In this episode, we’re joined by Krista Espenship, MSN, FNP-C, and Vanessa Burnum, MS, from OnePeak Medical’s Lake Oswego clinic to discuss how functional medicine is reshaping care for individuals and families in Oregon. They explore common concerns like burnout, fatigue, hormone imbalance, and weight gain, and explain why traditional primary care often misses the mark.
You’ll learn how root-cause healing, a core principle of functional medicine, helps patients achieve long-term wellness and regain energy, clarity, and confidence. Krista and Vanessa also introduce their new peer-based group classes, launching August 1, designed to support sustainable health improvements through education, community, and personalized care.
Whether you're struggling with chronic fatigue, weight challenges, or midlife health changes, this episode offers practical insights into a smarter, whole-body approach to healthcare.
Connect with OnePeak Medical:
Website: www.OnePeakMedical.com
Socials: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube
18 locations across Oregon, including Lake Oswego
LIZ HARTMAN:: [00:00:00] This is Business LO, a podcast by the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce, which connects, educates, advocates, and champions, our business community. We have nearly 500 members from international corporations to home-based businesses, and we serve them all. Each episode of Business LO gives insider information to the local business community and the neighbors who support them.
LIZ HARTMAN:: And now let's talk Business LO.
MICHELLE ODELL:: We are going to learn a lot about our health and our options today with another guest branded special episode of Business Lo with One Peak Medical in Lake Oswego. Where they redefine primary care by blending traditional medicine with a functional whole body approach to health.
MICHELLE ODELL:: One. Peak medical beliefs, true health and wellbeing lies at the intersection of lifestyle, environment, and personalized care. By connecting these dots, they create evidence-based [00:01:00] treatment plans that help you thrive at every stage of life. Joining me today is Vanessa Burnham, a functional nutritionist.
MICHELLE ODELL:: She earned her Bachelor of Science in Chemistry and Bachelor of Arts in Biology from Whitworth University and completed her Master's of Science in Human Nutrition and Functional Medicine at University of Western State. And also joining me today is Krista Espin. She's a certified family nurse practitioner with additional certification as a functional medicine practitioner.
MICHELLE ODELL:: She has over 17 years of healthcare experience in hospital and primary care settings throughout Oregon and Washington. She obtained her master's degree from Loyola University and her postmasters from Graceland University. She is a member of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, the Institute for Functional Medicine, and the Association for Nursing Professional Development.
MICHELLE ODELL:: Krista has a special interest in functional medicine, gastrointestinal [00:02:00] disorders, fatigue, hormone replacement, and autoimmune disorders. So we have a lot to unpack today. I'm your host, Michelle odell. And now let's get this healthy conversation started. Thank you for joining me, and I'm gonna ask, what is functional medicine?
VANESSA BURNUM:: Functional medicine is an evidence-based approach, which uses. Scientific studies such as randomized control trials as a gold standard, also epidemiological evidence to treat chronic disease. We address root cause. We're also considering the internal and external factors of the individual. We've got environmental factors from the external.
VANESSA BURNUM:: We've got genetic factors from the internal, and we try and personalize the care that we give the patient and the individual because everyone is different.
KRISTA ESPENSHIP:: Krista Functional medicine is just like a whole body approach, and one of my favorite ways to describe it is we're integrating conventional medicine or western medicine with natural [00:03:00] medicine.
KRISTA ESPENSHIP:: So we have the best of both worlds and then just a, a whole body approach we're taking. You know, we don't break things down into individual symptoms. If someone's having anxiety or depression. Our go-to is not gonna necessarily be, I'm gonna give you medication for your anxiety and depression. We answer the underlying question, which is, why do you have these things?
KRISTA ESPENSHIP:: Is there something going on? And those symptoms can oftentimes improve if we fix that for Krista. Now,
Speaker 2: how do you incorporate functional medicine into primary care?
Speaker 4: It's the perfect place to do that. Functional medicine and primary care just go hand in hand because in primary care we're responsible for someone's whole health.
Speaker 4: We're looking at you as a whole human being and we're looking at the different parts of your life. When we go into specialty care like GI or psychiatry or gynecology, we're breaking you down into systems and primary care just kind of segues right into functional medicine 'cause we can look at all of it at the same time and start to unravel and see how the piece is combining with each other.
Speaker 4: For Vanessa now, how does
Speaker 2: nutrition fit into this [00:04:00] approach?
Speaker 3: Functional medicine uses food as medicine. We are recognizing the impact that food has on our body, and we can take someone's diet, start to. Arrange it so that we consider their genetic profile. Maybe they might have some mutations that we have to consider and then we say, well, let's start and try this and see them improve in their symptoms and in inflammation and.
Speaker 3: Lowering risk for chronic disease and other comorbidities, at least at one peak. Nutrition goes beyond just the diet. We're also taking into consideration lifestyle. So we're looking at how is somebody sleeping or the quality of their sleep, what's the stress level? What are relationships like? What's the exercise and activity level like?
Speaker 3: These are all things that combine [00:05:00] together to make a health picture for an individual. My job is to coach patients through some of these lifestyle habits and try to encourage them to live a healthy. Lifestyle.
Speaker 2: So now we're gonna talk a little bit a big subject and everybody wants to know about these things, but weight loss, GLP functional care for Krista.
Speaker 2: There's a lot of buzz going around about GLP one medications like Ozempic and Manjaro. So how do you help patients navigate these options alongside other weight loss options?
Speaker 4: We're trying to keep the whole person in mind, and one of the things that's really important about weight loss is personal preference.
Speaker 4: How do I function? Where are my challenges? You know, these medications are not going to be a good fit for everyone. When we think about weight loss medications of any kind, we wanna take into consideration. What else are you doing? Have we tried other things first? So it's just making sure that this is a.
Speaker 4: Good fit that we've done the background and foundational work [00:06:00] and see if this is what people even want. You know, outside of GLP ones, we have a lot of other choices. And then integrating the nutrition component, and this is where Vanessa's a superstar, is that these medicines. Function by decreasing appetite.
Speaker 4: When we decrease appetite, we're decreasing nutrition. And what do we need to do to make sure that people are getting enough of what they need to meet their daily needs and make sure, are we losing the right kind of weight? Is this fat or is this muscle mass? Do we have enough water? And Vanessa integrates that in her practice as well, is making sure that these pieces are in place.
Speaker 4: And then just as important is. As we start to transition people away from these medications, let's make sure that this is a safe way that you're not gonna be regaining the weight, and then some back.
Speaker 2: Vanessa, when someone is using a GLP for weight loss, what's the role of nutrition in supporting their success in long-term health?
Speaker 3: My role is to. Meet the individual where they're at [00:07:00] with their weight loss journey because everyone is going to have a different approach. No single person is alike. We try and work with what tools that patient has, what is in their capacity to do. In addition, we're trying to approach weight loss from a healthy perspective.
Speaker 3: Let's try and preserve that muscle mass as much as we can. Let's try and focus on fat loss. How do we do that? That's where I come in and I kind of coach people through those processes. What do you eat to stay healthy? How do we control appetite? Speaking to approaches that don't involve these medications?
Speaker 3: What can we do? And it goes again beyond diet, where we start to look at exercise and the other factors like sleep and stress and gut health, and then hormones as well, because these are all factors that can influence our weight management. This
Speaker 2: is always a big question. What are some of the biggest misconceptions you hear about weight loss or the GLP [00:08:00] medications?
Speaker 4: How many times have we seen patients who are struggling with their weight loss? They're saying, I'm doing all the things. I'm eating less. I'm drinking water, I'm sleeping, et cetera, but I'm not losing the weight. Things that we see very, very frequently would be. People who are actually undereating, your body will be resistant to letting any of that excess adipose tissue go if it perceives that it's not getting enough nutrition.
Speaker 4: Outside of that is how is stress affecting our weight loss? When they're in my office with me, what we oftentimes find are some hormone disruption. So pretty standard practice with us here at One Peak Medical is to do a pretty comprehensive set of labs so we can highlight these. Different areas of your life that affect your overall health, including your weight.
Speaker 4: Is there a hormone disruption? And one of the important hormones to evaluate for is whereas our estrogen for women are progesterone, and for men and women, testosterone, those are all very important to have in [00:09:00] balance. You have something that I think is amazing. You have group. Class peer support. Yeah, we're super excited.
Speaker 4: Both Vanessa and I are very, very excited about offering our group classes. We started with another program, not weight loss specific, but nutrition based. And this is something we've been working towards for a good long while, and people are used to having, you know, their own medical visit one-on-one. But what we see in the group dynamic.
Speaker 4: Is how people start to engage with each other and feeling connected to other people. And Vanessa and I are clinicians and, and people may share differently with us versus, you know, a peer and they just start to answer each other's questions and they bond. And because they're support for each other, and we see this repeatedly in healthcare, is people are much more successful when they're socially connected.
Speaker 4: Did. People may be hesitant to join group classes because they're maybe afraid to share, or they're afraid of, you know, the time [00:10:00] involvement, or they want their own personal concerns addressed independently. So it might take a little bit of coaxing to get folks in to come to a group class, but it's really worth it.
Speaker 4: It's such a fantastic idea how many
Speaker 2: people are often in a group at one time, give or take. We
Speaker 3: try to keep those classes small, maybe to 10. I think it's just such a wonderful way to introduce patients to a subject that may feel daunting on their own.
Speaker 2: So the types of topics you're gonna be covering in these group visits.
Speaker 3: So we're starting off with weight loss specifically for perimenopausal and postmenopausal women, and that's gonna be on August 1st. Other sessions that we have planned. Pre-diabetes and diabetes. So blood sugar management, that's a big one. Gut rehab glasses. More specific to candida overgrowth. Oh
Speaker 4: and yeast overgrowth.
Speaker 4: A lot of people don't understand that canid or yeast overgrowth is so prevalent in our community. Modern living women [00:11:00] especially will get vaginal yeast infections from being on antibiotics. It can become a systemic problem and can interfere with your nutrient absorption. So part of our lab workup.
Speaker 4: With our patients, we'll include looking at some of these nutrients to give us some clues as to what's happening in the digestive tract. So a common source of food cravings can be this yeast or candida overgrowth, and it signals your brain to feed it, and it likes to eat carbohydrates, it simple sugars, alcohols.
Speaker 4: So people who are having challenges with these cravings, it's not because you're a weak human being by any means, it's because something. Chemical is happening in the background for you, and this is how it can be a great launching point for many people before they even start their weight loss journey.
Speaker 2: So what are some of the lifestyle shifts that really move the needle for your patients?
Speaker 3: I'm gonna start out by saying stress management is huge. Because we live in a society and a culture where we are just on [00:12:00] the go. So we have this chronic stress that's bombarding us. And it could be psychological stress, emotional stress from a busy lifestyle, but it also could be physical stress.
Speaker 3: When we start managing our stress, it's amazing how quickly. We can start to lose
Speaker 4: fat to follow up on cortisol and and stress. A lot of people who come to see us, they have a misunderstanding oftentimes about cortisol. So cortisol is a hormone that should help our body create energy. And when we first wake up in the morning, we should get us.
Speaker 4: Bike of cortisol to stimulate our body into making energy. And over the course of the day, that should decrease and we decrease before we go to bed. And when we're doing a lab review, which, and it's not just handing you a piece of paper and saying, Hey, everything looks fine, or Here, take some vitamin D.
Speaker 4: We go through each section of the labs to give. People a sense of what's good and what needs help and what do we do about it. And when people are looking at their cortisol levels, [00:13:00] I would say 95% of the time, I kid you not, people's levels are low. And people who are stressed out all the time, they're like, oh, yay, that's a good thing.
Speaker 4: And I'm like, no, this means you've. Been stressed out so long and so hard, the entire system is collapsing. This is part of why you feel tired. Cortisol's not gonna jack you up and give you energy over a long period of time. The system fails, so what we need is to create some energy and get that cortisol.
Speaker 4: Up so that your body's responding appropriately.
Speaker 2: Okay. The role of nutrition and team-based care. So how do you collaborate as a provider, nutritionist team, and why is that so powerful in a primary care setting?
Speaker 4: When our patients meet with Vanessa, they have a very different relationship, I would even say a more intimate relationship in many ways, because they're sharing deeper parts of themselves, their life, their home, their challenges.
Speaker 4: When I'm in the exam room with [00:14:00] a patient, I get that to a certain degree for sure, but I don't have the depth of time to go into it, and it's such a gift for the patient to be able to spend that time with Vanessa, with our nutrition team. I. Then on top of that, we're so lucky to have Vanessa as a functional medicine trained nutritionist because she goes at it from a very different direction.
Speaker 4: Many of our patients will have experienced nutrition in a very different way. As a clinician, I go into those visits for brief medical exam, and if they need a medical. Opinion on something, then it's a great opportunity for us to do that touch base,
Speaker 3: having a provider who has a license to order labs, and we can do a little bit more digging and get into the mystery a little bit further.
Speaker 3: The other really unique opportunity is that. We are reiterating how the other person is treating the patient. So the patient may hear one thing from [00:15:00] Krista and they go home and they ruminate on it and they go, I don't think so. And then they come and see me and I say the same thing. Well, that's what Krista said.
Speaker 3: And so then good cop, bad cop it. It can be sometimes. Yeah, absolutely. That's great though. So it's kind of nice. Because then they're not getting information just from one person. They're getting a little bit more well-rounded education from the both of us because kind of like the group visits we can contribute in one way that the other person is not.
Speaker 3: Alright. Vanessa,
Speaker 2: then why do you think nutrition is still so underutilized in mainstream medicine?
Speaker 3: It's pretty well known that in medical school, doctors are not educated in nutrition. They're not studied up on it, they're not into the research, they. Are also taught, let's treat with pharmaceuticals.
Speaker 3: That's kind of the aim. Plus, let's also remember that they're treating acute diseases versus functional medicine that's treating more chronic issues. But then you've got [00:16:00] insurance companies that are breathing down their neck and saying, you only have 15 minutes available to see this patient. What are they gonna focus on?
Speaker 3: The medical aspect, then they say, well, you need to eat better and follow the Mediterranean diet. And that's all the patient is left with, but they're not coached through it. And maybe that's not the right plan for them anyway. Right. And then you have this issue with insurance not covering nutrition visits, so it becomes expensive for the patient.
Speaker 3: They still feel like they're left on their own and they try to do the popular thing and it's not working for them because again, we're trying to do a, an individual and personalized approach. We are starting to approach a paradigm shift in healthcare where we're starting to integrate nutrition more.
Speaker 3: It's starting to be recognized as being important in a patient's care, but it can take 20 or more years for paradigm shift. To occur in science or in medicine.
Speaker 4: The funny thing is, is this is not new to medicine. One of my favorite phrases, and Vanessa probably knows what I'm about to say, but Hippocrates.
Speaker 4: [00:17:00] Hippocrates said so long ago, let food be thy medicine. Let medicine be thy food. If anything that we've said today really touches you, and then one of the best things to do is go to the one peak medical.com website. You can schedule for yourself online. You just select which clinician you would like to schedule with.
Speaker 4: You'll need to see one of our clinicians first so that you can establish care before you see. We'll do a medical evaluation, try to help you reach your goals. You'll see us do some labs typically and then forward you on in care, whatever that looks like for the classes. Ideally, you'll be an established patient with us first so that we even know if that class makes sense for you or not.
Speaker 4: We'll guide you into signing up for those classes. If you're already a patient with one Peak medical, then you can just give the desk a call and say, Hey, I'm interested in the, so the weight loss class again is on August 1st. It's a Friday afternoon, so just starting as a patient is gonna be foundation and you're like, [00:18:00] Hey, what about those group classes?
Speaker 4: We can guide you in the right direction from there.
Speaker 3: Tell everybody where you are. One Peak Lake Oswego is located on Boones Ferry Road, kind of kitty corner from Zoop Pans and across the street relatively from Roundtable. Okay.
Speaker 2: And we will have all of this information on the show notes and links and everything that you need so you can easily find your new team.
Speaker 2: At One Peak Medical. Just like to remind all of our listeners, thank you for listening to Business Lo. And don't forget, every day is a Chamber of Commerce Day here in Lake Oswego,
Speaker: the Lake Oswego Chamber of Commerce. Thanks you for listening to Business Lo. We would love to have you as a member so you can help Lake Oswego continue to be one of the best places to live, work, and play.
Speaker: If you wanna share an idea for a future episode. Or become a member. Visit us@lakeoswegochamber.com and please like and follow us on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. And for help with your business podcast, [00:19:00] go to podcast productions.com.