Functional Medicine · Santa Fe, NM
Conventional care is superb at naming a disease and matching a drug to it. Functional medicine asks the question underneath: why is this body behaving this way, and what does it need in order to repair? For the complaints that keep testing normal, that difference is the whole game.
Two doctors can look at the same patient — exhausted, bloated, aching, thirty pounds heavier than three years ago — and ask completely different questions.
The first asks which diagnosis does this match? It is a good question. It produces a name, a code, and usually a prescription, and for acute illness and emergency medicine it is the right question and it saves lives.
The second asks why is this happening? Not what to call it — what caused it, what is sustaining it, and what would have to change for it to stop. That is functional medicine, and it is a slower, more interesting conversation.
The clinical model behind it is straightforward. Every chronic problem has antecedents — the genetics, history and early exposures that set the stage. It has triggers — the illness, injury, pregnancy, bereavement or chemical exposure that started it. And it has mediators — the things happening right now that keep it going: inflammation, blood sugar, hormone clearance, gut permeability, nutrient status, stress load. Symptom care addresses none of the three. Functional medicine goes looking for all of them.
The Unusual Part
Plenty of clinicians practise one of these. Holding all four at once — and using them on the same patient in the same hour — is rare, and it is what Dr. Sheppard has spent thirty years building.
The systems view: the body as one connected network rather than a set of organs filed under separate specialists. Advanced training in cellular biology and the core metabolic pathways the body uses to heal, detoxify and produce energy — the framework taught by the Institute for Functional Medicine.
The structural half, and the part most functional-medicine practitioners simply do not have. A graduate of Palmer College of Chiropractic West, licensed in New Mexico and California, adjusting with the gentle instrument-assisted technique the practice is known for. How we treat.
Manual muscle testing as an assessment tool — a way to question the body directly about where a structural, nutritional or neurological problem sits, and to check whether a correction held. A member of the International College of Applied Kinesiology for more than twenty years. More on applied kinesiology.
The layer that ties the other three together. Sensory nerve fibres dulled by chemical, metal or microbial insult stop functioning at capacity and drift into hyper- or hypo-sensitivity — and physiological regulation drifts with them. Advanced training in neurology, in the tradition of the Carrick Institute.
Why it matters: a nutritional problem with a structural cause gets solved by neither a nutritionist nor a chiropractor working alone. It gets solved by someone who can see both at once.
The Model
Support all three and the body stops fighting itself.
Your spine houses and protects the nervous system that coordinates every function in your body — movement, healing, sensation, even organ function. When spinal joints lose alignment or motion, those signals get distorted. Gentle, precise chiropractic care restores them.
Every cell in your body is built from — and runs on — what you absorb. We use functional testing to find the nutrients your biology actually needs, then supply them with professional-grade formulas so your body can repair, detoxify, and produce energy.
Movement, sleep, stress, and periodic detoxification decide how well your body rebuilds itself year after year. We help you build small, sustainable habits — because habits compounded over decades are the most powerful medicine there is.
What Happens
Not a form — a conversation. When did this start, what else was happening in your life then, what have you already tried, what changed when you tried it.
Because the nervous system coordinates everything downstream, and because a structural cause hiding under a biochemical complaint is common enough to look for every time.
Blood chemistry read for optimal function rather than merely the absence of disease; body composition; muscle testing to narrow the search before spending money on labs. What we test.
What we found, what we think is driving it, what to change first, and what should improve by when — so you can tell whether it is working.
Honestly
It is worth being clear, because "functional medicine" gets used loosely and sometimes badly.
She is glad to coordinate with the rest of your care, and says so to every new patient.
Who It Helps
These are rarely separate problems filed under separate specialists. They are usually one system under strain, showing itself in several places at once.
Her lecture series goes into several of these in depth — allergies, hormones, and environmental load.
"Conventional medicine asks which disease this is. I want to know why this body, this year, stopped doing what it used to do."— Dr. Patricia Sheppard
Questions
Conventional medicine asks "which disease is this, and which drug matches it?" Functional medicine asks "why is this happening, and what does this body need in order to heal?" It treats the body as one connected system and goes after causes rather than symptoms.
It is longer, and it starts with history rather than a prescription pad. Expect a full hour, a structural and neurological examination, functional laboratory testing where it adds clarity, and a written plan in plain English.
No. Dr. Sheppard is a Doctor of Chiropractic with advanced training in functional medicine, applied kinesiology and neurology. We do not prescribe pharmaceuticals or replace your physician — we work on nutrition, structure and lifestyle, and we are glad to coordinate with the rest of your care.
The ones that get called vague: fatigue, digestive complaints, food and environmental reactivity, hormonal imbalance, difficulty losing weight, and feeling steadily worse while every standard test comes back normal.
Yes — at 1330 Cerro Gordo Road Unit A2, Santa Fe, NM 87501, and at the San Rafael, California office. Call (415) 332-0621.
A nutritionist works on what you eat. Functional medicine asks why your body is not doing what it should with what you already eat — absorption, detoxification, hormone clearance, blood sugar regulation — and includes the structural and neurological side of that question, which a nutrition consultation does not cover.
Coverage varies by plan and state. Call the office and we'll help you understand your options before your first visit.
It depends entirely on what is driving the problem and how long it has been there. You will get a written plan that says what should change and roughly by when, so you can judge whether it is working rather than taking it on faith.
The combination rather than any single piece: functional medicine, chiropractic, applied kinesiology and applied neurology in one practitioner, over thirty years. Most clinicians hold one or two. More about Dr. Sheppard.
Functional medicine in Santa Fe, NM and San Rafael, CA
