Functional Nutrition Alliance Founder

Meet Andrea Nakayama.

Andrea is a Functional Medicine Nutritionist, Educator and Speaker pioneering the movement to transform healthcare into a system that WORKS.

"Functional Nutrition is the future of healthcare, not because it’s new or fancy, but because it brings us back to the foundation of what healthcare should be about — the needs of the patient."

– Andrea Nakayama, Functional Medicine Nutritionist and Founder of the Functional Nutrition Alliance

Hello, I’m Andrea Nakayama.

I’m a Functional Medicine Nutritionist, Educator and Speaker pioneering the movement to transform healthcare into a system that WORKS. I know that a functional nutrition approach is the answer to our healthcare crisis, both for individuals and for society at large.

Functional Nutrition serves the needs of the individual. It recognizes each person’s unique capabilities for making the diet and lifestyle modifications that foster the physiological and psychological shifts that enable their body to cultivate its ultimate healing potential. Functional Nutrition does not exist in isolation of other health or medical support, but in tandem with it. That’s because Functional Nutrition recognizes the role of the patient in their own health care. The Functional Nutrition Counselor is the guide to help determine the best and most fitting modes of patient centered self-care.

I created Functional Nutrition Lab to teach practitioners from every scope of practice the Functional tools, systems, and mindset shifts that have been instrumental in my own successes as a clinician.

How Functional Nutrition Became my Life’s Purpose

Become a Functional Nutrition Counselor

"I love the word “functional.” It means useful and whole. It’s medicine as it should be."

– Andrea Nakayama, Functional Medicine Nutritionist and Founder of the Functional Nutrition Alliance

Like many of you, my road to understanding the powers of diet and lifestyle modification began with a personal tragedy.

My young husband, Isamu, was diagnosed with a fatal brain tumor when I was just 7 weeks pregnant with our only child.

Isamu was given only 6 months to live. Unwilling to simply watch him die, I began diligently researching nutrition. In the face of such a grave diagnosis, this was the only place my ailing husband and I had complete control. We began using “food as medicine” to accompany all the medical intervention he endured, and Isamu lived nearly two and a half years after his diagnosis, long enough to share the beginnings of our son’s life.

Some time after my husband’s death, I experienced what Matthew Sanford, a paraplegic yogi, describes as “Post Traumatic Growth”. I knew I had a choice — to let this tragedy define my life in a purely negative way, or to find the opportunities hidden within. I became determined to understand the mechanisms that lead to chronic disease, to understand how and why the body reacts as it does, and to discern the aptitude that we have to unlock our healing potential using the keys that nutrition can provide.

What I have learned is that when we as clinicians truly take a Functional approach — asking questions instead of prescribing protocols, fostering partnerships instead of placing ourselves or the physicians above our patients, and looking to physiology to lead us to each client’s unique root causes instead of rushing for the generic quick fixes — people can find levels of vitality they never thought possible. These results foster my passion, and my drive to always learn more about the healing potential of the human body.

Learn more about the Functional approach

"You aren’t just what you eat. You are what your body can do with what you eat."

– Andrea Nakayama, Functional Medicine Nutritionist and Founder of the Functional Nutrition Alliance

What is the Function Nutrition Alliance?

The Functional Nutrition Alliance (FxNA) is the culmination of years in both clinical practice and as a creator and educator of cutting edge Functional Nutrition Training Programs.

Premier Functional Nutrition Training

The practitioner training division of the Functional Nutrition Alliance was born out of the success I had in my private practice and my desire to serve more people than I could help alone. To truly revolutionize the way we do healthcare, we need an army of practitioners who know how to practice both the science and the art of Functional Nutrition.

Learn More

The Functional Nutrition Clinic

Through my nutrition counseling practice, the Functional Nutrition Alliance Clinic, patients can take classes to empower themselves with nutritional insights or connect with a Functional Nutritionist trained by me for dedicated one-on-one support. We also test every system, tool and tracker in the clinic, before it gets shared with Full Body Systems students.

Learn more

The 15-Minute Matrix Podcast

I am also the producer of the award-winning podcast, the 15-Minute Matrix. The 15-Minute Matrix offers quick, practical lessons on the clinical relevance of the Functional Nutrition matrix, the most important tool in Functional Medicine and Functional Nutrition, and a tool that is the foundation to my success in practice.

Listen now

Student Love for Andrea’s Teaching Style

"Andrea isn’t just teaching physiology or pathology. It’s how to go in and solve the puzzle…. She changed everything about how I look at how I can help people. She’s amazing. Brilliant."

MELANIE CONNELY

"What Andrea teaches is what’s missing from healthcare."

SHERI PETERSON

"Andrea’s creative teaching style is like none that I’ve experienced before! Andrea clearly knows her nutrition and is able to communicate it with both passion and ease."

RACHEL MADORE

"Andrea is by far The BEST Teacher I have ever had. She is uniquely qualified. Her passion and love for functional nutrition is so palpable. Her teaching style is captivating- I can even hear her in my dreams."

YAMARIS CRUZ

"Andrea’s teaching style is engaging and informative, backed by research and many years of clinical experience."

JULIE LAVERGNE

Although my work and mission very much define my life, I do have a few other loves. When I’m not focused on revolutionizing healthcare, you can find me hiking in the woods, on a mountain or through my neighborhood, in the kitchen experimenting with flavor, reading novels on the beach, cozying up to my Siamese kitty, listening to podcasts (or producing my own), and spending time with my now grown son, Gilbert.

More about Andrea

What is Andrea’s education?

What are Andrea’s awards/ accolades?

What functional medicine colleagues have to say about Andrea

“Andrea Nakayama has grabbed the proverbial ‘bull by the horns’ in her work in Functional Nutrition. She has created a teachable system that takes the principles and mechanisms of Functional Medicine and Nutrition and converts them into day-to-day practical interventions.
Andrea has worked tirelessly, creating deliverable and effective interventions for patients. Because of this, thousands of front line practitioners are helping hundreds of thousands of people improve their lives and their families’ lives.

I highly recommend Andrea’s training and mentorship – it could be one of the best decisions you make.”

– Michael Ash DO, ND, BSc, RNT
Nutrilink

“Andrea Nakayama is one of the thought leaders in our field of functional medicine and it’s no surprise that her training program generates excellent quality nutrition counselors that are well prepared to handle working effectively with doctors in the field treating complex patients. Nutrition counseling requires a delicate balance of emotional support as well as understanding the underpinnings of functional medicine to deliver patient-centered results. Andrea’s program creates the nutrition counselors that doctors need to grow and build their practices on a bedrock of solid clinical results.”

– Dan Kalish, DC
Functional Medicine Expert, Founder of the Kalish Institute

“Coaches and practitioners coming out of Andrea Nakayama’s program have such a strong grounding in nutrition and clinical skills, as well as deep relational skills. Andrea gives her students the capacity to think and solve problems. They can work with complex cases in ways most coaches cannot. They are real clinicians.Andrea gives her students more depth and breadth in both clinical skills and relationship and counseling skills. Even my training didn’t teach me how to talk to patients.”

– Nalini Chilkov, L.Ac., OMD
Integrative Oncology Expert

“It is rare to find someone so knowledgeable, so thorough, so dedicated, and so effective in helping us understand, as she would say, ‘what’s going on in there.’ Andrea Nakayama is that person. Her gift is to be able to practically teach clients and health coaches alike how to decipher, like Sherlock Holmes, a nutritional riddle that is unique to you. If I myself had a nutritional challenge, I would call Andrea.”

– Venu R. Julapalli, M.D., Gastroenterologist
Co-Founder of Conscious Medicine

How to connect with Andrea

Sign up for a free training series to help you begin practicing functionally today!

In this free training with Andrea Nakayama, you will learn her groundbreaking approach to root cause resolution for chronic conditions. It’s full of practical tips and insights into the nature of health, disease, and your unique role in the healthcare revolution.