With a major influx of residents relocating from the West Coast over the past several years, the demand for more modern wellness practices locally has resulted in a number of highly trained professionals opening resource facilities and offices. This ranges from holistic practitioners to therapy providers and the list continues to grow. These alternative routes to healing and lifestyle management are catching on as we seek solutions to our own issues.
One of the leaders in this arena is the be-well powerhouse, Dr. Laura Lile. After working for 12 years as a certified pharmacist (both in traditional pharmacies and in compounding), she decided to enroll in medical school to learn more about the health problems behind the need for the medicines she was charged with distributing to patients. Already a successful practitioner and busy mother of two small children, she started down the path. She was also pregnant with her third child at the time of diving into medical school. Talk about determination! After becoming board-certified to practice medicine, she embarked on a new approach combining her skills from both fields along with her vast knowledge from continuous reading on health practices and solutions throughout the world. She went on to open four locations of her thriving Lile Wellness Partners offices, which she owns and operates in addition to running two pharmacies. Just thinking about all that she does in a day is mind-blowing but leading by example for her staff and patients is all part of her philosophy, showing what true health looks like in person is extremely important in Lile’s opinion.
On the day of our first conversation, Dr. Lile was actually preparing to leave for Europe. On top of her functional medicine operations in the US, she’s taken on the role of advising The Vatican on preventative health programs as well as helping spearhead mobile diabetes prevention units throughout Israel. So, to say she’s got a world of knowledge and first-hand practice experience is an understatement. The fact that she has offices in our market is such a resource to the entire community, and one that most of us didn’t even realize was in existence.
The majority of us are used to dealing with brief appointments (after long waiting room sits) with doctors who are taxed with far too many patients and appointments. This leaves them lacking in time to investigate things outside the scope of their trained approach and far too often leads to prescribing drugs with side effects that just might be worse for our bodies than the symptoms we are experiencing. Fueled and funded by ‘big pharma’ and faced with painfully time-consuming insurance paperwork and protocol, the entire industry in the US is broken in many ways. Our doctors are overworked and exhausted through no fault of their own, which leaves us to take charge of our own health. You certainly can’t expect your GP to do this for you, and definitely not during these times.
A Concierge Approach
Being healthy starts with our thoughts and is dependent on daily personal habits. For people like me, that doesn’t involve making all kinds of appointments with various doctors in specialties for an array of physical conditions. We can read and absorb the latest saving product or superfood hype on internet sites but how that benefits us as individuals isn’t universal, even when the ‘hype’ is factual. At Lile Wellness, they deal with each individual on a very personal level, from conversation and interaction to the types of supplements and diet suggestions. We are not all the same. Our treatment shouldn’t be either.
The concierge approach is what a growing number of individuals and families are investigating in the current environment, and for good reason. It’s not only less confusing and time-consuming but ultimately can prevent life-threatening health problems. At Lile, it all starts with bloodwork, which is done at least 3 times a year. Our situations change and through testing for a variety of things off the radar for typical doctors, discovering imbalances and abnormalities is easy. “Even tumor developments can often be seen in bloodwork if you’re looking for the right thing,” Lile explains. “Far before you feel physical ailment or pain, your blood tells a story of what is happening in your body as well as what it needs to bring balance to all of your organs and systems for total health.”
In my experience, having Lile’s team of experts dive in during the end of our initial quarantine was the complete opposite of the dreaded doctor visit. Long conversations with not only Lile herself, but with staff member experts who were open to all kinds of crazy questions (based on all of my internet reading on fitness and nutrition blogs) and open to discussing them in-depth as well as sharing their own health challenges and found solutions. An enthusiastic and sweet-tempered nurse stopped by my house to take several vials of blood (no lab visit, hooray!) in under a half-hour and whisked them away to scan and study for every possible telling component. Lile Wellness is quite different than other concierge services, as they keep you on track to ensure ongoing health, watch bloodwork, and ask questions to determine if any red flags appear as warnings for something being off balance.
Other Sources for Concierge Functional Medicine To Explore
Celproceo – This integrative wellness center, founded by natural practitioner Dr. Maggie Berghoff is well-known for incredible results with high-level professionals and athletes. But they can also help with curing your inflammation and pain issues with a unique approach based on personal consultations and test results.
Vitality Medical Wellness Center – Dr. Sommer Elgin White tackles nutritional challenges with a culinary approach as well as investigating health issues to design personal health programs. If you want a custom eating plan, this is a first-stop source for getting one that suits your needs.
