Welcome to the Monthly Roundup! Here's our chance to share some highlights from the past month: what we're treating, what we're learning, what we're eating. A quick review of the things we care about and how we're spending our time. Got an update you care about to share with us? We wanna know - hit reply and stay in touch! ✉️
What We're Treating
When asked, "Do you treat XYZ condition?" || Dr. Rasmussen's answer, "Are you a person?" -- The human behind any disease, diagnosis, syndrome, or label is so much more important to us than what we call it. Truly.
Here are some of the clinical highlights from this month:
Unexplained hepatitis (-itis means inflammation), so inflammation of the liver. Could it be autoimmune? Could it be toxicity / exposures? Could it be infectious? | This is a time we pull in a conventional gastroenterologist for advanced diagnostics while working on optimizing all the dietary and lifestyle factors to support liver health.
Supporting a patient who has chosen active surveillance of a prostate tumor instead of chemotherapy or radiation treatment. | This requires more a specific nutrition protocol and more advanced supplementation to manage cancer metabolism, inflammation, and immune function.
Navigating a tough patient picture of extreme GI dysfunction (think: years of chronic diarrhea) despite equally extreme dietary control (think: strict carnivore). | A stool test revealed no overt pathogens, parasites, or infections. Our focus is on restoring the gut-brain axis function and gradually reintroducing balance in the diet.
Revamping and implementing an 8-12 week protocol for mold illness for a patient with documented exposure to stachybotrys (black mold). | She got out of the problematic environment (step 1!); so now we are addressing any lingering internal reservoirs of colonies with directed mobilization (push) and binding (catch) for elimination.
Internal support (anti-inflammatory and fibrinolytic) for a patient dealing with a ruptured ACL [⛷️ accident] | Revealed: It's Dr. Arianna Wendlandt, DPT. She's got a great handle on the physical therapy required pre- and post-surgery -- see her injury story and follow her rehab journey on Instagram @dr.ari.dpt ! 💪
Want to get some insight about your health?
Lab testing is only part of the picture. We spend time talking through your unique challenges, goals, and current choices to help develop a foundation of living well.
I'm bolstering my understanding of supplement formulas and therapeutic doses of ingredients. I plan to give more 'Supplement Spotlight' mini-webinars for my favorite pharmaceutical-grade company, NutriDyn.
Mitchell Rasmussen, DC, CFMP
My mind is swimming in SEO stats, Google Business Profile tricks, and finding a perfect balance of humor + education on social media. 🐟 The most valuable "hack" I've learned is simply consistency. Keep on doing-the-thing!
Kate Daugherty, MS, CNS
What We're Eating
Busy clinic days mean relying on our snack drawer, maybe more than we'd like. We try to keep things available that provide adequate calories, macronutrient balance (#protein), and are tasty without too many heavily processed ingredients.
Kate's (daily) Afternoon Pick-me-Up: 1 scoop Equip Prime Protein (Cinnamon Roll or Salted Caramel) + 2-3 oz. Hot Water + 8-10 oz. A2 Whole Milk + (optional) 1/2 pack Chocolate LMNT = 😋
Honorable mention to the cans of salmon, sardines, and mackerel that we have in the cabinet. These *slap* for providing healthy fat and protein to otherwise sad lunches. (...You knew that was coming, right ?!)
We are soaking up this 'false spring' that Colorado has gifted us. We hear more snow is coming, but we're currently living in denial. 🙈
Otherwise, we are putting real action in place to launch our podcast in April. There, it's in writing, that makes it offish. More details to come on what it'll cover and why it should be on your 'weekly listen' queue. ✨
In the meantime, we'll just be over here putting the "fun" in functional medicine. 🙃
Kate Daugherty, MS, CNS + Dr. Mitchell Rasmussen, DC, CFMP