A Model for Affordable and Accessible Functional Medicine

Dr Gabriel Niles, MD has travelled many roads in his search for the ideal model of healing and flourishing. Prior to his training as a Medical Doctor at USC School of Medicine, he studied Traditional Chinese Medicine in Shanghai, China. He has organized and led multiple Circle of Healers retreats with the American Medical Student Association as a medical student, seeking to integrate the wisdom of healing traditions with modern medical science. In recent years, Dr Niles has been integrating the insights and benefits of Functional Medicine into his medical practice while remaining committed to keeping medical care affordable for his patients. 

For this podcast, I caught up with Gabe after the Ancestral Health Symposium in Los Angeles to discuss his integration of Functional Medicine into a mainstream bill-to-insurance medical practice. We talk about areas where his approach differs from that of other family physicians, including his favouring of lifestyle changes over-reliance on pharmaceuticals. He also explains why he has continued working within the conventional medical system, despite rejecting the big-pharma controlled dis-ease model of medical “care”.

Here’s the outline of this interview with Gabriel Niles:

[00:00:27] Gabriel's background and interest in medicine and health.

[00:02:33] Evan Hirsch, MD; Podcast: How to Fix Your Fatigue.

[00:03:01] Institute for Functional Medicine's AFMCP Training.

[00:03:15] Studying Chinese medicine.

[00:09:58] Service in the US Navy.

[00:13:30] Dr. Kirk Parsley; Podcasts: 1. How to Get Perfect Sleep with Dr. Kirk Parsley, MD; 2. Sleep To Win: How Navy SEALs and Other High Performers Stay on Top.

[00:14:27] Saying no to Big Pharma; The problem with statins.

[00:17:14] Ancestral Health Symposium.

[00:20:20] James Nestor; Book: Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art; Podcast: How to Fix Your Breathing to Improve Your Health.

[00:21:06] Todd Becker; Podcast: Getting Stronger; AHS Talk: Desirable Difficulties: Using Hormesis to Learn More Effectively - Todd Becker (AHS21).

[00:23:20] Mickey Trescott; Podcast: Autoimmune recovery with Mickey Trescott.

[00:26:22] Book: The End of Alzheimer's, by Dale Bredesen.

[00:28:41] Medical problems faced by knowledge workers.

[00:31:13] International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness (ISEAI).

[00:34:37] Books: It Starts with Food and The Whole30, by Melissa Hartwig Urban and Dallas Hartwig.

[00:36:39] Paul Saladino: The Carnivore Code; Podcast: Fundamental Health Podcast.

[00:40:23] Book: Natural Causes by Barbara Ehrenreich.

[00:42:56] Why Gabriel continues to bill insurance.

[00:44:34] Podcast: The Community Cure: Transforming Health Outcomes Together, with James Maskell. Book: The Community Cure.

[00:45:31] Evan Hirsch's Virtual MD course.

[00:47:48] Work with Gabriel Niles in Los Angeles, CA.