The Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast

E111: Redefining Primary Care with Dr. Melissa Torres

• Kerry Reller

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Welcome to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast! This week, I’m joined by Dr. Melissa Torres, a board-certified primary care physician who has built a family-centered concierge practice focused on root-cause medicine, lifestyle optimization, and obesity management.

In this episode, Dr. Torres shares her journey from working in large healthcare organizations to starting her own practice, where she prioritizes longer patient visits, advanced metabolic testing, and a holistic approach to care. We discuss the challenges of obesity treatment, the role of inflammation in metabolic health, and why focusing on nutrition, movement, and stress management is key to long-term wellness.

Dr. Torres also shares insights into the concierge medicine model, how she helps patients take charge of their health, and why she involves her own family—including her husband and children—in her practice. Whether you’re curious about functional medicine, obesity management, or the future of primary care, this episode is packed with valuable insights. Tune in to learn how Dr. Torres is redefining patient care with a personalized, whole-body approach!

Dr. Melissa Torres, DO is a board-certified Family Medicine and Obesity Medicine physician and the founder of Radiant Health Professionals, a boutique-style primary care clinic in Palm Harbor, FL. With a passion for preventive care and root-cause medicine, Dr. Torres blends traditional and integrative approaches to help patients optimize their health.

After years of working in large healthcare organizations, she established Radiant Health Professionals to provide personalized, comprehensive care in a setting that allows for longer patient visits, advanced metabolic testing, and lifestyle-focused treatments. Her practice prioritizes nutrition, stress management, and sustainable weight management to help patients achieve lasting wellness.

Beyond medicine, Dr. Torres enjoys mentoring other physicians, sharing insights on how to rediscover the joy in medicine. She also runs her clinic as a family business, working alongside her husband, an RN, and inspiring her children to embrace entrepreneurship and healthcare.

Through her concierge-style approach, Dr. Torres is redefining primary care—empowering patients to take charge of their health, prevent chronic disease, and live vibrantly.

0:28 - Welcome Dr. Melissa Torres
1:02 - Dr. Torres' Journey into Medicine
3:47 - Running a Family-Centered Practice
5:11 - Transitioning from Traditional Medicine
8:02 - Functional Medicine and Evidence-Based Testing
11:45 - The Role of Nutrition in Health
13:20 - Challenges in Obesity Medicine
16:26 - Metabolic Health and Inflammation
20:37 - Trends in Obesity Treatment
25:13 - How to Connect with Dr. Torres

Connect with Dr. Melissa Torres
Website: https://www.mdvip.com/doctors/melissatorresdo 
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/drmelissatorresdo/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100091467267286

Connect with Dr. Reller
Podcast website: https://gethealthytbpodcast.buzzsprou... 
My linktree: linktr.ee/kerryrellermd
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/kerryrellermd/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ClearwaterFamilyMedicine
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/clearwaterfamilymedicine/
Tiktok: https://www.tiktok.com/@kerryrellermd
Clearwater Family Medicine and Allergy website: https://sites.google.com/view/clearwa...
Podcast: https://gethealthytbpodcast.buzzsprou...

Subscribe to the Get Healthy Tampa Bay Podcast on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Amazon music, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, & Pandora.

Kerry:

All right. Hi, everybody. Welcome back to the get healthy Tampa Bay podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Kerry Reller. And today we have Dr. Melissa Torres with us today, who's very close to our location. So this is exciting. We're kind of meeting neighbors, but anyway, welcome to the podcast.

Melissa:

Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited.

Kerry:

Yeah. So tell us basically, you know, I like to know everybody's like medical story of how they got into medicine and maybe like what else you've done since then. So like a little bit about who you are and what you do is always what I ask everybody.

Melissa:

Yeah. So I've been in Florida about 10 years. I did my training in San Diego with my husband. We had our first child. Then we came, moved back to Florida. We love Florida. We like kind of the slower pace of life here. I've done primary care since then out of different a few different big organizations. And then in the past couple of years, I kind of broke away and kind of decide to follow my kind of true passion and goal of opening my own kind of primary care clinic, where I focus more on, you know, root cause, focusing more on lifestyle, stress management, you know, a little bit of managing obesity if needed, and kind of kind of being more of a family clinic run by my family. So it's me and my husband. My husband is the RN. Yeah, and then I have three children who I give little jobs and they have little name tags and I am teaching them to kind of, harness their gifts and hopefully, you know, they can own a business or do whatever they want to do in this field. My mother was a medical assistant growing up. And so I was the youngest of many children. So she would bring me to work with her and I, kind of grew up in a family clinic. I stocked all the rooms. I knew what a speculum was when I was like eight. I, you know, I got to the family doctors there kind of would bring me in and be like, Hey, Melissa, come with me. Come with me. Come look at this. And it just kind of like sparked that, like, I have to be this. This is what I want, you know? And so I just always wanted to be like them. And they were, you know, they were all encompassing. They were the patient's psychiatrist and gynecologist and friend. And they would come to the patient's house or go to their school, they would kind of do everything that was needed. And I found that in that relationship, they were able to really impact healing. You know, it's just, they knew you and they, you know, loved you like you were your family. And that really impacted me going forward. And My husband always laughs. He was like, did you have a side idea of what you would do on that or like a plan B? And I'm like, no, this is what I always wanted. I have no other idea. This is it. So I just kept going for it. And you know, I feel so happy that I did. And, and now that I'm on my own in practice, I it's more so aligned with my passion. I feel more that I'm able to do what I always wanted to do and the way I can. And I just want to like imprint that on my children that they can do that too. So,

Kerry:

that's a cool story. Yeah. I really like that. And I like that. It's certainly, you know, the family business and I like how that you brought your kids in there. How, how old are they?

Melissa:

So I have a 10 year old, a seven year old, and then I have a 10 month old, a little bit of a space, but

Kerry:

That is a lot

Melissa:

they all have a, yeah, a little space, but they have all have little jobs and, you know, I just want to teach them, you know, growing up, we didn't really have businesses and in my medical training, no one taught me that part. I didn't know how to own a business, run a business, do all these things. So I'm just trying to give them the skills kind of, you know, to spark their interest in that you can do anything you need to do or want to do. Yeah,

Kerry:

I also have a 10 year old, 7 year old and my other one is a 5-year-old, so No, no tenfold anymore. I couldn't imagine that

Melissa:

that one was a little, yeah.

Kerry:

Yeah. But yeah, I think it's so nice to, you know, be able to teach the kids one, you know, like you said, how to run a business, but two, also, you know, all things, you know, medical and stuff too. I think it's exciting and we'll see where they end up. I don't know, after your journey, like maybe they'll end up in medicine as well. Yeah, but it's interesting also that you have now created this different role in medicine, right? So you were in a bigger organization where they had the more, you know, traditional medicine, fee for service and probably grinding you, making you see lots of patients. So what, what was that transition and journey like? Because now you are in a different model. And why don't you explain a little bit about what you're doing too? Yeah,

Melissa:

The transition is a little, you know, it was a little rocky. You had to do a lot of self kind of discovery. Like, do I, do I just not like that type of medicine? Do I not like medicine at all? Like, what is it going to look like for me? And how can I really align what I what I feel is my purpose with, you know, something But I can be profitable and help people, you know, so it took a little bit of work figuring that out. But the more I was able to kind of detach from that different model, the more I kind of realized I love to be a doctor. Like, I love it. Like I, this is what I want to do. This is it. This is what I love. So I also like to kind of tell other doctors and help mentor them, like finding that joy back in it again, you know, but then when I found this role in this specific type of style, you know, it kind of made me kind of sparked a little interest in me, like. Oh, so this kind of combines both things, like there's a little bit of, a little bit of concierge to it, but there's also a little bit of traditional practice with it that patients I think are used to. So kind of combining both to really, I'm able to do, you know, spend an hour and a half to two hours with each patient. You know, which I would have never been able to do before, you know, dive deeper, order different type of labs, order different types of testing, you know, still evidence based, but able to look a little bit more at like, how is your actual picture of health look like? And how, what little things can we do that we can, like, really get you in that full health because in my training, you know, we were taught like as an osteopath and I did some integrative training that, a person's health has multiple aspects. There's the doctor, obviously, but there's spiritual, cognitive, nutrition, fitness, you know, marital, family, there's all these aspects. For a person to really feel healthy, you have to have kind of all those things somewhat ticked off, right? So that's kind of where I feel like And that's why I love this role now is that I can guide I tell patients like I'm a guide. I know I'm not going to be in your house with you doing these things, but I can tell you how, how we can get there. And I have no certain people that I use for each aspects that I've, you know, in the community that I trust. And, and in doing that, I'm able to kind of guide the patient to get to that optimal health where, where it is optimal to them. I tell patients when was the last time you felt like you. And they're like, Oh, I guess it was this time and I looked this way and I was kind of this weight and I and I did this I'm like, Okay, so that's the that's where we're going, you know, and that's how I feel, you know, I can impact them more. So, yeah, I love it.

Kerry:

I also, I mean, I noticed that you did some functional health training and you mentioned trying to keep things kind of evidence based. And I know that that's a little bit difficult walking those functional guidelines. What sort of tests are you able to do that doesn't cross those paths, I

Melissa:

It's very difficult. It really is. So I try and do, you know, again, I also believe so some functional practitioners do a lot of testing or I don't necessarily follow that path. I don't believe that we need a lot. I believe if you just get to the root cause of like nutrition and lifestyle, it's kind of it. I do a few others like I do Cleveland heart labs. I do like advanced cardiometabolic screening, inflammation markers, I'll do that. So that's kind of one. Sometimes I'll dabble and if patients really want to go a little deeper I'll do some like comprehensive, like maybe I'll look at like their stool microbiome test. But again, I don't like put all my eggs in those baskets. You know, like, okay, this says this, but, you know, it's a, it's a tool. I'm not, like, saying, like, oh my gosh, we need to fix this from this test, right? This is only a snippet of who you are right then. So it's just kind of, like, guiding me and helping me instead of, you know, you I use it just for, you know, Oh, we need to do this right now. That makes sense. And I also know they're cost prohibitive. I'm not going to make tell a patient we need to run this whole test, you know, going down to like the Krebs cycle. I'm like, that's not, that's not necessary. That's not going to really offer me any, any help in what's going on. So I only will do things that I know will help me and what's giving me a better picture. And affect treatment, like if it's not going to help me make a treatment plan, there's no point in doing it. That makes sense.

Kerry:

Yeah.

Melissa:

So I, I know there are a bunch of tests and everything that they'll do, but I really mostly stick to what are we eating? What are you moving like? How are you sleeping? What other stress and toxic stuff is going on that we need to remove, you know? And that's kind of where I use it.

Kerry:

I mean, I think that's very reasonable because we have all these tests and that's great and all, but if you don't have the fundamentals down, like you don't really need all this special stuff typically. But,

Melissa:

Right, right. And vitamin supplements. I'm like, listen, after about five supplements, there's really, your body's not going to handle like 30 vitamins. And I tell them, if you're not eating the right food, it doesn't really matter. You know, that's kind of how I explain it. And I usually be like, oh yeah, you know, vitamin D maybe fish oil, but after that just work on the food. We can fix that. That's much more impactful. And I always tell my patients, I, I, one time I was going to whole foods to get some like healthy food and I saw a patient walking in and he put his cigarette out on the way in, I'm like, wow, I really need to follow this man and see what he's going to get. That's going to take care of that cigarette. He just. And he got some, you know, blueberries and I'm like, I wonder if he knows that that doesn't mean that you can still smoke. So I try to tell patients you can't like nothing's going to correct a horrible habit or diet.

Kerry:

Yeah.

Melissa:

So, and that's that they love that. So I just kind of work on that. And I think it's more reasonable and easier to correct for them.

Kerry:

Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Yeah, I definitely agree. I think it's, you gotta get the fundamentals down and a lot of it is just starting with nutrition. Which I guess brings me to another area of your expertise and passion, which is like mine as well, obesity medicine. So how did you get involved in that?

Melissa:

So I always kind of had this, like I said, like I always would go back to nutrition and health. And when you do that, you kind of naturally are going to lose weight, right? So I just, I always had that in my head. And then I remember a couple years ago, everyone's like, well Why don't you just get trained in obesity? And I'm like, well, I already do that. What do you mean? I didn't know there was actually a certification course. So then I found that I'm like, oh, wow. And so I took a lot of like the, the courses and I did all the education courses. And it was just so fascinating to me. Like it really was. I'm a nerd, but that was just kind of blew my mind learning about like, you know, calories restriction, do they work, do they not, you know, different diets, how like all the neurotransmitters are connected, and it was just kind of, it was very impactful, and then I got, you know, board certified, so I started doing it more often, and then doing it so much you start to see all the other chronic diseases start to kind of like get in line or fall off completely. And, and doing that is hugely impactful to a patient, like, I can tell you, like, patients call me, Dr. Torres, I don't have sleep apnea anymore, oh my goodness, and that's huge to them, or my blood pressure's normal, I get to come off the medicines, or my mental health is better, I feel better, my periods are normal, I got pregnant, Dr. Torres, you know, so it's just so, I just love it, and I feel like most primary care chronic diseases. stem from that, you know, if we can't, if we can fix that, other things start to kind of trickle off.

Kerry:

Mm hmm. So tell me, when you were in your old job, old role, how were you able to have these conversations with patients?

Melissa:

It was difficult because again, I didn't have, there was a time crunch. So I would either, pack as much as I can in that, in those appointments and then also like I would schedule appointments specifically for bringing me your food log, bringing me, you know, checking the weight. So it would almost be like a lifestyle appointment with the chronic disease. You know, I'd always try and stick as much as I could in the appointments. It worked occasionally, but not to the effect that I'm able to do now. Right? Because now you can, you know, I tell patients like insight is where, you know, you don't have insight. You're not going to change. Now I have the tools to be able to show them like, Hey, this is what your weight is. Hey, these are your cardiometabolic markers. Like, and they start to realize, and then that's when I'm able to like, all right, let's do an hour long nutrition or exercise or some kind of appointment to put those things into practice. And sometimes that makes you have to see me every two weeks or every month. But I tell them after a couple of months of doing that, you're going to naturally do it on your own.

Kerry:

Yeah, it's definitely harder in a time model, but one of my favorite things also is, you know, taking them off their other medicines. Like it's, it's one of the most best

Melissa:

It's a huge thing. It's

Kerry:

more blood pressure medicine. Yay. Mm

Melissa:

huge. I, I, you know, after like 20 percent weight loss, they're like, don't you? I was like, I took this off. I'm like, see, I told you. And then that is just the biggest motivation for them ever to just keep going. and usually in the beginning of the first meeting process, I'm like, listen, a lot of these problems stem from this problem here. And I know people don't like to address the weight. Sometimes they feel like it's an emotional part, but if we do, I try and show them when we address that part, you're going to see all the other things come in line. And sometimes it's a little hesitant, but usually they kind of go with me

Kerry:

So why do you think it's important to focus on metabolic health and inflammation when treating obesity?

Melissa:

because in my, because. In my opinion, obesity is inflammatory. It is an inflammatory condition. You

Kerry:

don't think it's an opinion. I think we got the data. Yeah. But yes.

Melissa:

I try to tell them, because people, I feel like most people think like adipose tissue, fat tissue is just unsightly and sits there. I'm like, well, no, I teach them it's doing something. It's causing all these other things. It's, it's responsive to inflammation, hormone, it's doing something. And they don't quite get it until they start to lose, you know, 20 pounds. And they're like, Oh, my period came back. my knees don't hurt. I don't swell. And they start to kind of realize that part of decreasing that the other things come in line.

Kerry:

What are the biggest challenges that patients face when managing obesity and how do you help them overcome them?

Melissa:

Some one of the big ones is they're afraid of going on the scale, they don't want to know, they have a scale fear so sometimes, you know, it depends how severe it is, sometimes I'm like, you know what, just, we'll get on it and I, you won't look, I'll just look, I'll take a, take a picture and I'll look at it. But a lot of times what I do is, is I like to have my patients weigh more often, maybe every other day or daily, so that they, especially for females, they start to realize that you can't gain a pound of fat in a day. It's only like fluctuations in water and hormone inflammation. And so they start to understand and be more aware of, you know, of the body. The scale doesn't necessarily, it's not like judging you, it's not, you know, you can't gain a fat pound in a day or lose it in a day. So they kind of get over that, but I teach them to do that. And I tell them like, Same with me. Like I do that. I don't know if you have a special scale. I do the in body scale on my office. So I kind of show I'm like, listen, this is how you know if this the number on the scale doesn't necessarily show me what's happening in below. And I'm looking at other gains here. And so And I tell them, I'm never mad at you. I'm not going to judge you. And so they kind of get over that part. And then they learn, they learn about fat loss and weight water loss. Another challenge I would say, I would say a huge common one in our society is I don't have time. I don't, I can't meal prep. I don't have time to fit in planning meals or cooking, or I don't know how or where to go. So I kind of, all my patients know like everything I tell them, I do myself and I know how hard it is. So I teach them, I have a few nutritionists I use in the area, but I teach them how to meal prep. I'll tell them like, all right, this, this is what I did this week. You know, every Sunday I know we're supposed to be resting or going out and doing stuff, but in my house, family of five, you got to prepare for that. And if you don't, you're going to start to realize how bad the week will get with how you're going to eat. So it takes time. It takes, and I tell people a habit is built in 21 days. Usually if, if, if you can tell yourself you can do anything for those 21 days, how hard it is after that, you're going to always, you're going to want to do that. You're going to miss that. You're going to be so upset that you did not meal prep that week. And I tell him, like, it does not have to be complicated. My meals are not complicated. I put, like, three veggies on a pan. The other pan, I put chicken or sausage. It's not hugely gourmet here, but I'm just preparing for the week, so I'm not at, you know, grabbing things I shouldn't grab. And some of the, one of the nutritionists I use, actually, will also do go to the grocery store with them. Eventually, I want to learn, I want to be able to do that, too. It'd be like, hey, go, these are how we pick the foods to eat for the week. How do you think of a meal plan for the week? You have to think and map bigger quantities to have for lunch and dinner. and that, that takes time. That's a, that's a time factor, but I also will do a lot of insight and be like, okay, you know, they'll tell me I'm not sure if I have time this week. I'm like, okay, that's, that's fine. How do you feel? I'm like, well, I don't feel the best. I feel kind of like swollen and tired. I'm like, well, It could be that. Like, yeah, you're right. But that takes time. Motivational, like, interviewing and change. That takes a couple months. But they start to realize how important it is. To the fact that, well, they'll realize on Monday, Oh, no, I did not do that. I have to go home and meal prep today. Otherwise, the rest of the week is shot.

Kerry:

Well, it's not a good mindset to be in to say the rest of the week is shot because then they'll

Melissa:

true.

Kerry:

But yeah, I think what you're, what you're saying is very important for

Melissa:

Right.

Kerry:

Are there any trends or innovations in obesity medicine right now that are exciting you?

Melissa:

I am pretty excited that, you know, we're starting to more, you know, the FDA is more linking the medications to the disease patterns and I think that will eventually hopefully help get some of those meds more accessible, which is what my hope is and more easily, hopefully obtained. I am, you know, I like that some of them are, you can get them straight from the manufacturer, so I'm hoping that eventually they're more accepted to take.

Kerry:

Accepted to what? Oh, accepted to take in

Melissa:

Oh, except to be covered. Yeah, to be covered by insurance. Yeah,

Kerry:

Yeah. Well, we'll see, I guess, how coverage goes, but I feel like people more have been de covered than covered for this year than last. So,

Melissa:

Yes, I,

Kerry:

I don't know how it's going to

Melissa:

I know it's kind of a mix up right now, but hopefully we start to kind of get on board with it.

Kerry:

Yeah. So, you also mentioned you do a lot of telehealth in your practice and what do you mostly enjoy about offering that option to patients?

Melissa:

I like it because a lot of patients feel more comfortable at home. Some of my elderly patients don't drive. It's very, you know, they get nervous going on the roads they or or they're traveling and they're in a different spot. So I can kind of see patients where they are or where they're comfortable. And I feel like since we've opened that capability since the pandemic, we've been able to get to more patients and make a difference.

Kerry:

I agree. I think we'll see what happens in March, but I really think they'll extend it on because in March, you know, they're thinking of Not covering it again, which I think is absurd but I think that we'll really see kind of where that goes. How do you make sure that the telehealth appointments maintain the same quality of care as in person?

Melissa:

So, you know, each type of, illness or visit has its place, you know, obviously I'm not gonna do a GI bleed on telehealth or like, you know, like there has to be certain things, certain follow ups can be handled. There's a lot of technology now where you can give patients, send patients glucometers, blood pressure monitors that can even link to the physician. So certain, there's certainly a. place for it, and certainly not a place for it. But if a patient just cannot get to me, you can help them in the way you can, if that makes sense. And sometimes you have to say, unfortunately, I need to see you, you need to come in, we need you to go to the ER, urgent care, like I have to know. But you know, they're even, we can even ship them testing, COVID, flu, strep. Whatever we need to check in the meantime. Again, it's not super perfect, but I think some care in some instances is better than none.

Kerry:

I think it's a great option to allow, like, for you as, you know, and me as primary care physicians to be able to continue to care for our patients, whether, no matter where they are now, of course, when they cross state borders, that kind of messes with things, unless you're licensed in the other states. And I think that's kind of A silly thing, because I have lots of snowbird patients, right? And you either do or will, but, you know, I don't really know what I hope there's laws laws to be changed in that model, because when they are out of state, sometimes we're not supposed to be able to see them, even though they don't have a doctor where they are. And I'm their doctor. It's very frustrating, but hopefully

Melissa:

Yeah. So I, I hold four state licenses. So I have Michigan, New York, California and Florida. So a lot of, I'm from Michigan and a lot of my snowbirds go to Michigan, so I can technically see them, it's depending on their physical location, so I can still treat them there. Actually, Florida just became a part of the compact, the interstate compact, so hopefully that makes it a little easier to get licenses. I believe they're still around the same cost, but hopefully it's easier. But again, where are you going to get a license in every state your patient goes? That wouldn't make sense. So that's the only caveat to that.

Kerry:

Mm hmm. Mm hmm. Well, what other things do you want to mention while we've got you on the podcast today?

Melissa:

Yeah, so we are in our new location for the past couple of months. You know, we, I'm primary care. I also focus on nutrition, you know, root cause obesity. And if patients want to, you know, join our practice, we do meet and greets. So if patients want to come kind of feel us out, see me and my husband, maybe my children running around, they're welcome to do so. Or they become our patient.

Kerry:

Awesome. So, I mean, where can they find you? Where are you actually located, website, all that stuff?

Melissa:

Yeah. So I am over in Crystal Beach Alt 19 and alderman south of that, and they can also find me, so I am an affiliate with M-D-V-I-P, so you can also look me up on M-D-V-I-P website and they can join there or they can even get more information and the company, you know, will let me know. So it's just mdvip.com/doctors/ Melissa Torres Do. And you

Kerry:

You guys do take insurance, right? That just has a concierge membership fee, correct?

Melissa:

so we take insurance. There is a there is a fee so that the yearly fee actually covers a two part comprehensive physical. So it's like a. two day physical around like three to four hours where we do all the in house blood work, Cleveland Clinic labs that my husband will order draw in house EKG, spirometry, arterial ABIs, hearing, vision, grip strength, gait assessment in body body composition analysis. We do like a dermoscope and then I do a full physical and then we kind of come up with our health plan for the year. So that MSRP value is the same amount as the membership. So it kind of like the membership fee pays for that service as well.

Kerry:

Yeah. I mean, that's like a very comprehensive physical. And I mean, that's a lot of things in one. I would only do those things if, you know, we need them other than the in body we do all the time. Yeah. So, I mean, thank you for you know, coming on the podcast and sharing everything about who you are and what you do. And I think if patients want to reach out to you, we'll put all that information in the show notes and thank you so much.

Melissa:

Thank you so much for having me.

Kerry:

Yeah. And everybody tune in next week for a next episode of Get Healthy Tampa Bay podcast. Have a good one.

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Dr. Kerry Reller

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