Jennifer Bouchard

Jennifer Bouchard is an ANCC Certified Family Nurse Practitioner , and Certified Functional Medicine provider. One of nearly 1800 Institute of Functional Medicine (IFM) Certified Providers (IFMCP). Certified 2018 through 2028. She is a Member of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners.

I am a lover of the water. I live in a beautiful lake community where I spent most of my childhood summers in Indiana. Having a virtual practice is unable me to work in a place that I truly love. I read many nonfiction, health-related books and research documents in my spare time. My education spans decades, I earned my BacheIor's in Nursing degree through Valparaiso University in 1986, my Masters in Nursing and Degree as a Family Practice Nurse Practitioner in 1996 from Indiana  Wesleyan University and a Masters in Public Health, with a strong focus in environmental health and toxicology from Tulane University in 2005. I have had a strong interest in and have practiced energy work daily for the last 25 years through various forms of meditation (Dr. Joe Dispenza, ZIVA meditation), utilizing the Energy Codes, and Medical Qi Gong. I love to cook and experiment with new flavors. My time relaxing and socializing includes cooking delicious healthy meals in my home or wherever I might be with friends and/or significant other.  I offer these delicious meals to my family and friends and emphasize the importance of healthy plant based organics and grass fed/organic meats whether dining in or out. I enjoy as much time as I can with my daughter, Caitlin, who is a level 1 Trauma nurse in Chicago.

How Functional Medicine has impacted my life: I was diagnosed with a rare genetic motor neuron disorder in 2014 at Cleveland Clinic after more than 20 years of leg weakness symptoms. This condition "sort of" mimics Muscular Sclerosis with spasticity better described as muscle stiffness.  I tried prescribed pharmaceuticals and physical therapy which offered no change in what I was feeling or displaying. After reading “The Wahls Protocol” by Multiple Sclerosis survivor, Dr. Terry Wahls MD, and “The Disease Delusion” by Dr. Jeffery Bland PhD, the founder of functional medicine, I was led to have a strong clinical interest in functional medicine.  Through my own research, and after six months of working with an expert in chiropractic functional medicine treatment, Dr. Stuart White (https://doctorof the future.org), taking prescribed supplements, adhering to the elimination diet, removal of eight dental amalgams, three infected root canals and leaving a toxic relationship, my symptoms markedly improved. After assuming a position in the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, was seen by Dr. Hyman in 2017, chelated for mercury and arsenic, eliminated toxic and inflammatory foods, practiced a full detox plan and continued daily exercise including 30 minutes of walking daily and Pilates core work five days a week, my symptoms were markedly improved. My Cleveland Clinic neurologist questioned how I “changed my gait,” he did not agree that my functional medicine treatment plan was “getting at the root” of my symptoms and physical changes were just a result of weight loss and “more exercise.”  But he revised my gait disorder severity.

In 2017, a newly created "Hybrid" position was offered to me at the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. I was the first uncertified and clinically inexperienced  provider hired to learn functional medicine and become a part of the amazing team.

My passion for healing is personal as you may suspect, I know the physical and emotional suffering that comes with chronic illness, and cancer. I learned from this personal experience and later, from my own patients at the Cleveland Clinic.  I gained clinical expertise and learned specifically that the roots to chronic illness symptoms are deep and many diagnoses are just symptom labels in order for a drug prescription to be made that “may” change you. In most cases these drugs do not work because they are not addressing the “root” of the problem.

I want to help YOU to realize what your underlying triggers or “roots” are in relation to your symptoms and potential chronic illness. I will utilize the latest tools available in functional medicine including include supplement protocols, nutritional recommendations, and lifestyle modifications to place you on a journey towards healing.

I have been on a personal and passionate oncology journey after observing the effects of cancer and treatment effects on the body.  My mother died from metastatic lung cancer in 2006. My dad's brothers died from metastatic pancreatic cancer and metastatic lung cancer. My mother's mother from metastatic breast cancer.  These family members all had unhealthy lifestyles.  My daughter, Hannah, was lost to a very rare and unrelenting stage 4 nasopharyngeal carcinoma in 2020. She did not respond to state of the art treatment with chemotherapy and radiation by an excellent head and neck oncology team at Yale. I began studying the gastrointestinal microbiome as it relates to the immune system in more detail--up to 70% of the immune system lies in the gut, which is central to optimizing the body's ability to heal. While Hannah was going through treatment, and after I returned to work at the Center for Functional Medicine, I began developing a plan for optimizing the immune system in and for cancer patients through first, healing the gut. This is imperative for care of patients who may be or have been exposed to chemotherapeutic and/or the newer immunotherapy agents.  I took the Oncology Nursing Society Chemotherapy and Immunotherapy exam which enabled me to have a clearer understanding of pharmaceutical cancer treatments and effects of these agents. My goals at Hyperion Functional Medicine look from the functional oncology perspective:

Eliminate the toxic burden.  Optimize the immune system, heal underlying and possibly latent infections. Decreasing inflammation which can stimulate angiogenesis and cause cancer to  metastasize. Optimizing the microbiome and digestive system/heal leaky gut is a priority. Evaluate and manage genetic SNPs which directly affect inflammation and detoxification pathways.  Manage blood sugar and eliminate hyperinsulinemia. Balance hormones. Optimize physical, emotional stress, and biorhythms. And last but certainly not least, offer deep nutrition plans through an oncology and functional medicine nutritionist, because food is medicine and nutrients from these foods are a great force in healing from cancer.

Understanding what risk factors there are that allow cancer tumors to take hold are key to healing.  Gut studies will be offered detailed to optimize of gut healing through use of prescribed supportive supplements, and food, as medicine. Genetic studies will be offered to optimize detox pathways and other genetic SNPs that may lead to or exacerbate cancers.

Nutritional and emotional support through our functional medicine/oncology nutritionist, functional medicine health coach, and holistic psychotherapist are all a part of our supportive and healing plan.