Antonia Smudde, FNP-BC

Antonia started her career as a Cardiothoracic ICU nurse at Ronald Reagan UCLA medical center after attending Mount Saint Mary’s University where she received her bachelor of science degree in nursing. She then went on to graduate from the University of Cincinatti with her master's degree as a Family Nurse Practitioner.  As a nurse practitioner she has worked in family practice, urgent care, emergency medicine and continues to work at UCLA as an Internal Medicine Nurse Practitioner. 

Antonia’s love of preventative and holistic medicine came from working for many years alongside her father who was a pioneer in the field of holistic dentistry, electroacupuncture, flower essence formulas & blends and homeopathic medicine. He was a believer and a teacher that you must treat the body as a whole and this continues to be a belief of Antonia’s. Frustrated by with the general practice of treating patient’s symptoms and not getting to the root of their problems, while continuing to see an overall decline in the health of so many people, Antonia began to look for more answers as to what was causing the symptoms of age-related changes. Not only was she seeing that many women, like herself, were complaining weight gain, muscle loss, fatigue, low energy, memory impairment and changes in libido, men were also affected by many of the same problems, only to be told that all of your labs are normal and this is a normal part of aging. This wasn’t an acceptable answer for Antonia so she began to research the effects of hormonal changes and imbalances on the body, this is how she met Dr. Neal Rouzier MD. Dr. Rouzier has been researching and specializing in hormone replacement therapy since 1997. He is the Faculty Chairman of The Academy of Preventive and Innovative Medicine and Antonia says that what she learned from him changed her life. She found hope and answers for herself and knew that she wanted to help others who had been suffering with hormonal changes and imbalances. Antonia continued her education with Dr. Rouzier and obtained her Certification at the Academy of Preventive and Innovative Medicine in Advanced BHRT. 

Hormone replacement therapy is a highly complex and evolving subject. Antonia’s practice is based on years of evidence based research which gives her knowledge in this area that simply Isn’t understood by many healthcare practitioners today. Many of our patients come to us for a second opinion because they are told their lab work is “normal” and there is nothing wrong with them, but they still feel miserable. The problem is that many practitioners have never been taught evidenced based hormone replacement therapy during their medical training. Antonia will review your labs, discuss your symptoms and concerns with you and share her knowledge and expertise. You can begin feeling so much better once you begin optimizing your hormones.