Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
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Good Neighbor Podcast South Charlotte
Ep. # 128 Beyond Symptoms: How Functional Medicine Revolutionizes Healthcare
What if there's more to healthcare than just managing symptoms? Chelsey Leveling, nurse practitioner and clinic director at Functional Health Center of the Carolinas, pulls back the curtain on an approach that's transforming lives by finding and addressing the root causes of chronic health issues.
Unlike conventional medicine's fragmented view of the body, functional medicine recognizes interconnected systems working in harmony—or disharmony when things go wrong. "Symptoms that patients experience is the body's way of saying something is not right," Chelsey explains. Whether it's chronic fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, digestive troubles, or metabolic issues like insulin resistance, these signals deserve deeper investigation rather than just symptom suppression.
Chelsey's passion for this field springs from personal experience. As a registered nurse working in surgery and ICU, she struggled with her own persistent health issues that conventional approaches couldn't resolve. When functional medicine transformed her health at age 25, she knew she'd found her calling. Today, she spends an hour with each new patient, diving deeply into their health history, lifestyle factors, sleep patterns, and nutritional habits. This thorough approach, combined with specialized testing that goes beyond standard bloodwork, allows her team to uncover connections that might otherwise remain hidden. As Chelsey puts it, "Everyone's unique and we all have this different sized bucket" for what their body can handle before symptoms appear.
The results speak volumes—patients who've suffered for years with conditions like daily migraines finding relief within weeks through targeted interventions. Whether you're struggling with a specific health concern or simply want to optimize your wellbeing, functional medicine offers a revolutionary approach focused on sustainable, medication-free solutions. Explore how the team at Functional Health Center of the Carolinas might help you reclaim your health by visiting their website or calling their office today.
Functional Health Center of the Carolinas
Chelsey Leveling
Fort Mill, SC
1674 SC-160, Fort Mill, SC 29708
Mt. Pleasant, SC
570 Long Point Rd # 230, Mt Pleasant, SC 29464
is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Speaker 2:Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the Good Neighbor Podcast. I'm broadcasting here in South Charlotte and I love, love, love to talk to local business owners. And today I'm excited to be in the world of medicine and we're going to be speaking to Chelsey Leveling. She is a nurse practitioner and clinic director at Functional Health Center of the Carolinas. Welcome, chelsea.
Speaker 3:Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. The world of functional medicine for me kind of came out of nowhere, and now it's like you know you see it everywhere. So let's first start with what is functional medicine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, great question. And most of my patients come to me through a Google search just trying to find answers but lack the knowledge or understanding of what functional medicine actually is. So we take a root cause approach to medicine Instead of isolating different body systems. We know that the body works together and we have to figure out what is driving symptoms in a patient's body. Symptoms that patients experience is the body's way of saying something is not right, and we have to figure out what's going on whether it's a gut issue, an immune system problem, a thyroid problem, hormones. We're really trying to fix that and then, instead of medicating a patient and masking those symptoms, we treat that underlying cause and symptoms eventually go away, and we do that without the use of medication.
Speaker 2:Wow. So give us an example of what those conditions, symptoms, might be. Some of the more common things.
Speaker 3:The number one thing I hear is chronic fatigue. Most of my patients have some sort of energy issues, chronic inflammation, whether that's brain fog, joint pain and then a lot of gut issues as well, and we are seeing a ton of metabolic issues, meaning insulin resistance, type two diabetes, blood sugar problems as well.
Speaker 2:Wow, wow. Just curious what made you go this route in your journey of medicine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely.
Speaker 3:You know a lot of people get into their field from personal experience and I was a registered nurse.
Speaker 3:Before I got into this I had worked in surgery and ICU and I had my whole life had had some health issues that I was able to kind of keep at bay, and in my early 20s my symptoms just got so bad I had to figure something out. As a 25 year old, I was like there's no way that this is how I'm supposed to be feeling out. As a 25 year old, I was like there's no way that this is how I'm supposed to be feeling. So luckily I found a functional medicine provider in my area. They were the only provider to have ever helped in reverse my symptoms and after going with them and seeing how much it impacted my life and changed my life, I knew it was what I wanted to do with my career. I went to nurse practitioner school and knew that I wanted to kind of turn the table and get into functional medicine and I actually became a provider at the place that I was once a patient at and that was my first entry into oh wow.
Speaker 2:That is super cool. So is there certain training to be in functional medicine?
Speaker 3:Yes, you can definitely go through training programs. I've been super lucky and the providers I've worked under have really taken me under their wing and, you know, relate all of their knowledge and expertise to me, so I feel very fortunate that I've got to learn from some great people.
Speaker 2:That is amazing, so describe the journey. I call you. I'm not feeling great. How do you get to the root of the calls?
Speaker 3:One thing I love about my job is I get to spend a lot of time with patients. When you go to your primary care office, you're given 10, 15 minutes max. My first initial consultation with a patient is an hour where I talk everything of you know when they were little to symptoms they're experiencing now. We really dive deep into their health history, even talking about their sleep patterns, their stress levels, what their exercise is like, and also getting a deep dive into what their nutrition is like, because all of that matters and I want to know every detail that I can to make sure I'm not missing any information for a patient.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I'm just thinking out loud. You know, with other kinds of medicines, we take a pill and we're hoping to feel better the next day. This is more of a journey. I mean a big lifestyle thing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and you know it can be overwhelming for patients, but our team is there every step of the way. We want to build sustainable changes for patients so that way they don't just feel good the time that they are working with us. We set it up to make sure that they're healthy for, hopefully, the rest of their lives, with giving them education and knowledge and reversing those issues that they came to us with.
Speaker 2:I assume sometimes it can be major tweaks or major changes or little tweaks, you know, and all of the above. So what kind of testing is normal? Kind of walk us through that, the assessment.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. That first hour I spend with a patient really helps me to understand what not only their health goals are, but what testing we need to get an understanding of what's going on. The gut of our body is huge and regulates our immune system, our mood, metabolism. So looking at people's gut is a huge thing that I do, whether that's a urine or a stool test. Gut is a huge thing that I do, whether that's a urine or a stool test. We have access to so many different tests that your primary care offices just can't run. So we can test a lot of autoimmune markers and figure out what's driving that immune system function. And then even blood work. We look at it with a much narrow lens. If you take out your blood work and see the reference ranges, sometimes it can be anywhere from zero to 600. And if you fall anywhere within that you're normal but also unique and need different things. So we really want to optimize patient's health and look at that a lot more skewed than what your provider at the primary care office might.
Speaker 2:So this isn't just the normal blood test. I'm thinking, you know, if some of the different doctors I have and those ranges. You're right, you know, I just want to be in the normal range and I'm sure it's much deeper than that. Do you run into skepticism when you're sitting down with people like, okay, come on. You know what are the misconceptions you run into.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely, and I get it. A lot of patients come to me because they feel frustrated and that they've been bounced around and haven't gotten answers. So they come to me being like, well, how are you or your team going to get me feeling better? But we are such a different approach to medicine that it works. I think if medicine was practiced this way, many patients would get better. The skepticism is, you know, just taking herbs or minerals, or is my changing my diet really going to help me? Is this a little bit woo woo? But there's so much research and science to back this area of medicine and, as long as you have a provider who's knowledgeable in it, I think we could really help a lot of people if they knew more about it.
Speaker 2:That is incredible. It's a it's, it is, it's, it's a big mystery. You know I'm sitting here thinking of myself and who? What would we change? Cause I feel like I do everything right, but yet there's some stuff that needs to be tweaked. Do you then sometimes have patients that you end up having to collaborate with other kinds of more traditional doctors?
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely. There's times where I'll see some things in the labs that are concerning and do require a consultation by, you know, a gastrointestinal specialist, rheumatology, something like that and I think, coming from a medicine background, it puts me in a good place to recognize those super red flag symptoms of when a patient needs more acute care versus what I can do for them. So there's times where I'll have to collaborate with other providers, or there's times, within our team, too, that I will talk with, you know, my boss, dr Reiser, or my coworker, lauren Lewis, where we're really working on these patient cases together, because they can be complex, where we're really working on these patient cases together because they can be complex.
Speaker 2:So now let's talk about your office and your staff and team. You've got these two wonderful locations. You've got Fort Mill, South Carolina, and Mount Pleasant. Describe, you know the different services and type of providers you guys have there.
Speaker 3:Absolutely so. At our Fort Mill office it's myself and I'm the functional medicine provider and clinic director there. Lauren Lewis is our direct primary care provider, so she will offer direct primary care, which is more access to your primary care provider. She does get to spend more time with patients than a typical primary care visit. And then we also have a nutritionist on staff too. Her name is Megan Tomlinson and she also really talks about healing these metabolic issues and focusing on diet and lifestyle for patients as well. And then at our Mount Pleasant office we just opened that this year we are working on getting it up and running, but we have a wonderful functional medicine provider there named Emily, and her and I are working closely together to make sure that all of those patients are getting what they need, and I think in the next year we'll be expanding to more services there.
Speaker 2:That is super cool. So in the world of nutrition diet, gut do you find a common theme with most of us? I mean, like gluten, just kind of pinged in my head is this trigger for so many people? Is that really a huge issue when you're drilling down with a lot of patients?
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's definitely not something that affects everyone. I always say everyone's uniques are different and we all have this different sized bucket. You know, some of my patients have a really small bucket and anything sends them over the edge, and some patients have a really large bucket that they can tolerate so much. So it really just depends on the patient what their labs show and what their nutritional protocol will be. The world of functional medicine is so individualized so it's not a one size fits all approach. Most of us grew up on the standard American diet and I think that that we are seeing those side effects or the implications come from that, and I have a lot of patients, such of yourself, you know, saying I feel like I'm doing everything right, but our team really figures out where we're falling short and why you're not feeling great.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's kind of terrifying to think, okay, I'm going to come see you and I have to cut out sugar and gluten and all the fun things that we love. Yeah, very, very intimidating, but I love the idea. Give me an example, or maybe there's several of some patients that their journey just really stands out in your mind, how you just switch something and now they're vibrant and just happy, happy.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, there's so many that come to mind. That's why I love this area of medicine. I have so many success stories from patients. Something simple though you know, I had a patient who suffered from migraines almost every single day. She would keep a migraine log and, after working together, I don't think she's had a headache for six plus weeks now. So we're still on that calendar of getting to a point where she doesn't have them anymore, and it took looking at her gut and fixing some nutritional things, and that was so impactful to her quality of life. Not only did she have to take medication to help with it, but obviously just made her day to day her feel pretty crappy. So that's something that comes to mind and I was so thankful to have been able to help that patient.
Speaker 2:I've always heard like, like gluten. If you're going to eliminate something dairy, do it for 30 days and you'll know. Is that true?
Speaker 3:It can be. I will say for some of my sicker, more complex patients, it does take more time. Complex patients it does take more time. Their body is so sensitive and the 30 days sometimes is not enough. So I know you mentioned, you know, being scared of making those dietary changes. But to help reframe is think of like the feelings that can come from having more energy, less pain, less brain fog and that is really kind of the reward that you have when you change, make those changes in your diet and lifestyle.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. How long have you been doing this?
Speaker 3:I have been doing this for over two years now, but I've been in healthcare ever since I graduated nursing school in 2016.
Speaker 2:That's amazing. It's so, so interesting and, yeah, it's just so popular now and I, after talking with you, I can see why. So tell our listeners how to find you guys and reach out.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely so. Our Fort Mill office is located across from Baxter Village. We have a phone number that you can call if you want to get on the schedule. That is 704-625-2994. We also have a website you can visit, that's fhccarolinascom. From there you can see our services, our team, look at some reviews that patients have said and there's a form you can fill out to get on the schedule for either myself or the other provider, lauren.
Speaker 2:And what ages Do you work with children?
Speaker 3:We do not right now. We're hoping in the future to be able to work with children. We do not right now. We're hoping in the future to be able to work with children, but we see adults only.
Speaker 2:Gotcha. Well, thank you so much for your time, Chelsey. So so interesting, and I see why you guys are so successful and popular. Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 3:Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to GNPSouthCharlotte. com. That's GNPSouthCharlotte. com, or call 980-351-5719.