Your Metabolism Is About Much More Than Your Weight. It Influences How You Age, How You Feel, and How Your Body Responds to Disease.
Metabolism is the foundation of cellular function. Every heartbeat, thought, immune response, hormone signal, and repair process depends on the body's ability to produce and use energy efficiently.
When metabolic pathways become dysregulated, the effects can extend far beyond weight gain or blood sugar problems.
Chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, mitochondrial dysfunction, fatty liver disease, hormonal imbalances, and impaired metabolic flexibility can contribute to fatigue, cardiovascular risk, accelerated biological aging, and chronic illness.
At Root Causes Holistic Health & Medicine, Dr. Doreen DeStefano approaches metabolic health as an interconnected biological system, rather than a collection of isolated symptoms.
Our goal is to understand what is driving metabolic dysfunction and develop an individualized strategy to improve the body's physiological resilience.
Metabolic dysfunction can develop long before a patient is diagnosed with diabetes or another recognizable metabolic disease.
You can be thin and metabolically unhealthy. You can have a relatively normal fasting glucose while experiencing elevated insulin levels. You can exercise regularly and still struggle with inflammation, poor metabolic flexibility, or hormonal abnormalities.
Important areas of metabolic health include:
Insulin sensitivity: How effectively your cells respond to insulin and regulate glucose.
Mitochondrial function: How your cells generate and manage energy.
Metabolic flexibility: How efficiently your body transitions between using glucose and fat as fuel.
Inflammatory signaling: How chronic inflammation affects metabolic pathways.
Hormonal regulation: How thyroid hormones, cortisol, estrogen, testosterone, and other hormones influence metabolism.
Liver and lipid metabolism: How the body processes fats, cholesterol, glucose, and other nutrients.
Nutrient status: Whether essential vitamins, minerals, and other metabolic cofactors are available for normal cellular function.
These systems interact continuously. Addressing one while ignoring the others may leave important contributors unresolved.
Dr. DeStefano uses targeted laboratory evaluation to investigate metabolic dysfunction and develop individualized treatment plans.
Depending on the patient's clinical needs, testing may include:
Glucose and Insulin Regulation
Fasting glucose, fasting insulin, hemoglobin A1c, and calculated insulin resistance markers, with additional testing when appropriate.
Cardiovascular and Inflammatory Risk
Advanced lipid evaluation, ApoB, lipoprotein(a), high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, and selected inflammatory biomarkers.
Hormone and Thyroid Function
Comprehensive thyroid evaluation, sex hormone testing, and DUTCH testing when useful for assessing selected hormone and cortisol metabolite patterns.
Genetic and Nutritional Analysis
Selected SNP testing, nutritional assessment, and evaluation of pathways involved in methylation, nutrient metabolism, and other biological processes.
Additional Metabolic Markers
Liver enzymes, uric acid, iron studies, and other targeted assessments based on symptoms and medical history.
Testing is selected according to clinical relevance. Individual biomarkers and genetic variations are interpreted within the broader medical picture rather than treated as stand-alone diagnoses.
Cancer is not solely a genetic disease. Cancer cells also exhibit profound changes in how they acquire nutrients, generate energy, communicate with their environment, and sustain growth.
Many cancers demonstrate altered glucose metabolism, increased glycolysis, changes in mitochondrial activity, and adaptations involving glutamine, fatty acids, and other metabolic substrates.
This relationship between cancer and metabolism is a rapidly expanding area of international research.
Insulin resistance, obesity-related inflammation, and altered insulin-like growth factor signaling are associated with the development or progression of certain cancers. However, cancer metabolism varies considerably between tumor types and even among cells within the same tumor.
Understanding the metabolic environment surrounding cancer creates additional opportunities to investigate supportive strategies alongside tumor-directed treatment.
Dr. DeStefano is a Certified Metabolic Approach to Cancer practitioner and author of Biohacking Cancer.
Her work integrates the biology of the tumor with the patient's internal environment, often called the terrain.
This includes investigating:
Insulin, glucose, and metabolic signaling
Chronic inflammation and immune dysfunction
Mitochondrial and cellular energy pathways
Hormonal influences on cancer biology
Nutritional status and body composition
Circadian rhythm, sleep, and stress physiology
Environmental exposures and other modifiable health factors
Her approach draws on the Terrain 10 framework, metabolic oncology research, precision laboratory testing, and individualized supportive care.
In appropriate patients, interventions may include personalized nutrition, exercise and resistance training, metabolic risk reduction, correction of hormonal or nutritional deficiencies, and selected integrative therapies.
Advanced IV nutrient therapy, hyperbaric oxygen therapy, photodynamic therapy, and hyperthermia are among the modalities available within her practice. Their use is individualized, with attention to the evidence, clinical goals, treatment interactions, and safety considerations.
You do not need a cancer diagnosis or diabetes to benefit from understanding your metabolic health.
Dr. DeStefano also works with patients experiencing:
Persistent fatigue and poor energy
Weight gain or difficulty losing weight
Insulin resistance and prediabetes
Hormonal changes associated with aging
Metabolic syndrome and fatty liver disease
Brain fog and reduced physical performance
Cardiovascular and inflammatory risk factors
By identifying underlying contributors, treatment can focus on meaningful, measurable improvements rather than temporary symptom management.
At Root Causes, metabolic optimization is not about following the latest diet trend or prescribing the same supplements to everyone.
It is about understanding the individual.
Dr. DeStefano combines advanced laboratory evaluation, hormone assessment, nutritional strategies, precision testing, and individualized treatment to identify metabolic vulnerabilities and opportunities for improvement.
Your metabolism influences nearly every aspect of your health. Understanding it may change the way you approach wellness, aging, and chronic disease.
Whether you're concerned about insulin resistance, chronic fatigue, hormonal dysfunction, long-term wellness, or the metabolic factors associated with cancer, Root Causes Holistic Health & Medicine offers an investigative, personalized approach.
Schedule a metabolic health consultation with Dr. Doreen DeStefano.
Fort Myers, Florida | In-office and Telehealth
Call (239) 347-9234
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Root Causes Holistic Health & Medicine
Fort Myers, Florida
Root Causes Holistic Health & Medicine
12734 Kenwood Lane #56
Fort Myers, FL 33907
Phone: (239) 347-9234
