A process, not a personality
You are not an inflamed person as an identity. Inflammation is a set of signals: swelling, heat, immune traffic, and repair. After a sprain it is supposed to show up and then leave. When joints ache most mornings, gums bleed, or recovery from training takes longer every month, the process may be sticking around.
Drs. Sani Kohen, D.C. and Tara Kohen, D.C. ask where you feel it and what else is true: poor sleep, a gut that bloats, a training week that never rests. Functional Medicine does not treat the word itself. It looks for the drivers you can actually name.
Markers your physician may already hold
C-reactive protein, often shortened to CRP, is a blood marker many physicians already order. A single CRP does not explain why the process is active, and FRI does not invent a private cutoff. The number is context, read with your exam and your history.
Advanced bloodwork can widen that look when glucose, lipids, iron, or a blood count would change the plan. Bring the labs you have so nothing is redrawn for sport. Abnormal results still belong with the physician who manages disease, not only with a nutrition note.
Food, sleep, training load, gums, and gut
Short sleep and a training load you cannot repay will keep a repair signal turned up. So can a gum infection you have been postponing, which is a dentist's visit, not a supplement. Food patterns matter, and they are individual. There is no miracle anti-inflammatory stack and no brand protocol.
The gut health page is the place for bloating and stool changes. A gut kit is not the treatment for a sore knee. Nutrition and supplementation follows what you eat and what the labs showed, one change at a time.
Movement without pretending pain is only chemical
A joint can hurt because it is loaded badly, because it is inflamed, or both. Chiropractic Sports Medicine and Neuromuscular Rehabilitation examine the mechanical side. Blaming every ache on inflammation and skipping the exam leaves the actual irritant in place.
Functional medicine at FRI does not replace a primary physician, endocrinologist, gastroenterologist, or mental health clinician. Fever, a hot swollen joint, chest pain, or unexplained weight loss needs medical care. This conversation assumes those emergencies are already being handled.
What to expect when you are seen for Chronic Inflammation
You can begin with a complimentary 20-minute consultation. The office is out of network, provides a superbill, and accepts HSA and FSA funds. Appointments are Monday–Thursday, 9–6.
Bring existing CRP or other bloodwork and a sketch of sleep and training. Expect a talk about load, food, and gums as much as about labs. You will not be sold a stack of anti-inflammatory products.
What neighbors should know before the first visit
You do not need a referral. Bring prior records if they exist. Red-flag spine symptoms, including new bowel or bladder changes, saddle numbness, or a leg that is rapidly getting weaker, belong in emergency care. We will help you sort ordinary back pain. We will not keep you in the suite if the story is an emergency.
FRI is out of network. Mission Viejo patients use HSA and FSA cards and superbills like everyone else. Drs. Sani and Tara Kohen are both chiropractors. Their training, including Dr. Sani's sports and functional medicine background and Dr. Tara's rehabilitation and imaging background, is on the about page.
Lake loops, youth sports, and the Oso corridor
Mission Viejo's body load is local. The Lake Mission Viejo path is flat and popular, which makes it a useful test: pain that shows up on that loop is not a hill problem. Marguerite Parkway and Olympiad Road are where a lot of the driving and the school traffic actually happen. Saddleback College and the commercial strips along Crown Valley add standing and sitting in the same afternoon. Florence Joyner Olympiad and the sports parks mean a city full of youth sports parents who also sit for work. We ask which of those you did this week.
Because you live here, follow-up is easy to schedule and easy to waste. A plan that depends on you coming in forever is a weak plan. We would rather teach you the movement or the drill that belongs to your actual week, whether that is a lake walk, a desk on La Paz, or a weekend tournament at one of the parks. Lower back pain and neck pain are the complaints we hear most from this pattern.
Finding the suite if you already live in town
26400 La Alameda is on the La Alameda corridor in Mission Viejo, Suite 100. If you are coming from the lake, it is a short cross-town drive, not a freeway project. Parking is at the building. Hours are Monday through Thursday, 9 to 6. People who work in Irvine or Santa Ana and live here often want the first appointment or the last. Say which commute you are protecting. Call (949) 312-1754.
The complimentary 20-minute consultation is available even if you can see the building from your errands. It is a conversation about fit. It is not a treatment and it is not a membership pitch. If you already know you want an evaluation, book that instead so we have time to test movement rather than only talk about it.
Questions patients ask
Is chronic inflammation a diagnosis?
It is a process, not a personality and not a complete diagnosis. A physician may already be following CRP or other markers for a specific disease. FRI uses that context and asks about sleep, food, training load, gums, and gut symptoms. The visit does not replace the workup for infection, autoimmune disease, or cancer. Those stay with your physicians.
Will you give me an anti-inflammatory supplement stack?
No. There is no miracle stack and no brand protocol. If nutrition or a supplement is discussed, it is one decision tied to your labs and your diet, without a dose copied onto this page. Food changes are things you can keep. A long product list is not the plan, even if every bottle says inflammation on the label.
Can gum disease matter here?
Bleeding gums are a reason to see a dentist, and they belong in the history because an ongoing oral infection is a real inflammatory load. FRI does not treat gum disease. Mentioning it keeps the plan from chasing a food culprit while an obvious source sits in the mouth. Bring any dental notes you have.
Does a high CRP mean I need a gut test?
Not by itself. CRP says a process is active. It does not name the source. A gut test is for gut symptoms, described on the gut health page. Joint mechanics need an exam. FRI will not order a stool kit because a blood marker moved. Your physician interprets the marker in the context of your diagnoses.
Related care for Mission Viejo
Chronic Inflammation is handled at the Mission Viejo clinic, not in a satellite office in Mission Viejo. The related pages below stay on that same visit and add the methods or neighboring problems that usually come up in the history.
- Mission Viejo chiropractor
How people from Mission Viejo reach 26400 La Alameda and what the three pillars cover.
- Chronic Inflammation clinical overview
The non-geographic condition page, if you want the clinic-wide explanation without the drive.
- Functional Medicine
The pillar this problem sits in at Functional Restoration Institute.
- Gut Health in this city
Digestion problems rarely arrive as one tidy symptom. Bloating, stool changes, and food reactions can travel together or take turns. This page.
- Autoimmune Conditions in this city
This page is for you if a physician has already diagnosed an autoimmune disease, or if that physician is still sorting a.
- Metabolic Syndrome in this city
Metabolic syndrome is a cluster your physician recognizes: waist size, blood pressure, glucose, triglycerides, and HDL cholesterol. FRI does not replace that.
- Sleep & Insomnia in this city
Sleep problems have a clock, a chemistry, and often a body part that hurts. Caffeine, a late bedtime, a cortisol curve, thyroid.
- Advanced Bloodwork
Advanced bloodwork goes past a bare metabolic panel when the question needs more context. Lipids in more detail, glucose with insulin, iron.