Today we’d like to introduce you to Peter Kozlowski.
Peter, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, my parents were both doctors in Poland before immigrating to the United States. I was unsure if I wanted to follow in their footsteps, I went to college and ended up studying economics and psychology, during my senior year, one of closest friends was diagnosed with Lupus and passed away one week after graduation. I felt helpless during her disease, her passing motivated me to pursue a career in medicine. When I started my journey, I never imagined I would end up practicing Functional Medicine, it wasnt something on my radar. It was just through luck and curiosity that I learned about this field and pursued it. I finished my residency in Family Medicine and moved to Florida to open my first practice. It was there that I practiced both traditional and Functional Medicine, through doing both, I realized my true passion was Functional Medicine. I moved back home to Chicago, joined my mom’s practice and started a Functional Medicine side in January 2017.
Overall, has it been relatively smooth? If not, what were some of the struggles along the way?
It has never been a smooth road, I would say the biggest struggle was leaving the “traditional” medicine model and pursuing an “alternative” approach. I think a lot of my M.D. colleagues question what we do because what we do is not taught in traditional medical training.
Functional Medicine focuses on chronic disease but does not revolve around prescribing medications as band-aids for lifestyle diseases such as Diabetes.
Please tell us about Doc-Koz.
I work in a private practice, the initial visit the patient is usually there for about 3 hours, that includes time with me and my health coach.
Our primary goal is prevention but most people come to see us once a disease has already onset. At that point, we work at underlying causes of disease mostly focusing on nutrition, gut health, environmental toxins, and mental, emotional, spiritual health. We work with everything from autism in children to dementia later on in life and everything in between.
I would say my biggest passion has become gut health, that’s where my specialty lies, like Hippocrates, said, “Everything starts in the gut.” All of us have 3-5 pounds of bacteria growing in our large intestine, that bacteria talks to our DNA and affects every process in our body. When there is chronic disease anything ranging from Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis to Lupus to Autism it usually starts in the gut.
Unfortunately, our environment is very toxic to our gut; food, stress, antibiotics, the toxins in our air and water all negatively impact our gut bacteria.
I would say, two things which set us apart are the amount of time we spend with you and individualized care, no two patients get the same treatment plan. Before you come in for a visit you fill out a 40-page complete medical history intake questionnaire which my health coach and I go over thoroughly before your visit.
I am most proud of our patient outcomes, a lot of people have shared their experience through reviews on Google and Facebook, reading that before coming is a great way to understand what to expect.
If you had to go back in time and start over, would you have done anything differently?
I would not do anything differently, I believe the universe puts us exactly where we are supposed to be at the moment. What feels like the worst possible thing that could happen to us at the moment, can lead us to places we never dreamed of.
Pricing:
- An initial consult is $500 with an option to sign up for a monthly plan after or pay per visit. We do not accept medical insurance, however, it can be used for lab testing.
Contact Info:
- Address: 92 Turner Ave
Elk Grove Village, Il 60007 - Website: htttp://www.doc-koz.com
- Phone: 847-626-5758
- Email: contact@doc-koz.com
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/doctorkoz
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