Toni Colton, FNP-BC
Toni is a Certified Family Nurse Practitioner, practicing since 2013. She began her healthcare journey in 1999 as an Emergency Room nurse and went on to obtain her Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) degree working in multiple healthcare settings including: Emergency Medicine, Family Medicine, Psychiatric Medicine, and Urgent Care Medicine.
She has always focused her care on a holistic approach to the patient. She found her passion in Holistic and Functional Medicine when Covid-19 hit the U.S. in 2020. Toni has a mission to improve her patients’ health by establishing a strong rapport, focusing on the root cause of dis-ease, and restoring balance in the body where necessary. This is addressed through lifestyle changes such as dietary changes, specialized testing, supplements when necessary, and stress management therapies. The body is designed, and wants, to heal itself.
Toni began her own Functional Medicine practice, Ascend Functional Medicine, in March of 2023. Toni’s specialties include: Gut Health, Autoimmune Diseases, Long Covid, Obesity, Mental Health Disorders, Neurological Disorders, Hormone Imbalances, Chronic Pain and Inflammation, and Cardiovascular Disord
Appointments available Monday-Thursday 9am-5pm.
To schedule an appointment, or for more information, go to ascendfunctionalmedicine.com
What is Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses he healthcare needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms.
Functional medicine practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic diseases. In this way, functional medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual.
Why Do We Need Functional Medicine?
Our society is experiencing a sharp increase in the number of people who suffer from complex, chronic diseases, such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, mental illness, dementia, autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis, and troublesome conditions like irritable bowel syndrome.
The treatment that patients receive for these and other chronic conditions is often inadequate. This is due, in part, to:
- Focus on acute care: The system of medicine practiced by most physicians is oriented toward acute care–the diagnosis and treatment of trauma or illness that is of short duration and in need of urgent care, such as appendicitis or a broken leg. The acute-care approach to medicine lacks that proper methods and tools to prevent and treat complex, chronic diseases.
- Gap between research and practice: The gap between emerging research in the basic sciences and its use in medical practice is enormous–a few decades or more–particularly in the area of complex, chronic illness.
- Shortfalls in training: Most physicians are not adequately trained to assess the underlying causes of complex, chronic disease and to apply strategies such as nutrition, diet, and exercise to both treat and prevent these illnesses in their patients.
How is Functional Medicine Different?
Functional medicine involves understanding the origins, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic diseases. Hallmarks of a functional medicine approach include:
- Patient-centered care: The focus of functional medicine is on patient-centered care, promoting health as a positive vitality, beyond just the absence of disease.
- An integrative, science-based healthcare approach: Functional medicine practitioners look “upstream” to consider the complex web of interactions in the patient’s history, physiology, and lifestyle that can lead to illness. The unique genetic makeup of each patient is considered, along with both internal (mind, body, and spirit) and external (physical and social environment) factors that affect total functioning.
- A combination of best medical practices: Functional medicine integrates traditional Western medical practices with what are sometimes considered “alternative” or “integrative” medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; use of the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress-management techniques.