The Wellness Prescription

I first met Dr. Ryan Bentley circa 2000. He went to work around that time for an established practice that I had already been calling on for a number of years, and I had the privilege of being introduced to him there. There was nothing particularly striking about him that first meeting. Dr. Bentley was young and almost boyish-looking, making me wonder at first if I could take him seriously. He was very amiable, and we seemed to hit it off right from the start.

In subsequent meetings with Dr. Bentley I was to learn that he had a voracious appetite for learning, like no one I had ever met. I was to discover that this young lad had more going for him than his good looks. He made me earn my paycheck by putting me to the test of giving him every bit of information available to me on human nutrition and functional medicine, and I knew he was going to sharpen me as much he was looking to me to sharpen him.

In those first couple of years each of our meetings was like a download from one computer to another. I felt like I was shoveling dirt into a bottomless pit, and no matter how much I shoveled the hole was never filled. Dr. Bentley just wanted more and more information. But he didn't rely on me alone to provide him with it. He attended every seminar I invited him to, and it was obvious he was studying on his own time as well. It didn't take long for his knowledge of functional medicine to eclipse my own, and he has since gone on to leave me in his wake.

I'm serious when I say that I can count on one hand the doctors I have met since 1993 when I first began my career as a functional medicine consultant that know as much as Dr. Bentley. And even when he had achieved a level of success and expertise that would have made most doctors slow down and rest on their laurels, Dr. Bentley just continues to plow ahead, devouring every piece of knowledge he can get his hands on. I've never seen anything like it.

As Dr. Bentley's knowledge and expertise grew, he began investigating various diagnostic devices to complement his knowledge of physiology and biochemistry, because he understood that everyone is biochemically unique and there is no one-size-fits-all approach in treating disease. That search ultimately led him to the Solaris device by Baltimore Labs.

The Solaris is a revolutionary diagnostic tool and it helped Dr. Bentley propel his practice like never before through greatly improved patient compliance and clinical results. The problem was, however, that Baltimore Labs provided very little training on the device. There was a need to help practitioners understand what they were measuring and why, and how to interpret the findings and how to treat the patient according to those findings. Hence, through literally hundreds of hours of studying on his own time, Dr. Bentley has since mastered the understanding of the biomarkers, and also mastered how they are applied in the clinical setting in such a way as to greatly improve clinical outcomes and maximize the compliance of the patients.

What I appreciate about Dr. Bentley so much is his humility, and an estimation of himself compared to others that is almost naïve. Because he loves learning so much, and because he has exposed himself to mentors such as Dr. Jeffrey Bland and others who are also voracious learners, Dr. Bentley just took it for granted that every doctor is just as motivated to learn as he is and understands biochemistry on the same level that he does. I have to smile at his naivety, because I know firsthand from having worked with hundreds of doctors over the last 16 years that physicians like Dr. Bentley are few and far between. And that's what makes Dr. Bentley a leader and mentor in the field of functional medicine.

That realization that not all doctors are motivated to be self-taught, combined with the fact that Baltimore Labs offered no training on the Solaris, was the beginning of Dr. Bentley's launch of The Wellness Prescription. He reasoned that since there seems to be a demand for the kind of testing the Solaris provides, but there was so little training to help practitioners to understand its use, why not launch a program to provide that training and a whole lot more? His hunch has paid off, as doctors have jumped on board with him even before the launching of The Wellness Prescription website and have already begun duplicating the kind of clinical results that have made Dr. Bentley the kind of sought-after doctor he became.

While Dr. Bentley has a list of credentials too numerous to illuminate upon in this article (see his personal bio at the About Us section for credentials, training and background), it is not his credentials that make him unique. It is his love of knowledge and his compassion for people that drives that love of knowledge, and that is the force behind his calling, and the force behind The Wellness Prescription.

Andrew Robbins is a Functional Medicine consultant who has worked in the field of clinical nutrition since 1993. He is an author, speaker, and a popular blogger on issues pertaining to wellness and nutritional science, and is an advocate for natural medicine.