Rob Abbott, MD ’17, returned to Charlottesville in late 2018 to start a collaborative integrative and functional medicine practice with his business partner, functional nutritionist Ryan Hall. The clinic, called Resilient Roots: Functional and Evolutionary Medicine, is located in the Wellness Center at the corner of Preston Ave and Rosehill Drive and acts as their primary location for helping patients address chronic disease through dietary and lifestyle interventions.

Abbott also recently published a collaborative research study titled “Efficacy of the Autoimmune Protocol Diet as Part of a Multi-disciplinary, Supported Lifestyle Intervention for Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis.” As part of the study, he and a team of health coaches and nutritional therapy practitioners guided participants with autoimmune thyroid disease through a gradual nutrient dense elimination diet in addition to coaching and care to improve other lifestyle habits. With 16 participants finishing the 10-week program, Abbott’s team saw dramatic improvements in the participant’s quality of life and symptom burden as well as decreases in inflammation as measured by hs-CRP. Many of the participants were also able to decrease the use/dose of their thyroid medication after the 10-week program.

Abbott is currently engaged in two other independent research projects examining the role of dietary and lifestyle interventions for psoriasis, eczema and depression.