Terri Peña MD MBA IFMCP is a board-certified Family Medicine physician with over 25 years of clinical experience. Graduating medical school from the University of California, Davis, and residency from the University of California, San Francisco at Fresno, she has continued her professional development with an MBA in medical administration from the University of St. Thomas, Minnesota. She has also completed a master's level health coaching certificate from the University of Minnesota's Center of Spirituality and Healing.  
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Dr. Terri has become one of a handful of physicians in the state of Minnesota who has been certified by the Institute of Functional Medicine, the premier educational and certifying body for functional medicine.

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A Minnesota since 2000, Terri was born, raised, and trained in California. Before moving to the Twin Cities area, where she now lives with her husband and their Australian Cattle dog - Gabby, Terri spent four years in Abilene, Texas, where she served in the Air Force. Dr. Terri, her husband, and Gabby are like the three musketeers and look forward to their annual trip into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness.

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Why I am passionate about treating patients with hypothyroidism:

A "normal" TSH does not mean your thyroid functions optimally in your body's systems. Too often, patients have been dismissed and ignored when they have a "normal" lab check for thyroid issues when conventional medicine limits their evaluation to just a TSH. It takes a deep dive into the thyroid and all the things that could be affecting it, to get to an optimal state where a person is feeling energetic and focused.

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My approach to treating hypothyroidism is:

First, do a deep dive into the current state of function, making sure there to see if there are antibodies (because they make a difference in how to manage hypothyroidism).

Then we optimized all the hormones involved but focused on the free T4 and free T3 since that is what the body uses for metabolism.

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