This interview is with Dr. Tim Scott, D.O., Board Certified Physician & Founder at Rixa Health.

Dr. Tim Scott, D.O., Board Certified Physician & Founder, Rixa Health

Dr. Tim, could you introduce yourself and share your area of expertise in the fields of health, wellness, and metabolic disorders?

I'm a board-certified emergency medicine physician currently completing my functional medicine certification through the Institute of Functional Medicine. After a decade in the ER watching America's health crisis firsthand, I pivoted to focus on what actually works – metabolic health.

For the past two years, I've been practicing weight loss medicine, which quickly evolved into a deeper focus on comprehensive metabolic health. Through Rixa Health, our telemedicine clinic, we deliver functional medicine and metabolic health services that get to the root of what's making people sick – not just slapping band-aids on symptoms.

What inspired you to focus on functional wellness and integrative approaches in your medical career?

Let's be brutally honest: America is sick, and our healthcare system is failing. Ten years in emergency medicine showed me we're spending obscene amounts of money for mediocre results. The current system is backwards – we wait until you're broken, then throw pills at you. There's no true prevention, no maintenance, just an endless cycle of adding one prescription after another while your health steadily declines.

It's exhausting to watch. Functional medicine flips this broken model on its head. We focus on education, prevention, and helping your body heal itself – because your body is designed to be well when it has the right inputs. This isn't alternative medicine. This is real medicine – the way it should have been practiced all along.

In your experience, how has the landscape of weight loss medications, particularly GLP-1s, evolved in recent years, and what potential do you see for their use in treating metabolic disorders?

GLP-1 use has exploded – and that's not inherently bad. These medications are powerful tools when used correctly. The problem? They're landing in the hands of providers with zero experience in metabolic health or obesity medicine, creating room for serious harm.

What most people don't realize is that GLP-1 receptors exist throughout your body – not just in your gut or brain. When prescribed correctly, these medications can reduce overall inflammation and benefit multiple organ systems, creating potential for true metabolic transformation.

But here's the critical part most providers miss: mitigating side effects, preserving muscle mass, and supporting lifestyle change aren't optional add-ons to GLP-1 therapy – they're absolutely essential for long-term success. Without addressing these factors, you're just renting results that will disappear the moment you stop the medication.

Can you share a particularly challenging case involving metabolic disorders that you've encountered, and how did your approach to functional wellness help in addressing it?

Every case is challenging in its own way, because most patients have never encountered a functional medicine provider before. We literally flip everything you're used to in medicine upside down.

My goal isn't finding a pill to mask your symptoms. My goal is finding what's causing them and eliminating it at the source. I'm here to teach you how to transform the food you eat from poison into medicine. I'm here to expose the dangers hiding in your food, water, and personal care products. I'm here to show you how to reduce your toxic load, supplement effectively, and take control of your own health.

This represents a complete paradigm shift for most people. We're conditioned to expect the standard medical encounter: get told to "eat better and exercise," walk out with a prescription, repeat forever. That approach has failed spectacularly, and it has to change.

The most challenging – and rewarding – part is watching people realize they've been lied to about health their entire lives. That moment when it clicks, when they understand they don't have to feel terrible forever, that their symptoms aren't "just aging" or "just genetics" – that's when real healing begins.

Peptide therapy is gaining attention in the medical community. Based on your clinical experience, what are some of the most promising applications of peptides in treating metabolic disorders or promoting overall wellness?

Peptides are fascinating because they're essentially small protein sequences that can have profound effects throughout your body. They can activate or deactivate genes, modify enzyme function, and mimic or regulate other biological structures. What makes peptides particularly valuable is their specificity.

They can target virtually any system in your body – hormones, thyroid, glands, muscles, heart, brain – with remarkable precision. Unlike many pharmaceuticals, peptides work within your body's natural feedback loops, making it difficult to cause harm with most of them. Side effects are typically limited to local reactions at the injection site.

Here's something most people don't realize: semaglutide and tirzepatide – the compounds in Ozempic, Wegovy, and Mounjaro – are peptides! That's why they're so effective compared to traditional weight-loss medications.

Looking forward, I see peptide therapy expanding dramatically in the next 5-10 years, particularly for growth hormone optimization, neurological protection and enhancement, and cardiovascular health. We're just scratching the surface of what's possible.

Many of our readers are interested in the intersection of nutrition and metabolic health. Could you share an instance where you've seen a patient's life dramatically improve through targeted nutritional interventions?

There are too many to count – nutrition is that powerful. We've transformed the lives of people suffering from chronic insomnia, persistent skin conditions, acid reflux that wouldn't respond to medication, and stubborn weight gain that resisted every diet. We've gotten patients off as many as seven different pharmaceuticals through nutrition and lifestyle changes alone. The body wants to heal – it just needs the right environment to do so.

What's most surprising to people is that sometimes the smallest changes create the most dramatic differences. Simply removing inflammatory foods, balancing macronutrients, or addressing specific deficiencies can completely transform someone's health in ways that multiple medications couldn't touch.

This isn't alternative medicine or "woo-woo" stuff – it's basic human physiology. Your body is built from the materials you provide it, and when you give it what it actually needs instead of processed food-like substances, remarkable healing can happen.

With the rising interest in personalized medicine, how do you tailor your approach to functional wellness for individual patients, especially when dealing with complex metabolic issues?

It all starts with a fundamentally different assessment process. In functional medicine, we use two powerful tools with every patient: a matrix and a timeline.

The timeline begins pre-birth and continues to the present day, capturing major life events, illnesses, medication history, environmental exposures – anything that could contribute to your current health status. This gives us crucial context that standard medical intake forms completely miss.

The matrix allows us to examine these antecedents, triggers, and mediators within the framework of overall physiological function and dysfunction. We break the body down into interconnected systems: assimilation, structural integrity, communication, transport, biotransformation and elimination, energy production, and defense/repair.

This comprehensive approach reveals patterns and connections that standard medical specialties, each focused only on their own organ system, completely miss. Your digestive issues, skin problems, and mood changes aren't separate conditions – they're connected symptoms of underlying dysfunction that we can identify and address.

In your practice, how do you balance the use of innovative therapies like peptides with more traditional approaches to treating metabolic disorders and promoting overall health?

It's about meeting each patient where they are and recognizing that lasting change takes time. Radical overnight transformations rarely stick – the key is gradual, sustainable progress.

People need to incrementally learn about nutrition and shift how they shop, cook, and eat. They need to incorporate exercise into their lives on their own terms, in ways that work for their bodies and schedules. Most importantly, they need to adopt a healthier lifestyle until it becomes part of their identity – discussing it with family and friends, embodying these principles daily.

That's how real change happens. Sometimes innovative therapies like peptides can provide momentum that makes these changes easier to implement. Other times, traditional approaches create the foundation that makes advanced treatments more effective. The art is knowing what each individual patient needs at each stage of their journey.

Looking ahead, what emerging trends or research in functional wellness, metabolic health, or nutrition excite you the most, and how might they shape the future of patient care?

I'm incredibly excited about the changes happening at the governmental level. For the first time in my lifetime, we have advocates within the system challenging the status quo. New task forces are examining what's in our water, formula, food, and medications, as well as scrutinizing how the pharmaceutical, healthcare, and insurance industries operate. These are real changes on the horizon after decades of stagnation.

On a more personal level, I'm thrilled about the democratization of health technologies. Cryotherapy, red-light therapy, saunas, grounding, peptides – treatments once available only to elite athletes or the ultra-wealthy are becoming accessible to everyday people. The same goes for personal health data through devices like WHOOP bands and VO2 max sensors.

What's most exciting is the broader movement teaching true health literacy to everyone. People are realizing they control their own destiny, that there are alternatives to endless medications and declining health. The power is shifting back to individuals, and we're here to provide the knowledge they need to take control.

Thanks for sharing your knowledge and expertise. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

Your genes are not your destiny. Your health is in your hands. You have the power—we'll give you the knowledge.