What if there's more to healthcare than just managing symptoms? Chelsey Leveling, nurse practitioner and clinic director at Functional Health Center of the Carolinas, pulls back the curtain on an approach that's transforming lives by finding and addressing the root causes of chronic health issues.
Unlike conventional medicine's fragmented view of the body, functional medicine recognizes interconnected systems working in harmony—or disharmony when things go wrong. "Symptoms that patients experience is the body's way of saying something is not right," Chelsey explains. Whether it's chronic fatigue, brain fog, joint pain, digestive troubles, or metabolic issues like insulin resistance, these signals deserve deeper investigation rather than just symptom suppression.
Chelsey's passion for this field springs from personal experience. As a registered nurse working in surgery and ICU, she struggled with her own persistent health issues that conventional approaches couldn't resolve. When functional medicine transformed her health at age 25, she knew she'd found her calling. Today, she spends an hour with each new patient, diving deeply into their health history, lifestyle factors, sleep patterns, and nutritional habits. This thorough approach, combined with specialized testing that goes beyond standard bloodwork, allows her team to uncover connections that might otherwise remain hidden. As Chelsey puts it, "Everyone's unique and we all have this different sized bucket" for what their body can handle before symptoms appear.
The results speak volumes—patients who've suffered for years with conditions like daily migraines finding relief within weeks through targeted interventions. Whether you're struggling with a specific health concern or simply want to optimize your wellbeing, functional medicine offers a revolutionary approach focused on sustainable, medication-free solutions. Explore how the team at Functional Health Center of the Carolinas might help you reclaim your health by visiting their website or calling their office today.
Functional Health Center of the Carolinas
Chelsey Leveling
Fort Mill, SC
1674 SC-160, Fort Mill, SC 29708
Mt. Pleasant, SC
570 Long Point Rd # 230, Mt Pleasant, SC 29464
Episode Transcript
is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local
businesses and neighbors cometogether.
Here's your host, Regina Lee.
Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of
the Good Neighbor Podcast.
I'm broadcasting here in SouthCharlotte and I love, love, love
to talk to local businessowners.
And today I'm excited to be inthe world of medicine and we're
going to be speaking to ChelseyLeveling.
She is a nurse practitioner andclinic director at Functional
(00:32):
Health Center of the Carolinas.
Welcome, chelsea.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Thank you for having me.
Speaker 2 (00:38):
Absolutely.
The world of functionalmedicine for me kind of came out
of nowhere, and now it's likeyou know you see it everywhere.
So let's first start with whatis functional medicine.
Speaker 3 (00:54):
Yeah, great question.
And most of my patients come tome through a Google search just
trying to find answers but lackthe knowledge or understanding
of what functional medicineactually is.
So we take a root causeapproach to medicine Instead of
isolating different body systems.
We know that the body workstogether and we have to figure
(01:15):
out what is driving symptoms ina patient's body.
Symptoms that patientsexperience is the body's way of
saying something is not right,and we have to figure out what's
going on whether it's a gutissue, an immune system problem,
a thyroid problem, hormones.
We're really trying to fix thatand then, instead of medicating
a patient and masking thosesymptoms, we treat that
(01:37):
underlying cause and symptomseventually go away, and we do
that without the use ofmedication.
Speaker 2 (01:44):
Wow.
So give us an example of whatthose conditions, symptoms,
might be.
Some of the more common things.
Speaker 3 (01:51):
The number one thing I hear is chronic fatigue.
Most of my patients have somesort of energy issues, chronic
inflammation, whether that'sbrain fog, joint pain and then a
lot of gut issues as well, andwe are seeing a ton of metabolic
issues, meaning insulinresistance, type two diabetes,
blood sugar problems as well.
Speaker 2 (02:11):
Wow, wow.
Just curious what made you gothis route in your journey of
medicine.
Speaker 3 (02:16):
Yeah, absolutely.
You know a lot of people getinto their field from personal
experience and I was aregistered nurse.
Before I got into this I hadworked in surgery and ICU and I
had my whole life had had somehealth issues that I was able to
kind of keep at bay, and in myearly 20s my symptoms just got
(02:37):
so bad I had to figure somethingout.
As a 25 year old, I was likethere's no way that this is how
I'm supposed to be feeling out.
As a 25 year old, I was likethere's no way that this is how
I'm supposed to be feeling.
So luckily I found a functionalmedicine provider in my area.
They were the only provider tohave ever helped in reverse my
symptoms and after going withthem and seeing how much it
impacted my life and changed mylife, I knew it was what I
(02:59):
wanted to do with my career.
I went to nurse practitionerschool and knew that I wanted to
kind of turn the table and getinto functional medicine and I
actually became a provider atthe place that I was once a
patient at and that was my firstentry into oh wow.
Speaker 2 (03:16):
That is super cool.
So is there certain training tobe in functional medicine?
Speaker 3 (03:21):
Yes, you can definitely go through training
programs.
I've been super lucky and theproviders I've worked under have
really taken me under theirwing and, you know, relate all
of their knowledge and expertiseto me, so I feel very fortunate
that I've got to learn fromsome great people.
Speaker 2 (03:36):
That is amazing, so describe the journey.
I call you.
I'm not feeling great.
How do you get to the root ofthe calls?
Speaker 3 (03:45):
One thing I love about my job is I get to spend a
lot of time with patients.
When you go to your primarycare office, you're given 10, 15
minutes max.
My first initial consultationwith a patient is an hour where
I talk everything of you knowwhen they were little to
symptoms they're experiencingnow.
We really dive deep into theirhealth history, even talking
(04:06):
about their sleep patterns,their stress levels, what their
exercise is like, and alsogetting a deep dive into what
their nutrition is like, becauseall of that matters and I want
to know every detail that I canto make sure I'm not missing any
information for a patient.
Speaker 2 (04:22):
Yeah, I'm just thinking out loud.
You know, with other kinds ofmedicines, we take a pill and
we're hoping to feel better thenext day.
This is more of a journey.
I mean a big lifestyle thing.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
Yeah, and you know it can be overwhelming for
patients, but our team is thereevery step of the way.
We want to build sustainablechanges for patients so that way
they don't just feel good thetime that they are working with
us.
We set it up to make sure thatthey're healthy for, hopefully,
the rest of their lives, withgiving them education and
knowledge and reversing thoseissues that they came to us with
(04:53):
.
Speaker 2 (04:54):
I assume sometimes it can be major tweaks or major
changes or little tweaks, youknow, and all of the above.
So what kind of testing isnormal?
Kind of walk us through that,the assessment.
Speaker 3 (05:06):
Absolutely so.
That first hour I spend with apatient really helps me to
understand what not only theirhealth goals are, but what
testing we need to get anunderstanding of what's going on
.
The gut of our body is huge andregulates our immune system,
our mood, metabolism.
So looking at people's gut is ahuge thing that I do, whether
(05:28):
that's a urine or a stool test.
Gut is a huge thing that I do,whether that's a urine or a
stool test.
We have access to so manydifferent tests that your
primary care offices just can'trun.
So we can test a lot ofautoimmune markers and figure
out what's driving that immunesystem function.
And then even blood work.
We look at it with a muchnarrow lens.
If you take out your blood workand see the reference ranges,
(05:48):
sometimes it can be anywherefrom zero to 600.
And if you fall anywhere withinthat you're normal but also
unique and need different things.
So we really want to optimizepatient's health and look at
that a lot more skewed than whatyour provider at the primary
care office might.
Speaker 2 (06:05):
So this isn't just the normal blood test.
I'm thinking, you know, if someof the different doctors I have
and those ranges.
You're right, you know, I justwant to be in the normal range
and I'm sure it's much deeperthan that.
Do you run into skepticism whenyou're sitting down with people
like, okay, come on.
You know what are themisconceptions you run into.
Speaker 3 (06:28):
Yeah, absolutely, and I get it.
A lot of patients come to mebecause they feel frustrated and
that they've been bouncedaround and haven't gotten
answers.
So they come to me being like,well, how are you or your team
going to get me feeling better?
But we are such a differentapproach to medicine that it
works.
I think if medicine waspracticed this way, many
(06:49):
patients would get better.
The skepticism is, you know,just taking herbs or minerals,
or is my changing my diet reallygoing to help me?
Is this a little bit woo woo?
But there's so much researchand science to back this area of
medicine and, as long as youhave a provider who's
knowledgeable in it, I think wecould really help a lot of
people if they knew more aboutit.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
That is incredible.
It's a it's, it is, it's, it'sa big mystery.
You know I'm sitting herethinking of myself and who?
What would we change?
Cause I feel like I doeverything right, but yet
there's some stuff that needs tobe tweaked.
Do you then sometimes havepatients that you end up having
to collaborate with other kindsof more traditional doctors?
Speaker 3 (07:32):
Yeah, absolutely.
There's times where I'll seesome things in the labs that are
concerning and do require aconsultation by, you know, a
gastrointestinal specialist,rheumatology, something like
that and I think, coming from amedicine background, it puts me
in a good place to recognizethose super red flag symptoms of
when a patient needs more acutecare versus what I can do for
(07:53):
them.
So there's times where I'llhave to collaborate with other
providers, or there's times,within our team, too, that I
will talk with, you know, myboss, dr Reiser, or my coworker,
lauren Lewis, where we'rereally working on these patient
cases together, because they canbe complex, where we're really
working on these patient casestogether because they can be
(08:14):
complex.
Speaker 2 (08:18):
So now let's talk about your office and your staff
and team.
You've got these two wonderfullocations.
You've got Fort Mill, SouthCarolina, and Mount Pleasant.
Describe, you know thedifferent services and type of
providers you guys have there.
Speaker 3 (08:27):
Absolutely so.
At our Fort Mill office it'smyself and I'm the functional
medicine provider and clinicdirector there.
Lauren Lewis is our directprimary care provider, so she
will offer direct primary care,which is more access to your
primary care provider.
She does get to spend more timewith patients than a typical
primary care visit.
(08:47):
And then we also have anutritionist on staff too.
Her name is Megan Tomlinson andshe also really talks about
healing these metabolic issuesand focusing on diet and
lifestyle for patients as well.
And then at our Mount Pleasantoffice we just opened that this
year we are working on gettingit up and running, but we have a
wonderful functional medicineprovider there named Emily, and
(09:10):
her and I are working closelytogether to make sure that all
of those patients are gettingwhat they need, and I think in
the next year we'll be expandingto more services there.
Speaker 2 (09:19):
That is super cool.
So in the world of nutritiondiet, gut do you find a common
theme with most of us?
I mean, like gluten, just kindof pinged in my head is this
trigger for so many people?
Is that really a huge issuewhen you're drilling down with a
lot of patients?
Speaker 3 (09:38):
Yeah, and it's definitely not something that
affects everyone.
I always say everyone's uniquesare different and we all have
this different sized bucket.
You know, some of my patientshave a really small bucket and
anything sends them over theedge, and some patients have a
really large bucket that theycan tolerate so much.
So it really just depends onthe patient what their labs show
(09:59):
and what their nutritionalprotocol will be.
The world of functionalmedicine is so individualized so
it's not a one size fits allapproach.
Most of us grew up on thestandard American diet and I
think that that we are seeingthose side effects or the
implications come from that, andI have a lot of patients, such
of yourself, you know, saying Ifeel like I'm doing everything
(10:20):
right, but our team reallyfigures out where we're falling
short and why you're not feelinggreat.
Speaker 2 (10:27):
Yeah, it's kind of terrifying to think, okay, I'm
going to come see you and I haveto cut out sugar and gluten and
all the fun things that we love.
Yeah, very, very intimidating,but I love the idea.
Give me an example, or maybethere's several of some patients
that their journey just reallystands out in your mind, how you
just switch something and nowthey're vibrant and just happy,
(10:51):
happy.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, I mean, there's so many that come to mind.
That's why I love this area ofmedicine.
I have so many success storiesfrom patients.
Something simple though youknow, I had a patient who
suffered from migraines almostevery single day.
She would keep a migraine logand, after working together, I
don't think she's had a headachefor six plus weeks now.
(11:14):
So we're still on that calendarof getting to a point where she
doesn't have them anymore, andit took looking at her gut and
fixing some nutritional things,and that was so impactful to her
quality of life.
Not only did she have to takemedication to help with it, but
obviously just made her day today her feel pretty crappy.
So that's something that comesto mind and I was so thankful to
(11:37):
have been able to help thatpatient.
Speaker 2 (11:39):
I've always heard like, like gluten.
If you're going to eliminatesomething dairy, do it for 30
days and you'll know.
Is that true?
Speaker 3 (11:47):
It can be.
I will say for some of mysicker, more complex patients,
it does take more time.
Complex patients it does takemore time.
Their body is so sensitive andthe 30 days sometimes is not
enough.
So I know you mentioned, youknow, being scared of making
those dietary changes.
But to help reframe is think oflike the feelings that can come
(12:08):
from having more energy, lesspain, less brain fog and that is
really kind of the reward thatyou have when you change, make
those changes in your diet andlifestyle.
Speaker 2 (12:18):
That's amazing.
How long have you been doingthis?
Speaker 3 (12:21):
I have been doing this for over two years now, but
I've been in healthcare eversince I graduated nursing school
in 2016.
Speaker 2 (12:29):
That's amazing.
It's so, so interesting and,yeah, it's just so popular now
and I, after talking with you, Ican see why.
So tell our listeners how tofind you guys and reach out.
Speaker 3 (12:41):
Yeah, absolutely so.
Our Fort Mill office is locatedacross from Baxter Village.
We have a phone number that youcan call if you want to get on
the schedule.
That is 704-625-2994.
We also have a website you canvisit, that's fhccarolinascom.
From there you can see ourservices, our team, look at some
(13:02):
reviews that patients have saidand there's a form you can fill
out to get on the schedule foreither myself or the other
provider, lauren.
Speaker 2 (13:11):
And what ages Do you work with children?
Speaker 3 (13:14):
We do not right now.
We're hoping in the future tobe able to work with children.
We do not right now.
We're hoping in the future tobe able to work with children,
but we see adults only.
Speaker 2 (13:20):
Gotcha.
Well, thank you so much foryour time, Chelsey.
So so interesting, and I seewhy you guys are so successful
and popular.
Thank you for your time today.
Speaker 3 (13:30):
Thank you, I appreciate it.
Speaker 1 (13:33):
Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor
Podcast.
To nominate your favorite localbusinesses to be featured on
the show, go toGNPSouthCharlotte.
com.
That's GNPSouthCharlotte.
com, or call 980-351-5719.
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