About Dr. Sharyl Truty
Posts by Dr. Sharyl Truty:
Direct Primary Care for Pediatrics
Learn Why You Should Choose This Innovative Healthcare Model for Your Children
At Balanced Physician Care, we offer affordable Direct Primary Care membership plans for parents and their children. Direct Primary Care (“DPC”) is an innovative model of medical care that provides transparent, comprehensive, affordable, and accessible care. For a small monthly fee, your family can have full access to a physician 24/7 by phone and text. This level of care is designed to help you simplify your life and optimize the health of everyone in your family.
The following outlines the benefits of a DPC membership for your children:
We Offer Improved Patient Relationships & Convenient Care
Our physicians don’t work for insurance companies. Instead, we work for patients and their families. In addition to being available 24/7 by phone and text, we also offer same day in office appointments with no wait times. If your child is severely allergic to insect bites and gets bit by fire ants, instead of rushing to the hospital or an acute care center to wait hours for someone to see you, you can text a photo of the bite to your physician, who will review the photo, and call, text or email you immediately with care instructions. If your child gets a cold or the flu, by going through a series of questions, your physician can diagnose your child’s infection and order an antibiotic by phone, without you ever having to leave the comforts of your home.
We Help Manage Your Child’s Chronic Illness
When a child is diagnosed with a chronic illness such as asthma, diabetes, obesity, or mental illness, regardless of your wealth, it is a burden on any family. Children with chronic illness may be well at any given time, but they are always living with their condition. Parents are required to deal with the child’s needs on a daily basis. At Balanced Physician Care, our goal is to create a treatment plan that helps reduce your child’s symptoms and your family’s overall healthcare costs. If your child suffers from a chronic disease such as diabetes, our physicians can provide the tools your family needs including, nutrition and diet evaluations, advice on supplements and multi vitamins, and help creating personalized exercise programs.
We Help Keep Your Child’s Brain and Body Conditioned
Whether your child is an all-star athlete or all-star mathlete, to ensure they perform at the top of their game, they will need diet, nutrition and exercise advice from a medical professional. At Balanced Physician Care, we offer annual physicals for all of our members, including Sports Physicals. Additionally, our physicians will work with you and your child to develop a diet and exercise plan, teach injury prevention strategies, and mind-body techniques for improving performance.
We Prescribe Wellness, Not More Meds
When thinking about your child’s health, it is important to also think about the long-term effects of taking medications. Some medications are absolutely necessary; while some can be completely avoided by improving diet, sleep habits, and physical activity. At Balanced Physician Care, our founder & physician, Dr. Sharyl Truty is board certified in Family Medicine and Sports Medicine. Dr. Sharyl uses her background in Integrative Medicine to apply a holistic approach to healing for our patients and their children. From managing chronic illness symptoms to pulled muscles and other acute injuries, our physicians will work with you and your child to create a holistic treatment plan that you can trust.
Invest in Direct Primary Care for Your Child Today!
Dr Sharyl Truty MD
At Balanced Physician Care, we work with your family to create a wellness plan that simplifies your life and optimizes your health. Child Add-On Memberships are either just $69 a month for Premier Plan and $49 per month for Basic Plan.
And the more family you add, the bigger the savings...
We offer 2 different Family Plans, With the purchase of two, Adult DPC Memberships, you can include up to 3 dependent children for a discount rate per month. For more information on Balanced Physician Care, call (904) 930-4774 or visit BalancedPhysicianCare.com
Personal Healing Space: Getting Your Environment to Work for You
Have you ever walked into a room and instantly felt better? Have you ever asked yourself why? Surprisingly, medical science has asked these questions too.
Most of us understand stress and the stress response. When we perceive stress from any direction, at home, at work, on the road, or in a negative interaction with another person, our bodies pump our nerve chemical and hormones such as cortisol. Most of us probably don't realize that just place and location can trigger either this stress response or even better place can trigger the opposite, a more calming response.
Ester Sternberg (Sternberg, 2014) has shown that design can greatly influence what response get produced this not only includes structure, but sights, sounds, smalls and layout of the environment. Why not surround yourself with a healing space? Here is the top scientifically accepted components of creating a healing space in your home or office.
- Access to Nature - While a window overlooking nature is best. Just pictures or a TV moving through nature pictures will enhance the environment
- Light - Our bodies area very cued into light and times of day. Having pleasant lighting as close to the natural light spectrum as possible will be calming the enviornemnt.
- Good Air Quality - Looking at eliminating anything that would create poor air quality. Our senses are cued into what may be harmful to us, an air purifier can be helpful.
- Privacy - Excess noise can be distracting, so
- Places for Social Support - While times for privacy are important, we thrive on social connection. Providing a corner for warm social interaction will strengthen the healing feel of the space.
- Positive or pleasant distractions - Allowing a place for the mind to be busy in a pleasant pursuit of mindfulness will keep a calm association with the space. Having puzzles, coloring mandalas, Zen Sandboxes or a labyrinth to follow are all possibilities to let the mind know it can rest in a pleasant place away from emotional
Looking for simple ways to lift the healing in your life can be powerful in reducing anxiety and stress. If you are interested in learning more about the science behind these recommendations I highly recommend Ester Sternberg's book, Healing Spaces. Look at creating your own healing space today!
Optimize Your Health, Simplify Your Life,
Dr Sharyl Truty MD
Dr. Sharyl has been engaged in family medicine, sports medicine and orthopedics for over fifteen years in many different capacities. She is owner of Balanced Physician Care, a holistic, direct primary care medical practice in Ponte Vedra Beach. Her practice provides a unique solution for individuals and small business owners who are seeking answers to better healthcare. She is Board Certified in Family Practice and has a Certificate of Added Qualification in Sports Medicine. She was team physician for the Chicago Red Stars women’s professional soccer team, completed a fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona and received her acupuncture at the UCLA physician certification. She currently lives in Jacksonville Beach with her husband, Myke and 4-year-old son, Lukas.
Know your Fats. Know your Numbers
Fat gets a bad rap even though it is a nutrient that we need in our diet, just not too much. Know your Fats. Know your Numbers. Eat Optimally.
The American Heart Association advisory committee released a statement about coconut oil in June that seems to have added to the confusion about diet in particular the role of fats in a healthy anti-inflammatory diet. Unfortunately, most of the press was focused around the aspect of the statement that commented on coconut oil and the message was lost about how to understand the fats that you eat and what fats are best used in your diet.
Know your Fats. Know your Numbers.
Fats are a very important to the body. They are very important for neurological health. Just like everything else. They are best taken in balance with the other macronutrients: carbohydrates and protein.
Ideally fats should compose 30% of the calories in your diet.
- 20% of those calories should be from polyunsaturated and monounsaturated fats
- 10% from saturated fat.
For women, this means 15 grams a day of saturated fat.
For men, this means 20-25 grams a day of saturated fat.
Fats often are not found in isolation. It is difficulty to find fats that contain only saturated fat and one that contain only polyunsaturated or monounsaturated fat. However, there are fats that that contain a higher percentage of saturated fat that others. Coconut oil and avocado oil are one of those fats that are mostly saturated in nature. In fact 1 tablespoon of Coconut oil contains, 13 grams of saturated fat.
The healthiest diets that reduce inflammation in the body and reduce heart disease contain this small 10% amount of saturated fat, but contain a higher amount of polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat. Olive oil and canola oil contain the highest amounts of monounsaturated fat which seems to be the best. Below is a great resource for knowing your fats and what to use in your diet.
*
Coconut oil is a great saturated fat and defiantly a great choice when cooking at high heat. It may healthier as it is derived from plant sources, but best used in moderation along with other oils as a part of your "Balanced" diet.
Optimize Your Health, Simplify Your Life,
Dr Sharyl Truty MD
If you feel like you need more information on diet or how an Integrative Medicine Consultation can be beneficial to your mind, body, & soul, then you owe it to yourself to contact us at Balanced Physician Care today (904 930-4774). Dr Sharyl Truty has the time to truly analysis your symptoms, find the root cause of your issues, and get you back on the path wellness.
* Chart reprinted from: Common Oils and Fats. VA Nutrition August 2017
Why You Should Consider a Probiotic
What is all the fuss about probiotics? What are they?
Probiotics are live microorganisms that provide a health benefit to the environment that hosts them. Another way to think of probiotics is as good bacteria – similar to what is naturally found in our stomachs.
So, Your stomach feels fine. Why add one more thing to your list of vitamins? Here is a few reasons why you should consider Probiotics.
- Improve Your Immune Function – Medical Science is beginning to uncover just how much of our immune system is not just located in our lymph nodes and spleen, but in our intestine as well. The good bacteria in our gut play a large role in maintain this immune function.
- Mood Improvement – Our intestines also contain the nervous system chemicals that effect our mood. Having a “gut” feeling is not just a saying anymore. Replenishing the good bacteria in the gut can help to improve mood and rid your self of the upset “stomach” that comes with anxiety.
- Reduce Inflammation – Probiotics have been found in one study to reduce temporary inflammation throughout the entire body including your joints, skin and bones.
- Get more Nutrition from what you Eat – Probiotics help to reduce gut inflammation. By reducing gut inflammation, the nutrients of your food is better absorbed. If you eat healthy and your food is not well absorbed, you will not reap the same benefits of healthy eating as someone whose gut is in balance.
- Improve Your Oral Health – Your mouth is the very top part of your digestive system. Certain probiotics can encourage long-term equilibrium of oral bacteria.
What reduces these good bacteria?
Remember, these important “good” bacteria in your body are not just effected by taking antibiotics for medical conditions, but their balance is also effected by antibiotics in your food, food with too much sugar, environmental toxins, medications such as antacids and steroids, and stress. It can take almost 9 months with probiotics to replenish what may be lost with one antibiotic course.
Replenish – Replenish your body with a good probiotic. It is critical to choose a good probiotic. If the “good” bacteria in the supplement can not get through the acid in your stomach it will not reach the critical place you need it, your gut. Few supplements have the technology to make sure this occurs. Also, your probiotic should be diverse. Having only two or three strains may not be adequate. Make sure to do your research or ask your doctor for a good brand.
Why consider buying supplements from Balanced Physician Care?
The supplements that we have chosen are made from companies that we have screened for quality and purity. Our guarantee to you as a medical practice is that the supplements you receive from our office have been screened to the best of our ability to have the highest quality and purity standards. Because probiotics are live organisms, there are many challenges associated with manufacturing and distributing probiotic supplements. For a probiotic to be effective, it must be shelf-stable through the expiration date and precisely delivered to the intestinal tract, where it can have maximum benefit.
Supplements and Herbals are NOT regulated by the FDA. Therefore, while the marketing label can look like a quality product there is very little in the way consumers can do ensure to check the quality and purity of supplements.
Optimize Your Health, Simplify Your Life,
Dr Sharyl Truty MD
Dr. Sharyl Truty is an Integrative Medicine Physician, Board Certified in Family Medicine, and owner of Balanced Physician Care in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida. Do you have supplement questions? Book a consultation by calling 904.930.4774
Summertime Recovery
"Summer, Summer, Summertime, time to sit back and unwind" - will smith
Summertime is often a time to rest and relax. Many of us plan vacations to get away. However, how many of us actually rest during this time? Often we pack our vacations and our summer with many activities just different ones. When the end of summer comes, will you feel rested?
Rest and recovery is a key principle to performance in any athlete. Basic, sports training protocols include a period of rest and recovery in any performance training program. Athletes know that physical improvements from all of their hard training only occur during recovery time. This is true for both mind and body. Sleep is the equivalent physical rest for the mind. Growing evidence shows the importance of sleep in decreasing inflammation in the body and the brain.
Make rest a priority this summer. Despite the drive to fill this time with summer activities and projects, find ways to make rest a part of your summer.
- Do Less. Make a conscious effort to double your estimation of how long any activities will take. Give yourself more time with one activity to truly enjoy it. Even with summer housework projects put limits on how much you want to achieve. Give yourself permission to say "No" when things come up that threaten this easier schedule.
- Schedule Rest Time. Rest time can slowly slip away as we plan our summer. Put "rest" on your calendar just as you would any other activity.
- Try a relaxing activity. Try a low intensity activity something that quiets you mind. Put the earphones and audio away and just get absorbed in that activity. It can be something as simple and out of the routine as stargazing, painting a bookcase or looking for shells on the beach.
- Be mindful during your vacations. Really enjoy your surroundings when you get away. Take time to get really interested in everything about the new experience you are about to enjoy. Push away other demands on your time as much as possible and just enjoy the moment.
- Take an Adult Nap. As adults sometimes actually sleeping during the day can disrupt our sleep cycle. I call an adult nap a period of time where you just rest, recline and do something quite without an I-phone or a TV. This can be crossword puzzle, reading a magazine or just swinging in a hammock.
- Get out into Nature. Even if you are not the "outdoorsy" type, our brains are still wired to be cued into nature. Sounds, pictures and being out in nature naturally restore our minds. Find you personal "green zone" whether this is your backyard or a local park and just enjoy some scheduled time outside.
Take back your summer. Rest your body, mind and spirit and I guarantee you'll be ready to take on the world this fall.
Dr. Sharyl Truty is a Board Certified Sports Medicine Physician and fellowship trained in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona. She is owner of Balanced Physician Care in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Treating Headaches without Taking a Single Pill
Life can get pretty busy and stressful, and the “common” headache is sometimes overlooked or masked with a painkiller
The first step to looking beyond prescriptions is to look at the contributing factors of the headache. Some people will often use a headache diary to help them sort out these issues.
Stress. Stress by far is the most obvious contributing factor to headache, but taking a moment to find solutions to combat your stress may not be as obvious.
Dietary Factors. In the realm of diet, food additives seem to be the biggest triggers. Make sure to take a look at the labels of the foods that you are eating to see if there are a lot of added preservatives and consider asking about the use of MSG at various restaurants. Skipping meals has also been found to be a trigger as well. Caffeine which was thought to play a role in the past seems to show mixed results on its impact on headache.
Muscle and Joint Problems. Often when it comes to tension and migraine headaches, the involvement of the neck is often over looked. It may be worth getting an evaluation of you neck muscles and joints by a physician or physical therapist to see if there are any issues stemming from your muscle system.
"The exact mechanism of action of headaches isn’t fully understood. There are no true nerves for pain in the area where it is experienced. Pain and discomfort of this nature ultimately comes from blood vessels in the head that rapidly dilate and may become inflamed. Exactly how this happens is far from clear, but there are several plausible theories"
How can you address these issues without using a prescription, an over the counter pain reliever, or even an herbal pill?
1) Reduce Stress through Breath - Breath is very intimately connected to our mood states. Just by practicing a simple breath exercise, you can train your brain to reduce you stress level immediately. Pick a time every day and practice this exercise for just 1 minute. If you can keep with it for 45 days you'll begin to see its effects and then when in a stressful situation comes, one breath is all it takes.
2) Reduce Stress through a Moving Meditation Exercise. Yoga and Tai Chi are some of my favorites. Look for a class that has a teacher is focused on calming movement and breath rather than just exercise. You'll likely see results faster than on your own. Here are just a few practitioner's in the Jacksonville Beach/ Ponte Vedra area who focus on this aspect of Yoga and Tai chi (Sheri Nicholson & Deb Joiner). However, wherever you are you can find Practioners focused on the meditation aspects of these exercise practices. If going to a class is just not possible, try a walking meditation. Just take a walk for 10 min, but try to clear your mind of any thoughts while you walk. Focus on your breath or one word. Your mind will likely wander, but be gentle to yourself and come back to your practice.
3) Improve your Diet through small steps. For headache sufferers this mean just making sure you eat small meals throughout the day without skipping. It may also mean keeping healthy snacks handy in your purse or desk drawer so that you are not reaching for something quick stocked full of preservatives. Stay Hydrated, the dehydrating effects of coffee, sugary drinks and alcohol can certainly leave us with a killer headache.
4) Rejuvenate Muscles, Joints and Nerves through Acupuncture. In the medical community, acupuncture has the highest levels of studies behind its effectiveness both in helping with an acute migraine and with preventing them from occurring. Despite what most have experienced in Western Medicine, the needles are for the most part pain free. Very thin, sterile disposable needles that are small and hardly noticeable during a treatment.
The good news for headache and migraine suffers is that there are a lot of holistic options available to help and just a few are listed here. Consulting a local Integrative Physician is a great way to understand what options are best for you. If you are in the Jacksonville, St Augustine, & Ponte Vedra areas and interested in exploring more options, please join us for a workshop with Dr Nicholas Scotto & myself on Neck Pain and Headaches, June 18th, by calling 904 930-4774 or visiting our website at www.BalancedPhysicianCare.com
Dr. Sharyl Truty is an Integrative Medicine Physician and owner of Balanced Physician Care in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
BalancedPhysicianCare.com 904-930-4774
Direct Primary Care for your Children
Giving Mothers the Gift of Time.
Mother's Day is around the corner this week. Direct Primary Care membership can be a huge help for all types of mothers. Whether you are a working mother looking to balance a career and your newborn or are a stay at home mother with your third or fourth child on the way Direct Primary Care can help take a few things off your plate, make your life simpler, and give you the gift of time. At Balanced Physician Care, Dr. Sharyl Truty, your physician, becomes a direct partner by providing a hands on, personal resource you can tap into at anytime.
A Hands-on Resource at Any Time
For parents with a newborn, life can be pretty intense those first few weeks of life. Even if the birth of your newborn child went smoothly or even if you are an experienced parent, new challenges always arise seeming to test our understanding of how to care for and protect this new life. While our own mothers can be a great resource for helping us navigate new waters sometimes they are not always up on the latest medical understandings. Sometimes the issues can be simple, but immediate and who wants to wait for the next wellness visit to get your questions answered? If is is more complicated, who wants to go scrambling to a crowded emergency room and waiting hours with an unhappy infant? By having a Direct Primary Care membership at Balanced Physician Care, if an issue comes up at 5pm on Friday evening with your newborn or young toddler, you call you doctor directly for answers. You get direct contact with your physician and immediate peace of mind.
More Time for You, Less Time in the Waiting Room
For some parents, long waits in the waiting room to see your physician can be difficult. If you are a working mother, needing to be at work you often have to rely on others to do the task of helping you take your child to well visits. If you have several children, you can feel like you live at the doctor's office. With a Direct Primary Care membership, you are seen if the office right away and unnecessary visits are minimized giving you more time to spend enjoying playful and learning activities with you children rather than long hours in a waiting room. If you have a child with a chronic disease such as asthma, eczema or attention deficit disorder, visits such as these can add-up.
Sound Holistic Advice from a Trusted Source
Holistic care can be very important to some mothers. Even if a child is very healthy, issues do arise from the inevitable cold and flu season to dealing with picky eaters. At Balanced Physician Care, our membership allows Dr. Sharyl Truty the time to spend counseling mothers on holistic options from dietary advice to natural herbals that are safe in children. For children who are struggling with chronic diseases, often answers cannot only be found in conventional medicine, having a physician you can trust for advice on what holistic options make the most sense for the personality of your child can be invaluable.
At Balanced Physician Care, our goal is to optimize the health of your child and simplify your life. Let us help to create a wellness plan for your child that goes beyond wellness checks and immunizations. A Direct Primary Care membership works as a compliment to health insurance as is designed to provide very personalized, quality care. Let Balanced Physician Care, give you the gift of time this Mother's Day.
Wishing all mothers this upcoming Sunday, a very special and Happy Mother's Day.
Dr Sharyl Truty MD
Dr Sharyl Truty has been in practice as both a board-certified family medicine and a board-certified sports medicine physician for over 13 years. She completed a fellowship in Integrative Medicine at the University of Arizona, by Dr. Andrew Weil. For more information on Balanced Physician Care and its Direct Primary Care membership plan visit www.BalancedPhysicianCare.com
Do You File Insurance When You Change Your Car’s Oil?
The Case for Direct Primary Care
Of course, you don’t. Car insurance is typically for catastrophes, covering injuries and property damage in the horrible case of an accident.
It’s not for gas, oil changes, tire rotations, or windshield wiper replacements; these are routine maintenance items – can you imagine if auto insurance covered these, it’d be really complicated and expensive.
Unlike auto insurance, we use health insurance for everything: routine, preventive and emergency care – no need to imagine, you know how expensive and complicated these plans are.
And when insurance claims are filed for every little thing, insurance premiums rise. So, the only logical way to decrease insurance premiums is to reduce the frequency of claims filed.
Balanced Physician Care can help
To reduce frequency of claims, our solution divides healthcare needs into those healthcare services which are used often, and those which are used rarely.
Primary care, with its routine physicals, acute care, chronic condition management, refills, and lab orders fall into 80-90 percent of services that are used most.
And when used in a Direct Primary Care setting, the majority of healthcare is included as part of the membership, so filing an insurance claim is no longer required. Also Direct Primary Care, caps the cost into an affordable, manageable, flat monthly fee.
That means 10 to 20 percent of care is for those rare catastrophic occurrences that are really expensive and should be covered by insurance. As a result, insurance use (and cost) is minimized.
So, if you separate the emergency stuff from the routine, suddenly healthcare becomes more affordable.
Employers are using Direct Primary Care to lower healthcare costs
Business owners are smart, and given some time, they can figure most things out – that goes for healthcare too.
Across the country, many forward-thinking CEOs and business owners have discovered that Direct Primary Care returns control back to them and returns wasted healthcare dollars back to their bottom line.
They realize by using the car insurance approach to healthcare, the can use a high-deductible plan for major healthcare issues (Accidents, hospitalization, cancers etc.) and use a direct primary care plan for all the regular routine stuff and save money on their healthcare spend at the same time.
It’s the way healthcare should be.
Interested in learning more about Direct Primary Care? Give us a call at 904-930-4774
By Shawn Fox, Co-founder IdealMD
