Most health care happens one appointment at a time. You book when something’s wrong, get it handled, and move on until the next thing comes up. That works for a sprained ankle. It works less well when you’re thinking about how you want to feel years from now.
At our Staten Island practice, long term wellness is the point, not an afterthought. Dr. Marina Fest, DNP, combines primary care focused on prevention and chronic care management with personalized functional medicine, so the decisions you make today can connect to where you want your health to go.
Building a Long Term Wellness Approach With Dr. Marina Fest, DNP
Long term wellness isn’t a single service. In our practice, it comes from how prevention, chronic care, functional medicine, and specialized services fit together around one patient. The sections below can help you decide whether that kind of approach matches your goals.
What long term means in our practice
Prevention, wellness, and long term healthcare are the focus of our practice. Our primary care centers on preventive healthcare and chronic care management, and it includes comprehensive family and wellness care for patients aged 14 and older.
Functional medicine adds another layer. Instead of stopping at symptom management, it looks for the root cause of a health concern. Put together, the aim is care that looks ahead rather than only reacting.
Is a long term, personalized approach a fit for you?
No checklist decides this for you, but a few situations make this kind of approach worth considering. You’d rather focus on staying well than only treating problems as they come up. You’re managing an ongoing condition and want to look at the bigger picture alongside it. You have concerns in more than one area, such as weight, hormones, or allergies, and you’d like them considered together. Or you simply want your care to stay within one practice.
If one or more of those sounds like you, it’s worth raising with Dr. Fest at your next visit.
Prevention as the starting point
Disease prevention and immunizations are part of our primary care services, along with routine physical exams. For someone focused on the long term, these visits are more than boxes to check. They’re chances to step back, look at your health as a whole, and decide whether anything deserves a closer look through functional medicine.
Living with a chronic condition
Diabetes and chronic disease management are part of our primary care services, as is medicine management. If you’re living with a chronic condition, that ongoing management stays central to your care.
Functional medicine doesn’t replace it. What it can add is a root cause lens on the factors around your condition, such as lifestyle and nutrition. When care outside our practice makes sense, referrals are available.
How specialized services fit into the long term picture
Your health concerns may change over the years, and several of our services are built around individual needs. Our medical weight loss program is designed as long term weight management care, with personalized plans and metabolic evaluations. Testosterone replacement therapy uses personalized testing and treatment plans. Women’s Hormone Therapy is available through telehealth as part of our functional medicine care. Allergy testing comes with customized immunotherapy and patient specific treatment plans.
Having these services within one practice means a new concern doesn’t have to send you looking for a new practice.
Questions worth asking about your long term goals
A good first conversation is about direction, not just today’s symptom. You might ask what Dr. Fest sees as the priorities in your situation, and how functional medicine could fit alongside the care you already receive. It’s also worth asking which of our services, if any, relate to your goals, and how you’ll decide together what comes next.
Setting realistic expectations
Personalized care is individualized, which also means it isn’t a promise of a particular result. Your plan is built around your concerns, and it may include conventional and natural approaches or supplements when Dr. Fest recommends them. What you can count on is an approach that considers your whole health and stays focused on prevention and the long term.
Getting started on Hylan Boulevard
Dr. Marina Fest holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) and graduated from NYU and Pace University, with clinical experience in cardiology, nephrology, dialysis, and rehab. Our office is at 2627 Hylan Blvd D2, Staten Island, NY 10306. We’re open Monday through Wednesday from 9AM to 4PM, Thursday from 11AM to 7PM, and Friday from 9AM to 4PM.
If you’d like to know what a first functional medicine visit involves, our post on what happens during a functional medicine consultation walks through it.
Thinking further ahead
If you’ve been handling your health one problem at a time and want a plan that looks further ahead, we’d like to hear what you’re aiming for. Bring your goals, your questions, and anything you’re already managing, and we’ll start from there.
Book your visit through our Book Now page, call us at (718) 285-4440, or email drmarinafest@gmail.com.
FAQs
What makes your approach focused on the long term?
Our practice focuses on prevention, wellness, and long term healthcare. Primary care covers preventive healthcare and chronic care management, and functional medicine looks for the root cause of health concerns rather than only managing symptoms.
Can weight, hormone, or allergy concerns be part of my long term care?
Yes. Our practice offers a medical weight loss program with personalized plans, metabolic evaluations, and long term weight management care. We also offer testosterone replacement therapy, Women’s Hormone Therapy through telehealth, and allergy testing with customized immunotherapy.
Can functional medicine guarantee long term results?
No. We don’t promise specific outcomes. Plans are individualized and built around your concerns, which is why results vary from person to person.
How do I get started?
Book through our Book Now page, call (718) 285-4440, or email drmarinafest@gmail.com.
