- Holistic functional and Chinese medicine in beautiful California
Menu
Get to the root-cause of your health condition with an in-depth consultation and cutting edge lab tests. Recover your health and vitality with personalized nutrition and supplement plans. Enjoy advanced 21st century medicine that combines ancient and modern wisdom.
The human body is a biocomputer that processes information, regulates functions, and adapts to stimuli using intricate biological mechanisms and feedback loops.
Functional Herbal Medicine
With multiple systems combining physical, emotional, mental and spiritual dimensions
Systems biology is a holistic approach to health, emphasizing the balance and interaction within the body’s systems and with its environment to achieve wellness.
Functional medicine and Chinese medicine treat you and your body as a whole functioning ecosystem, with multiple systems combining physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual dimensions.
The system of medicine practiced by most western physicians is based on acute care – the treatment of trauma or illness that needs urgent care. That might be something like appendicitis or a heart attack, or a broken limb, or acute pain. The treatments typically include pharmaceutical drugs, surgery, or both.
Acute care is very important, but it lacks the proper methodology and tools for preventing and treating complex, multifactorial chronic conditions like Autoimmunity or Diabetes or Anxiety. Acute care is simply not designed to treat these problems effectively because it addresses symptoms rather than understanding the systemic-level dysfunction that led to the problem. It is based on a reductionist model of the body that is too simplistic for today’s world.
We see the evidence of this in our practice almost daily, with new patients who have run the gamut of the conventional healthcare system, having seen some of the most talented physicians in their fields, and tried multiple therapies. But they still don’t feel well. In many cases they don’t even have an accurate diagnosis.
At Alchemy Radiant Health, our approach treats you and your body as a whole functioning ecosystem, with multiple systems combining physical, emotional, mental, and even spiritual dimensions. Fundamental to the Alchemy Healing System is the concept of a human blueprint. This is a multilayered view of our life plan as an individual being, that encompasses not just our unique genetic makeup, but also our spiritual roadmap for the lessons to be learned in this life. We do not separate the body from the environment or the challenges you face in your day to day life. We believe in Qi or life force, the underlying palpable energy that connects all life and experience.
This approach to healthcare show us that the solution to your condition is much more complex than relieving symptoms, so we get to the root of your health challenge by combining the very latest science from Functional Medicine with the wisdom and systems approach of Chinese Medicine.
Functional medicine and Chinese medicine share a similar view of diagnosis and care – namely that our bodies are a complex and sophisticated web of multiple systems and organs, all of which can and do impact each other. This extends even beyond purely physical aspects, recognizing that emotions, trauma, life experience and our interactions with family, friends, and the environment all influence our health. Part of the explanation lies in epigenetics…
Between 1990 and 2003 the Human Genome Project gave us the complete genetic blueprint for building a human being. Scientists involved in the project hoped that a better understanding our DNA would unlock the genetic basis for a wide variety of illnesses, and that this understanding would open up new possibilities for healing. What we’ve learned since then is that this was a somewhat simplistic view.
Adding more flavor is that science science now recognizes that the gut microbiome – the universe of friendly and unfriendly bacteria living in our gut, plays a central role in our health. It’s now well understood that the health of the gut impacts almost every aspect of the body’s systems including the brain and the immune functions. As an example, the gut is home to 70% of our immune system, and manufactures 90% of the neurotransmitter Serotonin. Serotonin is responsible for regulating mood and social behavior, appetite and digestion, sleep, memory, and sexual desire and function. So an unhealthy gut from poor food or lifestyle choices can lead to multiple systemic failures throughout the body, with physical, mental, and emotional impacts.
The behavior of a person’s genes doesn’t just depend on the genes’ DNA sequence – it’s also affected by so called “epigenetic” factors. Epigenetics tells us that the biological mechanisms that switch genes on and off are influenced by a huge array of lifestyle factors such as what you eat, where you live, who you interact with, when you sleep, how you exercise, how much stress you carry, whether you had a vaginal birth or a C-Section, and many more. All of these factors can result in chemical modifications around the genes that will turn those genes on or off over time, leading to differing levels of health and vitality, or degeneration and disease.
Both Functional Medicine and Chinese Medicine recognize this holistic and systemic view and apply this understanding to bring the body back to a state of health. So why both and what’s the difference between them?
Chinese Medicine is the original systems-based medicine, with a successful lineage going back many thousands of years to the early Taoist Sages. It understands the body as a system of organs and processes interconnected by energetic highways, or “meridians”. Using a combination of acupuncture and herbal formulas, the practitioner seeks to bring the body back to a state of balance and health. By diagnosing and treating the whole person as a complete system, the patient is cured and their symptoms relieved.
Functional Medicine brings the time-honored holistic approach of Chinese Medicine into the modern age and fuses it with the latest evidence-based scientific research. It uses the understanding that our genetics, environment, and lifestyle interact as a whole system to diagnose and treat diseases based on patterns of imbalance and dysfunction – without treating the disease specifically. Functional medicine focuses on treating the person, not the disease.
Functional Medicine and Chinese Medicine share the same philosophical approach of diagnosing and treating the whole human, and each has unique benefits that can be tailored to the patient’s journey.
Dr. Josse is one of a very small and select group of practitioners certified to practice both Chinese and Functional Medicine.
Restoring your health takes time and patience. In many cases your current health is the result of years or decades of poor health choices or stressful conditions and expecting meaningful results in a few days or weeks isn’t realistic. Stress comes in many forms – physical, emotional, psychological, and environmental to name just a few, and none of us are immune. For this reason we typically work with treatment programs with all our patients, ranging from 3 to 12 months in duration.
Getting well will take an investment of commitment and money on your part, but the exciting news is that functional medicine works and nearly all patients can recover their health! The question you need to ask yourself honestly before taking the next step is, “Am I willing to change?”
During a 60-minute Initial Assessment call, Dr. Josse will review and discuss with you your health history and intake, recommend appropriate functional lab tests to diagnose the root causes of your condition, and personalize an initial lifestyle and nutrition plan.
Based on the results of your initial consultation, our lab partner will ship one or more lab kits to your home via Fedex or UPS. You simply need to collect urine and/or stool samples and return them to the lab in a pre-paid package. For blood labs we'll provide you with a lab order to take to your local LabCorp service center. In all cases, the process is simple and typically quite fast.
In this comprehensive phone consultation, Dr. Josse will review lab results and findings with you to create a personalized supplement and nutrition treatment program.
We'll email you a supplement prescription with a link to pay online. You'll receive your order within a couple of days.
A first follow-up phone consultation one month after labs to review progress and adjust your program. Additional consultations every 4-6 weeks during your program.
Request a 15 minute phone strategy session to learn more about our process and get started.
