As a physician specializing in integrative and functional medicine, I’m passionate about helping my patients achieve optimal aging. This means living your best life at any age, feeling vibrant, engaged, and fulfilled. It’s about embracing the beauty of the aging process while taking proactive steps to maintain your health and vitality.
The Nava Method was developed to create a personalized approach to optimal aging, address chronic illnesses at their root cause, and, ideally, prevent them altogether!
What is Integrative and Functional Medicine?
Integrative medicine combines the best of conventional medicine with complementary therapies. It considers the whole person, taking a 360-degree view of physical health. Functional medicine, a subset of integrative medicine, focuses on identifying and addressing the root causes of disease. It’s a proactive approach to healthcare that aims to prevent illness and optimize overall health.
The Key to Optimal Aging
Health optimization is the core of integrative and functional medicine. It’s about creating a personalized plan to help you achieve your best possible health. This involves assessing your current health status, identifying underlying imbalances, and developing a comprehensive treatment plan.
Root cause approaches to medicine are essential for optimal aging , including looking at genetics, nutrition, lifestyle, and environmental exposures. By addressing the underlying causes of disease, we can prevent most chronic illnesses and improve overall health.
Generally speaking, there are many things you can do to get on the right path to aging well.
Here are a few essential tips:
- Eat a healthy diet: Focus on whole, unprocessed foods, such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains. Limit your intake of processed foods, sugary drinks, and unhealthy fats.
- Get regular exercise: Aim for at least 30 minutes of moderate-intensity exercise most days.
- Get enough sleep: Most adults need around 7-8 hours per night.
- Manage stress: Find healthy ways to manage stress, such as yoga, meditation, or spending time in nature.
- Maintain social connections: Social interaction is important for physical and mental health. Make time for regular social activities with friends and family.
Additional Tips for Health Optimization:
- Get regular checkups: It’s important to see your doctor for regular checkups, even if you feel healthy. This can help detect any potential health problems early on.
- Don’t smoke: Smoking is a major risk factor for many chronic diseases. Quitting smoking is one of the best things you can do for your health.
- Limit alcohol consumption: Excessive alcohol consumption can damage your health in many ways.
- Take care of your mental health: Mental health is just as important as physical health. If you’re struggling with stress, anxiety, or depression, seek professional help.
Integrative and Functional Medicine: A Path to Optimal Aging
While these tips are solid and helpful if you are trying to make general lifestyle improvements, there is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to living optimally. From underlying issues to lifestyle conditions, many factors can influence our health, and a truly personalized approach is required for health optimization.
We are all unique, and one of the many benefits of an integrative approach to optimized health is customizing a plan for the individual. A personalized plan working with your integrative physician takes your entire health history and unique lifestyle factors into account, making one approach more successful.
Integrative and functional medicine can help you achieve optimal aging by providing a personalized, root-cause approach to healthcare. Working with an integrative team of practitioners, you can develop a plan to address your specific health needs and goals.
Remember, there is always time to start on the path to optimal aging. By taking proactive steps to care for your health, you can live a longer, healthier, and more fulfilling life.
Contact Nava Health for your integrative wellness consultation and get on the path to a healthier life now and into the future.
A Medical Director, and one of the first physicians to join the Nava Health & Vitality Center, Dr. Douglas Lord has made significant contributions to our Center and its founding principles. Dr. Lord has helped develop and implement the Nava Method™—Nava’s proprietary approach to total body wellness. He has also been instrumental in liaising with other expert practitioners to successfully implement Nava’s range of therapies, treatments, and products.