We are  excited about our new Center for Functional & Integrative Medicine, which will be located at 3104 Ponte Morino Dr.  Suite 110 in Cameron Park later this year.  Off of Palmer Dr. just behind Bel Air Market.  This will be a state of the art new facility that will allow a truly integrative environment .  Our prospective move in date will be during the first week of September 2008 just after the Labor Day weekend. 

How long would our automobiles operate if all we ever did was put gas in the tank? How much more cost would we incur if we ignored the warning lights on the dash board? We expect our bodies to not only survive, but run well. So why do we spend so much time covering up symptoms with drugs? It is like covering up the warning light on your dashboard with a blanket so you no longer see the light.

The problem must be gone…right?

The United States has one of the most technologically advanced cultures of all time, including the marvels of “modern medicine”, yet we are leading the way as the least healthy nation on the face of the earth. Our children for the first time in history are developing Type 2 Diabetes, a disease mostly caused by high fat, high sugar diets, and a lack of exercise…this in 9-10 year olds where it used to be 40-50 year olds and up!

Along with this we are seeing exponential growth in the epidemics of Hypertension, Diabetes, Metabolic Syndrome, Depression, Sleep Disorders, and Arthritis. It has been documented that about 80% of all our medical problems in this country are LIFESTYLE related.

My approach to your health symptoms will not focus simply on making a diagnosis. Instead, I will approach you from a “Biological Systems” perspective, meaning your symptoms will be used as clues in interconnecting the different body systems. Functional medicine believes the bodies organs, glands, nervous systems, hormones, emotions, nutritional status all intercommunicate, and influence each other. This web of connectedness is dramatically seen in relationships like that seen with the gut-immune systems. Here the responses to different foods, bacteria, stressors, yeasts, and medications have far reaching affects in distant areas such as the joints, skin, brain, and endocrine systems. These alarm messages often carried out by auto antibodies together with other messenger molecules in the body such as hormones, can then create problems like arthritis in the joints, neurotransmitter disturbances in the brain, rashes, weight gain, chronic fatigue, and digestive problems.

So the office visit needs to be grounded in trust, mutual participation, and whole person care. I feel the doctor-patient relationship should not be driven by the insurance companies who tell us the patient must fit into a diagnostic code called an ICD-9. These codes are limiting in scope, often pressuring the physician to rapidly apply a name to a group of symptoms which may be entirely unhelpful in solving the patent’s issues. What is their sense of belonging and being loved? What kinds of messages does the body receive from the foods they eat? Do they exercise regularly or just when they have nothing else to do? Are they spiritually connected?

I would be honored to serve you in your quest to optimize health and live a long and quality life reaching your body’s highest potential for wellbeing! Mark Holthouse M.D.

Click here to download and print our Medical Questionnaire. Please bring this in on your fist visit.