Cultivating the Optimal Conditions for Health and Well-Being. |
Integrative-Functional Medicine of Reno
Sherri Aikin MSN, FNP-BC, IFMCP
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For almost three decades as a healthcare professional, Sherri Aikin, MSN, FNP-BC, IFMCP, a Fellow of Integrative Medicine (University of Arizona, Tucson), Certified with the Institute of Functional Medicine (ifm.org), Certified Fellow of Integrative Psychiatry (pyschiatryinstitute.com(IPI)), enrolled candidate of Psychedelic-Assisted Therapy Training (IPI) and Board Certified Nurse Practitioner has developed and acquired a broad range of differentiated skills and experience in treating patients with expertise and compassion.
Sherri has extensive traditional sciences background and training in family practice, gynecology and gastroenterology. Combined with her additional comprehensive resume of educational training and experience in the fields of Integrative and Functional Medicine, Sexology, and Mindfulness, it gives her a breadth and depth of patient-care capabilities unique in the Reno-Tahoe area. Sherri has helped thousands of patients find the power to create and sustain their own health and sees health as a multidimensional and interconnected system. She relies on a whole-systems approach and brings her knowledge and passion for Functional Medicine to patients ready to embrace an integrated balance of mind-body-spirit. |
“Every human being is the author of his own health or disease.”
- Buddha
What is Functional Medicine?
Functional Medicine practitioners, like Sherri, promote wellness and well-being by focusing on the fundamental underlying factors that influence every patient’s experience of health and disease. The role of Functional Medicine is far more “root cause” oriented than traditional conventional medical approaches.
A Functional Medicine patient’s status is assessed relative to lifestyle factors and fundamental clinical imbalances through careful history taking, physical examination, and laboratory testing and diagnostics. Sherri consider’s multiple factors including:
A Functional Medicine patient’s status is assessed relative to lifestyle factors and fundamental clinical imbalances through careful history taking, physical examination, and laboratory testing and diagnostics. Sherri consider’s multiple factors including:
Environmental Inputs The air you breathe and the water you drink, the particular diet you eat, the quality of the food available to you, your level of physical activity, and the toxic exposures or traumas you have experienced all affect your health. |
MInd-Body Connections Psychological, spiritual, and social factors all can have a profound influence on your health. Considering these areas helps the Functional Medicine practitioner see your health in the context of you as a whole person, not just your physical symptoms. |
Genetic Makeup Although individual genes may make you more susceptible to some diseases, your DNA is not an unchanging blueprint of your life. Emerging research shows that your genes may be influenced by everything in your environment, as well as your experiences, attitudes, and beliefs. This means it is possible to change the way genes are activated and expressed. |
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Through assessment of these underlying causes and triggers of dysfunction, the Functional Medicine practitioner is able to understand how key processes are affected. These are the body’s processes that keep you alive. Some occur at the cellular level and involve how cells function, repair, and maintain themselves.
These processes are related to larger functions, such as:
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All of these processes are influenced by environmental factors and your genetic makeup; when they are disturbed or imbalanced, they lead to symptoms, which can lead to disease if effective interventions are not applied.
Equally tending to the mind-body-spirit triad promotes vitality. Functional Medicine of Nevada is an ideal choice for anyone who’s had limited success with conventional (or ”Western”) medicine. Intuitively, you already understand that being genuinely healthy comes from balancing mind-body-spirit.
Equally tending to the mind-body-spirit triad promotes vitality. Functional Medicine of Nevada is an ideal choice for anyone who’s had limited success with conventional (or ”Western”) medicine. Intuitively, you already understand that being genuinely healthy comes from balancing mind-body-spirit.
Why do we need Functional Medicine?
A Comprehensive Approach to Treatment
Most imbalances in functionality can be addressed; some can be completely restored to optimum function, and others can be substantially improved.
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Prevention is Paramount
Virtually every complex, chronic disease is preceded by long-term disturbances in functionality that can be identified and effectively managed.
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Changing How the Systems Function Can Have a Major Impact on the Patient’s Health
Sherri examines a wide array of available interventions and customizes a treatment plan including those with the most impact on underlying functionality.
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Functional Medicine Expands the Clinician’s Toolkit
Treatments may include combinations of drugs, botanical medicines, nutritional supplements, therapeutic diets, or detoxification programs. They may also include counseling on lifestyle, exercise, or stress-management techniques.
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The Patient Becomes a Partner
As a patient, you become an active partner with Sherri. Such a partnership allows you to be in charge of improving your own health and changing the outcome of disease.
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Begin Your Healing Journey: The Living Matrix
A sophisticated and comprehensive diagnostic tool utilizing a detailed and broad-based questionnaire to gather your health history, which will input this information into an encrypted, secure and fully HIPAA-compliant program.
Sherri will show you how health is designed to work as an integrated system that involves the environment, genetics, and your comprehensive life history. The beauty of the Living Matrix is that it illuminates the body’s imbalances and guides the resetting of your native biologic system through treatment mapping and treatment plans. Begin this healing journey with The Living Matrix.
Sherri will show you how health is designed to work as an integrated system that involves the environment, genetics, and your comprehensive life history. The beauty of the Living Matrix is that it illuminates the body’s imbalances and guides the resetting of your native biologic system through treatment mapping and treatment plans. Begin this healing journey with The Living Matrix.
Be Seen. Be Heard. Be a Team.
“To be seen and heard, we heal.”
Sherri knows you have many choices when it comes to committing to a health practitioner. She also would guess that you have tried different healing methods (some worked, some not so much so), read a lot from the internet and books, and you probably talk to your friends and family about what to do. She gets it! Know that establishing and nurturing a collaborative relationship, a team, for healing is fundamental in Integrative-Functional Medicine, as well as being fully seen and fully heard, receiving trusted guidance, and restoring your intuition about your body and your heart. You wish to be fully seen and understood.