Functional medicine

Cardiovascular Disease

Heart disease can feel like a mountain too big to climb. At Vitality, we help you navigate the complexities of cardiovascular disease, developing practical and lifelong solutions to ensure your heart health.

Vitality

Functional Medicine Approach

Understanding cardiovascular disease: The Heart of the Matter

Atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease (ASCVD) is like a slow-building storm, caused by the gradual accumulation of cholesterol plaques in your blood vessels. The main risks? High blood pressure, high cholesterol, and smoking. Here’s a sobering thought: studies show that 50% of men with ASCVD will have a heart attack before age 65, and 25% before age 55. For women, about 33% will face a cardiac event. It starts small, with a simple fatty streak in your blood vessels, but over time, this streak can turn into a plaque that restricts blood flow. When blood flow is significantly restricted, tissue damage occurs, which could lead to heart attacks and strokes. The severity of these events depends on how much heart or brain tissue gets damaged.

How Can We Help?

Contrary to popular belief, the cholesterol causing plaque build-up in your bloodstream isn’t directly from the cholesterol you eat. Most dietary cholesterol is too large to be absorbed and is excreted. The real troublemaker is LDL (low-density lipoprotein) cholesterol. But here’s the twist: it’s not just high LDL levels that lead to atherosclerosis, it’s the oxidation of these LDL particles, triggered by reactive oxygen species (ROS), that damages blood vessels. This is why conventional approaches like low-fat diets and cholesterol-lowering medications have reduced mortality but haven’t significantly cut down ASCVD diagnoses.

Our Approach

At Vitality FFM, we aim to stop atherosclerotic plaques from turning into severe diseases. If ASCVD is already present, we go beyond the standard lipid panel (Total cholesterol, LDL, and HDL) to get a fuller picture of the disease process. By measuring biomarkers such as ApoB, homocysteine, uric acid, and insulin, we uncover what’s causing the damage to your blood vessel walls. Our focus is on optimizing your body’s natural mechanisms for managing cholesterol and reactive oxygen species (ROS), aiming to lower the risk of cardiac events. While traditional medications may be part of the treatment, we emphasize a holistic care plan that fits both your goals and your practitioner’s expertise.

Consider This!

Did you know that atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease can start as early as childhood? Studies have found fatty streaks, the earliest form of atherosclerotic plaques, in the arteries of children and adolescents. This underscores the importance of early prevention and lifestyle changes, like healthy eating and regular exercise, to reduce the risk of developing ASCVD later in life.

Vitality Functional Family Medicine Principles

Vitality Functional Family Medicine Team...

Amrit Dockery, DO

Physician, Co-Owner and Chief Medical Officer

Amrit Dockery, DO is a board-certified family medicine physician and the Co-Owner and Chief Medical Officer of Vitality Functional Family Medicine. With specialized training in functional medicine through The Institute of Functional Medicine, Dr. Dockery is passionate about holistic and patient-centered care. She is dedicated to advancing health literacy, ending the disparity in women's health, and emphasizing preventative care. She holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Purdue University, where her fascination with the human body's complexity was nurtured. Dr. Dockery earned her Doctor of Osteopathic Medicine degree from William Carey University College of Osteopathic Medicine in Hattiesburg, Mississippi, and completed her residency training in Family Medicine at OSU/OMECO in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Devoted to changing the landscape of medical care, she furthered her expertise by acquiring a Master's in Healthcare Administration, with an emphasis on Leadership and Entrepreneurship from Oklahoma State University while completing residency training. Committed to providing comprehensive and personalized medicine, Dr. Dockery integrates her diverse knowledge to support patients' healing journeys to enhance their health so they can live with the vitality they seek and deserve. Outside of work, she is a fitness enthusiast with a love for Olympic weightlifting, Crossfit and distance running. She also enjoys hiking and camping with her husband, Barry Dockery, DO. Her greatest accomplishment and source of joy, however, is being a proud mother to Eden Mae Dockery.

Heather Thornton

Health & Life Coach

From an early age, I've had a passion to serve people and a deep sensitivity for the human spirit. Along the way, life also threw a number of health and auto-immune challenges my way early on, so I became personally shaped by the complexity of how our mind, body and spirit all function together. I'm deeply empathetic of how those challenges can become discouragements and places we get stuck in life, and I'm equally passionate about how beautiful the freedom we find can be, even and maybe especially when life isn't so perfect.

My experiences for the last 30 years in both helping and healthcare roles have naturally converged, taking that wisdom, heart and hope and now devoting the second half of my life wholeheartedly to people who are on their own journey of finding balance and fulfilment. My goal is to compassionately and fervently help you reach your goals!

I am currently completing my accreditation through the International Coaching Federation, and if you are a patient of Vitality, you'll get the added benefit of our work together including a health plan and goals designed and refined at every visit with your personal physician. It's absolutely within reach to experience meaningful change, so let's get started!

Cardiovascular Disease