Dr. Susan Blum wants us to be proactive and research-y about our health, but not morph into a complete cyberchondriacs.

As an expert in “functional medicine,” Dr. Susan Blum, founder and director of The Blum Center for Health, helps her patients get to the root cause of what’s ailing them by addressing them as a whole person rather than a symptom here, a symptom there. Often, the women streaming through her clinic’s doors – many of whom are suffering with chronic illnesses such as IBS, migraines and autoimmune disease – are at their wits’ end. “They are in pain, exhausted, and beaten up by the traditional healthcare system,” she says. “They feel ignored and unheard; therefore, I am amazed and grateful every day when I can help facilitate their healing through the magic and efficacy of this type of medicine.”

What I’m grateful for is this opportunity to chat with Dr. Blum about the holistic approach to health that I feel is most beneficial to all of us mamas. Whether you have a chronic illness yourself, or just want to feel very, very on top of your game, I think you’ll learn something from this exchange.

Dana: My sister and I are both totally health-obsessed, and I fear that our constant Internet-sleuthing is making us a little paranoid. Right now, for instance, our big kick is “adrenal fatigue,” which we’re both convinced we’re experiencing. My question to you: When does patient-research start to cross the line, and veer off into hyperchondria country? Or is there no real harm in playing amateur health detective?

Susan: This is a great question because most of my patients have done tons of Internet searching and reading before coming to see me. In general, most people use this information without letting it get crazy and paranoid, because they know all of that does not necessarily apply to them. And they can often figure out an aspect of their health issue that their doctor has missed. But, for some, it does cross the line, and mostly this relates to their personality – not the information.

If you know you tend to get paranoid and anxious, then you should limit your Internet voyeurism and at the very least make sure you have a knowledgeable healthcare provider you can ask questions and with whom you can discuss your ideas and concerns.

As for your adrenal fatigue, for example, it is good to read about it, because you might just have tired adrenals and now you can go find the right practitioner to help figure it out. In our current medical system, you need to be proactive in your own health, and unfortunately with chronic health problems, unless you find the right doctor, you might be the one to figure it out!

Dana: Your practice is all about “holistic” and “integrative” therapies. In your opinion, do women really “get” that? In other words, do they understand that it’s important to determine all the underlying causes of an illness rather than just finding the quick-fix solution for the immediate concern?

Susan: People who are tired of being sick and sick of being tired tend to seek out an integrative expert specifically because they haven’t they haven’t been “fixed” yet by all the quick fixes they’ve tried in the allopathic world. And they also come to realize that simply treating symptoms often brings on side effects with more symptoms.

And on some level, most women know they are out of balance and long to feel vibrantly healthy again. Most of the time they walk in and ask me to help them get to the bottom of it. It’s what they long for. They realize a quick fix won’t work anymore and they are ready to roll up their sleeves and do the work to get better.

Dana: Does the holistic path take much longer than the traditional Western medicine path? I would imagine it’s quite a bit more costly.

Susan: Holistic refers to an approach to the person. I look at the whole person and seek to understand all the factors that have contributed to their health, and then bring these things into the treatment plan. This includes lifestyle factors like their family, work, stress, sleep, diet, exercise habits, relaxation and leisure time, faith and support systems. I suppose this takes me longer to do an evaluation, but it is actually cheaper to treat because I spend a lot of time teaching people to eat specifically for what their medical condition needs, counseling them on stress management which can balance their hormones, and prescribing exercise as part of a treatment plan.

Lifestyle change is the most important part of treating a chronic disease. However, I tell my patients it will take time to turn around the QE2 ocean liner from the path it is on…not like a speedboat that can about-face really quickly. Changing the body’s chemistry takes time.

Dana: You deal a lot with women who have chronic illnesses. Are lifestyle shifts – making time to rest, eating really well, learning stress-reduction techniques – a big part of what you help them with?

Susan: Yes, but it is a lot more than that because the core of the treatment is to identify which system of the body is out of balance, for example the digestive, detoxification or immune systems, and using both lifestyle change and targeted supplementation, we can treat this imbalance and help the body heal. Sometimes there is a thorn in the system that needs to be removed, like a parasite or heavy metals.

Dana: Taking a page out of the ‘Babycare 101′ handbook, how do you teach your chronic-illness patients to “self-soothe” when their frustration starts to get the best of them?

Susan: First, let me help make the connection between chronic illness and stress. When your stress and frustration turns on, you make hormones that worsen your illness. So, “self-soothing” tools can be thought of as relaxation tools that both make you feel better and balance your hormones, which is good for your health. I teach my patients some simple breathing exercises that they can call on anytime they need it. The most important first step is catching yourself and realizing you are getting stressed and frustrated. After that, you can easily take a few belly breaths and come into the moment, realizing your emotions were getting the better of you.

But backtracking even further, it is important to be practicing a MindBody technique that you like, in an ongoing way, and then you can call on it when times get tough. The Blum Center for Health offers MindBody skills classes for learning these “self-soothing” techniques like meditation, breathwork, biofeedback and guided visualizations/imagery. I encourage everyone to try them all to find the right one for them.