Functional Medicine Toronto
Functional Medicine refers to the personalized approach to medical care which deals with primary prevention and emphasizes “patient care” rather than “disease care”. This approach manages patients as unique individuals with distinct environmental exposures and genetic predispositions and recognizes that while our genetics may “load the gun”, it is the environment which “pulls the trigger”. Functional Medicine balances these internal and external factors with the goal to achieving optimal health through nutrition, exercise, stress-reduction, restorative sleep, detoxification and hormone balance.
Integrative Medicine
Integrative Medicine combines mainstream medical therapies with complementary and alternative therapies that are supported by scientific evidence. It takes into account all factors that influence health including mind, body, spirit and community. Patients are active participants in their health and healing process. Health promotion and prevention of illness is paramount.Anti-Aging Medicine
Anti-Aging Medicine refers to a clinical specialty whose focus is aimed at targeting the early detection, prevention, and treatment of age-related decline. Research suggests that aging, obesity, chronic disease, heart disease, acne, cancers may be inflammatory conditions. With a healthy lifestyle, proper nutrition, supplements, and hormone balancing, we may be able to slow down these processes. Each of these components are important in optimizing health.
Our vision is to provide you with the very best in Integrative and Collaborative care. People are living longer, but in order to maintain a good quality of life, we need to take better care of ourselves.This means that we need to correct our weaknesses and build on our strengths.
- VitalityMD was founded by Dr Shari Caplan with the goal of offering you a personalized and Integrative Health Optimization approach that is tailored to address your unique medical problems and make use of both conventional and alternative treatment options. You will be provided with multiple options to choose from.
- We are all unique individuals and benefit from a personalized approach to our health care.
- We review the merits of hormone therapy for those who are suited for it.
- We use conventional along with functional and genetic diagnostic testing to assist us in finding ways to improve your health and to prevent disease.
- Our Team represents a group of innovative and experienced practitioners who have years of experience in both Traditional and Functional Medicine solutions.
- All of our staff are carefully selected for their keen interest in healthcare and they co-attend conferences with our doctors.
- We offer an expanding array of personalized services and programs to reach your goals.
Our Founder, Dr Shari Caplan has spent years preparing the VitalityMD programs. She is traditionally trained and is both board certified and a Fellow in Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine (FAARM) in the American Academy of Anti-aging Medicine and has a Fellowship in Metabolic and Nutritional Medicine with the Metabolic Medical Institute.
Dr Shari Caplan is a Woman’s Health Specialist. As part of her training in Family Medicine, she allocated a significant proportion of her time to Women’s Health. She practiced Obstetrics for 14 years delivering several thousand babies, and fostered a special interest in managing patients with hormone imbalances including PMS, perimenopausal, and menopausal symptoms, as well as postpartum depression, PCOS, and infertility. After years of practice, Dr Caplan realized that it made more sense to try to prevent disease from occurring, rather than waiting for it to happen and then trying to reverse it. She started incorporating supplements and nutrients into her practice and noticed health benefits in herself and her patients. This led to educating herself in the area of Functional and Integrative Medicine and she now treats all types of patients.
"Our hormones decline with age. But, it is the decline in hormones which contributes to the aging process. People feel much better when their hormones are balanced and replaced to physiological levels. Some conditions where bio-identical hormone replacement therapy (BHRT) would be useful include PMS, perimenopause, menopause, andropause, weight loss, and infertility. Hormone replacement of any kind is not without risk (BCP, OCP, conventional HRT, and BHRT). But, there are studies to show that BHRT may have less risk. I encourage you to learn more about BHRT."
