Dear Friends,
Since the age of nineteen, I have had a vision of creating a multi-specialty holistic medical clinic. Seventeen years ago, I opened the Center for Hope and Healing in Novelty, Ohio. It was my first step toward the realization of this vision. When I initially opened the Center in November 1997, I was offering predominantly Reiki treatments and counseling women on Natural Hormone Replacement Therapy. Then, in 1998, I was introduced to the field of Functional Medicine. It would be the scientific basis of Functional Medicine that would serve as a foundation to revolutionize my scientific thinking and perception of health and disease. Through the scientific view of Functional Medicine, I have been able to develop a safe and effective medical model to prevent and reverse chronic disease that is practical and reproducible. Functional Medicine is a new medical model that has been emerged in our culture over the last 30 years under the guidance of Dr. Jeffery Bland, a nutritional biochemist. He defines Functional Medicine as a science based health-care that identifies and addresses the underlying biochemical, physiological, psychological, and environmental factors to reverse disease progression and enhance vitality. This model revives the basic biochemistry and physiology that doctors learn in the first two years of medical school, and applies the evolving perception of Systems thinking to the medical field. When we use Systems thinking, wethen view the individual in the context of his or her internal and external environment. We see the body as a symphony of interconnected systems: the psycho-neuro-endocrine-environmental-immune system. We are all one complex conversation made up of the various systems in our bodies. These systems include:
blood sugar regulation
immune system function
gastrointestinal health
thyroid function
adrenal health
reproductive hormone signaling
cardiovascular health
nervous system health
detoxification and elimination
nutrition balance
environmental exposures
structural balance
mental and emotional health
If one of these systems is out of tune, it throws the whole symphony into disharmony. Over time, chronic disharmony leads to chronic disease. It takes on average 10 to 20 years to develop disease once these disharmonies begin. However, many of us experience the symptoms of these disharmonies as fatigue, stiffness, ill-defined pain, joint pain, irritable bowel, headaches, brain fog, mood disorders, blood pressure or blood sugar elevation, cholesterol abnormalities, insomnia, weight gain and other nonspecific changes that our doctors often are unable to explain. With this new medical model, Functional Medicine has positioned itself to be the primary preventive medicine of the future. Each person who comes to the Center experiences a complete Functional Medical assessment. The complex interplay of all their systems is evaluated through history review, physical examination, and extensive laboratory testing. The findings are then presented to the individual in an education format to help them understand the why of their dis-ease. The Center for Hope and Healing thus becomes a school for self-care. The founding principles of the school are to help individuals develop self-awareness, how their life choices affect the way they feel. They also develop self-empowerment: the ability to learn how to make choices that lead to optimal health. The Center provides a community that encourages you as you take this unique and personal journey of self-transformation, so that you feel supported and validated as you face and heal patterns and choices that no longer serve you. In essence, we evaluate the warning lights on your dashboard and look for pre-disease tendencies, and then design lifestyle and nutritional interventions tailored to each individual to reverse disease progression and enhance vitality. The degree of system dysfunction already present determines the depth and length of the interventions. Three to six months is the average time until the individual graduates from the school of self-care. Their goal upon graduation is to manage their own health with confidence and satisfaction. Periodic evaluations and involvement in ongoing classes and support groups create a wellness community that leads to sustained change. We invite you to come and join us in this exciting and hope-filled adventure of self-discovery to transform you and help you achieve optimum health in mind, body, and spirit. Blessings and be well,
Dorothy Sprecher MD
