Meet Dr. Nicole Dinezza

From IBS Patient
To Practitioner
I always felt that I was a healthy person. I was thought of as the teamย โhealth nutโ in college due to my vegetarian diet, and my passion for rowing kept me in good physical shape. However, despite my otherwise good health I started experiencing chronic low back pain my sophomore year of college. Over the course of five years, I tried everything I could think of. Different forms of chiropractic, acupuncture, massage, yoga, and physical therapy didnโt touch my pain. My x-rays were clean- perfect even- and doctors and classmates implied that it wasnโt really that bad or it was all in my head.
Luckily, even early in my schooling, I was always my first patient. As I started learning about functional medicine I tried different detoxes, supplements, and diets. This led me to do my first elimination dietย and eventually a food sensitivity test (Cyrex), which alerted me to several underlying food sensitivities and undiagnosed autoimmunity (โSurprise! It looks like youโre a Celiac!โ). It was then that I learned that the cause of my pain wasnโt my back at all! When I cut out the foods I am sensitive to (namely, gluten) my pain went away completely. It is this experience that initially fueled myย passion for functional medicine.
In graduate school I found myself dealing with a great deal of digestive upset. It seemed like everything I ate caused bloating, diarrhea, or both (so, I had IBS-D but didnโt realize it until years later). I was constantly โtinkeringโ with my diet and was on the hunt for โthe foodโ that was making me sick. I lived off of leaky gut healing supplements and herbs for months at a time and was dismayed when my leaky gut symptoms kept coming back. After graduating, I finally got off of my keister, ponied up some money, and got proper testing done. It was at that time I learned that I had several types of dysbiosis (candida/fungi, bacteria, and a parasite!) and addressing that in addition to the leaky gut led to a full resolution of my symptoms. Looking back, I strongly suspect I had SIBOย but I didnโt know to ask for a breath test at theย time (SIBO wasnโt well known until a few years later). To hear more about my IBS/SIBO story inย a Youtube video vlog, click here.
I fell in love with the field of functional medicine in grad school and havenโt looked back since. What started as an interest to help myself and myย mom (thyroid autoimmunity (Hashimotoโs)) turned into a passion that is still going strong today.
I look forward to meeting you and helping you soon!
Going to Dr. DiNezza changed my life.ย I was skeptical about whether functional medicine could help me, but felt at ease with Dr. DiNezza, who is friendly, outgoing, a little goofy (in the BEST way), and extremely knowledgeable.ย I cannot rave enough about her and her practice!ย
– Gillian M
Areas of Clinical Focus
- All things gutย (digestion, proper function, leaky gut syndrome, mucus)
- The human microbiota/microbiome
- Probiotic supplements
- Fiber and prebiotic foods and supplements
- Motility disorders/dysmotility
- Irritable bowelย syndrome (IBS)
- Small Intestinal Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)
- Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD)
- The immune system
- Inflammation and how it is generated
- Herbal medicine
Degrees and Certifications
- Bachelors of Science, Exercise Scienceย University at Buffalo, 2009
- Doctorate, Chiropractic
ย Southern California University of Health Sciences, 2012 - Nutritional Therapy Practitioner
ย Nutritional Therapy Association, 2015 - Certification (pending completion)
Cogence Functional Immunology, 2019 - Functional Medicine Training
ย Numerous sources, always ongoing
Noteworthy Courses I've Taken or Attended
- Gut Microbiota for Health World Summit (2019)
- Environmental Health Symposium (2018, 2019)
- Stool Analysis Master Class with Jason Hawrelak
- Advanced Probiotic Prescribing with Jason Hawrelak
- The Human Microbiome and Dysbiosis in Clinical Practice with Alex Vasquez
- Cogence Immunology with Sam Yanuck
- GIย Advanced Practice Module with the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM)
- Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice (IFM)
- Functional Endocrinology with Datis Kharrazian
- Mastering the Thyroid with Datis Kharrazian
- Mastering Functional Blood Chemistry with Datis Kharrazian
- Mastering Brain Chemistryย with Datis Kharrazian
- Vanguard Neurology with David Perlmutter

My Interests
When I'm not in the office...
you will likely find me playing with my daughter and husband,ย attending seminars, cooking, crafting,ย writing, or sleeping. When Iย make the time I enjoy yoga, rowing, kayaking, biking and hiking. As a matter of fact, I own a single sculling shell and occasionally take it out on Jordan lake.ย
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