Dr. Rebecca Furlano

03/23/2024

Hello Everyone and Happy Spring!

It’s that time of year where the sun is starting to shine, days are getting longer and everything is in bloom, as well as seasonal allergies! I am experiencing my first Spring here in Cincinnati and I have to say, it reminds me of my first Spring in Missouri, there were SO many new allergens, I have found myself sneezing out of nowhere! For all of the seasonal allergy sufferers out there, here are some of my favorite Functional Medicine remedies for seasonal allergies that are really helping me!

1). Local Raw Honey: Consuming local raw honey gives your immune system a homeopathic dose of various pollens in your area, desensitizing your system to the effects of the local pollen. This is why it’s so important to only consume honey from bees in your area. I recommend 1 tsp per day for allergies.

2). Quercetin: This flavonoid is mainly found in the skin of certain fruits and veggies, especially onions! It is found in most of the dark berries, including blueberries, blackberries and dark cherries. It is a powerful anti-oxidant that has immune regulating properties, and also helps to stabilize histamine levels in the body.

3). Bromelain: This natural anti-histamine is an enzyme found in pineapple! Apart from being an anti-histamine, it can also break down proteins involved in inflammation and swelling. It is often paired with Quercetin and is best taken apart from meals, so that it can act as an anti-histamine instead of digestive enzyme!

4). Vitamin C: This vitamin is considered the master “mast cell stabilizer.” Mast cells are the largest producers of histamine in the body. Histamine is what makes our eyes red and watery, our nose run, and causes us to sneeze. Vitamin C "turns down the volume" on mast cells, which decreases the amount of histamine running through our body.

5). Nettles Tea: This remedy is often overlooked but is a very powerful natural treatment for hay fever specifically! Nettles tea is an anti-inflammatory, anti-histamine and can help calm the redness involved in our eyes and nose during allergy season.

These have been helping me immensely lately, and I hope they do the same for you. I hope everyone has a wonderful, healthy Spring! 🌷

11/23/2023

Wishing everyone a Happy Thanksgiving today! Enjoy the day with family, friends and food! 🦃

07/19/2023

It’s been a busy month getting acclimated to my new Cincinnati residence and practice but I’m excited for this new adventure, and I’m especially excited to introduce my new website! This is a place to learn more about what Functional Medicine is as well as the kind of Functional Medicine I practice. This also contains all of my contact information for my new office as well as how to schedule appts.
You can also connect with me on Instagram!


I hope you’re all doing well and enjoying the summer!

Functional Medicine aims to identify and treat the root cause of disease and dysfunction in the body. I look beneath the surface for what causes illness in the first place.

05/31/2023

I love this post by Sarah Schieffer - Functional Medicine Health Coach! Saying them all today!

02/17/2023

Happy Friday everyone!
Just a quick note to let current Functional Medicine patients know that an email was sent out yesterday containing my new office contact information to use to schedule virtual appointments for after July 1, 2023, should you choose to continue care with me. If you didn’t get an email, (and it’s not in spam) and would like the information sent to you please email me at dr.furlano@gmail.com. Thank you and have a great weekend! 🎉

01/13/2023

Hello everyone! I have some exciting and bittersweet news to share. After 10 incredible years of building a Functional Medicine practice within Wi******er Spine & Sport, I will be moving on to my next life adventure this summer. I will be moving my life and private practice to Cincinnati, Ohio on July 1, 2023 and will be joining forces with an equally amazing team at Mt. Lookout Chiropractic & Sports Injury Center.

If the pandemic has taught us anything, it’s that genuine healthcare can be achieved virtually. Virtual appointments will still be available to my entire patient base, just as they have been!
Beginning July 1, 2023, any patient currently being seen in person in my Troy, MO practice will have the option to schedule a virtual appointment with my new office in Cincinnati. I will continue seeing in person patients in Troy, MO until June 1, then I will be 100% virtual for the month of June as I transition to my new city!

In person appointments at Mt. Lookout Chiropractic & Sports Injury Center will begin being offered July 1, 2023. A formal email to all existing patients will go out next week that will include extensive details of dates, new office phone number and when it will become available, as well as step by step instructions of how to schedule a virtual appointment with me going forward, so stay tuned! Please wait for my email before calling the Wi******er Spine and Sport office with questions.

My time and experience at Wi******er Spine & Sport has been priceless, and the connections I have made with my patients and staff will not be forgotten. I hope and plan to continue the connections made as I move into a new and exciting phase of my life. A genuine thank you to Brett Wi******er, and all of the amazing staff at Wi******er Spine & Sport, for providing me with the foundation and support to create a place for Functional Medicine to serve the Lincoln County area and beyond. And most importantly, a sincere thank you to all of my patients for trusting me with your care, I hope to continue that care from Eastern Standard Time! I am excited to bring the foundation of service to Mt. Lookout Chiropractic & Sports Injury Center and the Cincinnati area as a whole.

Here's to positive growth, change and new adventure in 2023!

01/01/2023

Happy New Year Everyone!

May all of you thrive in health, happiness and longevity this year. 🌟

May you use food as your primary medicine, make healthy relationships a priority and move your body every day!

Here’s to a New Year of exciting possibilities!
(And a balanced whole foods diet 😄👇🏻)

11/14/2022

“The typical American diet is shortening the lives of many Americans. Diet-related deaths outrank deaths from smoking, and about half of U.S. deaths from heart disease – nearly 900 deaths a day – are linked to poor diet.”

This article excerpt speaks for itself. Until we commit to improving our standard American food system, we will continue to face an overwhelming burden standard American diseases.

The way many Americans eat is fueling chronic disease. Here are seven big ideas from the White House's upcoming nutrition conference for how to improve Americans' diets.

09/28/2022

Wow! For those that have read Dr. Mark Hyman, MD’s book Food Fix, this is exciting! I’m remaining hopeful that the food system as a whole as well as the nutritional resiliency of our country will improve!

Tomorrow, for the first time in over 50 years, the White House is hosting a conference on nutrition. This is a monumental opportunity for experts in the space of nutrition and policy to come together and update our policies to address the burden of chronic disease caused by ultra-processed food.

As a physician on the frontlines of medicine, understanding the full effect of what proper nutrition can do to save someone’s life, reverse disease, and create health, I am honored to be attending this event and sharing what I’ve learned over the last 30+ years of practicing. Real food and better food policies can transform our sick world into a healthy one.

I want you at this conference too! If you care about the state of nutrition and making real, whole, nutritiously grown food more accessible, watch the White House Conference live.

Tomorrow at 9:30 am ET / 6:30 am PT you’ll be able to view panels on food as medicine, nutrition research, farming practices, and more here: https://bit.ly/3fogVg2

08/31/2022

I have been waiting with hope for mainstream to validate the Polyvagal theory as it relates to chronic disease states. The work of Peter Levine, Stephen Porges and Bessel Van Der Kolk are largely responsible not only for my own healing, but the healing that so many patients have been able to do for themselves, whether they are aware of it or not.

As we discussed in the Designed 2 Move seminar this past weekend, the work of Robert Naviaux and UCSD on the Cell Danger Response is a direct evidence based overlap of the Polyvagal theory. In both the CDR and PVT, our system can become stuck in a perpetual loop of trying to complete the healing cycle. Only until the central nervous system and the cellular defense systems receive signals of safety instead of threat, can the loop complete itself and healing begin.

Safety can come in the form of emotional and psychological support, trauma integration, Somatic Experiencing Therapy, but it can also come in the form of an anti-inflammatory diet, pathogen removal, nutrient restoration, and mitochondrial support. In my experience, both ends of the spectrum deserve to be addressed.

I have immense faith and optimism that the approach to treating chronic conditions is about to change on a very large scale. Hang in there!

Polyvagal theory is significant for trauma survivors in that it shifts an individual’s feelings of safety from a subjective to an objective science, acknowledging that these feelings have a measurable underlying neurophysiological substrate. Thus, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms may be viewed as the product of a reconditioned autonomic nervous system that developed during extreme and/or repeated exposures to threat. Polyvagal theory helps clinicians understand how an individual’s sense of safety, or danger and threat, can impact behavior and mental health. What is the state of the research on polyvagal theory and the autonomic nervous system as it relates to trauma? How does this research inform new treatment strategies for trauma-related conditions like PTSD? Read more: https://hubs.la/Q01lj8br0

08/28/2022

A huge thank you to Designed 2 Move for inviting me to the Netherlands to teach this weekend! My hope is that awareness, advocacy and research continue to be dedicated to this life altering condition, as well as other post-viral illness sequelae. It was truly an honor teaching such an engaging group of passionate participants! 😃

Thank you again!

The good news is that, at least in some patients, long covid's effects on the brain may not be permanent or progressive.