Nancy Eklund, MD.
1. What's your practice focus and what kind of clients knock on your door ?
I focus on functional medicine which is the practice of seeing the patient as a whole person- a product of their genetics and physical, environmental and psychological history. Recently, I have noticed that younger people want a functional medicine approach to achieve optimal health with the least intervention of medications. My patients range from those wanting to know what supplements or lifestyle interventions are best for them to those who have seen multiple specialists without an answer.
2. Tell us about yourself.
I have always believed in the body/mind connection and the need to integrate information about the entire body, not just one system. Family medicine offered me the opportunity to do this. I discovered functional medicine in 2001, We are mostly family medicine-trained doctors who are brave enough to think outside of the box and work to discover underlying cause for patients' problems, often doing less-conventional testing and then supporting the patient's own healing starting from within.
3. Tell us the story of a patient who you are most proud of helping.
The most rewarding patient is one for whom, after a detailed (sometimes two hour ) history, I can put together the puzzle of their life to determine how the pieces fit together. Then we can jointly come up with a plan to investigate the potential causes of their problems, or suggest improvements to what they are already doing. As a medical docor I have the luxury of utilizing both conventional tests and treatments along with natural and alternative interventions.
4. What's one of the hardest things that comes with being a practitioner in private practice?
Having a private practice means wearing many hats. A health care professional is not trained in the financial aspects of running a business or managing employees.
5. What are the top 3 tips you'd give to anyone looking to start, run and grow a private practice today?\
These would be my pieces of advice:
- Discover your niche but broaden your experience.
- People look for practitioners with a special interest in the topic of their concern but also with a depth and breadth of experience.
- Luckily for me, more and more people are discovering functional medicine and seek me out because of my decades of experience not only in functional and conventional medicine, but also in academic medical education.
6. Where can people find you?
Website URL: