FUNCTIONAL & LIFESTYLE MEDICINE + health coaching
Functional Medicine in Boulder, Co & Beyond
You have a story that’s waiting to be heard.
Dr. Flora Brewington is a board-certified physician who listens wholeheartedly to patients’ stories as she helps them uncover and address the upstream drivers of persistent symptoms, chronic conditions, and preventable disease with the time, depth, and genuine partnership that foster lifelong health and healing.
Maybe this sounds like you
When your health feels like a barrier instead of your foundation.
Have you adapted to a “new normal” while inwardly yearning to feel better? Maybe you’ve been diagnosed with a chronic condition like prediabetes, high blood pressure, or a thyroid issue and are wondering if medication is the only option. Maybe you’d like to adopt healthier habits but feel stuck and don’t know where to begin. Or perhaps you’re seeking ways to safeguard your long-term wellness.
At Healing Pathways MD, you'll partner with a physician whom you can trust to listen deeply to your whole story — concerns and worries, goals and hopes. We’ll meet you right where you are to help you make sense of your health, co-create a care plan that fits your real life, and support you as you move from insight to action along your healing journey.
the wisdom of the body
You are not irreparably broken.
The river has not dried up.
Its flow has just been interrupted.
If you think of your health as a river, is it freely flowing or does it feel more like a trickle? Perhaps it's become blocked in one or more areas, by years of stress, accumulated physiological imbalances, and adaptations that made sense once but no longer serve you.
Whether you're looking for guidance to clear away those upstream obstructions leading to downstream symptoms, or you're seeking support to sustain a robust flow, our approach at Healing Pathways MD honors the body as a marvelously complex, interconnected system with an innate capacity for health.
WHAT IT IS & HOW WE CAN HELP YOU
Functional & Lifestyle Medicine
Conventional medicine typically asks “what symptom or diagnosis do you have?” and matches it to a treatment. Functional medicine goes further and asks “why do you have it?” We view symptoms not as problems to manage, but as vital messages from the body — clues communicating what it needs — then build a plan around your individual biology, history, and circumstances, grounded in the principles of lifestyle medicine.
We always begin with the foundational lifestyle factors that research shows are the biggest needle-movers: nutrition, rest, movement, and stress resilience, along with the other basic elements of health. When appropriate, we layer in evidence-backed advanced diagnostics, supplements / botanicals, and adjunctive therapies, always grounded in a collaborative relationship that honors patient preferences.
UNEXPLAINED SYMPTOMS & COMPLEX CASES
"I'm losing hope that my body can heal - will I ever feel better?"
For patients with persistent or unexplained symptoms that have not responded to conventional treatment, functional medicine takes a deeper diagnostic look at hormones, gut health, inflammation, toxic load, mitochondrial integrity, and other factors, from a whole-person, integrated systems approach.
returning to yourself again
"I just don’t feel like myself, even though my labs look normal and I’m trying to do all the ‘right’ things."
If something feels “off” — moods seem more labile, energy levels are inconsistent, aches and pains have become more bothersome, and life feels harder to manage — but the workup so far hasn’t turned up answers, functional medicine provides a toolbox for evaluating the total environment, internal and external, so patients can start feeling like themselves again.
CHRONIC CONDITION MANAGEMENT
"I want to manage my health condition with fewer medications."
Functional medicine is well-suited for people wanting to identify and address the root causes of chronic health conditions, and who are ready to explore how lifestyle shifts can decrease the need for prescription medications — and even guide the body into disease remission. Instead of side effects, these shifts come with “side benefits.”
HABIT & LIFESTYLE SUPPORT
"I know what to do to make healthier choices, but I just can't make it stick."
Willpower is almost never the key driver when it comes to habit formation. Health coaching strategies embedded in the functional medicine framework address the physiologic and psychological mechanisms that can impede consistent progress, enabling patients to build realistic, sustainable plans that actually fit into their day-to-day lives.
making sense of the data
"I ordered several direct-to-consumer labs — now I need help figuring out what it all means."
Many specialty advanced labs are now available “direct-to-consumer,” allowing patients to self-test without a doctor’s orders. This is important patient empowerment, but it can also raise more questions than it answers. Working with a physician trained in functional medicine guides patients to make sense of the data as it applies to their unique situation and decide whether further evaluation or intervention is warranted.
PROACTIVE & PREVENTIVE CARE
"I feel fine now and don't have a specific illness to treat, but I want to invest in my long-term health and stay ahead of what might be coming."
Prevention-focused functional medicine helps healthy individuals identify hidden risk factors early and build a personalized plan for long-term wellness and healthy aging — before symptoms ever appear.
Learn More:
Meet your physician
Dr. Flora Brewington
As a board-certified family physician with more than 20 years of experience, Dr. Brewington realized that patients were managing their health conditions — living with their diagnoses without truly getting better. Prompted by her passion for actively cultivating health and healing, rather than simply treating symptoms and diseases, she expanded her expertise into the specialties of functional medicine and lifestyle medicine, with additional training as a health coach. Now having founded Healing Pathways MD, she looks forward to serving her patients holistically, hearing their stories and guiding them along their unique pathways to health.
Bachelor of Science, California Institute of Technology
MD with Honors, Dartmouth Medical School
Alpha Omega Alpha Honor Medical Society
Board-Certified in Family Medicine
Board-Certified in Lifestyle Medicine
ACCME-accredited training in Functional Medicine
Certified Health Coach, National Society of Health Coaches
selected Areas of focus
Conditions & Concerns We Support
We partner with people living with chronic illness, complex concerns, and troublesome symptoms, as well as those focused on prevention and longevity, always individualized to the person, not the diagnosis. Here are just a few examples of conditions we support:
Cardiometabolic
Health
Weight concerns
Prediabetes
Diabetes
High Cholesterol
high blood pressure
Heart disease
Metabolic syndrome
Gut / Endocrine / Immune Health
Leaky Gut &
Microbiome Imbalance
Digestive issues (e.g. IBs, GERD, SIBO, IBD)
fatty liver
thyroid concerns
Food sensitivitieS
autoimmunity
MCAS
Women's
Health
Perimenopause & menopause
Hormone, mood, and energy shifts
PCos/PMOS
menstrual irregularities
PMs/pmdd
endometriosis
migraines
fibromyalgia
Wellness &
Longevity
Fatigue & Stress Resilience
Cognitive & Mental Health
Healthy Habit Formation
Long-Term Health Planning (healthy aging)
Prehabilitation
Before surgery
THE BASELINE FOR HEALING
8 Essential Elements of Health
Every cell in our bodies constantly responds to how we live: what we eat, how we move, how we sleep, how we handle stress, our environmental inputs, our social connections. Lifestyle isn't what we do after medicine—it is the medicine, providing the core operating instructions our bodies were designed to run on.
Expanding on the American College of Lifestyle Medicine's six pillars, these 8 Essential Elements establish the foundation of your health. While supplements and medications play critical roles downstream, lifestyle works upstream, where disease often has its roots and where healing begins. Together, we'll identify where small shifts can make the biggest impact and co-create a realistic plan for your daily life. You don't need to be 100% ready—just willing to take one step at a time with the right support. That brings genuine hope: the most powerful tools to change your health trajectory are already in your hands.
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What you eat is your body's most fundamental raw material — the source from which every cell is built, every hormone synthesized, every inflammatory signal either amplified or calmed — making the quality, variety, and timing of food intake among the most powerful levers you have for shaping long-term health.
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Regular physical activity can prevent and even reverse nearly every chronic disease - it strengthens your heart, builds bone and muscle, regulates blood sugar, reduces inflammation, stimulates growth of brain cells, and supports mental health. Combining cardiovascular and resistance training multiplies benefits.
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Sleep is a physiologically active process , not a time of shut-down. As you sleep, your body is hard at work - repairing tissue, consolidating memories, clearing toxic waste from the brain, rebalancing hormones, resetting your immune system and metabolic processes. Adequate rest is an absolute necessity, not a luxury or a reward.
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Stress is inescapable, and even beneficial in the proper context, but persistent exposure to unmanaged stress keeps the body's alarm system — the hypothalamus-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis and sympathetic nervous system — stuck in the 'on' position. Responding well to stress helps mitigate the chronically elevated cortisol and associated inflammation that drive heart disease, metabolic syndrome, Alzheimer’s, premature aging, and up to 70% of all chronic illness, physical and mental.
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Loneliness is a significant risk factor for heart disease, stroke, premature death, cognitive decline, and immune dysfunction, among other health issues. Supportive relationships and a sense of belonging aren't optional — human connection alters gene expression, regulates the nervous system, measurably dampens inflammatory pathways, lowers stress hormones, and signals biological safety in ways that shape cardiovascular, immune, and brain health.
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Tobacco and alcohol are both classified as systemic toxins and carcinogens, meaning their harmful components enter the bloodstream and cause widespread cellular damage, inflammation, and DNA mutation throughout every organ system. They increase the likelihood of multiple adverse health outcomes, spanning cancer, heart disease, dementia, metabolic disorders, and more. Reducing or eliminating these exposures meaningfully lowers your risk for virtually all acquired chronic disease, and supports every other area of your health plan.
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Having a sense of purpose in life shifts your nervous system out of chronic alarm mode: stress hormones fall, inflammation quiets, and immune function improves — which ehelps explain why it’s linked to a 30% lower risk of premature death and a 17% lower risk of heart attack or stroke, as well as improved sleep and mental health measures. Taking intentional steps to cultivate a sense of meaning and purpose can improve overall quality of life.
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It isn’t always apparent, but your body constantly absorbs and responds to its environment, from the air you breathe to the continual stream of visual, auditory, and even olfactory input surrounding you, from the products you apply on your skin to the various items you use in and outside your home. This doesn’t mean you have to live in a bubble, but taking steps to limit exposure to potentially harmful environmental inputs may reduce inflammation, hormonal disruption, and chronic disease risk.
Learn More:
Our Individualized Approach
Root-cause Care,
Without the Overwhelm
There’s a version of functional medicine that means more tests, more supplements, and more labels to worry about.
Healing Pathways MD takes another approach: By first grounding care in the 8 Essential Elements of Health, everything we layer upon it has the solid foundation needed to actually take root and last.
We tend to the soil before we sow, because even the best seed cannot flourish without good soil. That means the right intervention for you, at the right time.
The "Protocol-Dependent" Way:
🅇 Obtain a predetermined panel of expensive, extensive specialty testing at the outset, without clear context or defined rationale
🅇 Manage “abnormal” test results that may have no actual clinical significance or actionable outcomes, but lead to labeling, worry, and further esoteric testing, while foregoing key lifestyle interventions with proven benefits
🅇 Recommend a lengthy list of supplements to take indefinitely, without clarifying what specific conditions or symptoms they're supposed to improve, or how
🅇 Create plans that look great on paper but can be difficult for patients to integrate into their everyday lives
VS.
The Healing Pathways Way:
☑ Begin by supporting — and continue to strengthen — the foundational 8 Essential Elements of Health, tailored to each person’s background and circumstances
☑ Balance a broader “test, don’t guess” approach with labs that specifically evaluate clinical hypotheses, provide actionable data, shift the treatment plan, or support patient autonomy, wellbeing, motivation, and peace of mind
☑ When appropriate, add evidence-based supplements, medications, and other interventions that target specific conditions / symptoms, and re-evaluate periodically for effectiveness
☑ Clearly explain the rationale behind the recommendations and modify the plan based on patient input
Body · Mind · Soul · Spirit
Care That Treats
the Whole Person
The four interwoven paths in the Healing Pathways logo reflect Dr. Brewington's mission: To nurture people along healing pathways toward harmony of body, mind, soul, and spirit so they can vibrantly engage with life to the fullest.
Nutrition, movement, and sleep that keep systems running smoothly.
Body
Mind
Thoughts, emotions, beliefs that influence mindset and nervous system safety.
Meaning, purpose, transcendence, and the energy that drives your deeper "Why"
Soul
The essence of who you are and how you connect to others.
Spirit
Ways to Work Together
Your Healing Pathway
01 / Discovery Call
This complimentary 25 minute visit is a no-pressure space to explore whether our collaborative model aligns with your unique needs. Book here.
02 / Foundational Assessment
This 3-visit package is the main entry point for new patients, spanning (1) a comprehensive intake to gather your full story and design an initial care plan, (2) an intervention visit to review any test results and assess response to treatment, and (3) an implementation followup visit to refine the plan and ensure it’s working for your life. Learn more.
03 / Healing Journey Sustained Partnership
This 3-month partnership melds medical consultations, health coaching, and messaging support, providing a consistent, structured framework that accompanies you on your long-term healing journey. Learn more.
04 / Habits for Life
This package offers six 40-minute sessions spread over 10 weeks to help motivated patients set realistic habit-change goals, identify strengths and resources, build specific skills, and troubleshoot obstacles. Learn more.
IN THEIR WORDS
Patient & Colleague Testimonials
Functional & Lifestyle Medicine Across Colorado
WHERE TO FIND OUR SERVICES
Easily accessible in-person throughout Boulder County, including Boulder, Louisville, Lafayette, Superior, Niwot, Gunbarrel, Lyons, Nederland, Broomfield, and Westminster, as well as surrounding areas.
Tele-health (virtual) visits are available for all but the initial evaluation, since a physical exam is conducted at this first visit. We encourage in-person visits when possible, however, because face-to-face interactions often provide subtle cues about physical and emotional states that virtual visits simply cannot capture.
Healing Pathways MD FAQs
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At this time, Healing Pathways MD is a direct-pay practice, which means we do not bill insurance directly. This payment model allows Dr. Brewington to spend more time with each patient and focus entirely on their care without the constraints of insurance-based medicine. Many patients can use HSA or FSA funds to cover their visits or submit superbills for potential out-of-network insurance reimbursement (however, we cannot guarantee reimbursement - please check with your insurance plan administrator).
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Functional and lifestyle medicine draws on a robust and growing body of peer-reviewed research — the same evidence base that informs conventional medicine, applied with greater attention to root causes, individuality, and the therapeutic power of lifestyle. Dr. Brewington uses evidence-based medical literature databases as part of researching each patient’s case.
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Yes, when they’re the right tool. Dr. Brewington is a board-certified MD who prescribes thoughtfully, while always addressing the underlying root causes, such as adequate nutrition, movement, rest, stress resilience, social connections, and the other Essential Elements of Health. When these are firmly in place, patients may find they actually need to rely less on medications to control symptoms and chronic conditions.
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No. Healing Pathways MD is a specialty collaborative partnership meant to complement, not replace, a traditional primary care doctor’s services. All Healing Pathways MD patients must maintain a local PCP for routine preventive care and acute or urgent evaluations. Having practiced as a primary care physician for over 20 years, Dr. Brewington deeply appreciates the value of a long-term PCP-patient relationship, and is happy to make referrals for patients who currently do not have a PCP.
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The Initial Intake visit is conducted in-person at Dr. Brewington’s office in Boulder, since a careful physical exam is an important part of the evaluation. Many patients choose to conduct subsequent visits virtually via telehealth, hosted on the HIPAA-secure Practice Better electronic medical record platform. When possible, in-person visits are encouraged because they tend to foster greater connection and communication, and subtle physical and emotional cues can be missed with virtual visits.
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Similar to concierge medicine, Healing Pathways MD’s micropractice model keeps a limited-size patient panel and offers extended appointment times. On the other hand, while concierge medicine typically provides access to conventional primary care within an extended-time framework, Healing Pathways MD offers a fundamentally different kind of care, built around investigating and addressing root causes within a highly personalized, therapeutic partnership. See “What Makes Our Partnership Work.”
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Although we may make evidence-based recommendations tailored to each person's situation, buying supplements is entirely optional. We typically prescribe supplements through Fullscript because they carefully vet their products and use independent laboratory testing for purity, safety, and bioavailability. We do not sell or profit from the purchase of any supplements. (Note: Fullscript allows practitioners to earn the difference between the wholesale cost and the price the patient pays, but we’ve chosen to eliminate that markup and pass the entire wholesale difference directly to our patients. That means patients receive a 35% discount on Fullscript’s professional-grade supplements. )
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Lab costs are not included in our services because costs will vary depending on each patient's needs. While standard labs can be ordered from Quest and Labcorp, they do not process specialized functional medicine labs, for which we typically use Fullscript or Evexia. Both Fullscript and Evexia also process standard blood labs and also provide a substantial direct-pay discount as well as seamless integration of results into the Practice Better medical record. As part of the new patient onboarding process, you will receive detailed information to help you decide which lab billing option would work best for you.
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Transfer of information is not transformation: Knowing your care plan's “What” and “Why” (the medical consult piece) is distinct from the “How” of actually living it out. Health coaching visits focus on the practical mapping of mindset and behavior change into the realities of daily life such that, over time, practicing healthy habits evolves from intentional effort to innately natural.
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It varies from patient to patient, and depends on a multitude of factors, including complexity of the presenting concern(s), extent of engagement with the treatment plan, life circumstances, and more. Some changes arrive in weeks, even days; deeper, lasting change typically unfolds over months to years. This timeframe is why we offer the Healing Journey Sustained Partnership - to provide the consistent, long-term support needed by many patients to build and maintain their healing momentum.
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Yes — we use a HIPAA-compliant AI scribing tool during visits, allowing Dr. Brewington to stay fully present with you rather than typing while you talk. Every note is reviewed, edited, and clinically approved by Dr. Brewington — the AI handles documentation, not clinical judgment. You may opt out at any time, before or during a visit, with no impact on the care you receive. Likewise, while AI is a powerful tool to assist with generating hypotheses, results are always cross-checked across multiple sources and placed into each patient’s unique context.
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At the time that you sign up for the Foundational Assessment (or another new patient package), you will schedule your first visit, pay for the package, and complete a set of routine legal / administrative forms. You will then receive an email invitation to activate your patient account on our Practice Better medical record platform, followed by a series of 3 in-depth medical questionnaires collecting detailed information about your current and past health, symptoms, and lifestyle factors. These crucial questionnaires begin the deep-dive investigation that will help inform next steps in your care, and must be submitted two weeks prior to your Initial Intake to allow sufficient time for review.
Begin Your Healing Pathway
We meet you where you’re at right now, help you envision where you want to go, and guide you on the journey there.
The first step is a simple conversation.