ENCORE: Bridging Conventional and Functional Medicine, Part 1

For many, integrative medicine has become an unattainable luxury, and healthy diet and lifestyle the prerogative of the privileged. Today’s guest, Dr. Ramona Wallace, is attempting to change that. Trained conventionally as a DO, she undertook additional training and certification via the Institute for Functional Medicine to broaden her clinical skills. She practices primary care in an underserved community in Kalamazoo, Michigan, where she incorporates diet and lifestyle recommendations to address her patients’ chronic conditions. Careful nutritional assessment has revealed that many of her patients, while overtly overweight, are decidedly malnourished. She has documented a wide range of deficiencies—of B vitamins, vitamins A, C, and D, critical minerals like zinc and magnesium, even full-blown scurvy. These are precisely the patients who are most likely to benefit from nutritional support. Discovering obstacles to compliance is a key element to effect their health transformations. Dr. Wallace believes that individualized care is the key to reversing long-standing health conditions. She mentors medical students in the first-of-its-kind Functional Medicine program at a medical school. She has also co-authored a landmark paper arguing for wellness self-care by doctors, to stave off burnout and to help them be better role models for patients.