​Stephen Anderson Functional Medicine

If you’ve clicked through to this page from the Kresser Institute directory then I’m guessing you are looking for a functional medicine provider who uses an approach as taught by The Kresser Institute For Functional And Evolutionary Medicine.

Welcome, you are in the right place...

My name is Stephen Anderson, I’ve been a licensed Chinese Medicine practitioner for the last 20 years. I live in a small country town in the Snowy Mountains, Australia. Over the past 14 years of living and practising here, I have accumulated well over 2000 patients, more than one-third of the population.

For fun, I calculated the number of acupuncture appointments I've provided over the years...close to 30,000 appointments, which means I've probably inserted over 750,000 needles into people. There is a bit of a story as to why I moved towards a functional medicine model of working with people and how I came across Chris Kresser's teachings but I won’t go into the details here...

The Most Important Thing Is How Can I Help You...

After completing The Kresser Institute Level One ADAPT Functional Medicine Training, here is how I can help you:

  • Order the exact functional lab testing that Chris Kresser uses in his practice to do a preliminary functional medicine workup. This will give you a very detailed overview of your overall health picture.
  • Collect your full health profile using a number of detailed health surveys and metabolic assessment tools.
  • Synthesis of all the information collected from consults, surveys, and lab testing into a thorough case review so that you can get an understanding of what is going on with your health.
  • Guide you through the treatment protocols as taught by the Kresser Institute and help you source the exact products that Chris has painstakingly researched to help his patients recover their health.

*The term ADAPT was coined by Chris Kresser to encapsulate his philosophy on treatment, the acronym stands for Advanced Diagnostics And Personalised Treatment

If  The Wheel Is Not Broken...

In some ways, I feel fortunate that the first functional medicine training I ever did was through The Kresser Institute For Functional And Evolutionary Medicine, I pretty much just did what Chris meticulously laid out for his students in the ADAPT Level One functional medicine course, luckily for me, there was nothing to unlearn.

The Treatment Process Using The ADAPT Functional Medicine Framework

Step 1. Book a Complimentary 20 Minute Consultation - One thing I quickly learned when I started practising functional medicine is it is a journey that requires a commitment on the part of practitioner and patient. It takes an investment of time, energy, and money. The complimentary consult is for us to see if we are a good fit to work together, it is not intended as a medical consult (although it is truly complimentary, I do require a credit card to secure this consultation in the event of a no show or last minute cancellation. The fee is $75 for these circumstances).

Step 2. The Initial Consult (45-60 minutes $295) - Prior to the initial consult you will receive all of the health surveys to complete. This consultation is done through an incredibly easy and convenient to use telemedicine video conferencing service.The primary purpose is for you to talk about your health concerns, this allows me to determine which labs will be most appropriate, and to give you some preliminary work around diet and lifestyle to help you get started while waiting for lab results to come in. The cost of this consultation includes the 1-hour appointment, ordering of labs, collating all of the health survey information, and recommendations for diet/lifestyle changes. You will also receive detailed information on how to prep for any of the required lab tests.

Step 3. The Case Review (75-90 minutes $345) - This is perhaps the most exciting and informative appointment as we get to go through all of the test results and discover what they mean for you.  Ahead of this Case Review appointment, I will craft a Report Of Findings document which is basically a summary of all of the lab results and my interpretation. This document also outlines the course of treatment, recommended products and how to take them.

Step 4. Follow-up & Ongoing Care - You most likely already know that chronic and complicated health conditions take a certain amount of time to unravel and so typically there are layers of treatment in order to get you to the point of your optimal health (a bit like peeling an onion but without the tears...hopefully). After the initial round of treatment, it is important to re-test to be sure that the treatment objective was reached. This allows us the opportunity to reassess and determine what is the next step to get you to where you want to be health-wise.

What Is It Going To Cost?

I’m totally into transparency, I think you really need to know what it is going to take to work on this level, this is deep work so let’s break it down into three categories;

  1. The Comprehensive Functional Medicine Workup (Lab Testing)
  2. The Case Review Appointments
  3. Treatment Products
1. The Comprehensive Functional Medicine Lab Workup

Here is a list of the labs and how much they cost:

  • Doctor's Data Comprehensive Digestive and Stool Analysis with Parasitology x3 - $499
  • Great Plains Organic Acid Test = $305
  • DUTCH comprehensive Adrenal and Hormonal Profile - $359
  • SIBO Breath test - $227.91
  • ADAPT Advanced Blood Chemistry Panel with 77 markers - $703 (Generally your GP can order some of the tests but they are often reluctant and so sometimes it’s just easier to do a full workup from scratch)
2. The Case Review Appointments 
  • Initial Consult - $295
  • Case Review - $345

Included in the Case Review fees are; the 2 consultations, ordering of labs, interpreting labs, going through health surveys, writing reports, putting together treatment protocols, helping you source the required treatment products.

3. Cost of Treatment Products (Usually 60-Days)

This is very much dependant on what comes back from the lab testing. Chris Kresser has spent a lot of time researching what products are most effective so as much as possible these are the products I recommend. Currently, all of the products can’t be sourced from one place and some have to be purchased from the US. Until Chris opens his own online store (which he is in the process of doing), we are stuck with cobbling together the best of suppliers. I’ve done the legwork as far as this is concerned and for some products, I have opened accounts with US suppliers and have imported them in for my clients. I don’t put a markup on any of these products although I do need to add 10% GST for Australian clients. I would estimate between $200 - $500 per month for supplements.

*Note: Supplements are for the purpose of treating specific health issues, they are not meant to be ongoing. Once your health objective is achieved, supplementation requirements will be minimal, especially if you are following a nutrient dense, whole food way of eating.

Total Cost For The First Phase Of Treatment

Many of the treatment protocols are at least 60 days, so this is an estimate of all testing, consults, and treatment product costs for this initial two month period.

Testing = $2093.91
Consults = $640
Treatment Products = $750
Total = $3,483.91

* This is an estimate, it could be a little less or it could be a little more depending on your unique situation

Can’t We Just Skimp Here & There To Make It A Bit Less Expensive?

Gosh, I really wish we could, in fact, I’ve done that when I was first starting to work this way and even though I had the right intention it ultimately did a disservice to the people I was working with. Here is what I found;

  1. When you only do some of the testings it is difficult to form a complete picture.
  2. Eventually, you want to test the other areas and so time & momentum is lost by not getting a full workup from the outset.
  3. Working from a base of limited information may mean the main underlying cause is not appropriately addressed and this may lead to the person drifting off halfway through the process feeling like the treatment is not working. This is perhaps the worst possible outcome because although less money was spent up front, what was spent is wasted and then at some point, frustration will lead the person to seek help from someone else and thus the cycle repeats.

“If a job is worth doing, it’s worth doing right”

I'm not sure how many times I've heard Chris say this;

"Test Don't Guess"

There is a reason why Chris teaches his students to work this way and so I’ve just decided to trust his judgement and recommendations based on the fact that he has a huge amount of experience and is regarded as a thought leader in the functional medicine space.

So You Made It Through The Testing, Case Review Consults, And The First Round Of Treatment, What Comes Next?

I wish it was as simple as just going through one round of treatment and then you were back in perfect health (in some cases this can happen but this is the exception, not the rule). For the most part, regaining your health is a journey and my role is to guide you along the path until you are where you want to be and confident that you can continue on your own. One of the beautiful things about working this way is that you learn about your body and your unique constitution so that you know what works best for you. At some point, you'll know more about your body and health than any doctor can. There is no one size fits all approach as far as I know…

Retesting

Retesting is very important to objectively assess the effectiveness of the treatment. Typically the retesting is much more minimal than the first round of testing because we only need to test for specific things we discovered and treated. Retesting allows us to determine if we can move onto the next layer of treatment or move onto a rebuilding and maintenance phase.

Ongoing Treatment

As a practitioner, the best feeling I can ever get is when the job is done. When you say; “you know what, I’m done, I feel great and I think I can manage on my own”. This is literally music to my ears and as a practitioner, this is what I want for you in the shortest possible timeframe, what that timeframe is dependent on so many variables it really is hard to give a definitive answer, as they say; "How Long Is A Piece Of String?"

If you are dealing with a long-term chronic condition, I think it is realistic to allow at least six months to one year to regain your health. Although Functional medicine is very thorough, it is not a magic bullet or a quick fix. Everyone’s need for ongoing help is different and so I make appointments available in smaller chunks of time to cater to your individual needs as you move towards your health goals.

My Commitment 

The cost of testing and treatment products is a reality that is just out of my control, however, my commitment to you is to work as hard as I possibly can to help you uncover the root of your health issues and guide you to the solution. I am 100% committed to doing everything I can to get you there. I'm not a guru, in fact, I'm reasonably new to functional medicine but with my 20+ years experience as a healthcare provider coupled with the incredible body of knowledge put together by Chris Kresser and his amazing team, I'm confident I can get you to where you want to go... If I can't get you to where you want to go, I will do my best to connect you with someone who can. There is a huge network of talented ADAPT practitioners with experience in all areas of health. All of your results and reports will be centralised in a format that any ADAPT practitioner can relate to and access upon your request. The only thing I really care about is you achieving your health goals.

If you would like to dicuss working with me then connect with me via my Contact Page and we can arrange a time to speak.