Find Your Unique Path to Health
At Elevate Health, your functional medicine provider will take a very in-depth, comprehensive approach to finding the root causes of chronic conditions.
Appointments Are a Conversation
This involves detailed history-taking and cutting-edge diagnostics to evaluate how your environment, lifestyle, personal beliefs, psychosocial experiences and genetics impact your health.
They will have a nuanced perspective when looking at various screening tests to detect any early signs of potential health problems.
More Tools for Healing
Functional medicine providers use diet, physical activity, nutritional and botanical supplements, hormone therapy, medications, and other lifestyle changes as well as referrals to other healing modalities –counseling, physical therapy, acupuncture, massage, hypnosis and meditation.
They work with you not only to reverse any disease processes but also to optimize your unique expression of health.
7 Principles of Functional Medicine
Functional Medicine is shaped by seven core principles:
- Acknowledging the biochemical individuality of each human being, based on concepts of genetic and environmental uniqueness.
- Incorporating a patient-centered rather than a disease-centered approach to treatment.
- Seeking a dynamic balance among the internal and external factors in a patient’s body, mind and spirit.
- Addressing the web-like interconnections of internal physiological factors.
- Identifying health as a positive vitality – not merely the absence of disease – and emphasizing those factors that encourage a vigorous physiology.
- Promoting organ reserve as a means of enhancing the health span, not just the life span, of each patient.
- Functional Medicine is a science-using profession.
Provider:
Fees info: Fees, Insurance and Forms
Learn more about primary care services at Elevate Health.
Learn more about nutrition counseling and health coaching services included in your membership.
Functional Medicine FAQ
Improvement in symptoms is unique to the individual. Many factors influence your course of recovery including how long you’ve been unwell, other supportive measures you’ve been doing until now, your genetics, and your capacity to adopt a variety of therapies and interventions that may be recommended.
This of course will be very specific based on a person’s health issues. Some patients at Elevate Health feel well and come in to see us once a year to make sure they are still on track for continued good health. Other patients have significant illness and are severely symptomatic. They may need to see us every 2-4 weeks, at least initially, until their symptoms are under better control. And the majority of patients are somewhere in between. We generally like to book two initial visits about one month apart. After that, we’ll have a better sense of what your appointment frequency will look like.
There are a variety of diagnostic tests we can utilize to get a clearer picture of what is going on with you. However, often we can get a pretty good idea of factors that need to be addressed from your history and physical exam.
Sometimes doing a trial on an intervention - be it a dietary change, nutritional supplement, exercise, medication or other - is the best diagnostic tool. Some people love data and have the resources to collect it regardless of insurance coverage. Others prefer to experience their body’s response to interventions as the path to diagnosis. And some may not have the resources to do a lot of out-of-pocket testing.
Many tests are often covered by insurance. Though we use standard tests done in Western medicine, we take a more nuanced approach in interpreting results by using a “functional range” rather than a lab’s standard “reference range.” And there are tests that are either not covered by insurance or paid for up-front before submittal to your insurance for reimbursement.
Together, we’ll go over in detail all the diagnostics that we think are applicable in your case. And then we can decide together which ones to prioritize, considering your preferences and financial resources.
Tests may look at status of:
- Vitamins, minerals, fatty acids and amino acids.
- Advanced lipid panels.
- Inflammation markers.
- Detoxification and oxidative stress.
- Endocrine markers including pituitary, adrenal, thyroid, pancreatic, and sex hormones.
- Antibody screens for autoimmune processes.
- Stool tests to evaluate gut microbiome health.
- Presence of parasites, fungi, viruses and bacteria.
- Blood, hair, urine and stool for environmental toxins.
- Breath tests for H pylori and small intestine bacterial overgrowth.
At Elevate Health we integrate the functional medicine approach into all of our care.
When we address primary care preventive health issues such as cardiovascular health or cancer prevention, we utilize validated screening tools along with counseling of lifestyle factors, and supplements and medications used proactively to prevent disease.
For example, consideration and mitigation of one’s environmental toxicities can reduce risk of cancers, heart attacks, and dementia.
When we see you for an acute health issue such as a bladder infection, asthma exacerbation or sports injury, we utilize a large tool kit of conventional therapies (e.g. antibiotics, inhalers or pain medications) as well as natural medicine therapies (e.g. herbals, gut health restoration, acupuncture, and massage.)
We think that finding ˜and eating!˜ your optimal diet at this time in your life is a cornerstone of your journey to more vibrant health.
That’s why we have a nutritionist and health coach on staff, and have included her services in your membership. She will not only help you to identify foods and activities that will have you feeling your best, but will help you to identify and overcome the obstacles that keep you from them.
Take it up a notch with your primary care membership.
Go holistic with our Elevate Health membership plan, which includes primary care, functional medicine and nutrition coaching.
CONTACT US
2230 NW Pettygrove St #110
Portland OR 97210
(503) 227-0350 tel
(503) 227-0745 fax
info@elevatehealthpdx.com