Melissa
McLane

I grew up watching my two grandmothers take completely different paths through aging. My father's mother, Grandma Sylvia, was Polish and absolutely determined. She refused conventional medicine her entire life, walked everywhere every single day, and outlived everyone's expectations. She made her own choices about her body and stood by them.

My mother's mother, Grandma Rose, took the other path. By the time I was a teenager, she was on ten, maybe twelve medications. Every visit to the doctor ended with a new prescription, and the whole family just accepted it. That was what getting older meant. That was what you signed up for.

I went into healthcare with both of those women living inside me. That contrast never left me, and it is why I founded Life Wellness Lab in 2015. I wanted to practice the kind of care that actually asks why, that looks underneath the symptoms instead of managing them, and that treats the person in front of me, not the diagnosis.

That belief was tested in the most personal way when someone I love became ill, and the conventional system missed what was happening. I found it in their labs. It reminded me exactly why this work matters, and why I will not miss something that could change a person's life.

Here is what makes this different. I run 90 biomarkers on every client and read them in functional ranges, interpreting the full blood chemistry behind your numbers, not the conventional ranges that tell you everything is fine while your body is struggling and you do not feel well. I connect your numbers to your symptoms, your hormones, your gut, your energy, and your real life. Then I build a plan that is yours alone. Not one size fits all. Not guesswork.

I use advanced whole-genome gut testing that goes far beyond a standard stool test. I do not just see what bacteria are there and what is missing. I see what they are actually doing to your health, how they drive your inflammation, your hormones, your weight, and your energy. This is why so much comes back to your gut. For people on a GLP-1 peptide who are not losing weight and cannot figure out why, the answer is almost always in the gut. If the right bacteria are not there, the medication cannot do its job. The same is true with autoimmunity, with weight that will not move, with fatigue and brain fog no one has explained. The gut is where so much of it begins, and when we correct it at the root, the whole picture changes.

And here is something most people are never told. More is not always better, even with the things you believe are healthy. I have had clients eating all the protein they were told to eat, doing everything right, and feeling worse, because their gut could not break it down. We fix the gut first, and then the body can finally use what you give it.

My clinical focus is metabolic health, gut health, hormone optimization, blood sugar regulation, longevity, and autophagy, the body's own cellular repair, all through root cause care. I work alongside Dr. Joshua David, ND, at Rise 2 Health, where we combine functional nutrition with hormone optimization, peptide therapy, and regenerative medicine to address the full picture.

My credentials include Board Certification as a Functional Nutritional Practitioner (BCFNP), Certified Functional Nutrition Counselor (CFNC), Health and Wellness Coaching certification from HCI, L-Nutra training in the Fasting Mimicking Diet, private study in biochemistry, coursework in Dietetics from San Francisco State University, and coursework in Psychology from Antioch University. I am a 2026 recipient of the Trailblazer Award from Microbiome Labs for my work in the gut microbiome.

Life Wellness Lab is based in California and Oregon, and serves clients across the country. I work with most people virtually, and I see clients in person as well. When you come here, you are not getting a quick lab review and a generic protocol. You are stepping into a team of people who genuinely care about what happens to you.

Your care here is not a transaction. It is a relationship, built on knowing who you are talking to and trusting that we are truly invested in what happens next for you.

If you have questions before you are ready to book, reach us at [email protected]. And when you are ready to see what your labs are actually telling you, so am I.