The Problem with Traditional Healthcare

For the last 3-4 years, I’ve been wrestling with an onslaught of chronic health issues that completely derailed my life. Gut problems, a shaky immune system, and persistent skin flare-ups seemed to tag team against me, and no one could connect the dots. The traditional healthcare system—as much as I respect and appreciate it for acute issues—just didn’t have the tools to tackle my tangled mess of symptoms.

It started with bloating so bad it felt like my stomach was about to explode and fiery stomach pain after eating at restaurants. I’d sneak off to the bathroom to unbutton my pants and pray my coat would cover the carnage. My gastroenterologist’s solution? “Probably GERD, here’s some acid blockers.” Wrong. After years of this, a biopsy finally revealed H. pylori. Then came SIBO. Treating these helped for a while, but the relief was fleeting.

Not pregnant, just painfully bloated - again :(

As if that wasn’t enough, I was getting sick every three months—like clockwork. It didn’t matter if it was the flu, a cold, or COVID, the pattern was the same: one miserable week of flu-like symptoms, followed by 2-3 weeks of a hacking cough that wouldn’t quit. Meanwhile, my friends—who were just as social and travel-happy as I was—seemed to skate through unscathed. Cue the jokes and pity: “Oh, Kylee’s sick again. Shocker.”

The cherry on top? Chronic perioral dermatitis. The skin around my mouth became a battleground of dry, inflamed patches. Five dermatologists later, I’d heard it all—from “try steroids” to “stop using steroids immediately”—with no consensus or cure in sight. One thing they all agreed on: “You’ll probably just have to manage this forever.” Fab.

Enter Functional Medicine

That’s when a friend introduced me to Dr. Jake Wardwell, a medical doctor with an emphasis in functional medicine in San Francisco. The friend swore he’d cured her and her husband’s chronic stomach issues, so despite my skepticism with functional medicine, I decided to give it a shot. Functional medicine, for those who don’t know, looks at the whole body and how its systems interact. Instead of patching up symptoms, it asks, “What’s really causing this?” Unlike conventional medicine, which often focuses on treating individual symptoms and bodily systems (like specializing in skin or liver function), functional medicine seeks to identify the root causes of health issues by examining how various systems in the body work together. It's often referred to as "integrative" medicine interchangeably.

Is Functional Medicine Legit?

Functional medicine is a relatively new field, originating in the 1990s as a response to the increasing prevalence of chronic illnesses that conventional medicine often struggles to address. Functional medicine integrates findings from biochemistry, genetics, and systems biology to develop personalized care plans, emphasizing the connections between diet, environment, and lifestyle in preventing and managing disease.

Critics point out its cost and lack of widespread insurance coverage, which is often due to functional medicine’s focus on individualized care and advanced testing methods that are not yet universally accepted as standard medical practice. Insurance companies tend to cover treatments and diagnostics that fit within conventional models, while functional medicine relies on comprehensive, specialized tests and personalized protocols that fall outside these parameters. For patients with complex or unique health issues that fall outside the standard deviation of care, functional medicine can help uncover the root causes of their conditions due to super personalized testing.

There are now multiple reputable studies to prove the effectiveness of functional medicine. A 2019 Cleveland Clinic study involving 7,000 patients showed that functional medicine led to higher health-related quality of life improvements compared to primary care. By combining advanced diagnostics, personalized care, and lifestyle interventions, functional medicine often addresses challenges conventional approaches struggle to solve. Another 2022 paper from Integrative Medicine: A Clinical Journal analyzed another handful of studies and concluded that “patients in the Functional Medicine treatment group had statistically improved pain and physical health scores compared to those in the standard-of-care cohort.”

My Functional Medicine Process: Diagnosis & Protocols

Ok, so we’re on board with functional medicine. Here’s what my ~8 month process looked like:

Step 1: Gut Health Testing (March)

Dr. Wardwell started with a stool test to analyze my microbiome and a comprehensive blood panel. These tests & results analysis revealed what traditional labs had missed: my gut was in a state of extreme dysbiosis. Here’s how Dr. Wardwell explained it in layman’s terms: Something had triggered a severe imbalance in my gut bacteria, leading to an overgrowth of yeast (often referred to as Candida overgrowth). This yeast overgrowth caused a cascade of issues: it led to a bacterial infection in my gut, which suppressed my immune system and impaired my digestion. Because my body wasn’t absorbing key nutrients like zinc and B12, it couldn’t fight off the infection effectively. The chronic immune suppression manifested as constant illness, while the perioral dermatitis and canker sores were outward signs of my immune system struggling to keep up.

My blood test showed high cortisol & A1c, low white blood cell count, and deficiencies in zinc, iron, and B12.
My stool test showed the presence of yeast, low good bacteria, & low secretory IgA, indicating a bacterial infection from a yeast overgrowth

Step 2: The First Protocol (April - May)

The initial two-month plan was intense but eye-opening: I was taking 14 pills a day at four different times of day: 4 supplements at breakfast, 3 at lunch, 3 at dinner, and 4 before bed every single day for 8 weeks. On top of that, I wasn’t allowed to drink, making the bachelorette I was attending in May a tad tricky (read more about my journey to reduce drinking in general). It was a lot to manage, but I was committed to seeing it through.

Supplements: A cocktail of Vitamin D3, zinc, B12, and iron, along with a digestive enzyme, to address deficiencies and malabsorption.
Antifungal Treatment: Fluconazole and natural/herbal antifungals to tackle yeast overgrowth.
Probiotics & Prebiotics: Orthobiotic and Ortho Spore IG to rebuild my microbiome.
Diet: The Candida Diet—basically, no sugar, no starch. Translation: no fun.
Cortisol: Less running and HIIT, more yoga and strength training. More meditation, journaling and therapy. Less coffee, more tea (loving Pique right now).

Total cost for this phase? Around $1,000, including testing ($400), supplements ($300), prescriptions ($100), and consultations ($200). It wasn’t cheap, but within weeks, I could actually feel the supplements bolstering my immune system. I even came down with a cold, bracing myself for my usual misery. But then, magically, it was just a cold. I was better in a few days. I could tell something was working.

What is the Candida Diet?

The Candida Diet is a pretty restrictive diet that focuses on eliminating starches & sugars from the diet, which is something that yeast feeds/thrives on. By eliminating these from the diet, you limit the yeast’s food supply and cut off it’s ability to further grow. Here’s what you can and cannot eat on the Candida Diet:

Step 3: OAT Test & Second Protocol (June - August)

After eight weeks, Dr. Wardwell ordered a follow-up test called the Organic Acid Test or "OAT" and another blood test. Here’s what we found:

Yeast overgrowth had significantly reduced.
Vitamin levels improved, but my D3 and iron needed a bit more work.
A potential methylation issue that could affect hormone metabolism and detox pathways.

We adjusted the protocol for 2 more months of:

Continued combating the Candida with the herbal antibacterial supplement & Candida diet.
Adjusted my vitamins, continuing the D3 and iron supplementation and adding Mitocore due to potential methylation issues..
Focused on good sleep, reducing stress, and exercise.

Between the tests ($200), analysis ($200) and supplements ($200), this phase was about $600. At this point, I was feeling moderate improvement across all of my target areas, but no magical breakthroughs.

Step 4: Methylation Test & Third Protocol (August)

Since we’d yet to have a breakthrough, I opted for the methylation test Dr. Wardwell suggested before the 2nd protocol was complete. This was a game-changer. This specialized test identifies genetic or functional weaknesses in your body's ability to use vitamins like folate and B12 effectively, which can impact overall health and contribute to chronic conditions. Mine revealed mild impairments in my body's ability to activate folate and produce methionine, which explained some lingering issues with kicking my yeast overgrowth.

The adjusted protocol included 1 month of the following supplement adjustments:

Add NaC, selenomethionine, and methyl CPG, supplements to support methylation and detox.
Keep existing Mitocore, probiotic and vitamin D w/ K3 in rotation.
Stop the candida-specific supplements.

Test ($400), analysis ($200), and supplements ($200): $800 more dollars. Big money, but so worth it.

The Results: Where I Am Now

As I write this, it's three months after finishing my final protocol, and my immune system is the strongest it’s been in years. My dermatitis has all but disappeared, and my gut is finally behaving itself (most of the time). I went from feeling like a medical zombie, wandering aimlessly through a maze of symptoms and dead-end diagnoses, to an enlightened explorer holding a personalized roadmap to my exact cure.

The Costs of Healing

Real talk: By the end of the year, I’d spent around $3,000 on functional medicine—including tests, supplements, and consultations. It’s a lot. But when I look at the progress I’ve made, it feels worth every penny.

My Hope for a Better Healthcare Future

Functional medicine gave me my life back, but it’s not accessible to everyone. The costs can be prohibitive, and insurance rarely covers much of it. My hope is that we can bridge the gap between conventional and functional medicine, making this kind of care available to more people who desperately need it.

For anyone out there struggling with chronic health issues, don’t give up. Sometimes, the answers lie in places you’ve been conditioned to overlook. Functional medicine might just be that place for you.