What is Functional Medicine

A Big-Picture Approach to your Well-Being

To quote Hippocrates- "It is more important to know what sort of person has a disease than to know what sort of disease a person has."

Functional medicine doctors do their best to take this quote to heart. They closely examine things like lifestyle, genetics, and physiology. Conventional medicine looks at symptoms. Functional medicine looks for the underlying cause.

When Sick is the New Normal

Many people only visit a doctor when they feel bad. When you are living with a chronic disease, you feel bad all the time.

You may get so used to your symptoms that they feel normal. Maybe you ignore them and only see a doctor when things get really bad.

By then, these chronic conditions may have caused serious harm to your body's ability to heal. So, when you see a doctor, they'll prescribe you meds to treat your most glaring symptoms.

Meanwhile, the underlying cause continues to eat away at your biological systems. As time goes on, more symptoms appear. And your doctor prescribes more meds.

Many of these meds have harmful side effects. These side effects manifest as more symptoms. These symptoms are then treated with even more meds. You see where this is going, right? When doctors end up causing more harm than help, we have a broken system!

Breaking the "Sick Cycle"

Functional Medicine seeks to break the "sick cycle" The goal is holistic wellness. This means no more "dealing" with symptoms you've normalized.

It also means taking fewer meds and feeling better. No more waking up feeling like you slept under a pile of bricks. No more swallowing a handful of sense-numbing pills every morning.

Functional medicine helps you make lasting changes to the way you live. It addresses your unique health needs. This way, you can stop doing things that are bad for you and start doing things that are good for you.

When you achieve true wellness, you won't need all those meds anymore. If this sounds idealistic, it is. But when it comes to your health, that's what nature intended. Pills are a tool in our kit, but they aren't a panacea.

It's best to talk to our functional medicine specialist about your specific condition, but here's a partial list of symptoms and conditions that functional medicine can help with:

• Long COVID and vaccine-related symptoms
• Lyme disease
• mold toxicity
• heavy metal detox
• anti-aging consults
• menopause management
• hormone health

...and more.

Functional medicine has been a long-requested service, and it's finally here! Dr. Haider has used functional medicine to treat chronic illnesses, including Long COVID, for years. When he saw the opportunity to bring more Functional Medicine Specialists into the mygotodoc family, he knew it had to be done!

Benefits of Functional Medicine

GETTING TO THE ROOT OF THE PROBLEM

Functional Medicine is much more than diet plans, exercise, and encouraging words. It is a true collaboration between you and your doctor to get to the root cause of your symptoms.

No matter how effective a treatment may be, if it's not sustainable, you won't stick with it. Falling back into old habits can mean symptoms will return. Sometimes they come back worse than before. Our Specialists will work with you to create a sustainable approach you can use for life.

Functional Medicine doesn't follow the conventional approach of treating symptoms first. This approach creates patients for life.

We work with you to identify the underlying cause of your symptoms. Then we stop them at their source.

We acknowledge the strengths of conventional medicine. But we also recognize its shortcomings. That's why we use a broad range of solutions and treatments. These include lifestyle adjustments, diet, exercise, mindfulness, and, yes, medication, among others. This way, we can cover the gaps by overlapping treatments.

Meet Dr. William "Ryan" Shelton

About

I completed medical school in 2003. Then I began to expand my knowledge and explore my passion for health and wellness. I researched the unique field of functional medicine. Functional medicine helped advance and improve patient care within my own practice. This journey led to several chief leadership roles within the functional medicine field. I'm currently involved in ongoing research and nutraceutical product development. I also create educational, health, and wellness content.

Functional Medicine Training & Experience

I graduated from Bastyr University. I attend annual conferences specializing in functional medicine for continuing education. Some of the entities involved include AANP, CANP, BHRT Symposium, and A4M. I've been attending these conferences for 18 years and counting.

I've worked as Medical Director for Perfect Health Technologies, a nationwide telemedicine company. I was a researcher, educator, and physician consultant at University Compounding Pharmacy. I worked as Wellness Director for Pacific Quest. They are a therapeutic wilderness program for behavioral health.

I am currently Medical Director and Chief Formulator for Zenith Labs nutraceutical company. Collaborating with Dr. Haider and mygotodoc is my latest venture. I'm excited to bring my expertise and experience to the mygotodoc team. And I'm thrilled to become a part of Dr. Haider's paradigm-shifting telehealth practice. Licenses: Naturopathic Physician, Functional Medicine