What if better food — not a pill — is what you need to treat what’s ailing you?
That’s the question Charles Wispert started asking himself about two decades ago. As a certified physician assistant (PA-C) who’s worked in urology, emergency medicine and orthopedics, Wispert remembers patients coming with unexplained back or other pain: “We’d look at them from an orthopedic standpoint, and it’s like, ‘There’s nothing wrong here.’”
Wispert knew his patients were experiencing something real. That’s how he came across functional medicine.
While the term may not have been that familiar 20 years ago, functional medicine is all the buzz today. Rather than medicating illnesses, it’s an evidence-based approach that dives deep into the root causes of chronic diseases like diabetes, gastrointestinal issues, pain, autoimmune disease, even cancer or Alzheimer’s, then treats them based on lifestyle, environmental, genetic, hormonal and biochemical factors.
In many ways, it starts with the food we eat. For Hillary Fox, a national board-certified health and wellness coach and a certified functional medicine health coach for her company Hillary Fox Wellness, Inc., her journey began with autoimmune issues in her own family related to a specific gene.
Because gluten among other things is a trigger, Fox started tossing out the easy frozen dinners and processed foods that many of us with busy schedules rely on, switching to gluten-free, organic and cleaner foods.
“It’s pretty miraculous how life-changing those small changes have been,” she says. “It really started me on a trajectory of curiosity where I started questioning what else I don’t know.”
Functional medicine always starts with “the why.” For Wispert, cofounder of Augusta-based Live Healthy Functional Medicine, patients come to him looking for answers as to why they have chronic pain or high cholesterol or diabetes — and who don’t want to be on 15 different medications.
He points out that the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates once said, “Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,” as well as “All disease begins in the gut.” “That is a basic principle from medicine from the beginning,” he adds. “It’s gotten lost over the years where you just come up with a pill to treat something.”
Food For Thought
- About 38 million people have diabetes, and 1 in 5 don’t know they have it. (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; cdc.gov.)
- Fifteen million people, or 4.6% of the U.S. population, were diagnosed with at least one autoimmune disease between January 2011 and January 2022, and 34% of those individuals were diagnosed with more than one autoimmune disease. (Mayo Clinic News Network; newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org)
- In 2024, an estimated 2,001,140 new cases of cancer were projected to be diagnosed in the United States and 611,720 people were projected to die from the disease. (United States Cancer Institute; cancer.gov)
- Nearly 7 million Americans have Alzheimer’s disease. (Alzheimer’s Association; alz.org)
- American Gastrointestinal Association released new data that shows nearly 40% of Americans have stopped routine activities in 2022 due to uncomfortable bowel symptoms. (American Gastrointestinal Association; gastro.org)
In treating patients, functional medicine specialists do extensive lab work to zero in on nutritional deficiencies, biomarkers and genetics. Based on those findings, they develop an individualized plan for each patient and their health problem. “Imbalances in one area can throw off balance in another area,” says Fox.
For example, for some people with a gluten intolerance, eating bread can lead to joint pain, or people with a regular diet of salty, rich restaurant food may find that they struggle with ongoing stomach issues.
Anyone interested in dipping a toe into functional medicine can start right now with what they put on their plates. For example, says Fox, shop mostly in the perimeter of a grocery store for fresh meats, fruits and vegetables. With plant-based foods, eat the rainbow — people who enjoy 30 or more plant-based foods a week have been found to have a more diverse mix of gut microbes than those who eat less than 10, according to the American Gut project. And opt for organic and pasture-raised meat, eggs and dairy as much as you can to avoid hormones, antibiotics and pesticides in traditionally raised products.
“A heart attack doesn’t happen overnight. Cancer doesn’t happen overnight,” says Fox. “What a functional medicine lens allows us to do is start to see the imbalances as little canaries in a coal mine before they get to a point where it’s a diagnosis. It’s a process of learning to work with your body rather than against it.”
She adds, “I believe one day functional and conventional will converge as just plain medicine. It has to — we need tools from both.”
To learn more, visit livehealthyfunctionalmedicine.com or www.hillaryfoxwellness.com.
Food For Thought
- Proper nutrition and “clean” food as energy for the body can protect against chronic illnesses like heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Here are some benefits of healthy eating.
- • Vegetables and fruits are essential sources of vitamins, minerals, fiber, plant protein and antioxidants.
- • Benefits of diets rich in vegetables and fruits include reduced personal risk of obesity, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and certain types of cancer.
- • Plant fats (olive, avocado, sunflower nut oils) instead of mass-produced saturated fats (butter, ghee, lard) lower risks of heart disease and stoke.
- • Limiting ultra-processed refined sugars improves mental clarity, skin and blood sugar control. Avoiding drinks high in sugar like sodas, fruit juices and popular coffees helps dental health, liver function and energy levels
Source: who.int/initiatives/behealthy/healthy-diet
Recipe courtesy of Hillary Fox.
Seen in the May 2025 issue of Augusta magazine
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