Today we’d like to introduce you to Kenny Mittelstadt.
Hi Kenny, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
I grew up in a big military family in the San Antonio suberbs, second oldest of six kids. My mom often collaborated with naturopaths and shared home remedies, so I was exposed early to the idea that health isn’t just about prescriptions and something that happens to us. It’s about patterns, habits, and the deeper story behind the symptoms as well as playing as active a role in healing as possible.
But I didn’t fully understand that until I went through my own health struggles. In my twenties, I found myself exhausted, nearly 50 pounds overweight, living on antacids, and not sleeping. At the time, I felt like a stranger in my own body. What I didn’t realize was that this painful season would later become the catalyst for my work today. One of the lessons I carry forward is that sometimes our hardest moments are really turning points, pushing us toward deeper alignment with who we’re meant to become.
Discovering functional medicine and Chinese medicine completely changed the trajectory of my life. For the first time, instead of just chasing symptoms, I learned to ask: why is this happening, what’s driving it underneath, and how is it all connected? Those same questions now form the foundation of how I practice.
Over the years, I pursued dual doctorates, earned advanced certification through the Institute for Functional Medicine, and launched my own virtual practice. Today, I work with patients across Texas, California, and Florida, many of whom feel like they’ve been dismissed or fallen through the algorithmic cracks of the conventional and insurance-dictated system.
The through-line has always been this: our struggles can become our training ground, and when we choose to lean into them, they often prepare us to serve others in ways we couldn’t have imagined.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Not at all. My story, like many of my patients, has been shaped as much by the struggles as the successes.
On a personal level, I spent years wrestling with severe reflux, burnout, stubborn weight gain, and chronic insomnia. At the time, I felt trapped in a cycle of chasing symptoms without real progress. Matching a drug to each symptom, but not really feeling more like myself. That season taught me one of my core lessons: pain often becomes a teacher. Sometimes the very moments we wish away are what ultimately shape our alignment and resilience on the other side.
Another major struggle was my coming-out journey during my last year of undergrad. It was raw and disorienting, but also profoundly healing. Experiencing the power of unconditional love and community support showed me that stepping into authenticity is what opens the door to deep healing. That insight continues to guide how I work with patients today, healing sticks when who we are and how we live are finally in sync. Environment and social connection is a foundational ingredient in expressing our healthiest selves.
Professionally, I graduated from my second doctorate just before the COVID-19 pandemic. By then my first acupuncture practice was taking off, and I landed what seemed like a dream role in West Hollywood as a celebrity acupuncturist. From the outside it looked glamorous; inside, I found out it wasn’t aligned with my deeper purpose. I wasn’t drawn to trendy, wellness culture approach, I wanted to help guide the kind of transformations I had gone through myself. That realization led me deeper into functional medicine, where I could pair investigative lab work with my Chinese medicine background to uncover the “why” beneath the symptoms. I always say that I’m in the business of transformations, not transactions.
Building a solo practice has carried its own challenges. Without insurance dictating care, I have the freedom to design treatments with integrity, but it also requires I wear a lot of other hats and deep patient education. We live in a culture addicted to quick fixes, and those short-term wins often carry sneaky, long-term consequences. Acupuncture and functional medicine don’t really work in that same way, though they have profound potential in their own rights. To get different outcomes, we need different inputs. That’s the work I lean into every day with my patients.
And as an afterthought, there’s the quieter struggle of putting music performance, my earliest passion, on the back burner. Music once defined my life, and it’s still a part of me. I’ve come to see creativity as one of the greatest expressions of health, so I find ways to weave it into my life and work. It continues to be a source of energy and joy, past, present, and future.
We’ve been impressed with Dr. KM Functional Medicine, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
I’m a solo practitioner, and I’m proud that it allows me to spend real time with my patients and step into their world, which I believe is part of the healing process itself. So much of conventional care is fast, transactional, and algorithmic. My approach is slower, deeper, and built on collaboration.
As the “root cause health detective” my work centers on uncovering the “why” behind symptoms that often go unexplained in the conventional model. I use advanced functional lab testing (like hormone metabolite mapping, gut microbiome analysis, and metabolic assessments) to bring objective data to the table. From there, I guide patients through targeted supplementation and lifestyle strategies. My goal is to cut through the wellness marketing noise that so many people understandably get lost in, and instead provide clarity, personalization, and a clear path forward.
What sets me apart is the combination of levels of advanced training, my academic success, and personal lived experience. Before I was a practitioner, I was a patient navigating these very same challenges. That perspective allows me to meet people where they are, with both scientific rigor and human understanding. I also rarely give “blanket protocols” or supplement recommendations without objective lab data to guide them.
I’m plugged into mentorship networks with practitioners who have been in the functional medicine space for 25 to 30 years. That means I’m constantly learning, refining, and staying connected to the evolving science, while still keeping my care highly personalized.
The kinds of people who tend to find me are those with chronic weight challenges, hormone imbalances (especially when labs come back “normal” but symptoms persist), gut health concerns, chronic fatigue, long COVID, mast cell activation, and other complex conditions that don’t fit neatly into a prescription pad. I also work with health optimization and longevity as deep insight can be gained through functional labs. Both functional and Chinese medicine share the belief that each person is unique and a sum of their life experiences. No two patients are ever the same, and that philosophy runs through everything I do.
I also want readers to know there are multiple ways to engage with my work. I offer structured programs for those ready to dive deep, but I also provide free resources for anyone who’s just starting to explore functional medicine. My YouTube channel is a big, growing focus right now. It’s a place where I answer common questions, ground information in data and research, and give people a look at how functional medicine approaches health differently.
At the heart of it all, I want people to know they’re not alone, and they’re not just a number. Healing is possible, and when we use the right tools to uncover the root causes, the process can be transformative.
Is there any advice you’d like to share with our readers who might just be starting out?
I would start by normalizing the messy middle. In health and in business, the path rarely runs in a straight line. Early on I kept trying to find the perfect plan, the one right answer. What I learned is that progress often looks like a series of small experiments. You try something, you learn, you adjust. The learning curve is not a detour. It becomes the training ground for who you are becoming.
I would also tell you not to do it alone. The seasons I grew the most were the seasons I let mentors and community into the process. Borrow wisdom from people a few steps ahead. Ask better questions like, “What might I be missing,” or “If this were your body or your business, what would you try next.” Support does not remove the work. It makes the work more honest and more effective.
Values need to lead and tools need to follow. Whether you are rebuilding your health or launching a practice, it helps to be clear on what matters most. Integrity. Clarity. Consistency. And right beside those is humility. In practice and in life, it is impossible to know every possibility. Anyone pretending otherwise is fooling themselves and can create confusion or harm. Oversimplification is often packaged nicely, but it rarely honors the individual spectrum of real human experience. Let your values guide which tool, when, and why, and keep enough humility in the process to keep learning.
Foundations are not glamorous, but they change lives. In health, I wish I had respected the basics sooner: a steady sleep window, protein and color at meals, movement I would actually do, and simple nervous system practices that fit into ordinary days. When those are steady, higher-level interventions finally have a place to land. In business, the foundations look similar. A repeatable process. One helpful piece of content each week. One conversation that opens a door. Small bricks, stacked consistently.
There is a moment in every journey where you feel stuck. When that happens, change the inputs with intention. If your body is not responding, bring in objective data so you can stop guessing and start refining. If your business feels flat, test one clear change at a time instead of chasing ten tactics at once. Different outcomes require different inputs. The art is choosing them deliberately.
Finally, give yourself permission to be human. The goal is not to perform health or success. The goal is to build something real. Track how you feel, not only what you do. Celebrate the quiet wins. Rest on purpose. Stay curious. The combination of patience and pattern-spotting will take you farther than perfection ever will.
If you are at the beginning, you are not behind. You are at the starting line of something that can matter. Take one step you can repeat tomorrow. Ask one person for help. Momentum grows where attention goes.
I’ll leave you with a line that captures this spirit: “Keep the company of those who seek the truth; run from those who have found it.” (commonly attributed to Václav Havel)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://drkennymittelstadt.com
- Instagram: https://instagram.com/drkennymittelstadt
- Facebook: https://facebook.com/drkennymittelstadt
- LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/drkennymittelstadt
- Youtube: https://youtube.com/@DrKennyMittelstadt
- Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/functional-medicine-and-acupuncture-by-dr-kenny-mittelstadt-selma?osq=dr+kenny+mittelstadt
- Other: https://share.google/oGFOT0gkJKKrHuZdf
