Kristen M. Farmer, MBA, BSN, RN, CFNC, FNLP, CPHQ
Registered Nurse and Certified Functional Nutrition and Lifestyle Practitioner
Why Functional Nutrition?
Functional nutrition is an approach that supports your unique issues, epigenetics, and diet and lifestyle. It works to heal what is truly going on inside your body, targeting the unique changes you need to make, bringing you back into optimal health. It is not a one size fits all protocol. It is getting at the root causes of what is going on for you and only you. It is root cause analysis of the multi-factorial issues that triggered symptoms in you in the first place. It is a functional approach that looks at 3 things:
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The uniqueness of you
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The interconnections between the body systems
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The expression of your genetics impacted by your lifestyle choices, patterns, diet and history
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Working one on one to understand your story, your history, your current reality after you have been told you have a diagnosis and need to "get healthy" is where we work. Health manifestations are at the end of a chain of events. By only treating symptoms you don't ever get to the root cause. Helping you understand what is going on inside of you, how to implement healthy choices, and make connections between the root causes and your symptoms means you can finally reach healthy and happy. Functional nutrition focuses on restoring the optimal function of the body to resolve signs and symptoms while highlighting the important role of diet and lifestyle modification.
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As a nurse in the emergency department earlier in my career, I saw lots of sickness, and sometimes the same sick people over and over. I really enjoyed the education and prevention mindset of being a nurse and some of my fondest memories as a bedside nurse came with educating patients on the simple things, how to take their meds, yes, but other things, like healthy choices, changes in their environment, and social supports to help them heal. But what I couldn't get over was the fact that I kept seeing the same people and we were never getting to the root causes of why they were there to begin with. It was always a "treat and street" mentality, or addressing the chief complaint, but never the root cause. I rarely saw them healthier.
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That's what I saw in the hospitals. For me personally, I went from doctor to doctor only to be told, "take this pill," or "you are just getting older." No one stopped to try and truly understand and explain what was happening to me. My fears and questions were dismissed, and, to be honest, I'm not sure they knew how to dig further. I got heavier, more uncomfortable, had increased joint pain and was miserable. That started me digging. I dug into the "why," and I didn't stop until I understood where it all stems from. Poor diet choices, lifestyle, lack of sleep, and stress. Lots of stressors were causing my hormones to go crazy, my weight to jump, my mood to take over the true me, and was the reason all along why my body reacted with an auto immune disease. I finally had answers, and the solutions were not more medications or succumbing to the age-old response of "you're just getting older and should expect to put on a few pounds." I called bunk and so can you.
Healing is an active word, it's a journey. It's a process that provides recommendations and clinical insights with determination, compassion, empathy and love.
