We delight in the beauty of the butterfly, but rarely admit the changes it has gone through to achieve that beauty - Maya Angelou
About
Hi, I’m Dr Mandy Buker, founder of Grassroots Doctor. I’d like to welcome you to the revolutionary future of medicine. Instead of just chasing symptoms Functional Medicine takes a deep dive to uncover the true root cause of disease. It is a process of taking an interest in you as an individual and understanding how your unique history has impacted on your current health.
’A good physician treats the disease, a great physician treats the patient who has the disease’-unknown.
Graduating from medical school in 2000 I felt confident that the robust training system and years of hard work and study would be more than sufficient to allow me to pursue my dream well prepared. However, after years of working with hundreds of patients, and attaining my nMRCGP specialist GP qualification in 2008, I felt frustrated by the fact that patients were suffering and dying from preventable and recoverable illnesses that seemed impervious to modern medicine. I fully recognise that there are certain conditions for which a prescription or medical intervention may be lifesaving and necessary but I started to understand that the pharmaceutical reductionist solution to treat the symptoms of chronic disease is a fallacy and that there is no ‘one size fits all’ solution.
My own struggle with unresolved symptoms left me feeling frustrated with many unanswered questions. This triggered an insatiable desire to find a way to feel well again. My journey led me to discover the concept of Functional Medicine which resonated with me on an intuitive level. I learned to recognise my symptoms as a gift – and a clear call for help from my body rather than an annoyance to snuff out chemically. With this new awareness, I realised how many of my day to day choices were forcing my body to adapt to the environment I was asking it to live in. I learnt how to tap into my inner wisdom to shift those choices so that my body would naturally choose to respond in a way that promoted fewer symptoms and less dis-ease.
I went on to complete a post graduate certificate in Personalised Nutrition from CNELM, accredited by the University of Middlesex in 2015. Excited and fired up by all the fresh hope and possibility initiated by the insightful Functional Medicine approach and eager to learn more I completed all six advanced practice modules offered by the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM).
In 2022 I achieved my AFMC certification with the highly acclaimed School of Applied Functional Medicine.
In my dedication to learning and keeping up to date on the research in my fields I continue to regularly attend numerous Functional Medicine seminars and conferences.