Your overall health often revolves around the health of your gastrointestinal tract – your gut. How well do the muscles in the gut move food through your digestive tract? How well do you absorb nutrients? Hormone imbalances or your diet may interfere with proper functioning. We test for all of this to find solutions to your immediate gastrointestinal issues as well as health problems elsewhere in your body.

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The immune system is like the porridge in the story of the three bears. When it’s just right, all is good. When it’s too cold, you’re susceptible to infections. When it’s too hot, it goes to war with your body, causing autoimmune disorders such as arthritis, psoriasis, lupus or celiac disease. 

We often serve a collaborative role for patients who are taking pharmaceuticals to control an autoimmune disorder and hope to reduce or eliminate their need for them over time. Dr. Ballehr will also explore with you the effects of stress in triggering these disorders.  

The increase in Type 2 diabetes is one of the great challenges of modern medicine. Wouldn’t it make more sense to prevent the disease than to spend billions treating it? Lab work often contains red flag warnings that someone is susceptible to developing diabetes. Dr. Ballehr will work with patients to alter their metabolism through diet, exercise, supplements and possibly medication, to prevent diabetes and all its complications. 

Our treatment for thyroid disorders begins by getting your hormones back in balance to account for thyroid symptoms and get you to feeling better. Then we dig deeper to determine why the thyroid disorder occurred. Is there an underlying autoimmune condition and if so, what triggered it, and most importantly how can we mitigate or eliminate the triggers and the condition.  

Many factors can lead to cognitive decline, such as the inflammatory effects of sugar on the brain, atrophy created by age-related decreases in hormones or excess toxicity. We will work with you to identify those factors at play in your biology and suggest nutritional strategies to correct them. As an example, we may increase the amount of specific vitamins or minerals or eliminate certain foods in your diet to optimize brain function.  

Dr. Ballehr’s work in orthopedic sports medicine often included treating chronic pain. She brings her experience and interest to her new practice, applying the principles of functional medicine to help patients live a pain-free life. Inflammation is a key source of chronic pain. Dr. Ballehr will work to identify, reduce and eliminate the source of the inflammation by diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes to eliminate the pain. 

Toxins flow through our body daily. The body has the ability to cleanse itself, but when natural and manmade toxins overwhelm the liver and kidneys, the result is often fatigue, anxiety, muscle and joint aches, decreased concentration, or headaches. A high toxic burden may also contribute to the onset of a chronic inflammation disease or disorder. 

The liver is the lead organ in eliminating toxins. To work properly, it needs a diet rich in vitamins and antioxidants – a combination often missing in a high-sugar, high-calorie American diet. We help you find the right lifestyle and diet to reduce the amount of toxins entering your body and to support your liver and kidneys in doing their jobs of processing and eliminating the toxins.