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Welcome to Thrive

THRIVE is a collaborative platform of conventional, integrative, & functional medicine practitioners coming together in one setting to provide personalized healthcare to clients.
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6401 Carnegie Blvd, Suite 2A, Charlotte, NC 28211

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Sleep Must Be a Priority

[caption id="attachment_4832" align="alignleft" width="300"] Nancy A. Palermo MD[/caption] Getting quality sleep is foundational for optimal health yet one out of every three Americans is not getting sufficient sleep. This reduction in sleep quantity and quality is leading to an array of health issues including obesity, diabetes, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, and mental disease. The conventional approach to sleep issues is a pill but this is not without side effects. Prescription sleep aids are associated with reduced sleep quality and even worse they pose a 5 times greater risk of memory and concentration problems, 2 times increased risk of falls and fractures, and 2 times the great risk of motor vehicle accidents. Long-term use is also associated with parasomnias-abnormal behaviors like sleepwalking, sleep eating, and sleep-driving. Recent data has shown...

Our Diets Are Killing Us And Doctors Aren’t Trained To Help

This article was first featured in The Hill. It was written by Emily M. Broad Lieb, Drs. Stephen DeVries and Walter Willet What if your doctor failed to talk to you about the most important threat to your health? Wouldn't you worry about the quality of your health care? A poor quality diet is a leading cause of death in the United States, but it is unlikely that your doctor has the knowledge even to begin a meaningful conversation about your nutrition or to make an appropriate dietary referral. Most doctors lack the knowledge necessary to offer patients nutrition advice; fewer than 14 percent of physicians report feeling equipped to advise on a diet or the connection between food and health. This is unsurprising given that, for example,...

Gratitude

      “It is not happiness that makes us grateful It is gratefulness that makes us happy. Every moment is a gift. … Whatever life gives to you; you will respond with joy. Joy is the happiness that does not depend on what happens. It is the grateful response to the opportunity that life offers you at this moment.” ― David Steindl-Rast   Thanksgiving is that time of year when we show gratitude for family, friends, and lives well lived. For a short period of time, we feel happiness-counting our blessings with an overall sense of contentment. Then when Monday rolls around it is business as usual. If we reaped any benefits from the holiday weekend they quickly disappear with the return of stress, negativity, depression, and loneliness. Our lives focus...

What Exactly is Clean Eating?

[caption id="attachment_9894" align="alignleft" width="300"] Nancy A. Palermo MD[/caption] Clean eating is an important part of what we provide at Thrive is Functional Medicine. Functional Medicine is a completely different approach to symptoms and diseases. It aims to get to the root cause of the symptoms rather than cover them up with medication. When we talk about root causes we cannot proceed without discussing diet as it is such a foundational component of our health. When I first meet a patient at their Functional intake visit, we often discuss their diet. I would say that most of them say they eat clean and do not feel their diet is the cause of their issues. While this certainly might be true more than not, we can find some places where...

Summer “Do’s” and “Dont’s

Summer is here and we're all ready to enjoy days at the pool and sunny warm weather. Dr. Palermo shares some of her secrets to make this season your best! Don’t Put on Sunscreen… At least for the first twenty minutes, you are in the sun. Vitamin D deficiency is common with over 80% of Americans being deficient. This is a result of our overreaction to the risk of skin cancer with sun exposure. Vitamin D is important for adequate immune function and control of inflammation, neurological and cardiovascular function, bone-building, fighting depression, and most importantly, fighting and preventing many kinds of cancer. The body produces it Vitamin D with exposure to the sun and sunscreen blocks this process. UVB rays, (not UVA rays which lead to aging...

Akkermansia Mucinophila: Your New Best Gut Friend

[caption id="attachment_4067" align="alignleft" width="251"] Dr. Nancy Palermo[/caption] In the past 15 years, there has been a great deal of attention on the gut microbiome. In fact, since 2013 there have been over 19,000 published papers on this topic. If you search PubMed you can see that numerous studies have shown associations of the microbiome with disorders like obesity, diabetes mellitus, autoimmune disorders, cancers, liver disease, inflammatory bowel disease, and even neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimer’s. Recent genetic tools like DNA sequencing have helped researchers further characterize the composition of microbes in the gut and successfully delineated their specific roles. In 2004 researchers first isolated a gram-negative anaerobe called Akkermansia mucinophila in the Netherlands. They now know a great deal more about this gut bacteria and what they have learned...

The End of Resolutions

Great things do not just happen by impulse but as a succession of small great things linked together. - Vincent Van Gogh, painter   By Nancy Palermo, MD Every year millions of Americans make New Year’s Resolutions and usually by February most have already failed. Setting general, unrealistic goals are impossible to sustain and when we fail it can have a negative effect on our emotional health and our overall wellness. The key to success is to set small attainable commitments. Placed in succession these small commitments to ourselves become large victories with tremendous results. Make Commitments to Yourself When we set small achievable commitments, we are more likely to succeed. When we succeed, even if it was a small achievement, we are more likely to build on it....

Suggestions for Better Sleep

Suggestions for Better Sleep Courtesy of the Institute of Functional Medicine  MINIMIZE OR AVOID STIMULANTS Avoid alcohol within 3 hours of bedtime. Avoid caffeine-containing beverages or foods after 2 pm; if sensitive to caffeine, avoid it after 12 noon. Avoid Sudafed or other decongestant cold medicines at night. Some medications may have stimulating effects. Complete any aerobic exercise before 6 pm.   NIGHTTIME TENSION AND ANXIETY Avoid anxiety-provoking activities close to bedtime. Avoid watching the news before going to bed. Avoid reading stimulating, exciting materials in bed. Avoid paying bills before bed. Avoid checking your financial reports or the stock market before bedtime. Avoid arguments before bedtime. Try to achieve some action plan or resolution of a discussion or argument before trying to go to sleep. Avoid repeated negative...

Thriving to Be Optimal – Let 2022 be your year of Self-Care

Elevate your Mind and Body. Elevate your Health. Elevate Your Life By: Nancy Palermo, MD Why do we all feel such discontent? We keep searching for our outlook and situation to improve and blindly look to those around us to make the world better yet are often left feeling deprived-the victim with no control stuck in a hole with no way out. We blame others for failing us and not living up to our expectations. Our family, our leaders, and our friends cannot get us out of the hole. Why can they not fix the situation? What we fail to see is that change is only within our own control. As we come to the end of 2021 (happily for many of us) we tend to think of the new year and...

A Mindful Christmas Gift List – The Gift of Health

[caption id="attachment_4832" align="alignleft" width="300"] Dr. Nancy Palermo[/caption] By: Dr. Nancy Palermo If the last two years had shown us anything it is that wellness must be a way of life. The pandemic has reminded us that our health must be a priority. Data shows that 94% of those individuals who were hospitalized and diet of COVID had comorbidities like obesity, diabetes, and heart disease and unfortunately this virus is not going away soon. These facts may be the best reason to give gifts for self-care and wellness this year. Your friends and family will thank you and will be appreciative to get a gift that will put them on the right path to health in 2022. We wanted to help you with your Christmas shopping by putting together a...

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