As I head to Atlanta, meet your new wellness columnist, Felicia Permenter 

For many of us, August is a transition time, moving from summer activities and prepping for autumn. It’s also a time for big personal transitions, since I’ll be relocating down to Atlanta at the end of the month.

Although I’m entering a new era for myself and my family, I’m sad to be leaving my Minnesota community, including all of you readers. I’ve truly enjoyed sharing my thoughts, guidance and information, and I hope you’ve appreciated it as well.

The good news is that I’m leaving you in fantastic hands! My friend and colleague Felicia Permenter is a local family nurse practitioner specializing in functional medicine, who currently practices out of her Roseville clinic. I thought it might be fun to get to know her better and get excited about what’s to come.

Planting roots in the Twin Cities

Dr. Ayanna Quamina: Tell us a little about yourself. Are you a Minnesota native?

Felicia Permenter: My family and I moved to the Twin Cities the week of Thanksgiving in 2020. My husband, mom and three children celebrated Thanksgiving that year in our new home. We ate our dinner on boxes with a lovely table setting of mismatched dishes, a Disney princess bedsheet as our tablecloth and the most delicious spaghetti dinner, our first home-cooked meal since making the cross-country drive from Arizona. What was initially intended to be a short-term three-year stay quickly turned into six years, a new business and roots firmly planted in Minnesota. I grew up in the Washington, D.C., area, and while the DMV will always be home, I am proud to be settling down here in the Twin Cities, at least for now!

From conventional nursing to functional medicine

Dr. Quamina: You’re a family nurse practitioner working in functional medicine. What brought you to that area?

Permenter: I began my nursing career in a small rural South Carolina town. In my first position, I was one of three Black nurses on my unit, where we cared for people with unmanaged chronic health conditions. During my time in that South Carolina hospital, I remember feeling both a responsibility and honor to care for people who looked like me, people who were often caught at the tail end of a health system they could not trust for their own health or well-being. I’d see the same patients week after week, admitted repeatedly for the same conditions.

I realized they had no faith in their care team, and once discharged, they stopped their treatment plan and would be back in the hospital within a few weeks. I started thinking there had to be a better way to help these people, and I knew it had to start with me because I was the face they trusted.

I began to learn about lifestyle and functional medicine, which helps us identify the root cause of illness and use a more holistic approach to treatment. I’d meet my patients where they were, making meaningful connections, listening to their stories and learning about who they were outside their illness. Slowly, my patients started to do better, and their hospital admissions grew further and further apart.

My conventional training taught me to name diseases and manage them, and I’m grateful for that foundation. When I transitioned to advanced practice as a nurse practitioner, I knew I wanted to provide care beyond disease management. My sense of duty to my patients never wavered, and I knew that functional medicine would provide a solid framework for true holistic care.

Specializing in women’s integrative care

Dr. Quamina: Do you specialize in a particular area or patient population?

Permenter: I am trained and certified to care for people across the lifespan, and while I enjoy the occasional visit with a growing toddler, most of my days are spent helping women who fall into the “my labs are normal but I don’t feel well” basket. I am passionate about practicing integrated women’s care. Whether you’re running a company or a household, the fatigue is not “just stress,” and the symptoms are real, not imagined. Much of my work orbits around hormonal health, thyroid optimization, and metabolic and gut-health pieces that are all usually interconnected.

The power of listening in healthcare

Dr. Quamina: What’s your favorite part of practicing functional medicine?

Permenter: Honestly, it’s the time I get to spend with each of my patients. When you slow down enough to connect the dots across someone’s whole story, you start seeing patterns that a seven-minute visit could never uncover. My favorite part of my work is when a patient tells me they finally feel like themselves again after years of being told nothing was wrong.

Three essential pieces of wellness advice

Dr. Quamina: If you could share three pieces of advice with readers, what would you say?

Permenter: First, “normal” labs and “optimal” labs aren’t the same thing. If you feel unwell and you keep being told everything looks fine, trust your body and keep asking questions. There’s usually more to the story.

Second, the foundations still win. No supplement, hormone or protocol outperforms consistent sleep, real food, movement and stress recovery.

Third, be your own advocate. Find a provider who treats you as a partner. You know your body better than any test does. The best medicine happens when your lived experience and your clinician’s expertise are working the same problem together.

Addressing the in-between space in health

Dr. Quamina: Is there a question you wish interviewers would ask?

Permenter: I like to ask my patients what everyday health looks like, that space when you’re not sick but not quite thriving either. So much of medicine is built to catch problems once they’ve become serious, but most of us spend years in that in-between space: tired, run-down, not feeling like ourselves, without a clear diagnosis to point to. I want readers to know that feeling “off” is real information worth paying attention to, not something to push through, apologize for or ignore. Everyone deserves to thrive, and you don’t need a crisis to deserve good care. Small, consistent changes to how you sleep, eat, move and manage stress make a bigger difference than most people expect, and it’s never too early or too late to start feeling better!

Learn more about Dr. Ayanna Quamina and her practice at www.drayannaq.com. Email her directly at info@drayannaq.com.