What is Integrative Medicine?

• Certified Practitioner, The Institute for Functional Medicine
• Integrative Medicine Fellowship Graduate, Academy of Integrative Health & Medicine
• Fully Licensed Physician
• On time Appointments
• A Caring, Patient Centered Environment
• Holistic Based Care

Typical Western medicine offers us advanced technological and evidence based approaches to saving lives from acute illness through pharmacotherapy, procedures and surgeries. Eastern medicine tends to focus on gentle and noninvasive approaches to healing while also encouraging patient participation and empowerment. Integrative medicine offers the best of both of these worlds while embracing both technology and healing. This involves a model of comprehensive care and primary prevention grounded in both the “science” and the “art” of medicine.

Integrative medicine, also sometimes known as Functional medicine, attempts to combine not only the body/mind/spirit into one but also the idea that multiple symptoms are probably the result of one or two issues. The goal is to find the underlying cause of your symptoms vs. managing or suppressing symptoms based on protocol for a diagnosis. This means diving deep to find the triggers and mediators causing you to feel poorly rather than just forming a differential diagnosis to explain those symptoms – “Root-Cause Medicine”. The naming of a problem does little to fix the condition at its core.  It may help you select a drug or procedure that is the ‘standard of care’’; however, there is no such thing as a standard patient. So, we avoid this strategy that has been called the “Name it, blame it; Treat it, Street it” approach.

Utilizing longer one-on-one visits as well as advanced biochemical testing (technology) of blood, urine, and/or stool when indicated, we start with a much more panoramic view of one’s health. Understanding the underlying cause(s) empowers you to have the opportunity to change and facilitate your innate healing capacity. This will lead you to true wellness with an individually tailored therapeutic program that’s specific to your health needs. This includes the use of all elements available to optimize healing—whether it be herbs, medications, diet, nutrients, exercise, manual manipulative medicine (also known as Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment or OMT), detox programs, meditation, or lifestyle changes.

Integrative medicine does not preclude the use of medications, however by addressing the underlying condition, the goal is that medications won’t be needed. Most medications simply mask or suppress the symptom, rather than treating its cause. Understanding the role of diet, lifestyle changes, environmental exposures and nutrients into the development of chronic disease will lead to the chance to improve those factors and lead to a better outcome. Covering up symptoms with medications tends to create further problems and never addresses the underlying illness.

What will we focus on?

Chronic illness generally involves issues in one or more body systems such as endocrine imbalances, immune/gut dysfunction, sleep dysfunction, nutritional imbalance, toxicity, or lack of exercise. The role of Integrative Medicine is to use a systems-based approach to identify which of those issues are contributing to the chronic illness and determine the best way to treat them.

In order to help identify imbalances to your health, we will use various types of clinical testing. Tests may be run on blood, urine, or stool. Your clinical action plan (nutritional supplementation, lifestyle changes, detoxification, further workup if needed) will then be formed based on those results and your presenting signs and symptoms.

Testing offered includes the following:

• Nutritional imbalances (fatty acids, organic acids, amino acids, vitamin levels, cholesterol)
• Gut/digestive health or imbalances
• Hormone levels
• Food sensitivities
• Environmental stressors/oxidative stress
• Heavy metal toxicity
• Detoxification capacity
• Mitochondrial function,
• Neurotransmitter levels
• Adrenal stress

Conditions most often treated:

• Hormone imbalances (peri-menopause, irregular menstruation cycles, low testosterone, PCOS, etc.)
• Autoimmune conditions (Lupus, Sjogren’s Syndrome, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Inflammatory Bowel Diseases such as UC or Crohn’s, Psoriatic Arthritis)
• Allergies and skin conditions (atopic dermatitis or Psoriasis)
• Irritable Bowel Syndrome/chronic constipation or diarrhea
• Metabolic concerns (such as heart disease, hypertension and pre-hypertension, high cholesterol, diabetes and pre-diabetes as well as obesity)
• Pain – low back or abdominal pain
• Fibromyalgia, diffuse muscle pain
• Depression or anxiety
• Fatigue
• General and chronic malaise
• Many other chronic medical conditions

Integrative Wellness Program and Fee Structure

At Nashville Osteopathic and Integrative medicine, we utilize a 6-visit program which is designed to help you achieve sustainable result over a realistic timeline. Each visit will focus heavily on patient education in order to help empower you to take control of your own health and be equipped to make informed future healthcare decisions.

The 6-visit Integrative Wellness Program follows this timeline:

Day 1-Initial Visit – This is a stand-alone visit and does not compel you to have to sign up for the 6-visit Integrative Wellness Program.  This is a visit for us to get a feel for one another to see if we can form a collaborative partnership to work toward and meet your health goals.

The initial intake will include prior review of previous 1 year of labs and testing in preparation for our appointment (where indicated, will need to be emailed) and comprehensive history & physical exam during the visit.  This encounter will include suggested initial lifestyle modifications (90 minutes, $250*).  

~ 4 Weeks Later – Functional and Conventional Testing Results and Plan of Action (60 minute visits)

Subsequent 4 (four) check-in visits – Discuss progress and any modifications to plan of action (60 minutes, ~4 weeks between visits)

Total plan fee (6 visits, 6.5 hours) : $1,875* (inclusive of initial visit fee)

The Integrative Wellness Program is eligible for reimbursement through your Flexible and Healthcare Spending Accounts (FSA & HSA).

Plan benefits include:

1. Unlimited written communication support with physician
2. 15% discount on supplements purchased via Nashville Osteopathic and Integrative Medicine
3. $40 discount on 1 hour Osteopathic Manipulative Medicine (OMM) appointments and $20 discount on 1/2 hour OMM appointments.
4. One free Resting Metabolic Rate (RMR) test + discounted rate for Active Metabolic testing and subsequent RMR tests.

Lab testing costs are in addition to the fees of Integrative Wellness program.  Some labs may be covered by insurance,  however all will be available at discounted provider pricing.

In order to keep price for services low, personal checks and Venmo/PayPal/Cash Apps are preferred methods of payments.  Credit cards are still accepted however will have an associated convenience charge.

*This fee represents discounted cash price

Now offering 6-month, interest-free, financing plans via CareCredit!!^