Functional Medicine

At Wiseman Family Practice we practice integrative medicine – medicine that combines the best of alternative and conventional medicine. To accomplish this, we practice a medical approach that is known as Functional Medicine.

While other practices tend to focus solely on the disease and the symptoms of a patient, we focus on the patient’s whole being using Functional Medicine approaches. We center on a patient’s needs and try to develop a relationship to better understand a patient’s health history, symptoms, as well as the genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence a patient’s health. This relationship between us and the patient better serves the patient’s long-term health as we can better determine unique and sustainable solutions.

wiseman functional medicine

Patient-Centered Functional Medicine Approach

This patient-centered approach considers the latest information from the scientific community. This includes information about genetics, the intersection between environment and lifestyle, and biology – all of which can impact how a patient’s health progresses. At Wiseman Family Practice, analyzing these intersections for each one of our patients allow us to develop a therapeutic partnership. This process empowers our patients to speak for themselves and helps their doctors determine the best solutions for their patients.

Three Ways Wiseman Family Practice Approaches Functional Medicine

  • Researching the latest medical news in regards to systems biology, genetics, and the intersection between lifestyle and environmental factors within a patient’s life that can influence how a disease progresses.
  • Using a new system and clinical model to diagnose, assess, treat, and prevent disease. Instead of focusing only on symptoms, we focus on the patient, which allows us to treat the entire patient instead of just a set of symptoms.
  • Allowing patients to pursue interest in their own health which creates a working partnership between us and our patients. This makes it easier to pursue and find personalized, unique medical care that can anticipate issues before they occur.

Integrative Medicine and Austin Functional Medicine

Integrative Medicine and Functional Medicine work well together. Integrative medicine focuses on using both alternative and conventional therapies, that are evidence based, when treating a patient. Functional Medicine provides a framework for this integrative medicine model. Functional Medicine allows us to apply our knowledge of the entire patient in order to address the source of disease along with sustainable solutions. Functional Medicine’s goal is to determine “WHY” the patient has this illness and hopes to answer this question by looking over all the medical evidence of the patient’s symptoms, genetics, environment, and lifestyle. This is especially important when treating chronic diseases that affect multiple organs, as Functional Medicine’s systematic method of analyzing each individual patient allows a doctor to see the bigger picture of a patient’s health.

For more information on Functional Medicine please view The Institute for Functional Medicine Website.

Sellma Vllasi, FNP-C

With over 13 years of training and experience in integrative and functional medicine at Wiseman Family Practice, Sellma has used functional medicine approaches and modalities to help patients get to the root cause of their medical problems.

Sellma Vllasi, FNP-C received a Bachelor’s Degree in Nursing from Texas Tech Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas, and her Master of Science in Nursing from The University of Texas at Austin, with post–graduate certification by the Texas Board of Nursing as a Nurse Practitioner specializing in Family Care. Ms. Vllasi maintains memberships in professional associations including the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, Texas Nurse Practitioners, Austin Advanced Practice Nurses, and Sigma Theta Tau International Honor Society of Nursing. With over ten years nursing experience in women’s health as well as chronic disease management and prevention, Ms. Vllasi has a keen interest in preventive medicine, functional medicine, women’s health, bioidentical hormone replacement therapy, integrative medicine, alternative medicine, pediatrics, and comprehensive health care for the family across the lifespan.

To set up your initial functional medicine visit with Sellma Vllasi, FNP-C please message us on your Patient Portal or Healow app if you are a patient or if you are not a patient, please email us using our secure form here.