Meet Dr. Darrell Kilcup

Today we’d like to introduce you to Dr. Darrell Kilcup.

Dr. Kilcup, let’s start with your story. We’d love to hear how you got started and how the journey has been so far.
The saying, “God works in mysterious ways,” comes to my mind when I think about my journey. I was a very sickly child. From the time I was born until I was seven I was often sick. My main problem was my respiratory tract. I either had croup, asthma, bronchitis, or all three. I had a cough that would rattle the windows. Nothing helped my condition, and every year I got worse. Out of desperation my dad, against my mother’s wishes, decided to take me to a chiropractor. Someone my dad knew had a son whose asthma was helped by this doctor, so my dad wanted to give it a try. To all of our amazement, I was greatly improved after the first treatment. From that time on, my family and I were sold on chiropractic. This is what I meant by God working in mysterious ways. No one in my family had ever been to a chiropractor before my dad took me. If I had not had my health problems, I would most likely not have become the doctor I am today.

The chiropractor became our “family doctor”. When we got sick we went to the chiropractor first. The doctor would prescribe some kind of non-drug treatment for the problem. If our ailment was something that needed a drug, the chiropractor would send us to a medical doctor. I went from being a really sick kid to being very athletic. The care my family received from our chiropractor was wonderful.

In 1991 I started my practice in the same office I am in today. I have been very blessed over the last 26 years. It is so rewarding to now care for the 3rd generation of my patients. I feel extremely gratified that in today’s healthcare structures, I have had patients remain loyal to me in spite of insurance changes. My relationship with my patients is built on honesty and trust. My whole business plan has been to treat my patients as well as I can, so that they will choose to include me in their health care and recommend me to their family and friends. I think that getting to know all these different families is what I enjoy the most about my work.

In 2013, I decided to get some advanced training in a new field called Functional Medicine. Instead of focusing on and treating symptoms like traditional medicine does, Functional Medicine figures out what’s not working correctly in the body. This has been one of the most exciting learning experiences of my career.

In March 2015, I graduated from Functional Medicine University. I’m now a Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner. Currently I am one of only five doctors in the greater Phoenix area with this certification. I have had the joy of helping people get well who once had some major health issues. PCOS, Type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic fatigue, and all sorts of stomach and intestinal disorders, are just a few examples of conditions that we resolved through a Functional Medicine approach. With Functional Medicine, I don’t treat any of these diseases; instead I treat the FUNCTIONAL physical problems, and as the patient gets healthier, the body is able to heal and get well.

That is pretty much the story of my professional life.

To me, family is huge, literally! My wife and I have been blessed with six daughters and four sons. We love our big family, and do most everything together. Way back when our oldest was a toddler, my wife and I decided we would give homeschooling a try. We figured if it didn’t work out we could go with more traditional schooling options. We had a rocky start, but today we are very thankful we stuck with it. Homeschooling our kids has been one of our greatest blessings. Today our oldest has his Masters in history and teaches Ancient and Medieval History. My next two oldest, Taylor and Bethany work in my office. While we have made many mistakes, we know that our choice is one we would make all over again.

With a huge family, I am often asked if we are Mormons or Catholics. I don’t blame people for wondering. For the record, we are neither. We do admire people of these faiths who have large families. We have a large family simply because we could never think of a good enough reason not to have another wonderful blessing from God!

If you couldn’t tell already, I am a man who believes in God. I really hate labels because these words so often mean different things to different people. I read the Bible every day. I do my best to follow what it says. I don’t cram my beliefs down other people’s throats, but I do hope the people I interact with are blessed because of my beliefs. In 2004, following Jesus, for us, meant leaving behind “going to church” as we had known it, and beginning to learn what it means to be the church. This new direction for us is one that we are enjoying, though we still have a lot to learn.

If I am not at home or work, I will most likely be in the woods somewhere and loving it. I have a passion for the outdoors. I love camping, backpacking, all kinds of hunting, fishing, mountain biking, and anything else that will get me in the pine trees!

Has it been a smooth road?
If you asked my kids for some of my common sayings one of the first ones they would say is “Life’s not fair”. It’s something I make sure my kids understand, because no matter what anyone does in this life, one thing everyone can count on is that life is hard, unfair and full of challenges.

Being a functional medicine chiropractic practice means we’ve had lots of obstacles and challenges. Unfortunately, the medical world and insurance don’t treat chiropractors very fairly.

Despite the fact that there is now more evidence than ever before for the effectiveness and safety of chiropractic most medical doctors still do not refer patients to chiropractors, and most insurance coverage for chiropractic care is poor to non-existent.

We have taken this kind of “unfairness” as a challenge to be good enough for our patients to remain loyal to us, even though there may not be any insurance coverage. My whole plan has been to so spoil our patients that they will feel like their money is well spent receiving care from my office.

I’m proud that our patients choose us based solely on the fact that they value our care over everyone else. We aren’t the doc on their insurance plan that they’re stuck with. I love the honest, healthy relationship we have with our patients. There’s no middle man (insurance company) between my patients and me, dictating what care they’re allowed to receive. That gives us the freedom to decide the best plan of treatment to get them well according to their specific needs.

So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the Dr. Darrell Kilcup, Functional Medicine and Chiropractic story. Tell us more about the business.
When you are in pain, or sick, or both, the last thing you need is hassle getting help. You want a doctor to listen intently to you. You want a doctor to be honest, and if you can be best helped somewhere else, refer you to the appropriate professional. You want a doctor to honor you by explaining, to your satisfaction, what your problem is and the best treatment options. You don’t want a cookie cutter approach to care. You want a doctor who is just as concerned about saving you money as you are. You want the doctor to treat you exactly like he or she would want to be treated. How’s that? This is what I strive to do with each and every patient.

We’ve been providing this kind of care for the last 26 years in the same office. Today we see the third generation of many of our patients. We love taking good care of our patients. Besides helping our patients with the problem they are coming in for, we strive to make their day better and put a smile on their face.

For more information on anything here please refer to our website. There is a ton of content there on all of these topics.

Our office provides three kinds of care:

Functional Medicine
Chiropractic
Massage

FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE

Functional medicine doctors are trained to scientifically find the cause of health problems. Functional medicine utilizes an in depth comprehensive history, and the most state of the art, cutting edge, advanced testing, along with a thorough understanding of basic human physiology, to uncover what has gone wrong in the body. Functional medicine is a great fit for the person who wants to get to the root of their problems and does not want to use pharmaceuticals. It is common that our functional medicine patients have been to all the top medical docs looking for help but not getting it. The kinds of conditions we help are:

Chronic Fatigue

Autoimmune Diseases
-Hashimoto’s Disease
-Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA)
-Multiple Sclerosis (MS)
-Lupus
-Crohn’s Disease
-Celiac Disease

Cardiovascular Diseases
-High Cholesterol
-High Blood Pressure

Intestinal Problems
-Irritable Bowel Syndrome (IBS)
-Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
-Acid Reflux
-Leaky Gut
-Food Intolerances
-Ulcerative Colitis

Chronic headaches
Hormone Imbalances
Chronic pain
Fibromyalgia

Neurotransmitter imbalances
-Anxiety
-Depression
-Insomnia
-Brain Fog

The kinds of things we often find that are at the root of many of these conditions are:

Chronic Infections
-Viral (Epstein – Barr virus, Cytomegalovirus)
-Bacterial (Lyme and associated co-infections, Mycoplasma, Bacterial GI infections)
-Fungal (Candida)
-Parasitic

Nutrient deficiencies/insufficiencies
-Vitamin
-Mineral
-Amino Acids

Toxicities or the inability to detoxify
-Mold
-Heavy Metal
-Genetic mutations

Food Sensitivities

CHIROPRACTIC CARE

Chiropractic is a drug free, hands on, approach to problems that come from the human frame not working correctly. The common things we help with chiropractic care are:

Neck and Back pain
Headaches (Tension and Migraine)
Spinal disc problems

The approach to helping these kinds of problems is very basic. Figure out what is not working correctly and get it working. When we are able to do that these problems naturally go away. It’s pretty cool!

MASSAGE THERAPY

My daughter Bethany is our massage therapist. I’m so excited to have Bethany work with me. It has meant I could teach her the things I’ve learned over the years and we could collaborate on helping our patients. Bethany is often a key part of our patients’ care. She targets the muscle/fascial component of our patients’ problems.

How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
Because of the advances in functional medicine and the ever increasing number of people with some sort of chronic health problem, I expect the demand for functional medicine to grow. Many people are becoming dissatisfied with the “take this drug” approach to their health issues. What more and more people are seeking is to find the reason they are sick and pursue a non-drug, healthy way to get well. Functional medicine is the perfect answer for these people, and as more people discover this common sense approach to healing the body, the functional medicine field is sure to flourish.

Contact Info:

• Address: 7016 N 27th Avenue, Phoenix, 85051
• Website: www.darrellkilcupdc.com
• Phone: 6028640304
• Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drkilcup/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/darrellkilcupdc/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/darrellkilcupdc
• Yelp: https://www.yelp.com/biz/dr-darrell-kilcup-functional-medicine-and-chiropractic-phoenix-2

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