Royal Spirit Alive! How to be a Beacon in a 40-watt World

“The body is the most powerful pharmacy that has ever been created or will be created.
There will be no drug that will ever do what the body is designed to do.”
Elizabeth A. Wanek, M.D.

Millions of Americans are wondering what to take for their aches and pains since the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) placed high-demand anti-inflammatory pain relievers on their hit list, due to increased cardiovascular and other health risks. As the requiem plays for these once-heralded drugs, consumers seek to find relief from pain so they can move with ease through daily living activities. The emergence of functional medicine may be the freedom maker for these individuals.

Elizabeth Wanek, MD

Haven’t heard of functional medicine? Elizabeth Wanek, M.D., medical director and CEO of the Wanek Medical Center Institute for Functional Medicine, describes it as “helping people be functional.” Her list of capacities includes being able to get through the day with energy, to focus, to concentrate, to not be sore, to be able to move, to stay limber.

In essence, functional medicine is about identifying and healing underlying conditions of the body, getting to root causes of dis-ease, versus experimenting on it with various drugs. “The body is the most powerful pharmacy that has ever been created or will be created. There will be no drug that will ever do what the body is designed to do,” says Dr. Wanek.

A Personal Quest to Achieve Lasting Health

Yoga instructors

Traditional medicine was the original route for Dr. Wanek. Influenced by the work of her father and mother—her father was a general practitioner in a small town in Nebraska and her mother a registered nurse—she attended medical school at Creighton University in Omaha. She was in the surgical honors program in medical school and observed that pediatric surgeons seemed to be the happiest. She said she liked kids, so she studied pediatric surgery. In 1989, she opened a private pediatric surgery practice in Greensboro.

The Wanek Medical Center Institute of Functional Medicine evolved from Dr. Wanek’s personal quest to achieve lasting health. Dr. Wanek started learning more about nutrition, specifically for her own life, which led to further questions. She sought answers in basic science. As she studied more, she realized there was a huge hole in the medical profession. She says people weren’t being given enough education about how their body works and what they can do to take care of it differently. “The instruction manual for the physical body has never been written. Essentially, the functional medical practice that I engage in is supporting the body in its natural healing abilities to repair, recycle and regenerate,” says Dr. Wanek.

A New Kind of Rx for Healthy Living

Aerial view of functional training/physical therapy area, complete with water fall.

How does one get a personal instruction manual for her physical body? Functional testing, such as neurotransmitter testing (which assesses how messaging is moved around), can be administered to identify how the body is currently managing what it’s supposed to do. The testing helps practitioners assess the dynamic interrelationship of physiological systems and provides practitioners like Dr. Wanek a basis to develop personalized interventions that assist each individual in achieving optimum health.

permanent labyrinth located at the Wanek Medical Center

Dr. Wanek emphasizes that functional medicine requires active participation from the patient. “It’s important to get the power back to the patient. The patient in traditional medicine has willingly sacrificed [her] power to a pill or to a doctor. It doesn’t work that way. Health is an active sport.”

At the Wanek Center, helping individuals take responsibility for achieving lasting health includes looking at personal beliefs and how one’s belief system influences existing conditions. “It’s so simple, but it’s so complex. Simply by looking at things differently, holding a different belief, there’s a different world that starts to open up,” says Dr. Wanek.

Are you looking for ways to open up to a more vibrant, energetic you? Are you ready to allow your Royal Spirit to guide and direct you? Here are specific tips Dr. Wanek shared for expanding awareness and increasing health and well-being:

	Be aware of things that are coming to you each day, whether its information from the Internet, colleagues, or something you read. Trust that what you are led to will be perfect for you and that it will be presented to you when you need it. Everything is presented at the absolute moment that is perfect.
	Be truly loving in every thought, word and action.
	Ask the question “Is this behavior I’m engaging in supporting me?” Examples of specific behaviors include: • Am I getting enough water? • Is the air I’m breathing pure? • Is what I’m eating nurturing me? • Am I getting enough rest?
	Take the steps involved in divesting yourself of whatever it is that is not serving you.

For highest outcomes, Dr. Wanek shared one additional tip. “Be honest; not critical, just honest. It’s not about judging. It’s about deciding ‘Is this really serving me?’ When we choose for that [which] does serve, then the energy is there to propel us. We start to blossom like a leaf and do what we truly love.”

Dr. Wanek can be reached at:

The Wanek Medical Center
Institute of Functional Medicine
6 North Pointe Court
Greensboro, NC 27408
e-mail: drwanek@2wellness.com
www.2wellness.com

Wanek Medical Center photos courtesy Ron Hayden.