In this podcast episode Sam Coffman RH (AHG) and Kyla Helm, MD. discuss the integration of Functional Medicine and Clinical Herbalism. They talk about systems biology, learning through case studies, and how the two worlds of functional medicine and botanical medicine overlap. You’ll also hear about their course - Botanical Functional Medicine.
Learn more about The Human Path: https://thehumanpath.net/
Check out the Botanical Functional Medicine Course: https://herbalmedics.academy/course/botanical-functional-medicine/
Sam Coffman has worked with herbs since 1987 and formally as a clinical herbalist for over 15 years. He served in the military for 10 years of which 6 were as a US Special Forces Medic (aka Green Beret Medic). He is a registered herbalist with the American Herbalists Guild, a Wilderness EMT (WEMT), and a Wilderness First Responder instructor.
Sam is the founder of The Human Path/Herbal Medics Academy and co-founder of Herbal Medics which is the school’s outreach organization that works with underserved communities.
His primary goal has become the creation of an integrative medical model that embraces both vitalistic and mechanistic aspects of herbalism into a collaboration with orthodox and energetic models of diagnosis and treatment, to include orthodox western medicine. To this end, he has created and co-created nearly 2000 hours of pathophysiology-based herbal medicine curriculum, and led hundreds of herbal clinics in remote, austere, post-disaster and underserved areas. Also as part of integrating orthodox medicine with plant medicine, Sam regularly works as an herbalist with, teaches with and instructs doctors, nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, nurses, and other licensed health care practitioners.
Kyla Helm, M.D. received her Medical Doctorate from the Academy of South Dakota School of Medicine in 1993 and is triple Board Certified in Family Medicine, Pain Medicine and Anti-Aging, Functional and Regenerative Medicine. Dr. Helm completed a Family Practice Residency at Ft. Benning, GA in 1999 and served in the US Army until 2001.
Given her passion to find and treat the root cause of illnesses, Dr. Helm obtained training in integrative and complementary interventions to augment her traditional medical education. She used these techniques to manage complex medical conditions such as chronic pain and fibromyalgia, and obtained her Board Certification in Pain Medicine in 2004.
Dr. Helm became Board Certified in Functional and Restorative Medicine in 2011 and completed her Advanced Fellowship in Restorative Medicine the same year. Dr. Helm uses an integrative functional medicine approach to provide comprehensive, individualized healthcare to her patients. She has provided these services to adults and children with great success.
Dr. Helm has traveled extensively with her husband who is a career US Army officer. She and her family recently moved from the Texas Hill Country to South Dakota.