Integrative medicine, keto diets, etc

Posted by woot @woot, Dec 26, 2020

Has anyone consulted an Integrative medicine doctor who specializes in progressive and/or chronic disease?

Interested in more discussions like this? Go to the MAC & Bronchiectasis Support Group.

I live in North Carolina, near Raleigh. Before I found this doctor, I had only searched for an Integrative medicine doc. Learning the term “Functional medicine” did it. I googled that, turned up a few, started reading their medical education, including what their undergraduate major was and which university, then their medical degree, then reviews of them as a functional med doc. Too many had unrelated degrees. This doc had first been an Internal Med doc. But where I live has been immaterial. My meeting and discussions have all been virtual or email. All the tests ordered were either mailed to me, to be mailed back to the specialty lab that sent it, or blood orders sent to the LabCorp near me. Hope this helps.

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@glendamoseley1

I’m curious what state you live in and how you went about finding your functional medical Dr? Thank you

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@glendamoseley1 In addition to doing a general google search, you can go to the web site of the Institute for Functional Medicine and click on the tab for Find a Practitioner and type in your location. Many health professionals are practicing functional medicine including MDs, DOs, psychiatrists, chiropractors, nutritionists, etc...so it is a little confusing as to whom to select. @woot decided to go with a MD who is practicing functional medicine. I haven't consulted him as a patient, but I've been learning a lot from Dr. Will Cole....through his website, books, etc. He isn't an MD, but he has a whole alphabet of degrees behind his name and is a leading functional medicine practitioner. The Cleveland Clinic has a Department of Functional Medicine and offers several great interactive web courses moderated by their health care professionals. I think you can do individual telemedicine conferences with their people as well. Good luck.

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@woot

I live in North Carolina, near Raleigh. Before I found this doctor, I had only searched for an Integrative medicine doc. Learning the term “Functional medicine” did it. I googled that, turned up a few, started reading their medical education, including what their undergraduate major was and which university, then their medical degree, then reviews of them as a functional med doc. Too many had unrelated degrees. This doc had first been an Internal Med doc. But where I live has been immaterial. My meeting and discussions have all been virtual or email. All the tests ordered were either mailed to me, to be mailed back to the specialty lab that sent it, or blood orders sent to the LabCorp near me. Hope this helps.

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Thank you so much!

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@nla4625

@glendamoseley1 In addition to doing a general google search, you can go to the web site of the Institute for Functional Medicine and click on the tab for Find a Practitioner and type in your location. Many health professionals are practicing functional medicine including MDs, DOs, psychiatrists, chiropractors, nutritionists, etc...so it is a little confusing as to whom to select. @woot decided to go with a MD who is practicing functional medicine. I haven't consulted him as a patient, but I've been learning a lot from Dr. Will Cole....through his website, books, etc. He isn't an MD, but he has a whole alphabet of degrees behind his name and is a leading functional medicine practitioner. The Cleveland Clinic has a Department of Functional Medicine and offers several great interactive web courses moderated by their health care professionals. I think you can do individual telemedicine conferences with their people as well. Good luck.

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Thank you for all this information! I will get busy researching!

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@woot

Thanks for asking, Erica. I live near Duke and University of North Carolina medical schools and clinics. Although they both list Integrative medicine, neither appears to have anything to do with diet. There is an md with no hospital affiliations and no Medicare, etc who has has an Integrative med practice for years. I’m reluctant to consult him. I recently found several articles in PubMed, NIH that looked at Paleo and Keto diets effects on chronic diseases, including pulmonary non infectious chronic disease.

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Dr. Eric Westman is near you. He also has Facebook groups and has some courses, videos, etc.

Google him. Been following for years.

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@cms17

Dr. Eric Westman is near you. He also has Facebook groups and has some courses, videos, etc.

Google him. Been following for years.

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Hello, and welcome to Mayo Connect. I noticed your post and didn't want it to go unanswered, but I'm not sure if @woot is still looking for a doc, since her last post on the topic was over a year ago.
Just a little tip when reading and replying on Connect - the date of the post is in the upper left corner of each individual message. Quite often, folks come here with a question, get their answer, then may or may not return to post again.
If you want to see and join the most recent conversations, choose a few groups of interest to you and join them. When you come back later, the first screen shows you the recent activity in those groups, and you can choose to read them or not.
To see what responses there have been to you own posts, there is a little bell icon in the upper right corner, there will be a number indicating replies to your posts. Click it & a drop down list will appear, then you can choose the items to reply to.
Are you a patient of Dr Westman? What brought you to Mayo Connect?
Sue

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I just looked Dr. Westman up on Facebook and he is an expert in the keto diet?

I’m just curious - do many people with MAC follow a keto diet? I’ve made so many dietary changes but not tried a keto diet. The one thing that concerns me is that it looks like people start a keto diet for a variety of reasons but tend to want to lose weight. With MAC, maintaining weight is important so I’m also wondering how you follow a keto diet and maintain weight - if anyone has done this. Thanks in advance.

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@kathyhg

I just looked Dr. Westman up on Facebook and he is an expert in the keto diet?

I’m just curious - do many people with MAC follow a keto diet? I’ve made so many dietary changes but not tried a keto diet. The one thing that concerns me is that it looks like people start a keto diet for a variety of reasons but tend to want to lose weight. With MAC, maintaining weight is important so I’m also wondering how you follow a keto diet and maintain weight - if anyone has done this. Thanks in advance.

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My follow up from my question about finding a functional med dr posted March 2021. I did work with a functional med doc, virtually, for a year and a half. She first focused on healing my leaky gut. (This probably happened when I was on big antibiotics without taking any probiotic. Killed all the good bacteria as well as the bad ). Today my diet only forbids gluten (forever. Dr Gwen Huitt told me that years ago ). But she wants me to eat a lot of meat and a lot of healthy oils, eg olive oil, which I add to almost everything. Lots of vegetables. But not total keto. I can’t afford to lose any more weight. I eat gluten free bread, eg Simple Kneads. Sweet potatoes, white potatoes, all, I think, not allowed on keto. But it’s important to note that all this was tailored just to me over a year and a half. One more thing. I’m taking lots of supplements she decided I need. I hope this helps.

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@kathyhg

I just looked Dr. Westman up on Facebook and he is an expert in the keto diet?

I’m just curious - do many people with MAC follow a keto diet? I’ve made so many dietary changes but not tried a keto diet. The one thing that concerns me is that it looks like people start a keto diet for a variety of reasons but tend to want to lose weight. With MAC, maintaining weight is important so I’m also wondering how you follow a keto diet and maintain weight - if anyone has done this. Thanks in advance.

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Hi Kathy - If you look at the heading of this discussion, it is not just about MAC, but rather the broader topic of integrative medicine & keto diets. Maybe that is why @cms17 posted this here?
I personally am not a fan of strict Keto diets - or any extreme plan that is impossible to follow and stay healthy for a lifetime. But I did go look at Dr Westman's Bio on the Duke Health website, it looks like he specializes in obesity - you are right about that not typically being an issue we face here.
Sue

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@kathyhg

I just looked Dr. Westman up on Facebook and he is an expert in the keto diet?

I’m just curious - do many people with MAC follow a keto diet? I’ve made so many dietary changes but not tried a keto diet. The one thing that concerns me is that it looks like people start a keto diet for a variety of reasons but tend to want to lose weight. With MAC, maintaining weight is important so I’m also wondering how you follow a keto diet and maintain weight - if anyone has done this. Thanks in advance.

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I have belonged to the Reversing Diabetes Facebook group since 2016. I assure you there are many members who have maintained the KETO way of life and reversed diabetes type2 (we know it cannot be cured) for years, losing and maintaining a healthy weight.

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