Dr. Amy Knaperek, PharmD, DipACLM
Certified Lifestyle Medicine Professional
Integrative Pharmacy Specialist

Dr. Amy Knaperek, PharmD
I am a licensed pharmacist in North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. After graduating from Creighton University's School of Pharmacy and Health Professions in 2012, I have been working as a community pharmacist in the Southeast United States. I am currently the Director of Clinical Services for an independent pharmacy in Rockingham County, NC.
I began my lifestyle medicine journey as a Diabetes Nutrition Educator and Pharmacy Manager for a large grocery store chain, I provided seminars on nutrition for people with Diabetes and Metabolic Syndrome.
I am a Board-Certified Lifestyle Medicine Professional and a Diplomate of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine as well as an Integrative Pharmacy Specialist. I have certificates in Diabetes Management from ASHP and Medication Therapy Management through Power-PAK.
I have a passion for gut health, food as medicine, vitamins, minerals, and nutrition and the connection to overall health and wellness! I am committed to lifelong learning and evidence-based medicine, and I will work to bring the most up-to-date information to you.
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Life is a Journey
Hello! My name is Dr. Amy Knaperek, PharmD, DipACLM, and I am the founder and CEO of PIVOT Integrative Consulting LLC. I received my Doctor of Pharmacy degree from Creighton University in 2012. As a Certified Lifestyle Medicine Professional and an Integrative Pharmacy Specialist, I am here to help you uncover root causes for your chronic diseases and guide you to use the power of food to take control of your health and wellness.
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I cannot believe where my journey has taken me. I have struggled with weight gain, chronic pain, and inflammation for most of my life. When I was 19 years old, I was given a tentative diagnosis of rheumatoid arthritis. The labs were inconclusive, but I had inflammation in all my joints, and the rheumatologist could not tell me what was causing it. My doctors prescribed medications to help with symptoms and reduce my inflammation, and then lectured me that I just need to "eat right and exercise more."
Sound familiar?
So, not knowing where else to turn, I followed the Nutrition Guidelines religiously. I ate whole-wheat bread, low-fat dairy, skim milk, and egg white omelets. I switched from red meat to white meat, because that is supposed to be healthier, right?
But I was still fat, tired, and in chronic pain. What was I doing wrong? I was eating salads with low-fat dressing, drinking skim milk, cutting out sweets, and eating whole wheat breads and pasta. Isn’t that what I was supposed to do?
When my pain wasn't too severe, I walked, did some Yoga, used some weights but the scale kept going higher and higher. My pain worsened, and I was always tired.
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Over the years, I attempted numerous fad diets and exercise regimens, experiencing a weight rollercoaster, yet climbing one flight of stairs still left me winded. Chronic pain was my companion, and on tough days, I relied on anti-inflammatories and pain medication. I gave up on myself so many times, wallowing in a pint of ice cream.
It seemed it did not make a difference if I ate "healthy" or not. Does that also sound familiar?
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In 2018, I researched and started one more fad - the ketogenic diet. But this time was different. I never felt better! I had so much more energy. My exercise-induced asthma was gone! My joints felt great! I was able to exercise without feeling winded and achy. How could the food I was eating have such a huge impact on my overall health? How could my pain and inflammation just disappear almost overnight? I had to know more.
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I enrolled in an Integrative Pharmacy Specialist course. That is when I was finally able to make a connection to vitamin and mineral depletions, changes in gut health, and the fatigue and chronic pain I was experiencing. I realized that many of our chronic diseases have an inflammatory process involved that is directly related to the foods that we eat. Foods that we might be sensitive to. Foods that can cause “leaky gut” and lead to inflammation throughout the body. For me, foods like whole wheat breads and pastas, low-fat salad dressings, eggs, and skim milk led to inflammation. But, something was still missing.
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Conventional medicine is taught to see symptoms of disease and prescribe a remedy to work on the symptoms (like the medications I had been prescribed to treat my pain and inflammation). I wanted to know more about the root causes of disease. Why were these symptoms occurring in the first place? How does that body work on a cellular level? What do vitamins and minerals do for our body?
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That is when I discovered Functional Medicine. Through Functional Medicine, I discovered a change in one of my genes that explained all of my symptoms! I embarked on health and wellness journey to discover how my body functions and how to provide my body the proper support.
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Functional Medicine and the Keto lifestyle didn't fix everything. Keto felt very restrictive and cut out many nutritious fruits, vegetables, and legumes. As I did more research, the more evidence I found from clinical trials about the ketogenic lifestyle, the more concerned I was. The "keto diet" starts to deplete lean muscle mass and I didn't like eliminating so many healthy fruits and vegetables, legumes, or whole grains from my diet.
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Functional Medicine felt like I was constantly taking handfuls of supplements and running expensive labs, which told me what I already knew. The foods we eat, the lifestyle choices we make, can have a profound effect on our overall health and wellness. Many functional medicine practitioners also started delving into "alternative medicine" practices which have very little evidence to support their effectiveness. I prefer evidence-based practice.
I decided to keep looking for answers. I found myself circling back to Lifestyle Medicine, an elective I took during pharmacy school. Lifestyle medicine focuses on evidence-based recommendations for nutrition, physical activity, stress management, restorative sleep, social connections, and avoiding risky substances and toxins. Lifestyle medicine also believes in FOOD as MEDICINE but doesn't believe that we need to perform expensive lab tests for every patient. Some things are just universally true! You are what you eat (and what you can absorb)!
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I finally found what I had been searching for! Evidence-based lifestyle changes that lead to healthier outcomes for me and my clients!
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So, let me help you uncover roots for your chronic diseases and empower you to take control of your health with your own personalized plan using whole-food plant-based nutrition as medicine! You are unique. There are no one-size fits all plans and no miracle cures. There are just small lifestyle pivots that can lead to big rewards!
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Are you ready to PIVOT to whole-food plant-based health and wellness? Start your journey to a healthier, more balanced life with PIVOT Integrative Consulting, LLC.
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Dr. Amy Knaperek, PharmD, DipACLM
Continuing Education


