Melissa A. Reade MS, CDN, CNS, NBHWC
Functional and Integrative Nutrition
APPROACH
Integrative nutrition is an all-encompassing approach to health and wellness. In addition to looking at your diet, your physical, social, and environmental influences will also be considered as part of your story.
The relationship...
The relationship between myself and my patient's is of the utmost importance. It is at the foundation of Wellness By Mel. With evidence-based diet and lifestyle changes, YOU and I work together to find what works best for you. Focusing on the underlying causes of disease, taking into consideration your unique conditions and circumstances, we find the best interventions to help you regain and maintain optimal health.
An Evidenced-Based Approach
The prevalence of complex, chronic disease is escalating globally, with cases of metabolic disorders, neurological disorders, mood disorders, digestive disorders, chronic fatigue disorders, and auto-immune disorders all on the rise. These chronic diseases demand a diet and lifestyle-related approach to restoring health, it is not enough to simply “manage” them.
Through advanced nutritional assessment, I partner with you and your own unique genetic makeup to develop a personalized plan tailored to promote your well-being. I believe that healing is a collective effort, and strive to support you as your partner in health.
I practice evidence-based nutrition, offering guidance based on scientific literature and clinical experience – NOT the latest fad diets and trends such as quick fixes, detoxes, and cleanses.
Assessment
The Integrative and Functional Nutrition Assessment offers an ABCD organizational approach to support our efforts to understand your health history, and it allows for nutrition-related findings and clinical patterns to emerge. From the medical history, physical and laboratory exams, and a diet and lifestyle review, the Functional Nutrition Assessment improves the identification of insufficiencies/imbalances. Additionally, assessment of your genetic predispositions and make-up can help provide a more effective intervention unique to your needs.
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Anthropometrics help to identify altered body composition patterns and abnormal vital signs.
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BioMarkers and functional laboratory findings uncover protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamin, mineral, and phytonutrient insufficiencies and symptoms linked to health imbalances. We work with you to identify the best interventions to move your body back into optimal wellness based on these biomarkers and functional lab testing when appropriate.
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Clinical Indicators from the physical exam identify signs related to nutrition abnormalities that can be further explored through laboratory and functional assessments.
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Diet, Nutrition, and Lifestyle journals explore daily or weekly food intake, macro and micronutrient assessment, patterns of eating, cravings and habitual foods, and stress eating associations. I provide you with therapeutic meal plans, menus, and recipes unique to your needs.
*Additional laboratory testing will depend on the individual.
What does functional and integrative mean?
Functional and Integrative Nutrition utilizes systems biochemistry to identify disease patterns upstream as a means to correct underlying causes of chronic sickness.
This approach is somewhat contrary to conventional medicine, which more often considers the pathology of each organ system in isolation from one another, and focuses on the treatment of diseases rather than the cure and prevention of disease.
As an example, a conventional protocol may suggest that your headaches have nothing to do with your chronic fatigue and constipation, and that a different treatment is required for each individual symptom. An integrated and functional protocol for this scenario would include an evaluation of all symptoms and triggers, so that connections can be drawn across the entire body system. In this example, it is possible that headaches, chronic fatigue, and constipation are all related to certain underlying imbalances. A functional approach aims to address those underlying imbalances, instead of solely addressing the symptoms of the imbalance.
As it relates to nutrition, adequate nutrition is different from optimal nutrition. Integrative and functional practitioners utilize a more narrow laboratory reference range for important vitamins, minerals, and mitochondrial metabolites to deduce potential disease patterns before the actual diagnosis may occur. In short, functional practitioners look further upstream to identify where things are going wrong.
Functional Health Practitioners do not by default denounce pharmaceutical treatments. Intuitive Nutrition provides food and supplement recommendations alongside your pharmaceutical protocol prescribed by your licensed practitioner when necessary.
