Today we’d like to introduce you to Blake Miller.
Hi Blake, we’re thrilled to have a chance to learn your story today. So, before we get into specifics, maybe you can briefly walk us through how you got to where you are today?
Freedom Functional Medicine was an idea that had always been a passion of mine, even starting in residency and fellowship. After practicing in conventional medicine for 10 years, I was frustrated by the siloed care I could offer to my patients and I was functioning as a technician, not a physician. The knowledge I had gained from medical school, residency, fellowship, and medical practice.
I was watching the population of patients become more obese and sicker, despite our medical advancements. EVERYTHING was treated with pharmaceuticals first, not diet, lifestyle, or behavior modifications first. Many of the drugs my patients were taking were to treat side effects of other drugs that they were on. I couldn’t help but ask the question: is it possible that the medications they were taking to mitigate health symptoms actually making the patient sicker?
The COVID-19 pandemic, along with the Draconian, bureaucratic approach to a single treatment for a complex illness that we didn’t understand was the final straw for me to start the business.
The name “Freedom Functional Medicine” is multifactorial. It represents freedom for me, away from “the system,” freedom for patients and reducing the need for drug treatments, and a more profound meaning of freedom as the foundation of the founding of our country. We have become slaves and victims to Big Pharma.
We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
Not at all! This has been the hardest, but most rewarding adventure in my life.
There are numerous decisions that are made daily that have major consequences. Especially starting out. There is little buffer for bad decisions when you have little capital reserve.
It’s been difficult, but a very rewarding adventure!
Great, so let’s talk business. Can you tell our readers more about what you do and what you think sets you apart from others?
I trained and practiced as an orthopedic trauma surgeon for 10 years prior to starting Freedom Functional Medicine. I wanted to create a center that would be more beneficial to our patients and would their health would be the focus, not taking the typical reductionistic approach to only one specific ailment. For too long, our system has reduced patients only to a systems-based system assessment, broken down by specialty. Our current system does not encourage or suggest that each patient is much more complex than the sum of their parts.
I wanted to provide a safe environment for people to share their entire story, not an abbreviated version due to limitations of time. Many things that don’t seem pertinent, initially, to their current symptoms, actually become quite important to the entirety of the patient’s condition. We have to put the story together as a whole to make sense of why our patient is currently experiencing what they are experiencing.
Risk taking is a topic that people have widely differing views on – we’d love to hear your thoughts.
One of my favorite quotes from Jim Rohn is: “If you are not willing to risk the unusual, you will have to settle for the ordinary.”
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.freedomfunctionalmedicine.com
- Instagram: freedom_functional_medicine
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/freedomfunctionalmedicine/
