About Our Practice
We Provide a Professional
and Honest Approach to Health Care
Dr. Lifestyle was founded by Dr. Melissa Mondala and Dr. Micah Yu in 2019. They are husband and wife with a mission to educate, empower, and heal. They began their work through social media, community events, and lifestyle medicine lectures. They created an Instagram account in 2018 which was used to advocate lifestyle medicine to the general public. Over the years, their account has transformed and grown. They realized they didn’t have to wait to have their lifelong dream of establishing a lifestyle medicine private practice in Southern California.
Dr. Mondala practices Direct Primary Care and Dr. Yu practices Direct Rheumatology. They believe that lifestyle medicine should be the foundation for healthcare. Both physicians provide healthcare to their patients with an integrative approach. They believe that pharmaceutical drugs should be used when appropriate but lifestyle medicine should be the first line.
Both Dr. Mondala and Dr. Yu practice integrative medicine as well as functional medicine. They have seen patients reverse their disease and even improve their disease when multiple specialists did not have an answer. Over the years, they understand how important food and lifestyle medicine is. However, they understand that lifestyle medicine is only a piece of the puzzle. For some patients, lifestyle medicine is all they need to get their health back. For others, it requires integrative and functional medicine. They are constantly seeking answers for their patients and are continually going to integrative educational conferences to stay up to date. What sets them apart from others is that when they see their patients, their biggest questions is “Why does this patient have this problem and diagnosis?” “What is the root cause that is driving this problem?”
They are very passionate about their work and have been invited to speak internationally and serve patients throughout the US and world. The greatest gift of having this unique practice is seeing their patients get better and have a smile on their face.
At Dr. Lifestyle, both Dr Mondala and Dr. Yu incorporate a combination of Lifestyle Medicine, Functional Medicine, and Integrative Medicine in their practice.
What is Integrative Medicine?
Integrative medicine looks at patient holistically and looks at the person as a whole. Integrative medicine tries to integrate physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual well being. Because there are so many different aspects to healing, there are different modalities that integrative practitioners use to heal patients that included nutrition, supplements, herbs, energy work, behavioral therapy, and other modalities such as acupuncture
What is Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine looks at root causes as to why a patient has a certain disease instead of suppressing symptoms. Functional medicine uses an evidence based approach and tends to use more testing including genomics, gut microbiome analysis, environmental toxins burden, mold testing, hormone testing, etc. Functional medicine also uses supplements and other modalities to help patients.
What are the differences and similarities between Integrative and Functional Medicine?
Integrative Medicine has been around longer than functional medicine. Integrative medicine has been pioneered by Dr Andrew Weil. Both integrative and functional medicine believe that lifestyle modifications should be the foundation to treatment. Both tend to look at the patient and try to figure out what could be the underlying cause. Functional medicine does more testing but both try to emphasize treatment beyond medications.
Why does Dr. Yu and Dr. Mondala incorporate a combination of integrative and functional medicine?
They have learned through their training and experience that there is no one size fits all for patients. They have understood that conventional medicine is not the ideal approach to patient care and that a combination of different modalities bring the best treatment plan to heal patients. Their approach differs from patient to patient which makes their practice very unique compared to others.
our values
We Are Committed to
Your Health
Access
You always have access to quality medical care, FAST. You won’t wait five weeks for an appointment, and you won’t spend hours in a waiting room.
Commitment to Excellence
We strive for excellence and maintain the highest ethical and professional standards. We value excellence in all we do, and continuously seek to improve our services, knowledge, and care.
Professionalism
We work with expertise, commitment, integrity, and humility. We are leaders in our field and advocacy throughout our community
Well-Being
We cultivate a culture of caring for and about each other, and we advocate for and create systems changes that promote personal fulfillment.
Compassion
You’ll have access to doctors who have time to get know you, your family, and your medical history very well. You’ll get genuine, holistic and compassionate care that is accessible to all.
Respect
We treat each person with the highest level of personal and professional consideration and care as we value each person’s unique perspective.
Meet Our Team
Dr Micah Yu MD
Dr Melissa Mondala
Rhealyn Felipe(Iah)
The lifestyle change that you can trust
All of our bodies and health journeys are different. With lifestyle medicine at the forefront, we take pride in making sure that you reach a level of health and satisfaction that lasts.