• Start Your Healing Journey Today
Begin Your Care Journey
Untitled design

Functional Nutrition

Evidence-based, whole-body nutrition for lasting wellness.

Food, Nutrient, and Lifestyle Strategies that support Fertility, Smooth the Transition through Perimenopause, and Stabilize Autoimmune Thyroid Function.

Learn More
Untitled design

Functional Nutrition

Evidence-based, whole-body nutrition for lasting wellness.

Food, Nutrient, and Lifestyle Strategies that support Fertility, Smooth the Transition through Perimenopause, and Stabilize Autoimmune Thyroid Function.

Learn More

How Functional Nutrition is Different

Functional nutrition is an evolution in the way nutrition is used in healthcare, moving beyond one-size-fits-all advice to honor your unique biology and life stage.
It is a science-based approach that considers how digestion, hormones, metabolism, and the immune system interact, rather than looking at symptoms or lab values in isolation. In this model, nutrition becomes a clinical tool: your history, lab work, and lived experience help guide targeted food, nutrient, and lifestyle strategies that support fertility, smooth the transition through perimenopause, and stabilize autoimmune thyroid function.
 
By shifting the focus from “What diet should I follow?” to “What does my body specifically need to function optimally?”, functional nutrition helps address root contributors such as blood sugar imbalance, inflammation, gut health, and nutrient depletion. This allows food, timing of eating and strategic supplementation to work alongside conventional care, creating a more comprehensive plan for energy, mood, cycle and hormone health, and long-term wellness in everyday life.
 
Functional Nutrition uses an evidence-based approach to personalize nutrition plans around your unique physiology, lab markers, and life stage—whether you are preparing for pregnancy, navigating perimenopause, or managing autoimmune hypothyroidism. By focusing on blood sugar balance, gut health, inflammation, and nutrient status, functional nutrition can support more stable and sustained energy, clearer thinking, more balanced hormones, regulated cycles, and optimal thyroid and immune function in everyday life.
Learn More

Why Do We Need Functional Nutrition when it comes to Reproductive Health, Perimenopause and Menopause, & Autoimmune Hypothyroidism?

Functional nutrition is needed because most women’s health concerns are not just “one problem” in one organ, but the result of many systems interacting over time—especially digestion, hormones, the immune system, and the stress response. Instead of offering generic diet advice, functional nutrition asks: What is happening in your body, at this stage of life, and what food and nutrient strategies will best support that biology?

For fertility, this means using nutrition to support ovulation, egg quality, thyroid function, blood sugar balance, and a healthy gut and immune environment that can sustain a pregnancy.

In perimenopause, functional nutrition helps steady shifting hormones, support the brain and nervous system, promote strong muscles and bones and reduce inflammation that can worsen hot flashes, sleep issues, mood changes, and weight gain.

For autoimmune hypothyroidism, functional nutrition becomes a powerful partner to medication by targeting drivers such as gut health, micronutrient status (like iodine, selenium, zinc, and iron), blood sugar regulation, and chronic inflammation that can influence antibody levels and symptoms.

In everyday life, this approach translates into clear, personalized guidance—what to eat, what to emphasize, and what to minimize—so that food is not confusing or guilt-inducing, but a strategic, supportive part of your long-term care plan.

Functional Nutrition Evaluation

Functional Nutrition Evaluation offers an ABCD organizational approach to support clinical analysis, and it allows for nutrition-related findings and clinical patterns to emerge. 
From the medical history, physical and laboratory exams, and a diet and lifestyle review, the functional nutrition assessment improves the identification of insufficiencies or imbalances through the PFC-MVP model.
 
This acronym represents: Protein, Fat/Oils, Carbohydrates, Minerals, Vitamins, and Phytonutrients. 

Here’s an overview of the ABCD organizational approach of Functional Nutrition:

A – Anthropometrics – help to identify altered body composition patterns and abnormal vital signs. 
B – Biomarkers – functional laboratory findings uncover PFC-MVP nutrition insufficiencies and physiologic patterns linked to clinical imbalances. 
C – Clinical Indicators from the physical exam identify physical, bodily signs related to nutrition abnormalities that can be further explored through laboratory and functional assessments. 
D – Diet, Nutrition, and Lifestyle Journals – explore daily or weekly food intake, PFC-MVP assessment, patterns of eating, cravings and habitual foods, and stress eating associations.
Learn More
Source 1
[1] How to Use Functional Nutrition In Your Clinic – Rupa Health https://www.rupahealth.com/post/what-is-functional-nutrition
[3] What is Functional Nutrition? | American College of Healthcare … https://achs.edu/blog/what-is-functional-nutrition/
[4] What Is Functional Nutrition? – Institute for Integrative Nutrition https://www.integrativenutrition.com/blog/what-is-functional-nutrition
[6] Thyroid Health in Perimenopause & Menopause: Why ‘Normal’ Isn’t … https://www.horizonmedspaandwellness.com/post/thyroid-health-in-perimenopause-menopause
[7] Managing Your Thyroid Without Losing Your Mind: A Guide for Women https://myobgynvegas.com/managing-your-thyroid/

Unlocking Your Health Potential with Functional Nutrition

Functional nutrition takes a personalized approach to health, focusing on nourishing your body with the right foods and nutrients to restore balance. Rather than applying a one-size-fits-all solution, it dives into the root causes of health challenges, addressing the specific imbalances in your diet, lifestyle, and metabolism that can affect your overall well-being.

With a focus on your unique body and needs, functional nutrition blends modern science and time-tested practices to create a path toward healing. It’s not just about eating better—it’s about helping your body function at its best, naturally.

Let's Get Started Toady

Testimonials

Patient Stories of Transformation

I first started seeing Dr. Gina when I had recently begun suffering from severe insomnia. I had always been a great sleeper, but out of nowhere, I was unable to fall asleep or stay asleep. I was getting only 1-3 hours of sleep a night, and it was beginning to affect my physical, mental and emotional well-being. I didn’t know where to turn, so I first went to my general practitioner. She only prescribed me sleeping pills, which I was not interested in taking. I wanted to find a more natural way of dealing with this problem, and that is when I decided to try acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. From the first time I spoke with Dr. Gina over the phone and heard how kind and understanding she was, I knew that was the right decision.
Amy D.
Read More
I originally started seeing Dr. Gina for shoulder and low back issues. She is awesome treating sport and musculoskeletal issues and her acupuncture treatments for my back and shoulder pain helped me tremendously. The acupuncture treatments on my shoulder greatly speed up my recovery from a rotator cuff surgery. During one of my visits when Dr. Gina goes through and asks about general health issues, I had mentioned that I was loosing a ton of hair, gaining weight even though I was working out almost daily, felt like I could never get enough sleep to quench my chronic fatigue and always felt cold to the point I would sit in front of my space heater during the summer. She recommended that we run some lab work on me and look at a thorough thyroid panel.
Katherine B.
Read More
Dr, Gina and Healing Traditions Integrated Wellness literally changed my life for the better. I first went to Dr, Gina for fertility because I was wondering why I was not getting pregnant when there was seemingly no medical issues. Together we got to the root of the underlying anxiety and insomnia issues that were causing major hormonal imbalances through doing detailed blood chemistry analysis and comprehensive hormone analysis, combined with simultaneously evaluating and diagnosing me from the Chinese Medical perspective. Correcting those imbalances would create a much more comfortable home for a baby to grow.
Brooke L
Read More
Explore more real stories from women who’ve walked this path.
View All Testimonials

Supplements

High-Quality Supplements From Fullscript, Curated Just for You

Premium grade, practitioner-selected supplements designed to support hormone balance, immune health, fertility, thyroid function, and overall vitality—carefully chosen to complement your Functional Medicine plan — with 10% off every order.
Shop Fertility Supplements
"I first started seeing Dr. Gina when I had recently begun suffering from severe insomnia. I had always been a great sleeper, but out of nowhere, I was unable to fall asleep or stay asleep. I was getting only 1-3 hours of sleep a night, and it was beginning to affect my physical, mental and emotional well-being. I didn’t know where to turn, so I first went to my general practitioner. She only prescribed me sleeping pills, which I was not interested in taking. I wanted to find a more natural way of dealing with this problem, and that is when I decided to try acupuncture and Chinese Medicine. From the first time I spoke with Dr. Gina over the phone and heard how kind and understanding she was, I knew that was the right decision. At my initial consult, Dr. Gina took the time to learn about me and my health history. I was so used to seeing a doctor for 5-10 minutes, that I couldn’t believe the time Dr. Gina spent with me. Instead of giving me a pill to solve the symptoms of my problem, she was able to get to the root of the problem and treat the deficiency that was causing me to not be able to sleep. Dr. Gina gave me acupuncture treatments and prescribed me a custom herbal formula. After several weeks, I was once again sleeping through the night. Although it took a little bit of time to balance things out, I felt much better doing that than taking sleeping pills. Since that time, I have continued to see Dr. Gina. I have had two children, and Dr. Gina has helped me through the postpartum periods for both. She is incredibly knowledgeable on health, nutrition, and combining Chinese medicine with Functional medicine. I cannot say enough great things about Dr. Gina. I truly believe that she has helped me more than any other health care provider, and I trust her completely. We are very fortunate to have such a talented practitioner in our area."
Amy D.
"I originally started seeing Dr. Gina for shoulder and low back issues. She is awesome treating sport and musculoskeletal issues and her acupuncture treatments for my back and shoulder pain helped me tremendously. The acupuncture treatments on my shoulder greatly speed up my recovery from a rotator cuff surgery. During one of my visits when Dr. Gina goes through and asks about general health issues, I had mentioned that I was loosing a ton of hair, gaining weight even though I was working out almost daily, felt like I could never get enough sleep to quench my chronic fatigue and always felt cold to the point I would sit in front of my space heater during the summer. She recommended that we run some lab work on me and look at a thorough thyroid panel. I had just had my blood work ran by my PCP a few months prior to this and brought in those labs to her. My TSH was 3.2 and my doctor told me "everything looked fine". That was the only thyroid marker he ordered and measured on me. Dr. Gina explained that she liked to run and look at thyroid panels that included multiple markers and not just the TSH. However, she did also explain that a TSH of 3.2 was well "out of the functional range" but still within the "laboratory range" so was considered, "normal" by general allopathic standards. Once we got my lab results back from the labs Dr. Gina ran on me, they revealed that not only did I have a very under active thyroid, but that my labs showed I was positive for thyroid anti-bodies, revealing that I had an underlying autoimmune process attacking my thyroid, aka, "Hashimoto's. Dr. Gina explained that there is a genetic piece underlying Hashimoto's and that it often runs in family lines. This made total sense to me as my mother and both my grandmothers had hypothyroidism. I was finally able to start putting all the pieces to my health mysteries together. Dr. Gina helped guide me in choosing the best thyroid medication to request from my doctor. She also curated an entire personalized dietary and supplement protocol for me, as well as, helped me resolve chronic GI issues (H. Pylori and Parasites) I had since traveling abroad, which I believe was also crucial to my healing, in addition to the thyroid medication. It took me about 9 months to fully get myself dialed in with the proper medication dosage. Once my medication dosage was finally dialed in, I began to feel what it felt like to have proper thyroid hormone levels. I could finally think straight and actually felt rested after a normal 7-8 hours of sleep. This was after literally years of never feeling good or right. I also realized how many of my health issues I was trying to bring to my doctor were being flat out dismissed... Forever Grateful for all Dr. Gina has done for me and helped me with."
Katherine B.
"Dr, Gina and Healing Traditions Integrated Wellness literally changed my life for the better. I first went to Dr, Gina for fertility because I was wondering why I was not getting pregnant when there was seemingly no medical issues. Together we got to the root of the underlying anxiety and insomnia issues that were causing major hormonal imbalances through doing detailed blood chemistry analysis and comprehensive hormone analysis, combined with simultaneously evaluating and diagnosing me from the Chinese Medical perspective. Correcting those imbalances would create a much more comfortable home for a baby to grow..
.
She worked with me by integrating Western Functional Medicine with acupuncture, prescribing customized Chinese herbal therapy and coaching me on diet and lifestyle changes. She also had me on a targeted and personalized supplement protocols that was based my labs. It was all so methodical and mapped out for me..
.
I almost immediately noticed a difference. I was able to successfully go off the antidepressant I was taking. I had WAY more energy, I was sleeping better, my skin looked great and I dropped 10 lbs without any effort.
.
Eight months after I first saw Dr. Gina, I found out I was pregnant! After my husband, she was the very next person I told. I had a very healthy pregnancy and delivery and soon after, I delivered the most perfect little girl. My family moved out of state last year and my visits with Dr. Gina are one of the biggest things I miss about Denver. I don’t know that I’ll ever meet a practitioner like her again but I will sure try! In the meantime, anything I put in my mouth, any medicine or vitamin I take, I always stop to think ‘what would Dr. Gina say.’ "
Brooke L.