Imagine walking into a typical doctor’s office with chronic yeast infections — in your mouth, under your arms, beneath your breasts. A general practitioner might hand you a cream, an antifungal pill, maybe tell you to cut down on sugar — and send you on your way. But the yeast comes back. Because the root issue — the terrain inside your body that allowed yeast to flourish — was never addressed. A functional medicine practitioner will ask: What’s going on in the gut? Is there a parasite? Has the microbiome been compromised? Is inflammation off the charts? Why is the immune system out of balance? By addressing the root cause, not only does the yeast clear up — but so does the brain fog, the fatigue, the bloating, the insomnia, the moodswings, and more. Because these are all branches of the same tree — and functional medicine gets to the roots.

Functional medicine isn’t just a system of care; it’s a philosophy. It’s grounded in the idea that the body is a self-healing organism — a miraculous, intelligent system that wants to be well. But in today’s world of processed food, toxic chemicals, stress, and synthetic medications, that system can get overwhelmed and out of balance. Functional medicine helps restore that balance, gently and holistically — often using herbs, nutrients, detoxification protocols, and lifestyle changes to support the body’s own natural wisdom.

This is where vitalism comes in. As a vitalist, I believe that life itself is governed by a vital force — a natural intelligence within us that animates every cell, every breath, every healing process. Vitalism is not new; it’s ancient. It’s what our great-grandmothers understood instinctively when they brewed bone broth for the sick or used garlic and honey as medicine. In modern times, it means returning people to vitality — not just the absence of disease, but a state of true, radiant well-being. That doesn’t come from suppressing symptoms with pills. It comes from restoring harmony, feeding the body what it needs, and removing what it doesn’t.

Functional medicine is about listening — to the body, to the history of symptoms, and to the patient themselves. It’s about connecting the dots and honoring the whole person. This is not assembly-line healthcare. This is healing that honors biology, spirit, and truth. It’s the kind of care that brings people back to life — and I can’t imagine doing anything more meaningful.

What Is a Vitalist? A Return to the Wisdom Within

A vitalist is someone who believes that life is governed by more than just chemistry and mechanics — that within every living being there exists a powerful, innate intelligence, a vital force, that drives growth, healing, and balance. It’s the belief that your body doesn’t just want to heal — it knows how to heal. That healing is not something imposed from the outside but something unlocked from within. A vitalist sees the human body not as a faulty machine to be fixed with pharmaceuticals, but as a divine, self-correcting organism — one that thrives when given the right conditions.

Historically, vitalism was the foundation of healing traditions across the world. From Hippocrates’ concept of the vis medicatrix naturae — the body’s natural healing force — to Traditional Chinese Medicine’s Qi, to Ayurvedic prana, nearly every ancient system of medicine acknowledged this unseen but undeniable life energy. Even early Western medical theory embraced vitalism until the rise of reductionist science in the 19th and 20th centuries — when the body began to be seen as a machine, health as the absence of symptoms, and pharmaceuticals as the first (and last) resort.

Today, being a vitalist means reclaiming that ancient wisdom in a modern world that has forgotten it. It means looking past symptoms to find the deeper imbalances, and restoring health not by force, but by support — through nourishment, detoxification, natural therapies, and a deep respect for the body’s design. A vitalist trusts the body. A vitalist understands that disease is often the body’s way of signaling imbalance, not a random failure. A vitalist listens.

When I say I am a vitalist, I mean that I help people return to vitality — not just survival, not just the absence of disease, but true, vibrant life. I don’t chase symptoms. I look for the root. I don’t believe in suppressing what your body is trying to express — I believe in decoding it, honoring it, and helping you come back into balance. Vitalism is not just a medical approach. It’s a way of seeing life itself: as meaningful, intelligent, and worthy of reverence.

And in a world where people are over-medicated, under-nourished, and disconnected from their own bodies, vitalism may be the most radical — and most necessary — form of healing we have left.