not make the best choices in their food selections and lack the energy to exercise, thus gaining weight and it creates a cycle of fatigue, burnout, and for some it may lead to a disease or illness. When individuals make the choice to make healthier choices that impact all areas of their lives, they will have an excellent quality of life.
