The Sound Integrative Process

Many of our patients have difficult to treat conditions. They seek our care because we are willing to investigate the body on a deep level. Our approach as a holistic medicine provider is to restore the balance to core physiologic processes and also to unseat factors that are blocking the restoration of health .

I would like to share my core process of investigation with you so you know a little about how my mind thinks.

A highly important and foundational starting point with our patients is to explore:

1. Imbalances in nutrition including toxin burden from the diet.

2. Imbalances in stress tolerance and sleep quality.

3. Imbalances in exercise and movement.

A lot of illness is reversed in addressing just these aforementioned areas. But to many peoples credit; its not that straightforward.

Often in chronic illness; we are forced to dig much deeper including exploring:

1. Gut Health: which is important for assimilation of nutrients and neurotransmitters. As well as it can be a big source of inflammation in the body.

2. Hormone Health: an imbalanced endocrine system can be a source of unregulated inflammation, slowed metabolism, and disrupted brain and mental health function.

Deeper exploration of imbalances might include:

1. Toxins: such as heavy metals, mycotoxins, and environmental toxins. When burdened with toxin overload the body is exposed to excess inflammation and also mitochondrial function can be hindered.

2. Chronic Infections: Many people are burdened with stealth chronic infections that go undetected by are a major source of inflammation and can also be effecting mitochondrial function. Infections like Epstein Barr Virus and Lyme

Disease sometimes require screening and treatment as part of many chronic illness patterns.

The last tier of exploration gets deep into the cellular regions of the body including:

1. Mitochondria: if mitochondria are faulty or dis-functioning that is usually a very advanced stage of a disease process and often we have to direct nutritional and lifestyle interventions at repairing and restoring mitochondrial function

2. Genetics: if an individuals genetic risk shows a single nucleotide polymporphism (snp) that may be expressing in a way to contribute disease; we may screen for this and intervene nutritionally to help optimize the genetic deficiencies.

For most patients they never will need to go into deeper tiers of exploration of function. It is important to follow the process and not jump into advanced investigation without addressing the foundation. It is deeply rewarding to find and unseat imbalances and work with your body to restore health.

This model is revised each year or two as I learn more about underlying processes. I have had many influences over the years that helped develop this process including Dr. Joseph Pizzorno, Dr. Robert Martinez, Dr. Jeffrey Bland, Dr. Leo Galland, Dr. Walter Crinnion of blessed memory,Dr. John Hibbs, Dr. Paul Anderson, Dr. Eric Jones, Dr. Neal Nathan, Dr. Jane Guiltinan, and Dr. Alex Vasquez. I am grateful for them and many other colleagues for helping me understand the ways to assess and address these imbalances. For most patients they never will need to go into deeper tiers of exploration of function. It is important to follow the process and not jump into advanced investigation without addressing the foundation.