A Letter from Mirasol's Founder and CEO
 Dear Friends,
From its inception in 1999, Mirasol has always been on the cutting edge of alternative treatment for eating disorders. Ours was the first program in the country to offer truly integrative treatment, combining the best of holistic and traditional medical approaches. We also pioneered the use of neurofeedback in eating disorder treatment.
Now we're taking another giant step forward with the introduction of Functional Medicine. We're very excited about this because it's a logical extension of our belief that just curing the eating disorder is not enough. We want our patients to achieve optimal wellness, whatever that means for them.
Functional Medicine is a science-based healthcare approach that assesses and treats underlying causes of illness through individually tailored therapies to restore health and improve function. Its goal is to bring the body back into alignment by drawing on the combined knowledge of genetics, herbal medicine, nutrition, environmental toxicology, endocrinology, natural medicine of all types, gastroenterology, psychology, and immunology.
Functional Medicine
- is patient-centered
- is based on each person's unique needs
- helps balance your biochemistry
- integrates physical, mental and emotional
- uses challenge tests rather than diagnostic tests
- encourages you to take an active role in your program
- is interested in outcomes rather than controlling symptoms
- is used by all disciplines of medicine: medical, naturopathic, chiropractic, osteopathic, dentistry, nutrition, etc.
Many people today have health problems that don't fit into simple categories. Often people have complex health problems involving inflammatory responses, immune, nervous, digestive, energy, and/or cardiovascular systems. Very frequently they may have one or more of these conditions in conjunction with the eating disorder. These people are best helped by a functional approach.
In conventional medicine making a diagnosis is often the endpoint of therapy. Functional medicine looks deeper to find the cause. When we have pain, discomfort, or reoccurring health complaints, it is our body's way of trying to get us to pay attention.
Rather than taking a pain medication each time we get a headache or backache, maybe we should ask ourselves why we are experiencing the pain? For example, if you are depressed, perhaps an anti-depressant would help you to feel better. But wouldn't you really like to explore why you are depressed? Could it be a neurotransmitter problem? Or a relationship problem? Could you be reacting negatively to food you are eating? Or could it be the load of heavy metals or toxic chemicals you've accumulated? This approach obviously requires more work than just writing a prescription for an antidepressant, but it results in a much more satisfying answer.
In this issue of the Sunflower, Dr. Dawn Bantel, Mirasol's Medical Director, explains how we'll be using Functional Medicine at Mirasol to help our clients achieve optimal health and wellness.
Please feel free to write either myself or Dr. Dawn for more information on our new offering!!
Warmly,
Jeanne Rust, PhD
Functional Medicine:
The High-Tech Revolution in Holistic Health
By Dawn Bantel, NMD
 One of my favorite things about Mirasol is the food. It not only tastes great, it's also most effective medicine we can give our clients. It's amazing to see the changes that can result from even a few weeks of good nutrition. Every one of our clients has nutritional deficiencies. This is one of the unfortunate consequences of eating disorders. Of course, this can have a significant impact on one's physical, mental and emotional health.
Many of our clients restrict whole categories of foods. For example, anorexics may avoid fats, proteins or carbs. Women with bulimia or binge-eating disorder often consume large amounts of junk food. Nutritional deficiencies can also result from the increased requirements of a medication or from the individual's biochemistry.
In a perfect world, we'd be able to pinpoint each client's exact nutritional deficiencies and design an individual treatment plan based on her needs. Fortunately, that ideal treatment model is now within reach thanks to functional diagnostic medical testing.
Functional medicine is a giant step forward in the diagnosis, treatment and prevention of chronic illness. It's a logical, cutting-edge extension of integrative medicine, made possible by new technology, nutritional research, and genetic tests that were unavailable even decade ago.
At the root of functional medicine is an examination of core clinical imbalances that result from a variety of factors including diet, exercise and the way the body processes trauma.
The core clinical imbalances can include:
- Oxidative Stress
- Nutritional Imbalances
- Intestinal Dysfunction
- Impaired Detoxification
- Immune/Inflammatory Imbalances
- Endocrine Imbalances
By comparing the individual's assessments with normal physiological ranges, practitioners of functional medicine can pinpoint abnormalities and contributing factors to health problems, often exposing the real causes of chronic illness and degenerative disease.
 Indvidualized treatment plans can then be developed with the goal of restoring proper cellular metabolism by reducing cumulative toxic load and oxidative stress to the body, normalizing mitochodrial respiration and ultimately reducing the signs and symptoms of chronic disease.
I used to be surprised that even our sickest, most fragile clients would appear to be healthy on the conventional lab work that performed on them. By using more precise laboratory tests, we'll have a much better picture of each client's overall treatment requirements.
Beginning this month, we can now offer Mirasol clients the an optional package of functional diatnostic tests known as as the ION Profile (individual, optimal, nutrition) through Metametrix Clinical Laboratory. ION includes a detailed analysis of more than 100 components in blood and urine for signs essential fatty acids, amino acids, B vitamins and antioxidants as well as the toxic metals. Once the information is analyzed we can create a customized nutritional and therapeutic plan to address not only to treat the client's illness, but to help her achieve optimal health.
For more information, visit the Institute for Functional Medicine.
Lemon Citrus Sauce
While the rest of the world bids farewell to summer and anticipates the brisk temperatures and brilliants colors of autumn, Arizonans move out of the steamer and into the frying pan. Our annual monsoon is winding down, but we can still look forward to two months of triple-digit temperatures. Dinner tonight needs to be healthy and refreshing without a lot of cooking. How about browned tofu with a refreshing lemon citrus sauce?
½ C orange juice
¼ C lemon juice, lime juice or a combination
2 cloves og garlic, chopped
1 tbsp. sesame oil
Stir to combine all ingredients.
Add to skillet with browned tofu, tempeh or meat.
Cook over low heat about 15 minutes.
This and other recipes developed by Mirasol's own chefs can be found in the Mirasol Cookbook available from Mercado Mirasol.
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