Women’s Health

Women’s health is complex and ever-changing. At Healing Family Functional Medicine, a range of holistic women’s health services are available to protect your vitality and improve your quality of life. Seema Patel, MD, MPH, IFMCP, specializes in nutritional counseling, hormone evaluations, and preconception services to support women in every stage of life. She also offers comprehensive menopause care to help you ease through the transition with grace. Call the Pepper Pike, Ohio, office to schedule a women’s health evaluation or book an appointment online today.

What is women’s health?

Women’s health is complex and ever-changing.  At Healing Family Functional Medicine, Dr. Seema Patel specializes in nutritional counseling, hormone evaluation, gut microbiome testing, and preconception services to support women in every stage of life.  She offers services for women suffering from menstrual concerns, menopausal symptoms, chronic disease management as well as those desiring to optimize health.  Call the Pepper Pike, Ohio, office to schedule a women’s health evaluation or book an appointment online today. 

What does a women’s health visit evaluate? 

The women’s health services at Healing Family Functional Medicine can address various chronic diseases, chronic mental health concerns as well as hormonal issues facing women.. 

Dr. Patel provides functional medicine care to assess the unique needs and challenges women face from their first menstrual cycle to the onset of menopause and beyond.

When should I schedule a women’s health evaluation?

You should schedule a women’s health evaluation at Healing Family Functional Medicine if you are experiencing:

• Hormonal issues
• Anxiety and depression
• Autoimmune diseases
• Neuro-degenerative disorders: Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Memory loss
• Heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure
• Asthma, Chronic bronchitis
• Chronic gut issues: IBS, reflux, abdominal pain
• Fatigue, brain fog, dizziness
• Weight gain
• Chronic Pain

Taking a functional medicine approach allows Dr. Patel to understand the root cause of your symptoms, and how using nutrition and lifestyle help improve your vitality and lower your risk for long-term health complications.

Dr. Patel also provides group visits for women’s health as well as family group visits for those who desire to involve their partner and children in their functional medicine journey.  

What can I expect during a women’s health visit?

During your women’s health evaluation at Healing Family Functional Medicine, Dr. Patel performs a detailed review of your health, past and current stressors, lifestyle, nutrition, environmental exposures and family history.  She searches for the root cause (s) of your symptoms and diseases.  Dr. Patel can order extensive laboratory testing as well as advanced functional medicine testing which can include but is not limited to: 

• Advanced cardiovascular testing
• Vitamin and mineral testing
• Hormone testing
• Gut microbiome testing
• Environmental toxin testing
• Immune and inflammation testing

Dr. Patel’s holistic strategy is to optimize your physical and mental health. Her in depth nutritional counseling, lifestyle recommendations, and hormone balancing can help you have the best quality of life regardless of age.

How does functional medicine improve women’s health?  

Functional medicine differs from conventional medicine because it believes that everything is connected through a complex web-like structure in the body.  So, every decision we make about lifestyle, nutrition, and stress affects the mind, body and spirit.  is a web-like connection of various parts of the body that workThere are seven different sections in this system that are interconnected like a spider web.  Any part that is not functioning or is damaged, affects the whole body.  

Gut Health is a foundational part of functional medicine. Good gut health is necessary to digest and absorb nutrients, produce key vitamins and minerals, and then eliminate any waste.  If you suffer from bloating, gas, irregular bowel movements, or reflux, this part is not functioning well and may now affect the whole system.  

Transport, the second part, takes the digested food and circulates it through the body and to the communication center.  If you suffer from heart disease, high blood pressure, lymph swelling or have poor circulation, this system may not be able to get the critical nutrients to the body.

Communication Center, the third part, is the hormonal organs of the body, which includes your thyroid, adrenals, sex hormones and neurotransmitters.  These hormones are chemical messengers that provide information to the individual cell, which then has to decide to fight off inflammation or any infections, repair any structural damage from arthritis, injuries, etc., create energy and lastly, to detoxify whatever the cell does not need.  Disruption here may result in hormonal imbalances, mood swings, fatigue, brain fog, and weigh gain. 

Immune & Inflammation, the fourth part, is how your immune system responds to any infections as well as low grade chronic inflammation, which is the root cause of all disease processes.  70% of the immune system resides in the gut, so gut health and a healthy immune system are intimately linked. When this part is not working, patient may present with recurrent illness, fatigue, heart disease, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and obesity.

Energy, is the fifth part, is how your body creates energy.  When this part is not functioning well, patients may have headaches, fatigue, brain fog, memory loss, chronic pain or diseases that affect the brain like neuro-degenerative disease like Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Dementia, etc. 

Structural integrity, the sixth part, is how your body repairs any damage in the musculoskeletal system as well as other parts of the body.  Diseases and symptoms that can affect this are osteoporosis, arthritis, prostatic enlargement, joint pain.

Detoxification, the last part, is another critical factor in the helping the body function well.  The body faces many toxin exposures all day including external toxicants such as heavy metals, mold toxins, and environmental toxins as well as internal toxins created by the body as waste products. These toxins need to be removed from the cells and the body before the toxins begin to disrupt normal pathways. 

This system works at each cell in the body millions of times per day.  Using the functional medicine approach helps bring balance back to your body and mind.