About Functional Medicine
A look at Modern Stressors
Patients now face health issues that have not been well defined in classic medical literature. These include:
- Environmental Toxins
- Dietary Excesses of Sugars & Carbohydrates
- Imbalanced Gut Flora
- Inflammation & Stress Chemistry
Due to these stressors, we now understand that chronic disease tends to be preceded by a lengthy period of declining function in one or more of the body’s systems. Those dysfunctions are, for each of us, the result of lifelong interactions among our environment, lifestyle, and genetic predispositions.
Many symptoms are “sub-clinical” and can easily go unvalidated because conditions aren’t developed enough to warrant a diagnosis. These include:
- Low Thyroid
- Autoimmune Conditions
- Weight Gain & Hormonal Imbalances
- Gastro-Intestinal Complaints
- Energy & Mood Swings
- Depression & Anxiety
Humans are facing the biggest epidemic in human history. We can’t buy ourselves out of this…we have never been able to recreate a single cell. Mother Nature is simply smarter than us. We must work in concert with our body’s intelligence if we are going to sustain our evolution.
Functional medicine is a model of care that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of chronic health complaints. The usual suspects include blood sugar imbalances, environmental triggers, stress chemistry, gut flora toxicity, and chronic inflammation.
We can now prevent many of today’s chronic conditions by addressing their root cause: our daily habits.
Diet and lifestyle strategies are “change agents” and directly affect how genes express themselves. “The findings are in: high risk genes with low risk lifestyle reduces risk of chronic disease by 50%.” – Dr. Jeffrey Bland, Founder of Functional Medicine
What to Expect
Your treatment plan will always leverage a systems-based approach to create regulatory responses, acknowledging the interconnected feedback loops that support your innate healing mechanisms.
Balance Blood Sugar
When we lose our ability to connect insulin to our cells to deliver blood sugar, we end up storing that blood sugar as fat (stored energy). Learning to balance balance our blood sugar is a first step for most patients.
Reduce Inflammation
A simple, structured meal plan will include the necessary nutrients to generate new cells while eliminating the common culprit food triggers known to cause inflammation in the body.
Burn up Stored Fat
Excess weight is usually a stored energy battle. This means the body loses its natural ability to burn up the provided fuel, and in a state of energy & hormonal crisis, compensates by storing these calories as fat.
Turn on Longevity Switches
Autophagy is a self-healing switch that works to breakdown and recycle old, damaged cells in order to make new cells, particularly stem cells.
Detox Your Body
Everyone has a "toxic burden." It's difficult to live a life free of exposure to environmental toxins. The name of the game and our first line of defense is to minimize our exposure to toxins while supporting our detox system.
Return to a Rested State
Our nervous system has two divisions...one is known as the sympathetic state (fight/flight), and the other is the parsympathetic state (rest/digest). The body will renew itself when in dominant parasympathetic state.
About Courtney
Courtney Jonson is a licensed acupuncturist, functional medicine and certified GAPS (Gut and Psychology) practitioner.
Courtney Jonson, LAc.
Like so many today working to revolutionize healthcare, Courtney’s mission began when she refused to accept the standard solutions offered to her for her own health challenges. After discovering how to access her own built-in resources and witnessing in countless others the power of what the human body is capable of, she now has an indomitable will to share what she has learned and the means of access to others.
She stands against the long-term generational repercussions of suppressing symptoms with drugs and, an underdog herself, rises to stick-up for those caught in an outdated healthcare model when other alternative solutions are now evidence-proven.
Her practice exists to empower anyone and everyone to realize their own alignment of innate resources as a daily practice and as a foundation for a balanced life and a rewarding sense of simply being healthy.
Licenses & Experience
- Licensed Acupuncturist – California State Board
- Certified GAPS (Gut & Psychology) Practitioner
- Functional Medicine Program Director
- Co-Founder: Lectin Free Keto with Mary Ruddick, CNC
- Wellness FX Practitioner
- Author & Educator – Systems that Heal
Practice Aspirations
- Transparency, self-empowerment, and autonomy
- Making complex ideas simple for everyone to be able to understand and engage with
- Teaching people what they need to know to take care of themselves
- Supporting others so they can make informed decisions about their health