“We can’t stop the aging clock, but we can slow it down,” says Claudia Marcelo, M.D., the newest addition to the healthcare staff at the Hughes Center for Functional Medicine, in Naples. As the founder of Medically Fit & Balanced, a functional and regenerative medicine practice, Marcelo has been cultivating her passion for teaching others about successful aging. Since 2015, she has been offering patients the most advanced techniques to decelerate the aging process.

Using customized nutritional plans, weight-loss programs, exercise, stress management, sexual wellness protocols, hormone balancing, intravenous nutrition, detoxification, hyperbaric oxygen and comprehensive wellness regimens, Marcelo applies the principles of functional medicine and helps patients change their lives. Stem cell and platelet-rich plasma (PRP) therapies are also tools she finds useful to treat a variety of medical conditions, as well as for aesthetics.

Marcelo offers a short explanation of her frontline of defense for staving off the signs of aging, as well as for treating chronic illness. “My philosophy on natural medicine has been around for more than 2,500 years since the Greek physician Hippocrates founded the Hippocratic School of Medicine. ‘Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food,’ was his medical philosophy, which has been pushed aside and forgotten. Thankfully, it has to the forefront once again with the introduction of functional medicine, which is basically lifestyle medicine,” says Marcelo, who is a board certified family and geriatric medicine physician.

Marcelo grew up in the Tampa Bay area and moved away to complete her undergraduate studies with honors at the University of Chicago. She received her doctorate from the New York Institute Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine, in Old Westbury, New York, and completed her residency and fellowship at Florida Hospital, in Orlando, Florida.

“I’m sincerely passionate about helping patients to improve their health and recover from chronic illnesses,” she states. “The majority of individuals who have exhausted the conventional medical system before they seek help from functional medicine physicians have generally been told that either nothing is wrong or they’ve been given a diagnosis but are not physically, mentally or emotionally improving. My philosophy is that if you are still breathing, there are ways to improve the condition of your health and quality of life.”

Marcelo enjoys her role of a medical Sherlock Holmes. “I seek to identify the root causes of a current health situation from a whole systems perspective. I haven’t abandoned the principles of conventional medicine, because there is a time and place for them. If you have a stroke or a heart attack, I’ll be the first to dial 911 to save your life. I do, however, believe that conventional medicine is not equipped with the right tools to prevent, manage or reverse chronic disease,” she says.

Marcelo speaks about conventional medicine’s lack of tools to deal with chronic illness from personal experience. “Ten years ago, I was diagnosed with a chronic illness that conventional medicine could not treat. Functional medicine filled the gap in my care, and now I’m sharing my experiences and knowledge with my patients, as well as seeing significant improvements in their health,” she remarks.

“I want to help my patients stay healthy and work collaboratively on a personalized approach to their care in order to reverse their chronic health conditions. In a nutshell, functional medicine is a personalized approach to a healthy lifestyle that can potentially reward an individual with optimal health at any age,” enthuses Marcelo.

She has partnered with Dr. Pamela Hughes to carry on Dr. David Perlmutter’s legacy to change the practice of medicine to a more holistic and integrative approach where the patient is an active partner in their healing journey.

Marcelo is also an NPC bikini competitor. A fitness and figure competition of physique-exhibition events for women, it emphasizes muscle definition rather than size. In any spare time, Marcello says she loves to body-build, travel and read.

 

Hughes Center for Functional Medicine is located at 800 Goodlette Rd. N., Ste. 270, in Naples. For more information, call 239-649-7400 or visit HughesCenterNaples.com.