Dr. Amy Knaperek, PharmD, DipACLM
Certified Lifestyle Medicine Professional
Integrative Pharmacy Specialist
Dr. Knaperek is a licensed pharmacist in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia.
After graduating from Creighton University's School of Pharmacy and Health Professions in 2012, she has been working as a community pharmacist in the Southeast United States. Dr. Knaperek is currently the Director of Clinical Services for an independent pharmacy in Rockingham County, NC.
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She began her lifestyle medicine journey as a Diabetes Nutrition Educator and Pharmacy Manager for a large grocery store chain, providing seminars on nutrition for people with Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome.
She is a Board-Certified Lifestyle Medicine Professional and a Diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine as well as an Integrative Pharmacy Specialist. She has certificates in Diabetes Management from ASHP and Medication Therapy Management through Power-PAK.
Her passion for gut health, food as medicine, vitamins, minerals, and nutrition and the connection to overall health and wellness help her discover the underlying causes of disease. She is committed to lifelong learning and evidence-based medicine, and will work to bring the most up-to-date information to you.
Life is a Journey
Hello!
My name is Dr. Amy Knaperek, PharmD, DipACLM, and I am the founder and CEO of PIVOT Integrative Consulting LLC. ​
I cannot believe where my journey has taken me. I have struggled with weight gain, chronic pain, and inflammation for most of my life. My doctors prescribed medications to help with symptoms and reduce my inflammation and then lectured me that I just need to "eat right and exercise more."
Sound familiar?
So, not knowing where else to turn, I followed the Nutrition Guidelines religiously. I ate whole-wheat bread, low-fat dairy, skim milk, and egg white omelets. I switched from red meat to white meat, because that is supposed to be healthier, right?
When my pain wasn't too severe, I walked, did some Yoga, used some weights but the scale kept going higher and higher. My pain worsened, and I was always tired.
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​Over the years, I attempted numerous fad diets and exercise regimens, experiencing a weight rollercoaster, yet climbing one flight of stairs still left me winded. Chronic pain was my companion, and on tough days, I relied on anti-inflammatories and pain medication. Eventually I ended up with even more health issues – non-alcoholic fatty liver, pre-diabetes, and high cholesterol.
It seemed it did not make a difference if I ate "healthy" or not. Does that also sound familiar?
​I enrolled in an Integrative Pharmacy Specialist course, which is when I was finally able to make a connection to nutrition, vitamin and mineral depletions, changes in gut health, and the health issues I was experiencing.
I realized that most of our chronic diseases have an inflammatory process involved which is directly related to the foods that we eat. Foods that we might be sensitive to. Foods that can cause “leaky gut” and lead to inflammation throughout the body. For me, foods like whole wheat breads and pastas, eggs, meat, and dairy led to inflammation. But something was still missing.
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​Conventional medicine is taught to see symptoms of disease and prescribe a remedy to work on the symptoms (like the medications I had been prescribed to treat my pain and inflammation). I wanted to know more about the root causes of disease. Why were these symptoms occurring in the first place? How does that body work on a cellular level? What do vitamins and minerals do for our body?
​That is when I discovered Functional Medicine. Through Functional Medicine, I discovered a change in one of my genes that explained all of my symptoms! I embarked on health and wellness journey to discover how my body functions and how to provide my body the proper support.
​​Functional Medicine didn't fix everything. It felt like I was constantly taking handfuls of supplements and running expensive labs, which told me what I already knew. The foods we eat, the lifestyle choices we make, can have a profound effect on our overall health and wellness.
I decided to keep looking for answers. I found myself circling back to Lifestyle Medicine, an elective I took during pharmacy school. Lifestyle medicine focuses on evidence-based recommendations for nutrition, physical activity, stress management, restorative sleep, social connections, and avoiding risky substances and toxins.
Lifestyle medicine also believes in FOOD as MEDICINE but doesn't believe that we need to perform expensive lab tests for every patient. Some things are just universally true! You are what you eat (and what you can absorb)!
​I finally found what I had been searching for! Evidence-based lifestyle changes that lead to healthier outcomes for me and my clients!
​So, let me help you uncover roots for your chronic diseases and empower you to take control of your health with your own personalized plan using whole-food plant-based nutrition as medicine! You are unique. There are no one-size fits all plans and no miracle cures. There are just small lifestyle pivots that can lead to big rewards!
​Are you ready to PIVOT to whole-food plant-based health and wellness? Start your journey to a healthier, more balanced life with PIVOT Integrative Consulting, LLC.
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Dr. Amy Knaperek, PharmD, DipACLM
Continuing Education
