It's never been easier to find your Root cause 🌱 . Order your own functional labs in real time + get insights & support from top doctors and dietitians.
Available nationwide.
05/20/2025
“You’re not a college athlete anymore, your body is just changing,” Madelyn was told by multiple doctors.
Despite living a healthy lifestyle, she spent two years searching for answers to weight gain, hair loss, acne, and excessive sweating. When her concerns were dismissed as normal, she turned to Root. Advanced testing revealed the real cause: Cushing’s syndrome.
In this special episode of Get to the Root, she shares how getting the right diagnosis changed everything.
Taste-testing a new Root recipe: Strawberry Rhubarb Chia Pudding 🍓
The strawberry and rhubarb were stewed with a little maple syrup and layered over our classic chia base—so good, and that color 😍
We’re always playing with new ideas that taste great and support blood sugar balance (think: protein, fat, and fiber).
If you're already a Root member-check it out! It’s live in the Root Community.
04/02/2025
✈️ Spring break travel season is here! Our team rounded up their favorite grab-and-go snacks to support energy levels, blood sugar balance, and mood stability while traveling.
It’s not about being perfect, but looking for options with protein, fiber, and/or healthy fat can make a big difference in how you feel and help you start your trip on the right note.
And don’t forget to hydrate. Stick to plain or sparkling water to avoid being dehydrated upon arrival.
What's on your list? 👇
03/25/2025
🎙New Episode! ✨
Are GLP-1 medications like Ozempic and Wegovy the answer to weight loss, or is there a better way?
In this episode of Get to the Root, Katherine Stam, DO, IFMCP, breaks down how these medications work, their benefits and limitations, and what it really takes to support metabolism and long-term health. She shares key strategies including nutrition, strength training, gut health, and blood sugar balance to help you approach weight management in a more sustainable way.
🎙In this episode of Get to the Root, Dr. Erica Armstrong chats with dietitian Danielle Fiskars-Byers about the vital role of gut health in overall well-being. They cover how the gut affects digestion, immunity, metabolism, and mental health, plus tips on healing your gut with food and lifestyle changes.
Dr. Erica Armstrong sits down with Root dietitians Kelsey Stricklen & Amy Masterson to explore how Root's doctor-dietitian model is transforming health. They dive into functional medicine, advanced testing, and personalized nutrition, breaking down how small, sustainable shifts (like an addition mindset over restriction) can lead to meaningful improvements in health. ✨
Functional medicine offers an additional supportive treatment option for individuals looking for further ways to reduce depressive symptoms, improve quality of life, and/or prevent related health conditions.
We consider gut health in everyone we work with. Why?
Because what happens in the gut doesn’t always stay in the gut. In fact, 70% of the immune system resides there. Signs of poor gut health can show up throughout the body. It's all connected. ✨
02/12/2025
We've been quietly working on something special, and now it's time to share! The Get to the Root Podcast is officially live! 🎙 ✨
In our very first episode, Root founder Erica Armstrong, MD, IFMCP, sits down with Emily Cordes, DO, IFMCP, Lead Physician at Root Functional Medicine, to explore how functional medicine uncovers the why behind symptoms like fatigue, hormonal imbalances, and metabolic issues.
Discover how Root’s doctor-dietitian model uses advanced testing, nutrition, and lifestyle changes to create sustainable health solutions and change the landscape of healthcare. If you’re searching for answers beyond symptom management, this episode is for you!
Now streaming on all major podcast platforms. Listen now👇
We know people want real root-cause care, but with so many different approaches out there, it’s hard to know what actually works.
At Root, we're all about changing that. We test, track, and validate our results to make sure functional medicine isn’t just a trendy term. It’s a real, science-backed approach to better health. 🧪
Our goal is to set a new standard of care so people get the results they deserve. ✨
01/29/2025
Many people reach out to us for help after doing labs elsewhere but receiving no insights or action plan.
We love functional testing too, but to get meaningful results (i.e., identify & target the root cause or optimize health to feel better), you need someone experienced to interpret your labs and provide a realistic action plan. 🔍 💡
Not having this can lead to a couple of problems:
1. Overlooking significant findings because they might not be flagged in a different color on the results sheet. Conventional "normal" is different from functional "optimal." For example, if your fasting blood sugar is 95 and fasting insulin is 12, both are out of range and indicate you're heading toward (or already have) insulin resistance, but most conventional labs would call them “normal”. Similarly, trends in gut bacteria on a GI-MAP test may not be flagged as abnormal but could still be contributing to symptoms. 🦠 This would not be identified without a skilled practitioner looking at your results.
2. At times, Unnecessary worry because it looks like there’s a serious problem on paper, but there really isn’t (or there’s a fairly simple solution)
When you order functional testing through Root Access, you always get:
🩺 Insights on every result from our expert functional medicine doctors
🌱Interpretation resources from the Root Community
💚The option to work with us 1:1 to create a care plan if needed
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Root stands for being grounded and mindful, natural health, and root cause medicine, but mostly, root reminds Dr. Erica Armstrong, MD, our founder, of her midwest roots. She believes that our community, family, and support are the key to our overall wellbeing.
Dr. Armstrong had listened for years as a P*P to her patients intimately tell her how they wanted more from health care. Regularly, people would relay that they were told all of their labs are normal, and that specialists had ruled out disease, but they still didn’t feel well. She realized that there was a difference between absence of disease and wellness.
To be able to help people on a much more personalized level, to offer cutting edge testing, and to take the time to develop a relationship and personalized wellness plan, she needed a practice where she could focus on delivering care in the model of functional medicine.
During her functional medicine training she saw that there were evidence-based labs that could predict the development of disease earlier. Labs that weren’t typically recommended or “covered” at preventative visits. These were labs like testing insulin levels which can rise years before blood sugars rise and the development of diabetes, or testing thyroid antibodies which show an increased risk of developing thyroid disease every year. Knowing this personalized information makes it easier to prevent and reverse disease, and is a more accurate characterization of a person’s health and wellness.
The more she used bits and pieces of Functional Medicine, the more she realized that this was the right thing to do for people for long term health.
Knowing that nutrition is a cornerstone of Functional Medicine, she decided that a partnership with an Integrative and Functional Medicine Nutritionist would allow patients the kind of support and guidance to achieve their health goals. She was fortunate to meet Kelsey Stricklen, MS, RD, CLT and the two have been collaborating to create an innovative model of care to bring a new kind of healthcare to West MI and beyond, with the ability for virtual visits.
To learn more about the field of Functional Medicine, the latest in health research and nutrition, subscribe to updates on our website www.rootfunctionalmedicine.com.
