Not too long ago, the fields of health and medicine focused simply on addressing singular symptoms.
While this is still an issue with mainstream medicine, our team at Regain Functional Medicine + Aesthetics offers you a better approach to health and wellness with functional medicine.
Near Overland Park, we continue to help many Kansas City residents stay healthy and active by focusing on the whole body, not just individual symptoms. With functional medicine, we are treating the cause of physical, mental, and emotional struggles, not masking them.
If you’re reading this, you’re probably thinking, “Shouldn’t this be the standard of care in all medical centers?” The answer is yes, but unfortunately, many patients report feeling like a number rather than a patient. Here’s how we do things differently at Regain.
Functional Medicine: Treating the Whole Person
Many people shudder at the thought of an office visit. The long waits, the short conversations with the doctors, and the confusion and anxiety felt after receiving a diagnosis.
The traditional health care model focuses on seeing as many patients as possible, which hardly gives the provider any time to actually understand the patient’s health. With that in mind, it’s no wonder that when you tell your provider that you’re having trouble sleeping, they give you a sleep-aid. Or when you tell them you feel joint pain, they give you a referral to a chiropractor.
But with functional medicine near Overland Park, we don’t rush visits. Instead, we take the time to ask the most important question surrounding your symptoms: why?
- Why are you feeling fatigued?
- Why do your joints hurt?
- Why do you feel irritable and depressed?
To address the why, we go beyond reviewing your medical history and asking about the onset and severity of your symptoms. We also offer a full blood panel for a much lower price than you can get through your primary care physician or insurance.
Asking the why and getting the answers we need from your blood work helps us understand the how.
- How does this connect to your other symptoms?
- How does your medical history affect these symptoms?
- How can we treat the underlying cause(s) so you feel and function better?
Our treatments are tailored to you and your specific needs. This is a whole-body approach that improves the physical and mental causes of your health concerns. You wouldn’t always think that your energy levels, sexual health, and bone density are connected, but functional wellness and medicine prove to us that they are.
→ Read all about our philosophy and process at our health and wellness center.
Proactive Health
Modern traditional medicine waits for you to become ill or start experiencing symptoms of declining health before treating you. Functional medicine near Overland Park proactively focuses on preventing these issues from arising in the first place.
Our tailored treatments go beyond anti-aging. Instead, they teach you how to improve longevity so you live longer and feel younger. Now you can live life to the fullest, enjoying your favorite activities with increased energy, muscle strength, and stamina.
Meet Dr. Kathy Gaumer
The founder and owner of Regain, Dr. Kathy Gaumer, MD, FACOG, first opened the doors of our beloved medical spa in Lawrence, KS, after spending years working as a board-certified OB-GYN.
This experience led her to better understand the importance of lab-driven care and that the body is an interconnected system. This means a single problem can trigger a cascade of health issues, so her work is rooted in early diagnosis and effective treatment.
With her passion for men’s and women’s health and whole-body wellness, she has earned national recognition, including being named the 2024 American Heart Association Kansas City Leader of Impact for her work in advancing cardiovascular health.
Outside of her work at our KC medical spa, she continues to help women as an advocate for survivors of domestic violence, serving on the board of Newhouse KC, the long-established domestic violence shelter in Kansas City.
→ Read about the history of Regain Functional Medicine + Aesthetics here!
Hormone Replacement Therapy and Functional Medicine
A cornerstone of our practice (and a personal passion for Dr. Gaumer) is hormone replacement therapy. This treatment is also the best example of how functional medicine near Overland Park treats the whole body, rather than the symptoms. In fact, most patients start their hormone replacement journey first before we include additional treatments.
Hormones and Your Health
Hormones are chemical messengers that travel through your bloodstream to regulate various bodily processes, including:
- Metabolism
- Sexual function
- Reproduction
- Sleep-wake cycles
- Mood
- Growth and development
- Homeostasis (blood pressure, blood sugar, and electrolyte balance)
With these in mind, it’s no wonder that as you grow older, you start to feel weaker, more fatigued, and just not like yourself. Everyone experiences hormonal imbalances (having too much or too little of a hormone) because our production of key hormones like estrogen, testosterone, and progesterone declines. Let’s explore how this affects women and men differently.
Menopause
All women go through menopause. It’s not the most exciting stage of life, but it’s unavoidable. This transitional life stage marks the end of your menstrual cycle and the beginning of a new set of symptoms that can affect your appearance, mood, and overall health. Including:
- Hair loss on the scalp
- Hirsutism (excess hair growth on the face and body)
- Hot flashes
- Osteoporosis
- Weight gain
- Weight loss
- Vaginal atrophy
But you don’t have to feel alone. Although men don’t go through menopause, they experience another form of hormonal change when they get older: andropause.
Andropause
Andropause, or the gradual decline in testosterone, can affect men’s full-body health, causing these symptoms:
- Erectile dysfunction
- Depression
- Loss of muscle mass
- Insomnia
- Poor concentration
- Fat redistribution (larger belly or “man boobs”)
Luckily, there are solutions. Men and women can experience the benefits of functional medicine near Overland Park with hormone replacement therapy as they grow older.
Bioidentical Hormone Replacement Therapy
At Regain, we offer bioidentical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) and testosterone replacement therapy (TRT). These use hormones sourced from plants like wild yams and soy, making them molecularly identical to the hormones our bodies make. Bioidentical hormones come with fewer side effects and better efficacy than non-bioidentical pharmaceutical hormones.
After receiving your lab results from your hormone testing that we provide in-office, we can tailor your bioidentical hormone replacement therapy to you. We offer weekly injections of BHRT that allow us to track your progress and monitor how your body responds to your customized dosage of hormones.
While you can expect to see improvements in your sexual health, mood, and energy, there are more benefits than you may realize!
Improved Immune Function
Your sex hormones influence your immune system, signaling a response to foreign invaders like infections, bacteria, and viruses. Therefore, a hormonal imbalance weakens your immune system, making you vulnerable to age-related immune issues such as higher susceptibility to illness, autoimmune disorders, and increased cancer risk.
→ Want to learn how to improve immune function? Read this article.
We use BHRT to improve your immune function by replenishing those sex hormones and prolonging your health span, which doesn’t just mean leaving longer—it means living longer free of disease.
In addition to BHRT, we also offer IV therapy and vitamin injections, another treatment for functional medicine near Overland Park that improves your immune system by delivering essential vitamins and minerals directly to your bloodstream. We recommend the following IV nutrition drip:
- Glutathione
- NAD+
- Ultimate IV
Sustainable Weight Loss
Hormonal imbalances lead to less motivation to work out, and less energy to even cook yourself a healthy meal. However, if you remember correctly from our list of bodily processes that hormones regulate, you’ll remember that they also influence your metabolism, blood sugar, and blood sugar levels.
Hormonal imbalances can lead to weight gain, causing your metabolism to slow down and your cortisol (stress hormone) levels to rise. High cortisol levels can raise blood pressure, lower blood sugar and leave you craving a fatty or sugary comfort meal.
Functional medicine near Overland Park recognizes that weight gain and weight loss are dependent on factors outside of your control, like your hormones. With BHRT, we help you rebalance your hormones, improving your metabolism function and giving you energy to fuel your exercise.
After you start your treatment for hormone replacement therapy, we may also include medical weight loss into your plan. To help you sustainably lose weight and maintain the results, our weight loss program includes:
- Nutritional guidance
- Exercise recommendations
- Medications like semaglutide, tirzepatide, or phentermine
Improved Appearance
Part of the reason we offer aesthetic treatments like skincare, facials, laser hair removal, and laser skin resurfacing is because we understand the importance your self-esteem has on your mood and overall quality of life. Studies show that high self-esteem results in improved mental health and social conduct. But oftentimes, our appearance changing with age can negatively affect how we view ourselves.
Hair Loss Treatment
For women, BHRT may serve as a hair loss treatment because it restores estrogen production which encourages hair growth.
If men are looking for a hair restoration treatment, we offer GetHairMD. This device uses a three-part system to address hair loss.
Regain is the exclusive provider of GetHairMD in Kansas City, offering you a comprehensive solution to hair loss that includes both in-office treatments and at-home care.
Skin Health
Estrogen promotes skin health, preventing the decline in collagen (the structural protein that keeps your skin strong and supple) and increasing hydration. BHRT helps you maintain a youthful appearance by slowing the formation of wrinkles, fine lines, and skin laxity.
Testosterone can also promote skin health in men, as andropause usually signals a decrease in elasticity and thickness. TRT slows this decline, preserving a younger appearance.
Bone Health
Estrogen and testosterone are essential for building and maintaining muscle mass. As your hormone levels decline, you are at a higher risk of osteoporosis. While you still need to exercise and build muscle on your own, maintaining adequate levels of estrogen and testosterone helps you stay strong so you can enjoy your favorite physical activities.
Live Longer; Live Happier
Functional medicine near Overland Park doesn’t just aim to help you live longer, it also helps you live happier. With hormone replacement therapy, you can live a healthy life where you feel young, spry, and dynamic.
To start your journey to improved health and wellness, request a consultation or try our treatment planning tool.
