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Mel Hopper Koppelman

Hi, I'm Mel.

I believe that today's stickiest, most peskiest problems can be understood and solved by using appropriate frameworks, models and ways of knowing how to approach them.

I mainly apply this perspective in the field of healthcare and all of its many facets.

I am fascinated by living systems, the ontology of science (a fancy way of saying, how we know what we think we know in science) as well as our miraculous and nearly infinite capacity to heal, provided that we approach healing in a way that is consistent with Nature's first principles.

A Bit More Background

I have two MSc's: one in Acupuncture and the other in Nutrition and Functional Medicine. Additionally, I have done a stupid amount of additional professional training in order to desperately try to fill in gaps in my knowledge - essentially like trying to duct-tape a ship full of bullet holes.

Over the past couple of years, I have become disillusioned in my training in both Traditional Chinese Medicine and Functional Medicine am undergoing the very difficult but totally worthwhile process of breaking down and rebuilding my understanding of what makes people sick and how to systematically help them get better from the ground up.

This process is already bearing delicious fruit in my own vastly improved health and the much better, more predictably positive results of the folks I work with.

In addition to working with hundreds of patients over the last decade and change, I'm also working through a process of understanding and recovering from my own health challenges, including two years of amebic dysentery, multiple autoimmune syndromes, fibromyalgia, Chronic fatigue syndrome, post-concussive syndrome, mercury toxicity and burnout. While not required of a practitioner, I do feel like my personal experiences have forced me to understand the physiology, biochemistry and psychology of recovering your health in a way that my formal training never could.

What I'm Currently Up To

  • Here, I write about environmental medicine, complex systems, Nature's first principles, and the science of health.
  • I guide people through a 4 stage process of recovering from complex chronic health issues, such as Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia, Lyme Disease, Autoimmunity in its many forms, mold illness, digestive problems, long-haulers and cancer recovery in my group over at Synthesis Health Lab. If you have any of these issue and are highly motivated, you can apply to join the group as a guest for free.
  • I run a mentorship for practitioners wanting an over-the-shoulder look at my clinical process as well as guidance on how to recover and optimize their own health. You can apply to join this group as a free guest here.
  • I am undertaking in-depth study of the Neijing, a 2400 year old book that delineates universal first principles as well as providing a very handy atlas of human ecology and how to assess and remove blockages to healing. I am studying this meaty topic with Dr Ed Neal through is course in Neijing Nature Based Medicine.
  • I am currently doing a Fellowship in Functional Developmental Behavioral Neuroimmunology with Dr Robert Melillo
  • I am up to my eyeballs in research on the Cell Danger Response, a unified theory of complex chronic illness at the cellular level and how this translates up to the level of the organism, which is you.

Some Other Places I Pop Up