People seek Functional Medicine care for a wide array of symptoms and conditions. Most Functional Medicine practices will, rightly, address gut health as part of their care plan because a significant amount of systemic (body-wide) inflammation originates from a less-than-optimal gut environment. With the increasing prevalence of autoimmune issues, chronic infections, and allergies/intolerances, the immune system is also a target for many practitioners.

However, most practitioners miss the foundational understanding that the state of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) will either allow or disallow the healing in both the gut and the immune system that every provider is wanting to facilitate.

At OCC, we understand that bringing about ANS resilience will restore the immune system’s capacity to finally resolve systemic inflammation and heal the tissue damage resulting from this inflammation. Likewise, ANS regulation will shift immune dominance back toward competence in fighting infection, allow us to tolerate safe exposures, and address the progression of autoimmune tendencies. Finally, lasting gut health is achievable only with ANS resilience so that digestion and absorption, detoxification, barrier function, and elimination processes are supported by the neuroception of safety.