Conditions & Diagnosis

Traditional medicine & medical practice are not that great at “thinking outside the box”.  Integrative medicine combines traditional with Complementary & Alternative (CAM), practitioners concentrate on the biochemistry & physiology behind disease processes often missed by traditional practitioners.

These practitioners want to get to the root cause and fix the illness relying on data, are not beholden to the pharmaceutical industry, and frequently use supplements and nutritional approaches to resolve patient problems.  Although there are numerous such practices in Western North Carolina, however, they tend to concentrate on “Wellness”, helping folks maintain and improve health, not figure out how to fix complex disease processes.

At Appalachian Wellness, we’ve suffered this illness and understand firsthand.   We’re dedicated to solving the puzzles our patients present with and doing all we can to restore their health.

We specialize in diagnosing and treating a wide range of health conditions ranging from simple nutritional cases to more complex chronic conditions. Below is a list of the conditions we specialize in:

• “Mystery Illness” such as a variety of Complex Chronic Illnesses.  Chronic inflammation is a hallmark of these diseases.  Chronic inflammation is not a normal state, it causes problems that can progress all over the body.
• Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), frequently the underlying immune system malfunction that happens in genetically predisposed people (up to 25% of the general population) to the following
• Ehlers Danlos Syndrome an abnormality of connective tissue causing hypermobility, extremely flexible joints and a predisposition to worse cases of CIRS
• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• Fibromyalgia, also known as Myalgic Encephalitis
• Tick Borne Illnesses including Lyme, Babesia & others
• Mast Cell Activation Syndrome (MCAS).  Mast Cells are an integral part of the immune system, scattered all over the body.  We used to think that they only released their content all at once like a hand grenade.  Now we’ve come to realize that they’re metabolically active throughout their life cycle—sometimes they become to active.  There is a continuum of illness in genetically susceptible people, starting with CIRS, progressing the MCAS, then Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) and finally Electromagnetic field (EMF) sensitivity
• Multiple Chemical Sensitivity (MCS) happens in the course of chronic inflammation, a variety of chemicals—especially biotoxins such as those produced by mold can initiate the process, often there can be cross-reactivity to other chemicals and fragrances such as dryer sheets that remove static cling, artificial perfumes, colognes, bleach and others.
• ElectroMagnetic Field (EMF) Sensitivity; often these folks will notice that around electrical fields they’ll feel worse, sick.  These fields commonly happen in stores such as Best Buy, Walmart and others, something as simple as having a wireless router in the home can be enough to trigger symptoms—turning the router off at least overnight can provide a better night’s sleep and fewer symptoms.
• Pediatric Acute-onset NeuroPsychiatric Syndrome (PANS) & Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorders Associated with Streptococcal Infections (PANDAS).  Children can be afflicted from a young age—sometimes triggered by an infection.
• Toxic encephalopathy/encephalitis—brain inflammation that is not always caused by acute infection, often chemicals such as those listed above in the MCS section can be responsible.  No inflamed organ works as designed, the brain is no exception.  Inflammation of the brain can present as neurologic and psychiatric disorders.
• Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) as a result of acute brain inflammation and ongoing immune system inflammation perpetuating abnormal brain activity.
• Dementia & Memory Loss can occur from inflammation, toxins, degeneration and a variety of other metabolic disorders including hormone imbalances that can be involved.
• Hormone Imbalance for men & women including complex Thyroid Disorders
• Medication & behavioral dependency & addiction including nicotine

As part of our diagnosis and treatment plans for varying conditions, we make special use of several novel diagnostic routines. Below is a list of the diagnostic testing services offered at our office:

Pulmonary Function Testing

Shortness of breath is common in CIRS, it can be as simple as mold-induced allergy or asthma, or something more serious such as pulmonary hypertension—high blood pressure in the lungs which has a 5-year life expectancy if not properly diagnosed and treated.  We test for a variety of lung functions including provocation by exercise and bronchodilation response to help evaluate causes for the shortness of breath that initially often happens with exercise, later progressing to shortness of breath at rest.

EKG Stress-Testing

Stress-Echocardiogram is needed to evaluate the shortness of breath (SOB) which can happen due to problems with the lungs, the heart, and/or the mitochondria—the “powerplant” inside each cell—CIRS is known to cause a reversible, acquired mitochondrial disorder that can be appropriately cared for with the correct diagnosis.

EKG Stress-Testing for Impairment Rating/Disability

Residual functional capacity must be assessed for “the individual’s ability to perform sustained work activities on a regular and continuing basis (i.e., 8 hours a day, for 5 days a week or an equivalent work schedule)…

RFC is not the least an individual can do despite his or her limitations or restrictions, but the most.  Social Security Disability Income (SSDI) has criteria they use to quantify what they consider to be a level of impairment that merits disability payments.  This process is best begun with an attorney.  Appalachian Wellness is able to do the quantitative evaluation that will document if the SSDI criteria in a patient’s case are met.

Evaluation for Heavy Metal Toxicity

Heavy metals cause cancer, metabolic derangements, cellular anomalies including mitochondrial impairment and a host of other problems.

Multiple Antibiotic-Resistant Coagulase Negative Staph (MARCoNS)

MARCoNS can disrupt the blood-brain barrier leading to toxic brain inflammation due to the influx of poisons.  This infection can perpetuate the disease process of CIRS.

NeuroQuant Volumetric Quantitative MRI

Toxic encephalopathy: poisoned brain disease literally, once the blood-brain barrier has been disrupted—for any reason, the brain can become inflamed, other areas of the brain can shrink.  The NQ looks at the 3-dimensional sizes of numerous brain structures down to 0.1 millimeters standardized by age, gender, and intracranial volume size. With treatment, the brain will heal and restore normal brain volumes. 

Gut Dysbiosis/imbalance & Leaky Gut

The normal microbiome can become disrupted from a variety of causes.

The integrity of the gut wall can also become compromised, leaks cause inflammation that can also stimulate the immune system, harm the brain, and cause other problems associated with chronic inflammation. We can find & fix this.