How to Become a Functional Medicine Doctor

June 13, 2018

Physician, podcaster, and poet, Rob Abbott, M.D. is a family medicine resident in Front Royal, Virginia and a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Medicine. He practices what he calls “spiritually focused and evolutionarily informed functional medicine.” Rob recently launched the Charlottesville Center for Functional Medicine, making ancestral health and wellness principles available to the members of his own community.

In this conversation with Dr. Tommy Wood, Rob describes the moment he knew that functional medicine was the right path for him, and talks about maintaining an ancestral health perspective during his otherwise conventional medical training. He and Tommy discuss some little-known alternatives to traditional medical insurance and health care, as well as educational resources Rob is developing for consumers and health practitioners.

Here’s the outline of this interview with Rob Abbott:

[00:00:56] Robb Wolf’s Paleo Solution Podcast.

[00:02:13] Paleo f(x).

[00:07:33] Chris Kresser’s Healthy Skeptic Podcast; Emily Deans, Chris Masterjohn, Stephan Guyenet.

[00:10:34] Life of a medical resident.

[00:13:10] Motivational interviewing.

[00:13:53] Mickey Trescott and Angie Alt, Autoimmune Wellness, Autoimmune Protocol.

[00:18:41] Robb Wolf’s Paleo Solution Podcast: Episode 373 - Dr. Brandon Alleman - Direct Primary Healthcare.

[00:20:03] Charlottesville Center for Functional Medicine.

[00:22:15] James Maskell of Evolution of Medicine.

[00:23:25] Healthshares (examples: Health Share of Oregon and Liberty Health Share).

[00:29:29] Self-awareness.

[00:30:19] Physicians Assistants, Nurse Practitioners.

[00:34:40] Preventative Medicine.

[00:37:35] Podcast: How to Make Disease Disappear, with Rangan Chatterjee.

[00:39:01] Kresser Institute’s ADAPT Health Coach Training Program, ADAPT Practitioner Training Program. Podcast: How to Become a Health Coach (And Why Health Coaching Will Transform Healthcare), with Chris Kresser.

[00:40:55] Intervention at the community level.

[00:43:31] Changing the food supply.

[00:47:23] Appearances on other podcasts: Mastering Nutrition Podcast: Nutrition in Medical School - Do Doctors Learn Enough?; Dr. Ruscio Radio: An Inside Look Into a Day in My Functional Medicine Practice with Medical Student Robert Abbott.

[00:47:58] Making connections in the health sphere.

[00:52:11] Create something people can't ignore.

[00:54:58] Podcast: Everything You Wanted to Know about Detoxification, with Bryan Walsh.

[00:59:04] Charlottesville Center for Functional Medicine; Kerri Cooper, Ryan Hall.

[00:59:57] Website: A Medicinal Mind; Ebook: The Ultimate Integrative and Functional Medicine Educational Resources of 2018.

[01:01:12] Melanie Dorion.

[01:01:42] Institute for Functional Medicine, American Academy of Anti Aging Medicine (A4M).

[01:01:50] Pentad Integrative Health, educational modules; Rob’s podcast: A Medicinal Mind.

[01:02:40] Ancestral Health Symposium.