Anxiety-Depression

A reservoir of biochemistry is embedded within our nervous system, which has been amazingly designed to keep us alert, motivated, and balanced mentally. Assessing our biological birthright through proper nutrition, exercise, meditation, and many other methods, is part of the approach in Integrative-Functional Medicine. But even more importantly, your own intention and follow-through to break unhealthy habits, stop unnecessary medications, and empower your own biochemistry is paramount in restoring your mental health.
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Understanding that our emotions are a vital part of our health and feeling them is necessary as our evolutionary roots gave us this navigation system, called emotions, which historically were necessary for survival. But emotions also help us to bond and relate to one another through cooperation and connection. Our culture has fostered an unhealthy belief about emotions suggesting that when we feel anything other than “happy,” something is “wrong” with us. At times, emotions can be very overwhelming that we are flooded to a degree we loose our center. When we have the lack of coping skills to manage these emotions, reaching toward a medication seems like the only thing to do. However, this type of “fix-it” mentality may actually suppress some very important messaging that your body is alerting you toward.

While at least 13% of the population in America take antidepressants, pharmaceutical treatments such as SSRIs and other systemic medications are expensive and rarely provide the most effective option or the ultimate healing you’re seeking. For a small number of patients, SSRI’s may provide the support necessary for their biochemistry, but for most it’s about “hacking the code” to understanding and addressing the biochemical processes that fuel mental health toward optimal functioning. If you are ready to empower your mental health from within with your inner healer, then Integrative-Functional Medicine is the path for you.

Insomnia

The chances are if you are reading this, you are tired of being tired.  You’ve probably tried the over-the-counter (OTC) remedies and possibly have taken or are taking prescription medications.  It is estimated that 40% of Americans do not get the recommended 7-8 hours of sleep per night. Up to 20% use some sort of sleep aid to help them sleep and over 10 million people are using prescription medications for sleep. The problem with this is that the quality of sleep is not delivered by these medications, despite users possibly sleeping through the night. While sleeping, a dynamic nervous system “orchestra” is at play to help clean-up toxins, restore the nervous system and integrate memory circuitry. You can’t make up lost sleep on weekends and continuing to take medications only compounds the problem.  
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​There are a myriad of reasons you don’t sleep at night that may make sense sometimes, but you may also not understand why even when the conditions seem “perfect,” you’re still not sleeping.  Integrative-Functional Medicine is about root cause healing. Whether it is microbiome issues, hormone depletion, immune dysfunction, or other causes, inherent within the vision of IFM, is knowing root causes of symptomatic health issues so optimal well-being is restored.  Break the cycle of feeling sleep deprived and learn the root cause of your insomnia.