Functional Medicine in Atlanta, GA
Functional medicine expands the toolkit that doctors have at their disposal to diagnose and treat chronic diseases by identifying their root cause. Wellspring MD offers a unique medical model that combines functional medicine with traditional primary care in order to provide comprehensive care to our patients. Dr. Jason Bailey, a primary care physician and certified functional medicine physician with nearly 30 years of medical experience, cares for every aspect of his patients’ health. Dr. Ranya Bailey, a certified nutritional therapy practitioner, offers our members nutritional therapy to support their overall health. As a team, we offer patients the chance to revolutionize their health in one clinic, without needing to coordinate care between separate primary and functional doctors. Adding functional medicine tools to primary care helps us form a deep understanding of your health story. If you choose to remain with your current primary care provider, we are also happy to provide you with functional medicine through our Wellspring Vital membership tier. Join Wellspring MD to experience personalized, innovative functional medicine right here in Atlanta.
What is Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine is more than just alternative therapies or supplement options. While functional medicine treatment does draw on multiple healing modalities, true functional medicine is a deeper, more personalized approach to healthcare. It sees the human body as made up of interconnected biological systems. A variety of factors can affect one or more of these systems, including sleep quality, exercise, nutrition, toxins, environmental factors, infections, and acute or chronic sources of stress.
When one of the systems in your body is out of balance, other elements of your mental and physical health will be affected, and the imbalances may eventually progress to a recognized disease. Although you may not have the exact symptoms of a diagnosable disease at first, you may notice a difference in your energy, sleep, weight, skin, mood, mental health, fitness, emotions, or appetite. The goal of functional medicine is to identify these symptoms and find their root cause, restoring balance and improving total health.
Functional medicine is especially effective for treating complex chronic symptoms or illnesses. It also helps us address symptoms and restore balance before patients reach the point of having multiple diagnoses or acute healthcare events. Rather than rejecting conventional care, it provides us with additional tools to understand and diagnose the symptoms our patients are experiencing.
The Institute for Functional Medicine was started in 1991 by Susan Bland and Dr. Jeffrey Bland. They recognized that chronic diseases needed a new treatment approach that built upon the medication-focused care of the 20th century. They started the IFM because they envisioned a collaborative healthcare model where patients and their doctors partnered together to evaluate their symptoms, find the root cause of systemic imbalances, and optimize their health.
What Do Functional Medicine Doctors Do?
A functional medicine doctor is a certified, traditionally educated doctor who has additional training and experience in functional medicine. Functional medicine doctors have a thorough understanding of the biochemical processes taking place in your body, bringing together scientific and clinical knowledge to deliver personalized care. Rather than limiting treatment to pharmaceutical solutions, functional medicine prioritizes a broader approach. At our clinic, Dr. Jason Bailey spends time with patients gathering a comprehensive medical history and performing extensive testing. By offering comprehensive testing for 100s of markers and conditions, we seek to identify the unique conditions that exist in each patient’s body, rather than simply matching their symptoms to the closest general diagnosis.
A detailed investigative process allows us to provide customized health interventions. We integrate traditional primary care with functional medicine to provide our patients with every medical option that might be helpful for them. This means that we can provide GLP-1s, commercial medications, compounded medications, bioidentical hormone replacements, and supplements. We can recommend personalized exercise routines, customize and refine a nutrition plan with you, and provide traditional medication to manage health concerns. We rule out serious health conditions that could be causing your symptoms, but if we do not find a “serious” condition, we do not stop there! We take the time to dive into the imbalances that are causing your discomfort. For patients who already have a primary care provider, we coordinate our care to provide functional medicine that complements the traditional primary care you are receiving.
Why Should I See a Functional Medicine Doctor in Atlanta?
There are plenty of reasons to see a functional medicine doctor. If you identify with any of the following statements, seeing a functional medicine doctor may be the best way to address your concerns or take care of your health:
- You’re experiencing chronic symptoms but haven’t received a formal diagnosis.
- You’ve tried to manage your weight, but simply restricting calories or cutting carbs is not making a difference.
- You’re experiencing regular gut health symptoms that aren’t serious enough to go to the ER, but you’re still regularly uncomfortable.
- You feel tired, have difficulty sleeping, notice increased levels of anxiety, have regular headaches, have lost your appetite, or just feel off.
- You’re noticing signs of hormonal imbalance, such as skin changes, sleep changes, a lowered sex drive, mood swings, or fatigue.
- You wonder if you could feel stronger and healthier, but you’re not sure where to start.
- You’re experiencing symptoms of perimenopause, menopause, or postmenopause.
- You feel frustrated with traditional primary care and are ready to collaborate with a doctor who takes the time to listen to your concerns rather than limiting appointment length.
- You’re experiencing or at risk for metabolic syndrome or cardiovascular disease.
- You’re experiencing malnutrition, maldigestion, or malabsorption symptoms.
- You’re hoping to optimize athletic strength and performance.
- You’ve been diagnosed with a chronic condition, such as ADHD, autoimmune diseases, IBS, PCOS, chronic fatigue, lupus, high blood pressure, or high cholesterol, but medication alone has not been effective, or has caused too many side effects.
What Do Functional Medicine Doctors Treat?
While some functional medicine clinics focus on weight loss, testing for intolerances and allergies, or gut health, functional medicine tools have expanded how doctors treat almost every system in the human body and the wide range of health conditions that can result when these systems are out of balance. Here are some of the conditions we can help treat at our functional medicine clinic:
- Adrenal, thyroid, and pituitary health
- Bone, skin, and muscle health
- Cancer treatment side effects
- Cardiovascular health
- Chronic fatigue and chronic pain
- Dementia and cognitive health
- Diabetes and metabolic syndrome
- Food sensitivities, intolerance, and allergies
- Gut & microbiome health
- Immune health and autoimmunity
- Infections
- Mental health
- Nutrition, health, and wellness
- Pediatric health
- Toxins and detoxification
- Women’s and men’s hormonal health
What are the Benefits of Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine, when it is combined with traditional primary care, offers patients benefits that can affect most aspects of their lives.
Collaborative, Personal Care
Traditional medicine often involves treating symptoms with medication and general lifestyle recommendations that are not tailored to your individual needs. Functional medicine scientifically investigates your day-to-day symptoms to provide personalized interventions. As a functional medicine doctor, Dr. Jason Bailey takes the time to listen to his patients’ health stories, offering a partnership that is inherently personalized. Functional medicine does not just provide more tools for doctors; it also provides patients with more opportunities to understand and advocate for their health proactively.
Improved Mental and Emotional Health
One of the most important contributions of functional medicine research is a growing understanding of the interrelatedness of biological systems and their relationship to mental health. In particular, functional medicine pays close attention to the gut microbiome, which leads to systemic inflammation when it is out of balance. These imbalances can contribute significantly to anxiety, depression, and other mental health conditions. When the systems in your body are functioning properly, it’s much simpler to manage and treat mental health issues. You may even find that your energy, mood, and mental health stabilize and improve with the right personalized treatment.
Chronic Symptom Management
Functional medicine is particularly helpful as a way to understand chronic conditions, since it involves investigating the genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that contribute to chronic disease. While it includes medical intervention, it also allows practitioners to employ multiple healing modalities to find what works best for each patient.
Functional medicine is particularly helpful for patients experiencing the following conditions:
- ADHD/ADD
- Adrenal Fatigue
- Allergies/sensitivities
- Anxiety and depression
- Arthritis
- Asthma
- Autoimmune disorders
- Cardiovascular disease
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
- Crohn’s and colitis
- Diabetes and metabolic syndrome
- Eczema
- Endemetriosis
- Exposure to toxins, including mold, heavy metals, BPA, and more
- Hormone imbalances
- Hypertension that is difficult to manage
- Irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease
- Leaky gut
- Long Covid
- Lyme disease
- Perimenopause, menopause, and post menopause
- Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS)
- Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth and small intestinal fungal overgrowth
- Weight management difficulties
Long-Term Health Outcomes
Most acute and chronic diseases result from the interaction between genetics, lifestyle choices, and environmental factors. When functional medicine is used to restore balance, your overall health improves, both day-to-day and long-term. Functional medicine aligns with many principles of longevity medicine, which emphasizes optimizing health to increase lifespan and healthspan. While many patients access primary care, functional medicine, and longevity medicine by seeing separate providers, we believe that the best care integrates all three to understand and care for your past, present, and future health.
Now Accepting Patients in Atlanta
We are now accepting a limited number of patients. Reserve your spot today!
Wellspring MD’s Functional Medicine Model in Atlanta
While functional medicine practitioners exist all over the country, we offer a unique model here in Atlanta. Our concierge practice delivers primary care that seamlessly integrates functional medicine. If you prefer to keep your current primary care provider, you can also join Wellspring MD simply to focus on functional medicine and longevity medicine through our Wellspring Vital membership. Here’s how we help our patients get to the root of their health issues.
Extensive Labwork
We partner with an exclusive functional medicine lab in order to offer you customized lab testing packages. Many tests come right to your door, or you can schedule appointments with a phlebotomist in our office. We make the testing process convenient, removing the barriers that often exist around advanced testing. Once your results have come back, Dr. Bailey can meet with you in the office or virtually to review them with you and recommend next steps.
Expert Supplement Recommendations
While we do believe in providing traditional medical care for conditions that require it, we know that there are many other tools available to optimize your health. This is why we also offer customized, pharmaceutical-grade supplement packages to help you find supplements that target the deficiencies that may be contributing to chronic symptoms.
Personalized Medical Interventions
By combining functional medicine and primary care, we integrate the best of both traditional medicine and advanced holistic medicine. We prescribe medication whenever it is needed, and Dr. Jason Bailey will happily schedule in-person or virtual appointments with you to discuss any side effects or adjust the dosage. We work with commercial pharmacies as well as a specialized compounding pharmacy to provide access to bioidentical hormone therapy, which can precisely and safely manage hormonal conditions. By operating as a membership-based practice, we are able to take the time to tailor medical interventions so that they precisely target your symptoms without causing new complications. We never recommend supplements or medication without first completing advanced lab work to determine exactly what your body needs.
Functional Medicine Combined With Primary Care and Longevity Medicine
We offer patients the chance to partner with a healthcare provider that can help them test, understand, and tackle any symptom or condition as it arises, while also screening for serious conditions and providing primary care. Dr. Jason Bailey’s interest in functional medicine stems from nearly 30 years of treating patients who were hospitalized, often with acute, potentially preventable diseases. He keeps up with advances in functional medicine research and integrates these insights into how he tests and treats his patients. He also offers longevity medicine to his patients to help them optimize their health. Additionally, we provide up-to-date information in our members-only newsletter, helping you understand and apply the advances being made in functional and longevity medicine.
Nutritional Therapy
Nutritional therapy helps patients identify modifiable lifestyle factors. As a certified nutritional therapy practitioner, Dr. Ranya Bailey will not suggest one-size-fits-all solutions. Rather, she takes the time to understand her patients’ everyday routine, stressors, and the other parameters that influence their health and wellness. This includes factors such as your job, budget, family situation, and even what foods you prefer. Rather than emphasizing popular diets or focusing on isolated numbers such as weight or BMI, she draws on more useful metrics such as labs, body composition, Dexa fit scores, and VO2 max testing to help you improve your fitness, manage your weight, and more.
Nutritional therapy is not just focused on weight management; we believe that true wellness includes your sleep, digestion, mood, and energy levels. When you’re getting the nutrition you need and implementing healthy habits, all these elements of your health will improve. However, getting started can be overwhelming, so we help you understand what changes will truly have the most effect and work with you to develop a sustainable plan.
Membership-Based Practice
Chronic symptoms and discomfort can exist long before you need acute care or hospitalization, but we believe that these very symptoms are the ones your healthcare provider should be helping you identify, test, and treat. This is why we operate Wellspring MD on a concierge, membership-based model. ·We charge an annual membership fee, which allows us to limit the number of patients we take so that Dr. Jason Bailey has extensive amounts of time available for each patient.
Our membership fee also includes the nutritional therapy services offered by Dr. Ranya Bailey. We also offer services that are not covered by traditional primary care, including discounted functional medicine testing, extensive annual physicals, an in-office phlebotomist available throughout the week, Dexafit testing, VO2 max testing, and more. We offer a discount for children ages 7-21 and young adults ages 22-25, because we want to make high-quality care accessible to you and your family.
Join Wellspring MD for Functional Medicine in Atlanta, GA
At Wellspring MD, we believe that the advancements being made in functional medicine are significant and should be integrated into conventional primary care. To get to the root cause of your symptoms and identify systemic imbalances, Dr Jason Bailey takes the time to understand your health and offer precise, personalized medical and holistic interventions. To learn more about how functional medicine can transform your health, book a discovery call today.
FAQs
What does a functional medicine doctor do?
A functional medicine doctor provides advanced medical care that helps patients get to the root cause of their chronic symptoms. At Wellspring MD, Dr. Jason Bailey provides members with personalized care that involves investigating their symptoms and medical history, ordering and reviewing functional medicine labs, and recommending lifestyle modifications and supplements to address imbalances.
How much does functional medicine cost?
The cost of functional medicine varies between clinics and practice models. We offer four membership tiers; two of which include functional medicine: Wellspring Vital and Wellspring Complete. Membership fees cover unlimited functional medicine appointments with Dr. Jason Bailey, telehealth appointments, an extensive yearly physical, and nutritional therapy with Dr. Ranya Bailey, as well as body composition scans, VO2 max testing, and resting metabolic rate testing. Our Wellspring Complete membership also integrates concierge primary care with functional and longevity medicine. You may need to pay out of pocket for expenses that are not covered by insurance, such as diagnostic testing, functional medicine labs, prescriptions, or supplements. We can bill your insurance for any covered services, but we do not require insurance to join our practice. We also offer discounts for children ages 7-21 and young adults ages 22-25 to make functional medicine available to your whole family. For more information about our membership fees, explore our membership page or book a discovery call today.
Is functional medicine the same as alternative medicine?
Functional medicine is not the same as alternative medicine, though it may incorporate some of the same healing modalities. Functional medicine is an approach that combines conventional medicine with a broader, whole-person approach and helps patients get to the root cause of their symptoms.
Is functional medicine the same as holistic medicine?
Functional medicine is not the same as holistic medicine, though it does take a broad approach that acknowledges mental, physical, and emotional health factors. Functional medicine is a scientific, systems-based approach to medicine that involves using advanced testing and investigative medicine to discover imbalances in the body and restore total health.
Is functional medicine legit?
Yes! Functional medicine is an advanced form of medicine that builds on conventional care to care for patients more thoroughly, more personally, and more proactively. Dr. Jason Bailey is a board-certified family physician who also specializes in functional medicine. His clinical experience and extensive medical education allow him to provide patients with thorough, science-based primary care and functional medicine.
Is functional medicine covered by insurance?
Functional medicine is usually not covered by insurance, but coverage varies between providers. Check with your insurance provider or book a discovery call with us to learn more. We offer our members discounted functional medicine testing and help you identify which tests will actually be effective for you in order to make testing more affordable.
What is functional medicine testing?
Functional medicine testing involves testing for hormone levels, nutrition levels, gut health, toxins, and allergens to identify any factors that may be causing chronic symptoms. We partner with an advanced functional medicine lab to offer you discounted, precise testing.
Can I join Wellspring for functional medicine only?
At Wellspring MD, we offer patients the chance to benefit from the integration of functional medicine with primary care and longevity medicine for convenient, comprehensive care. Functional medicine requires detailed knowledge of your medical history and other conditions to effectively treat chronic symptoms and ensure that serious medical conditions are not overlooked. However, if you are only looking for functional medicine care exclusively, you may be interested in our Wellspring Vital membership, which includes functional medicine, longevity medicine, and nutritional therapy, while allowing you to remain with your current primary care provider.
Will my HSA/FSA cover functional medicine?
Wellspring MD’s membership model and patient services agreement contract is designed to maximize your ability to have your medical services covered by your HSAs/ FSAs. We will gladly provide you with the paperwork you need to have our membership fees covered by your HSA or FSA plan. We accept HSA and FSA credit cards.