Latest / Health, Life & What’s Next / Functional Medicine-Identify The Root Cause Of Your Symptoms & Our Consultation Process!
Transcript
- 0:00you are listening.
- 0:00Listening to the prepared patient podcast with Dr.
- 0:04Jennifer GNC, where we discuss what it really takes to heal your body.
- 0:09With the symbol tools we source is a mindset to get you there.
- 0:13I am determined to show you the reality of navigating the medical space as a patient caregiver and loved ones.
- 0:21So you can be empowered and take back the most precious and important asset of your life, which is your health.
- 0:28Let's get ready.
- 0:30Comfortable and get started
- 0:31Speaker: Hello and welcome to Wellness Corner NJ.
- 0:35Speaker: My name is Dr.
- 0:36Speaker: Jennifer Genti.
- 0:37Speaker: I am a functional medicine doctor and we help our patients address digestive issues, what is acid reflux, gas, blood, constipation, diarrhea, colitis, unexplained weight gain, unexplained weight loss, or headaches, migraine, fatigue, anxiety, burn fog.
- 0:57Speaker: We also have our patients that are looking to lose weight.
- 1:00Speaker: We have a weight loss program and or balance the hormones.
- 1:04Speaker: With functional medicine, our number one priority, our first goal with working with our patients is to identify the root cause.
- 1:12Speaker: I am a firm believer.
- 1:14Speaker: If you don't know, What is causing your symptoms, your illness, your disease, and it doesn't matter what diagnosis you have, whether it is autoimmune conditions or hormonal imbalance, menopause, perimenopause, postmenopause, or GERD, acid reflux, or you have chronic headaches, or you have acne, your hair's falling out, or you have joint pain, or, you know, Your symptoms are literally keeping you up at night.
- 1:40Speaker: It doesn't matter.
- 1:41Speaker: I am a firm believer that if you don't know what is causing the problem, you will never find the solution to the problem.
- 1:48Speaker: So when we work with our patients and our first encounter, the goal is to always to investigate.
- 1:55Speaker: And in this investigative process, it's going to acquire a few things from you.
- 1:59Speaker: It's also going to acquire a few things from us.
- 2:01Speaker: So if you are interested in booking a consultation, I'm going to go over the step by step process.
- 2:06Speaker: of us working together, what you should be expecting and also what the goal is, Like how are we going to get to where you are and to where you want to be?
- 2:17Speaker: so you're going to see a link somewhere in the screen where you can just go ahead and book your consultation.
- 2:22Speaker: At the time I'm recording this, the fee of the consultation is also listed here.
- 2:27Speaker: When you book a consultation, the first thing you're going to get from us, you're going to get a call.
- 2:31Speaker: From our office manager, Marilyn, to confirm making sure that all the information you provided is clear on paper, your name, your phone number, your address.
- 2:40Speaker: We will be sending you.
- 2:42Speaker: An invitation to activate your patient portal, your HIPAA compliant patient portal.
- 2:46Speaker: We currently use practice better right now So when you activate your patient portal, not only you have access to us You will also use that as a means of communication with us as well.
- 2:57Speaker: So through your patient portal We'll be sending you a few Documentations that you need to complete as much as possible giving me as many information as much as possible so that I can help you identify the records and also create a customized individualized plan for you.
- 3:15Speaker: That's going to help you see clearly how we're going to address a lot of this, this ease and dysfunction.
- 3:21Speaker: So you can be well, get your energy back, lose the weight, balance your hormones, eliminate digestive issues, reducing medications, whatever your health.
- 3:30Speaker: Goals might be, I am certain that we can help you and there's always, always a solution to every single problem.
- 3:37Speaker: So you're gonna get an intake form, the enter form compromises of nine pages that I need you to completely, completely filled out, give me as much information as possible.
- 3:48Speaker: Again, the more I know, the more I can help you and the easier our in-person consultation.
- 3:54Speaker: Will be so nine pages of intake form you will also receive a seven day food journal I am always curious to see what people People are eating what they are putting in their bodies because a lot of the food that we eat Might backfire on us might be creating creating inflammation Might be causing some of your digestive issues might be weakening your immune system causing you to have all these Cold and flu and putting you at risk for infections and a lot of us are walking around with gut infections as well You So when I am, have an idea and have a picture of what you feed in your body, the nutrients you provide into your cells, to your organ, then I can give you some specific minor recommendations that you can incorporate or implement as soon as you leave our office.
- 4:39Speaker: So you're going to get the nine page intake form, a seven day food journal.
- 4:43Speaker: And also we ask that you submit all your past paperwork, a blood test that you've done with other doctors, because the goal is not to repeat what was done already, because our patients are coming to us after seeing so many doctors, after doing so many basic blood tests, and majority of the blood test results are normal, and they are being told there's nothing wrong with them, when in fact they can feel something is not working in their bodies, So when you submit all your blood tests, we go as far as nine months, So not only for insurance purposes, because if, some of the blood tests that I might be prescribing could be covered by insurance, but we don't want to repeat the same thing.
- 5:22Speaker: We don't want to do basic.
- 5:23Speaker: In our clinic, we never do basic.
- 5:25Speaker: We do comprehensive blood tests, because again, the goal is to dig deeper, to identify the root cause so we can clearly show you on paper.
- 5:34Speaker: Why you're feeling the way you're feeling, what symptoms that might be associated with this abnormal blood test, and how we're going to fix it.
- 5:41Speaker: So we ask that you submit your results to us.
- 5:44Speaker: Again, you're going to do all that to your patient portal.
- 5:47Speaker: You're going to upload that to your patient portal so I can have access to it.
- 5:50Speaker: Prior to you coming to our office, I usually take an hour behind the scenes, unpaid, an hour to study your case.
- 5:58Speaker: What does that mean?
- 5:58Speaker: I'm looking at the nine pages of intake form.
- 6:01Speaker: I'm looking at your food journal.
- 6:03Speaker: I'm also looking at the results of previous and past blood tests with other doctors to kind of develop a clear picture.
- 6:11Speaker: And then when you come for your 45 minutes to an hour consultation.
- 6:16Speaker: When you come to our office, I already know what we're going to be discussing, who I'm going to be working with, what your story is, and then that's going to make our process very streamlined and very easy.
- 6:26Speaker: So when you come into our space, we ask that you come a few minutes early.
- 6:29Speaker: If you are 15 minutes late, we will be, we're scheduling your appointment.
- 6:33Speaker: Why?
- 6:34Speaker: Because I am dedicating a full hour for you.
- 6:36Speaker: It's your time to focus on you, to listen to your story.
- 6:40Speaker: To help identify what's going with you to give you some strategies, strategies for you to implement.
- 6:46Speaker: And I just want to dedicate that time for you.
- 6:48Speaker: So I'm blocking that one hour in my calendar for you.
- 6:51Speaker: When you come, we will start with physical examination.
- 6:54Speaker: My team, my assistant will be checking your blood pressure.
- 6:57Speaker: I'll be listening to your heart, we'll do some basic, physical examination that you will do with your conventional doctor.
- 7:03Speaker: We'll do that here, and then we'll dig deeper into what's going on, and we're gonna, I'll be reviewing some of the information you put on it, and then I usually take time to kind of explain to people what I think is happening, and then we'll discuss the blood tests that I'm recommending, and most often I will show you some examples.
- 7:23Speaker: We do three types of blood tests in our clinic.
- 7:25Speaker: We do one for hormones, depending on what you're showing up, if you're coming to me, you're on birth control pills, and you have an IUD.
- 7:32Speaker: or you have heavy menstrual cycles or you have PMS symptoms or PMDD symptoms, you're anxious all the time and you bloated all the time, you have hormonal acne, hormonal headaches, like those symptoms or you can't sleep at night or you're foggy all the time, right?
- 7:47Speaker: Like you are forgetful all the time and you are in a specific age, then we are going to discuss hormones.
- 7:53Speaker: If you are coming to me and it's, you are male or you are an older person and your, your symptoms are not related to hormonal, then we might be talking about toxic bundle, but you'll always get a prescription for both conventional medicine, blood tests, and functional medicine, blood tests.
- 8:12Speaker: They are two different types of blood tests, but we'll go over that because at the end of the day, I value your opinion.
- 8:18Speaker: since you are partnering up with me and identify the root cause, I want to make sure you understand and you are included in the decision making.
- 8:25Speaker: So everything that I will be doing, we will get your okay on it.
- 8:29Speaker: So that's the, consultation process where you are in, in our clinic.
- 8:33Speaker: So we will give you the script for that upfront.
- 8:36Speaker: Marilyn, our office manager will go over the process with you, depending on the blood tests we are doing together.
- 8:42Speaker: And then I will also.
- 8:43Speaker: give you some basic dietary recommendations.
- 8:46Speaker: If you suffer with anxiety, we'll talk about meditation with that one hour, 45 minutes to one hour consultation.
- 8:53Speaker: It's packed with a lot of information.
- 8:55Speaker: So that is why it is important that you complete the intake form so that we don't miss any information.
- 9:01Speaker: So I can focus on different areas of your life that you might not consider like a daily routine, asking for help or meal prepping.
- 9:09Speaker: So many things we're going to be discussing.
- 9:10Speaker: So as you go, we give you a prescription for blood test.
- 9:14Speaker: depending on what you're suffering, maybe I might give you some samples, like when people come to our clinic and they are not, Going to the bathroom daily, right?
- 9:22Speaker: They are constipated.
- 9:23Speaker: We might give you some samples for you to kind of start eliminating because that often help with the waking, that often help with the stomach issues.
- 9:31Speaker: So I will also give you that as well.
- 9:33Speaker: So it depends on what you are reporting.
- 9:35Speaker: If you have PMS and it's really bad where you are, you can't function and you're in bed, you know, in a fetal position, then I might give you some samples of Period reliever herbs.
- 9:44Speaker: So it like there's always something so that fee you paying for the consultation Includes a lot right includes an hour of me studying your case and past results, You are uploading into our patient portal and then it includes that hour you spend in our physical location in our presence And also we always always send some recommendation for you.
- 10:06Speaker: So within 48 hours of your consultation You You will get a basic recommendation of what we discuss, because sometimes I talk to patients, they are so overwhelmed, so frustrated, and sometimes they are so tired, they are foggy, they don't, they can't retain all the information we discuss, I will send you, my office manager will send you like a brief instructions of recommendations, things that you should be implementing, and when patients follow my recommendation, they start feeling better.
- 10:37Speaker: They're not cure, but if I'm asking you to stop eating the oatmeal and stop eating rice, stop eating pasta, and you can follow those simple recommendations, I'm telling you, you'll start feeling better.
- 10:47Speaker: Your symptoms will lessen.
- 10:49Speaker: I see that all of the time.
- 10:50Speaker: Another thing we do as well, if you come to me and you are severely fatigued or your immune system is so weak, Like for my cancer patients, my autoimmune patients, I will make recommendations of you doing IV vitamin therapy with us here in our clinic to kind of start healing the path, to kind of start healing the, to set the healing process and get you on the journey while we wait for the results.
- 11:11Speaker: Of the blood test.
- 11:12Speaker: Now, the functional medicine blood test will take anywhere from three weeks to a month, because again, we are studying your cells, we're looking at the cellular function of your body, because that's where disease takes place.
- 11:24Speaker: The conventional blood test might take less time than that.
- 11:28Speaker: So instead of you waiting to get back and start, you know, healing your body in a month, three weeks to a month, we highly recommend that you contemplate IV vitamin therapy.
- 11:37Speaker: And we'll talk about that.
- 11:39Speaker: We always give patients a discount, you know, so, so that we can start feeding yourselves what it needs for them to work for you now, that is the consultation.
- 11:46Speaker: Once we have the results of your test, our office manager will call you.
- 11:51Speaker: We always call our patients.
- 11:53Speaker: You don't have to worry about it.
- 11:54Speaker: We always monitoring our practitioner portal to make sure that we are.
- 11:58Speaker: We know who needs to come in for follow up.
- 12:01Speaker: So our office manager will monitor the portal and when your results are available, she will call you to schedule follow up.
- 12:09Speaker: now again, the same thing happens.
- 12:11Speaker: I take an hour to study the results to compare the ones that I prescribed, the letters that I prescribed to the one that you submitted, Because at the end of the day, I don't want you to come into our office and that's what I'm flipping through papers.
- 12:24Speaker: I'm looking at all the things, And then I'm taking time from what we could be discussing or helping you.
- 12:31Speaker: So that 45 minutes to an hour again, you're going to spend for the follow up is going to be dedicated to go over the results one by one explaining to you and taking that time, the opportunity to educate you because I see a lot.
- 12:45Speaker: Often that patients don't understand what is the purpose of a CBC?
- 12:50Speaker: What is the purpose of the liver function?
- 12:52Speaker: What is the purpose of hemoglobin A1C?
- 12:55Speaker: Yes, they might tell me, well, it's for diabetes, but you have to understand how your body comes up with those numbers.
- 13:01Speaker: I'm a true believer that you need to understand certain things when it comes to health, to have enough knowledge.
- 13:07Speaker: to formulate, informative questions to get some, to get results and get answers.
- 13:12Speaker: I don't believe you should transfer your care to doctors, including myself.
- 13:16Speaker: We should be partnering up with our doctors.
- 13:18Speaker: so I don't want you to come to my clinic and be like, Oh, you're the doctor, you get to do whatever you want with me.
- 13:22Speaker: No, if you have that type of mindset, then you are going to be, you're going to be like a medical, I call it medical injustice.
- 13:30Speaker: Doctors going to do whatever they want, they want with you.
- 13:32Speaker: So when you come for your followup, when we spend that 45 minutes to an hour, my job is to educate you enough.
- 13:39Speaker: We always give you a copy.
- 13:40Speaker: We'll also upload a copy of your blood test in your patient portal.
- 13:44Speaker: So.
- 13:45Speaker: That's medicine 101.
- 13:46Speaker: You should always have a copy of your blood test.
- 13:48Speaker: You should never not look at your blood test before you come, Because there are so many abnormal answers in the tests we ask our patients to perform that it could literally blow your mind, but also it's also going to give you tons of answers.
- 14:01Speaker: If we look at, you know, gut infections and you bloated all the time, you're gassy all the time, like everything you eat bloats you, the water you're drinking, like you can't even eat, you're losing weight because you're afraid of eating, you're in pain all the time.
- 14:14Speaker: That acid reflux is affecting your voice.
- 14:16Speaker: So we have to look at some gut infections.
- 14:19Speaker: When you look at gut infections, you're going to see why your stomach, your GI tract is severely inflamed because you have pathogens growing there.
- 14:27Speaker: And those pathogens are dormant.
- 14:29Speaker: You don't have an, like, you're not going to have infection symptoms, but you will know that something is wrong.
- 14:35Speaker: So we're going to go over that one by one in our follow up session, which is a very educative session.
- 14:41Speaker: And then after that, I will discuss to see if you're still interested in us working together.
- 14:47Speaker: We'll talk, usually talk about the financial piece.
- 14:50Speaker: Our programs are the most cost effective in the market because with functional medicine, not only will help you identify the real cause, our job is to incorporate natural herbs, natural remedies, talk about lifestyle changes, help you, you know, your brain function better, optimize your performance, get rid of tiredness, sluggishness, anxiety, brain fog, and that takes time.
- 15:12Speaker: That takes dedication, that takes, of you working one on one closely with your doctor to get to where you want to be.
- 15:20Speaker: A pill will never do that for you, Even the herbs, you might take the herbs, but it's going to take you a while for you to, for the herbs to fully, fully restore the function of all these vital organs that we have.
- 15:32Speaker: So with functional medicine, it is a program, a protocol you have to enroll in.
- 15:38Speaker: Where you have, you know, you're having a private doctor, you're working with a health coach and so on and so forth for you to really get some answers to your questions and to your health disease.
- 15:47Speaker: So it is an investment.
- 15:48Speaker: So we'll talk about that depending on how much help you have, how much help you need.
- 15:53Speaker: Sorry.
- 15:53Speaker: We'll talk about, you know, the payment plan.
- 15:56Speaker: So we'll talk about that.
- 15:56Speaker: And then we will send you a protocol because most often when patients come to us in the follow up sessions, they usually, sometimes they'll sit at a doctor, they'll go see another doctor, or they go to urgent care, emergency room.
- 16:10Speaker: So they are on a new medication and so on and so forth.
- 16:13Speaker: So I like to kind of do a quick.
- 16:15Speaker: Follow up with our patients, and then I will see where they are, and then I will see exactly which customized protocol might benefit them the most.
- 16:24Speaker: So that's the follow up visit.
- 16:25Speaker: And then once we send that over to you, sometimes I will record a video, sometimes I won't.
- 16:30Speaker: It depends on how severe your case is, how complex your case is, and how much information we discuss, and how the, uh, the complexity of the functional medicine blood test.
- 16:40Speaker: Like, it really depends.
- 16:41Speaker: But, overall, we will.
- 16:43Speaker: Go over the follow up, answer all your questions, and then you have access to us for a week after the follow up to send us any concerns, any questions that you forgot to ask, any follow up questions to kind of help you make a decision if we're a good fit for each other, if you want to enroll in our program.
- 17:01Speaker: Now, when you schedule consultation and follow up, there is no protocol attached to that.
- 17:06Speaker: The consultation is the investigative work.
- 17:09Speaker: It is a lot of work that we do here in our clinic.
- 17:11Speaker: Again, remember, I'm working an hour to look at the paperwork you sent over the seven day food journal, other blood tests that you sent over.
- 17:19Speaker: And then we spend an hour together in our clinic to discuss what's going on with you and how I can help you so that you can actually fail, have a sense.
- 17:27Speaker: And then we do with physical examination there as well.
- 17:31Speaker: And then we'll give it a blood test.
- 17:32Speaker: So then when you get that done, I'm spending another hour behind the scenes, unpaid, to go over the results so that I can, this, I can see, like, to give you answers when you come back for your follow up to show you on paper why you're feeling the way you're feeling, but also see what kind of program you might benefit from.
- 17:49Speaker: So the consultation and the follow ups.
- 17:50Speaker: process do not include a program, a program.
- 17:54Speaker: Again, it's a three to six months where you work closely with a doctor, closely with a doctor or a health coach in our clinic, to get your results.
- 18:02Speaker: You don't pay 270 or 300.
- 18:06Speaker: And expect to have a whole protocol attached to that.
- 18:09Speaker: Nope.
- 18:09Speaker: No way.
- 18:10Speaker: So I wanted to go over the process with you.
- 18:12Speaker: I think we are one in a few offices that actually spend time in working cases, like a lot so that we can bring some information to you, bring you some answers and not tell you that you broken and not tell you something is wrong with you.
- 18:27Speaker: You crazy.
- 18:28Speaker: And that gives you an anxiety pill.
- 18:30Speaker: The goal is to really help you accomplish your goals.
- 18:33Speaker: Like if your goal is to get off medications, then we're going to create a plan for that.
- 18:36Speaker: If your goal is for you to get rid of your digestive issues and balance your hormones, increase your libido, get more energy, get rid of brain fog, have beautiful skin and stop, you know, allergies and, and stop getting sick all the time, you know, track infections or.
- 18:51Speaker: Sinus infection will also help you get there as well.
- 18:55Speaker: So whatever your goal is, but it's going to require some investigative work.
- 18:58Speaker: It's going to require some partnership for us to really see where you are and where you want to be.
- 19:04Speaker: Cause at the end of the day, it's your body, it's your health, whatever you put into it or whoever you work with, whoever you seek guidance from, you have to make sure that it is the right fit for you.
- 19:14Speaker: So if after this video you're still interested in scheduling a consultation with us.
- 19:20Speaker: Again, whatever symptoms you have, we can help you with.
- 19:24Speaker: Your body's one, one machine, one machine.
- 19:27Speaker: Everything is connected.
- 19:28Speaker: We here in our clinic, we focus on detoxification, decreasing inflammation, boosting your immune system, and also decreasing some of your diseases.
- 19:38Speaker: And it is so possible functional medicine.
- 19:40Speaker: Functional medicine is the medicine that people used to practice way, way back.
- 19:44Speaker: Back in the days, and my goal is to bring it back and do it with ease, effectiveness and also with you at the center of everything, again, my name is Dr.
- 19:53Speaker: Jennifer Genti.
- 19:54Speaker: I would love to help you.
- 19:55Speaker: I would love to at least help you identify the root cause.
- 19:58Speaker: That's the number one step, Even if we don't work together in our program, but you should really invest in your care, to help you identify the root cause.
- 20:05Speaker: Now, the question that people ask the most is, like, is this covered by insurance?
- 20:09Speaker: No, this is not covered by insurance because we spend a lot of time working together.
- 20:13Speaker: Insurance cannot fathom why a doctor is spending four hours, two hours behind the scenes, and two hours for consultation and follow up and ask for, you know, 300 or 400.
- 20:24Speaker: They cannot understand that, so it's not covered by insurance.
- 20:27Speaker: But we do help you.
- 20:29Speaker: Give you paperwork where you can submit to insurance.
- 20:31Speaker: sometimes we, we hire a company to help us submit to insurance so you can get something back.
- 20:36Speaker: If you have out of network benefits.
- 20:38Speaker: That might be covered by insurance because I am out of network if you have a network, then I'm not sure if that's covered by insurance, and there wasn't why functional medicine is not covered by insurance because we don't want a third party to tell us how to treat you and how to take care of you, help you handle your issues, I don't want anybody to dictate and tell me how much time I want to spend with you and what is covered what's not covered.
- 21:01Speaker: And since we don't, we're not giving you a pill for the air, we're not handing you a medication for every single symptoms.
- 21:07Speaker: I mean, that's conventional.
- 21:08Speaker: That's why you're looking for a different type of medicine because you've done that, You've taken the pill.
- 21:13Speaker: Or maybe you have resistance from taking the pill.
- 21:15Speaker: It's not working.
- 21:16Speaker: You're seeing side effects from the pill.
- 21:17Speaker: So now it's for you to invest in the most important asset of your life, which is your health, to get some answers to identify the root cause.
- 21:25Speaker: so that's the whole spiel about insurance.
- 21:27Speaker: I like to have full autonomy in helping our patients and do it our way, right, my way, my patient's way to getting them answers to really help them get over the hurdle of, getting sick and not feeling better.
- 21:39Speaker: with the chronic fatigue, the brain fog, like, like memory loss, it's just the attention deficit, like all these autoimmune conditions, the gut not functioning, looking bloated all the time, it can't gain weight, right, and hormonal imbalance all of the time.
- 21:54Speaker: So, once we do that, we take time, I'm focused on the new, I can dedicate as much time as we want, without insurance, denying the claims and telling us exactly what to do, when to do and Asking a whole bunch of questions.
- 22:05Speaker: So if this speaks to you and you feel, and you see value in this and working with a functional medicine doctor, and this is calling out your soul, I would love for you to schedule a consultation.
- 22:15Speaker: again, you go to the process and I would love to have you in our clinic.
- 22:19Speaker: If you're out of state, then we can do a telemedicine or virtual, and I would love to get you some answers.
- 22:25Speaker: Number one step to healing your body is to identify the root cause.
- 22:29Speaker: If you don't, you'll be throwing spaghetti at the wall, and you'll be in a frustration, hopelessness, rollercoaster, Because the pills you're taking might not work for you.
- 22:38Speaker: If they are working, they are causing something else, And if you're one of those people who still want to be associated with conventional medicine, that's fine.
- 22:46Speaker: You can do both, but you cannot not have functional medicine, So thank you so much for viewing this, or watching this, or listening to this, and I look forward to working with you.
- 22:56Speaker: Schedule a consultation.
- 22:57thank you so much from the bottom of my heart for listening to this episode.
- 23:01Do me a favor.
- 23:02If you found this episode valuable, informative, and resonated with you.
- 23:07Please share, subscribe and leave a review.
- 23:10If you have any questions and need further assistance.
- 23:14You will see all of our contact information in the show notes below.
- 23:19Send us any questions you have, and then we'll be more than happy to help you until then.
- 23:24Stay tuned and I'll see you in the next episode.
- 23:27Bye-bye.