Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Miiko Rowley, MD. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Miiko, appreciate you joining us today. Was there a moment in your career that meaningfully altered your trajectory? If so, we’d love to hear the backstory.

Just weeks before starting medical school, I received a life-altering diagnosis of Multiple Sclerosis (MS). Determined to find a solution, I embarked on a quest to explore how a holistic approach could potentially help me avoid developing debilitating symptoms. Through extensive research and experimentation, I discovered the promising field of functional medicine.

At its core, functional medicine is a patient-centered approach that seeks to address the root causes of disease rather than simply treating symptoms. It focuses on understanding the underlying imbalances in the body’s systems and aims to restore balance through personalized and comprehensive care. Functional medicine recognizes that each patient is unique, with individual genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that contribute to their health and well-being.

My personal experience with MS served as a catalyst for my deep dive into this field. Through a combination of dietary modifications, regular exercise, stress management techniques, and targeted supplementation, I was able to not only keep my MS under control but also reverse some of the damage that had already occurred. This transformative experience inspired me to help others harness the power of functional medicine and empower my patients live their healthiest, most fulfilling lives.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

As a family medicine doctor, I integrate the best conventional therapies with evidence-based functional medicine to help my patients experience optimal health. Patients experiencing challenges with gut health, thyroid disorders, hormone imbalance, brain fog, fatigue and other issues do especially well with a functional approach. Our conventional therapies don’t always address these well. Which can lead patients and providers frustrated. When “everything is normal” but you still feel unwell, functional medicine reveals additional insights through specialty testing, lifestyle change, supplements, and many other therapies that are not conventionally used in the conventional western medical model.

Patients experiencing challenges with autoimmune diseases, gut health, thyroid issues, hormone imbalance, fatigue, chronic pain, weight gain, or who just want to optimize their health naturally commonly turn to KALE Functional Medicine for more answers.

Let’s talk about resilience next – do you have a story you can share with us?

I started medical school in my early 30’s, after a short career in finance. Given my late start, I decided to have children during medical training. I had my daughter, my first baby, during my second year in medical school. I felt well and jumped right back into school within a week of delivery. That was a mistake! I was so overwhelmed with being a new mom, learning to nurse my infant, on top of having to study for final exams, and prepare for my first (and notoriously hardest) of many medical board exams. I could not keep up with my classes so I took a leave of absence. It felt like a major defeat. As a life-long, proud card-carrying overachiever, I seriously thought I could pull that off and that it was a logical idea! I laugh at myself now because as a mother, especially a mother of children born while I was the busiest and most preoccupied with school that I had ever been in my life, I have learned that I can’t control everything. I don’t even want to anymore. Submitting to going with the flow has made me so much more resilient. Bending is far more sustainable than breaking!

With my leave of absence from school, I ended up being able to have 8 months to bond with my baby, which I was an opportunity of a lifetime. It made me a better mother and a more resilient human being.

Between medical school and residency I had my son, my second baby. I took a year off before residency to be able to bond with my second baby as well. My timeline took longer, but end the end I was able to establish an unbreakable bond with my children and be the kind of mother than I want to be. I learned to give myself some grace which made me a better mother, a more empathetic doctor, and I feel like it treads a mostly unbeaten path for women in medicine who want to negotiate motherhood into the deal. I don’t recommend having children during medical training if it can be avoided, but it’s possible if it needs to happen.

Do you think you’d choose a different profession or specialty if you were starting now?

Absolutely. No question. Even on the challenging days, there is nothing more of rather be doing. I feel like I’m making the difference I was longing for as a financial analyst when I felt a whisper that there was a different for me.

Contact Info:

• Website: Kalemd.com
• Instagram: Kalefunctionalmedicine
• Facebook: Kale Functional Medicine
• Linkedin: Kale MD
• Youtube: Kale Functional Medicine
• Yelp: Kale Functional Medicine

Image Credits
Andre Kelly