Dr. Castel Santana: Functional & Integrative Medicine

We recently chatted with Dr. Castel Santana, MD, known to his patients as Dr. Cas. He’s a board-certified family medicine doctor who has dedicated his career to creating healthy, happy communities, one patient at a time.

He received his medical degree from American University of the Caribbean School of Medicine and completed his residency at University of Maryland Family Medicine, and is board-certified through the American Board of Family Medicine.

As his medical career progressed, he realized some crucial elements were missing in the treatment of patients: time, respect and listening. At the same time, his desire to provide a different—and better​​—level of health care increased.

Santana now delivers his unique model of health care to patients, blending the best of integrative and functional medicine. He graciously answered our most pressing questions.

What is Integrative Medicine?

This is the practice of bringing both naturopathic (natural medicine) and allopathic (western/pharmaceutical medicine) medicine together. 

What about Functional Medicine?

This is the practice of getting to the root cause of disease and fixing these problems at the source. 

Could you explain what inflammation actually is?

The body’s natural response to invading pathogens. When this becomes a chronic process is when most chronic disease is formed. We focus on two layers of inflammation in our clinic, including the gut and cellular inflammation.

What’s the gut microbiome?

We have trillions of good bacteria that reside in our intestinal system. The majority of these co-inhabitants are friendly to us and help us break down vital nutrients and send us messages about the environment. This is also a major protective barrier for us and needs to run optimally. We focus on dysbiosis of this layer and optimizing the microbiome and its function.

Why is gut health important?

This is the portal to everything else in the body. Some 70 to 80 percent of your immune system lies in the gut, and this is a major area of where we get our information from the environment. This tends to be a major area of inflammation and a source of much chronic disease. The food we put into our body is a major factor to health in this layer. 

Santana has developed a unique, multifaceted approach to health care, which he calls the Five Pillars. They’ve been a major part of his practice for over 10 years, and include: 

Medical Wellness includes things like allergies, asthma, autoimmune disorders, cold, diabetes, flu, gut health, hormone replacement therapy, hypertension, sports physicals and vaccinations.

Physical Wellness involves lifestyle and weight management planning.

Mental Wellness is the treatment of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), etc.

Spiritual Wellness includes mindfulness and practices like meditation or yoga.

Aesthetic Wellness is about looking your best and may include dermal fillers, hair rejuvenation, liquid nose augmentation or skin rejuvenation.

“Patients can expect me to spend time getting to know them, to understand what they’re going through, to accept them for who they are and to work hard for them,” Santana says. Learn more about him and his innovative standard of care at drcasmd.com. He’s also seeing patients at his practice, the Norman Regional Wellness Clinic.