Heather Linder, MD tries to find the root causes of mental health issues, but also prescribes medication when needed.  She is interested in the relationship between various factors and mental health disorders.   From a functional medicine perspective, she has studied how nutrition, genetics, hormones, inflammation, gastrointestinal disorders, and trauma can play a role in depression, anxiety, bipolar, and ADHD.  She can offer patients individualized testing, nutraceutical therapies, and dietary interventions.  She can also refer to local behavioral health therapists for additional services. 

Functional medicine emphasizes that everything is connected. The mind is affected by the different organs of the body and vice versa. Our gut, for instance, has been linked to the development of Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease, and other mental disorders. Some studies show that problems with neurotransmitter production start from the gut before it affects the brain. There is also growing evidence that toxicity, nutritional deficiency, blood sugar control, and other dietary factors are highly associated with brain dysfunction. Recognizing this complex connection, functional medicine examines all the factors that may have an impact on the patient’s condition, as opposed to conventional medicine that only concentrates on the disease itself.

As functional medicine emerges as a new treatment for mental illness, the focus is redirected to the underlying causes of the illness rather than the symptoms. This holistic approach involves the assessment of clinical imbalances through the patient’s medical history, physical examination, and laboratory tests. Functional medicine also looks into the genetic makeup of a patient and environmental factors such as diet, physical activities, traumatic experience, and exposure to toxic substances.