Anita Stechschult said she is passionate about healing others from a holistic approach. Stechschulte recently opened an office in the Dumont Building, 202 W Main St., Ottawa.
Cade Higgins | The Lima News
OTTAWA — Twenty-three years ago, Anita Stechschulte found her true calling in functional and integrative medicine.
Since March 2022, Stechschulte has been in a Functional Medicine Provider role with her business, UDemand Health. The healthcare center is in the newly remodeled Dumont Building, 202 W Main St., Ottawa.
Functional medicine and Stechschulte’s method of healing each focus on the BIG systems, which stand for brain, immune and gut.
“Almost everybody will have something in one of these areas, or want to improve it,” she said.
The method consists of three phases: repair, restore and renew. It involves various tests, such as DUTCH Hormone Testing, GI Map Testing, Omega Quant Testing, Organic Acid Testing and Thermal Imaging. These personalized tests and treatments do not provide a diagnosis but help determine the best way to support healing based on each individual’s results.
Stechschulte has a doctorate in nursing practice and is an advanced registered nurse and certified family nurse practitioner.
Something Stechschulte has implemented from her college days is known as the “Tree of Life.” Seen in the company’s logo, it represents the overall health of an individual.
“Giving someone medication to solve a deeper problem is like re-painting the leaves on the tree. We need to look down the trunk and into the roots to find the bigger issue,” she said.
Using integrative medicine, which combines traditional and alternative medicine, Stechschulte determines the best approach for each patient from multiple angles rather than just one.
“It’s not all or none. It’s finding out what’s best for you until your body heals,” she said. “It’s always my goal to eventually get you off medication because I know the vital role it plays in healing people.”
It took battling for her son to find the passion she still holds on to today.
In the fall of 2001, her 6-year-old son suffered from severe asthma, eczema and allergies. While trying not to overly sedate her son, Stechschulte carefully balanced his medications.
A few months later, in October, however, he became more ill, and the medical community told Stechschulte there was nothing else they could do other than steroids and medications.
“I knew there had to be a better way,” she said.
After taking accounts into her own hands, Stechschulte discovered her son suffered from leaky gut syndrome. Thus began the healing process.
After putting him on a special diet, his gut healed, and he was free of inhalers and allergy medications just two months later. It was through this personal journey that Stechschulte committed to digging deeper and finding the root cause of a patient’s symptoms.
“It opened my eyes. Once you see it, you can’t un-see it,” she said about alternative medicine.
As a family nurse practitioner in Toledo from 2017 to 2022, patients with anxiety, depression, and fatigue frequented Stechschulte’s office, often asking for help without medication. Using medication as a last resort, Stechschulte helped her patients focus on things such as lifestyle changes and supplements.
This sparked a feeling similar to her own experience with her son, as she realized people wanted something other than traditional medicine.
Two years ago, Stechschulte returned to Putnam County. When she was made aware of available space in the Dumont Building, she took it.
Stechschulte also writes about functional medicine in the Healthy Me Magazine based out of Findlay and sits on the Ohio Association of Advanced Practices Nurses Board.
Reach Cade Higgins at 567-242-0351
