About Our Fatigue Specialists
Wilmington Functional Medicine was built around a frustrating truth: too many people live with undiagnosed or undertreated fatigue because standard medicine is not asking the right questions. Our practitioners combine your story, your history, and targeted lab testing to find what a routine workup misses.
Dr. Mathew Bradshaw, DC, AFMCP
Dr. Mathew Bradshaw is a Kansas City–born, Colorado-schooled chiropractor and functional medicine practitioner who blends natural healing principles with advanced training through the Institute for Functional Medicine (AFMCP). His path into this work is personal: he overcame his own debilitating panic attacks and gut issues using a clean diet, targeted supplements, and lifestyle changes — after being told, like so many of his patients, that nothing was really wrong.
That experience shapes how he practices. He loves helping patients who feel stuck in the traditional medical system finally get answers and lasting relief. If you have been handed a normal lab printout and an antidepressant when you know something is off, he has been where you are — and he knows the way out.
Hilary Rutledge, DC, DABCI
Hilary Rutledge is a Sierra Nevada Foothills native, longtime Wilmington resident, and chiropractor-turned-functional-medicine doctor who has spent more than two decades helping patients get healthy naturally. She holds the DABCI credential (Diplomate of the American Board of Chiropractic Internists) and returned to school for four additional years of advanced functional medicine training on top of her chiropractic education.
Her focus is partnership: in-depth testing, personalized care plans, and plenty of real-life empathy. As a mom, horse lover, and yoga enthusiast, she understands what it is like to keep a full life running on empty — and she specializes in helping patients who feel unheard in the traditional system get a real explanation for their fatigue.
Ready for Real Answers About Your Fatigue?
Book a free 15-minute discovery call. No cost, no obligation — just a straight conversation about your symptoms and whether root-cause testing is right for you. Available in Wilmington, NC or remotely across North Carolina.
Our Approach
Many patients come to us after months or years of feeling exhausted without clear answers. They have had standard bloodwork, been told everything looks normal, and still feel terrible. Our approach is designed to go deeper — a structured root-cause evaluation that looks at thyroid function, iron status, stress hormones, gut health, infectious contributors, and other imbalances a routine visit may miss.
Fatigue is rarely explained by one thing. One patient may have low iron and subclinical thyroid dysfunction. Another may be dealing with a lingering viral burden from Epstein-Barr virus or a cortisol pattern disrupted by chronic stress. A third may have H. pylori affecting gut function and nutrient absorption. That is why we do not use a one-size-fits-all fatigue protocol — we evaluate each person individually.
That evaluation may draw on blood testing, the Organic Acids Test, an adrenal stress profile (HU-Map), stool testing for H. pylori, spirometry, and EKG — depending on your specific presentation. Not every test is for every patient. We use the right tests for the right clinical picture.
A TSH screening number alone does not tell you whether your body is converting thyroid hormone properly, whether Epstein-Barr virus is triggering autoimmune activity, or whether your stress-hormone system is so depleted that no amount of thyroid medication will make you feel better. We look at all of it, because treating one system in isolation rarely works.
Ready for real answers? Start with a free 15-minute discovery call — no cost, no obligation. We will listen to your story and tell you honestly whether our approach fits your situation.