Clinical Nutrition

Ayurveda

I am obsessed with understanding the body and what impacts it. I am always asking WHY It is my mission to help women understand their body better,  how  everyday choices impact their symptoms/health/genetics, and how we can use nutrition, lifestyle, systems biology, nutrients, and herbs to shift the terrain in the body towards longtime resilience and vibrant health.  I believe there is a missing gap in our healthcare system and I am doing what I can to fill it.  I originally went back to school after undergrad and completed Premed requirements but decided I was more interested in a natural approach to health.  I spent almost a decade at that time working in the birth world as a doula, a prenatal/postpartum yoga therapist, and a childbirth educator.   Despite great docs, I noticed that women weren't being educated and empowered about their bodies and root causes were not being investigated.   During this time my husband was in medical school and the medical professionals I was engaging with both socially and at work would often disregard or belittle nutrition, herbs, and lifestyle medicine and I got fed up and fired up.  I was hell bent on going back to school to learn the science of how the body works, what drives health and disease,  what causes symptoms, what impacts our genetic expression, how are our body systems connected, and how can we impact health with food, lifestyle, nutrients, etc.   My frustration motivated my return to school, inspired my life's work, and fuels my passion around educating, supporting, and empowering women to understand their body and take smart steps to resolve symptoms, drive health, and turn on healthy genes.  When not supporting women to feel better I am often out in the wild playing in the mountains, sitting by a crackling fire, or gazing at the stars. I live with my family in Truckee and believe in the power of the wild and the kitchen.Show More

Hi, I’m Dr.

Hi, I’m Dr. Lara May, Advanced Practice Clinical Pharmacist & Health Coach, specializing in functional medicine & energy medicine. I learned how to transform my health, digestion, and body – and I’m here to help you do it, too! Let me tell you a story… Ever since I was young, I have always had trouble with my stomach. I spent most of my years relying on acid reducers, and everything I ate caused my body distress. I often felt bloated, struggled with constipation, and I was at a loss for what to do about it. So, I did what most people do after seeing doctor after doctor and not feeling any better, I read every book, tried every program, and well… nothing worked for me. My stomach would ache afterward, my pants fit tight, and going to the bathroom was a less than pleasant experience with all the cramping, constipation, followed by cyclical diarrhea, etc. Now, I know that the food I was eating wasn’t nourishing my body or benefiting my gut. They were making the problems worse! Until I truly dug in and gained the knowledge, I had no idea how my gut was being impacted by what I was eating every day. Hitting Rock Bottom... My gut problems persisted. They didn’t improve because I kept eating all of the foods that were making the problems worse. I wasn’t paying close attention to how certain foods were making my stomach feel. I was frustrated and thought my body wasn’t working quite right. This was all because I was just feeding my gut problems. Even worse, I felt exhausted, sick, and moody all the time. I never had any energy, my body hurt, and my digestion was a mess. It was when I realized that my poor gut health and all the symptoms I faced every day were keeping me from being the person I dreamed of being! The Journey to Healing I began to look more closely at my life and at my diet, suddenly realizing that the food I was eating was just contributing to the problem. All it took was a bit of research for me to see what I needed to see. The food I was eating was having a negative impact on my gut. Then my poor gut health was having a negative impact on the rest of my health and my life. So, of course, my first step was to change the food I was eating every day. It was tricky to get used to because I had never considered what I was eating. I bought and ate the food that I wanted to. My research led me to realize that my gut health is connected to the rest of my health. So, after hours of research and plenty of time figuring out what worked best for my body, I healed all those gut issues. And as a result of that, I healed a ton of other issues. What a difference this made! In just a few weeks, I saw a change. I was less grumpy, had fewer stomach pains, and felt better as a whole. Since then, I’ve only gotten better. A New Found Purpose & Journey to Integrating Functional & Energy Medicine… My experience changed my life in wonderful ways, and now, I’m on a path to help others! I want to help you reclaim your life by getting your gut in great shape! As a functional medicine specialist, I help people uncover the source of their diseases and imbalances to get to the root of where things start. I focus on empowerment, transformation, & healing through real evidence-based methods combined with energy healing modalities. I give my clients the tools they need to help reduce or in some cases, potentially, even stop their prescription medications (with communication to their doctor, of course). But the biggest benefit my clients speak about is that they fall in love again - with their lives, with what they are doing, and the person or people that mean the most to them. My unique approach and integration of techniques allow my clients to shift energetic patterns, release old beliefs, clear blockages, and create lives of fulfillment, wellness, and joy. My journey to energetic & functional medicine began in 2014 as a patient myself struggling with uncontrolled chronic migraines, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic heartburn, and chronic sinus infections. Frustrated with not getting better and the lack of answers from western medicine, I sought out a new solution. Integrative Nutrition & Functional Medicine combined with energy healing modalities empowering myself to heal myself from all of the above ailments. And today I am dedicated to helping you do the same.Show More

Acupressure

As a youth, I suffered from chronic stomach pain and other maladies. At age 16, I went to a traditional western allopathic doctor. He spoke with me for twenty minutes. I was asked questions such as “What type of recreational drugs have you tried?” and “Where is your pain?” I was not asked ‘Do you exercise?’ ‘How much fruits and vegetables do you eat?’ ‘Do you sleep well?’ ‘What do you do to create happiness in your life?’ The doctor then prescribed me four pharmaceuticals. They were Celebrex for the back pain, Zantac for the stomach pain, Valium, and Zoloft for I can only imagine why. I felt that the pharmaceuticals were not going to heal me but just mask the symptoms. I was offended to be only offered drugs without any help or advice towards health and wellness. I refused them and started to look into alternative health modalities. Six years later, I was referred to an amazing acupuncturist and gifted healer. It was the first time someone understood how sick I was since their diagnostic methods could see past my outer “healthy” appearance. The acupuncturist diagnosed and treated the imbalances that were ruining a lot of my days. The treatments and information changed my life and inspired me to discover how it all works. Now by sharing my knowledge and experience with others, I can help ignite the light inside of them, to find the desire to heal. I can do this by bringing my patients the tools and power needed to create wellness and health in their own lives. This is done by integrating the Eastern and Western medical systems, frequency medicine and patient education, thus creating high-quality true health care.Show More

Clinical Nutrition

I didn’t originally set out to become a nutritionist. I began as a chef — someone who was captivated by the alchemy of a good meal. Like Babette in Babette’s Feast, I’ve always been fascinated by the way ingredients transform, how a meal can communicate love, creativity, and comfort, and how food can shift the energy in a room. After twenty-five years in the culinary world — as a chef, bakery owner, and caterer — I watched people’s struggles with food grow more complex. Allergies, intolerances, chronic inflammation, hormone imbalances, digestive issues… things our grandparents rarely dealt with. When an injury ended my cooking career, I finally had the time and space to ask the questions that had been simmering for years: Why can’t most of us eat the way we used to? Why are so many people dealing with autoimmune-like symptoms? Where is all this discomfort coming from? My search for answers led me to Functional Nutrition. For the first time, I found a framework that explained the why, and — more importantly — offered a way to address each person’s unique physiology, lifestyle, and history. These tools changed my own life: I reversed severe seasonal allergies, uncovered the root cause of debilitating cramps, healed persistent skin rashes, transformed my sleep through perimenopause, corrected pre-diabetes blood sugar levels, and learned how to nourish and move my body for the stage of life I’m in now. I’ve guided clients through hormone imbalance, Candida, gut dysbiosis, IBS, interstitial cystitis, chronic migraines, SIBO, Mast Cell Activation Syndrome, persistent inflammation, and more. My work is deeply practical: real food, real habits, realistic change that actually works. But there’s a quieter layer woven through everything I do — one that many of my clients feel but don’t always have words for. My background in embodiment work, nervous system regulation, and spiritual growth shapes the way I guide women. I hold a grounded, attuned presence that helps people slow down enough to hear their own bodies again. The transformation isn’t just nutritional; it’s energetic. It’s a return to aliveness. I believe pleasure is a core part of healing — that food should feel like nourishment and connection, not punishment. My aim is to help you create a relationship with food and your body that is both supportive and deeply enjoyable. I live in West Marin with my husband and two children. I’m fluent in Spanish and have traveled extensively through Latin America — on foot, in the backs of trucks, on river pangas, in cattle cars, and sometimes hitchhiking. One of my greatest adventures was living (and cooking!) on a sailboat with my family for two years. These experiences shape the way I see health, resilience, and the rhythms of a well-fed life.Show More