Dr. Hilary Rutledge, DC, DABCI

Dr. Hilary Rutledge is a chiropractor-turned-functional medicine doctor and longtime Wilmington resident who has spent more than two decades helping patients get healthy naturally. She partners with patients who feel unheard in the traditional system, using in-depth testing and personalized care plans to find what is actually driving their thyroid symptoms instead of managing them one by one.

Who Is Dr. Hilary Rutledge?

Dr. Rutledge grew up in the Sierra Nevada Foothills and has called the Wilmington area home for years. She came up through chiropractic training first, then went back to school for four additional years of advanced functional medicine training — the depth of study behind her DC and DABCI credentials.

That second round of schooling happened for a simple reason: too many of her patients were stuck. They had real symptoms and "normal" labs, and the standard system had nothing else to offer them. She built her practice around finding what everyone else had missed.

What Does Dr. Rutledge Focus On?

Her work centers on thyroid and autoimmune cases — especially patients with Hashimoto's disease and patients who have been told nothing is wrong while feeling awful every day.

• Patients whose labs are "normal" but whose symptoms aren't. If that's you, start with why thyroid symptoms show up with normal labs.
• Hashimoto's and other autoimmune thyroid conditions, where the immune system — not the gland — is the real problem. See our guide to Hashimoto's disease.
• Full-panel testing over guesswork: a complete thyroid panel including antibodies, plus adrenal and hormone testing when stress, sleep, or cycle changes are part of the picture.

How Does Dr. Rutledge Work With Patients?

She works with you, not at you. Every patient goes through a thorough intake and testing before anything is recommended — she wants the full picture first. From there, you get a personalized care plan built around your results, your life, and what you can actually sustain. No template handouts, no rushed ten-minute visits.

Expect plain talk and real empathy. Dr. Rutledge is a mom, a horse lover, and a yoga enthusiast, and she knows what it's like to hold a full life together while feeling depleted. She'll tell you what the research shows, what she sees clinically, and what she'd do in your shoes — then the two of you decide together.

What Does Root-Cause Work Look Like With Her?

Testing first, plan second. Depending on your history, that usually means a complete thyroid panel with antibodies, adrenal and hormone testing when stress or hormonal shifts are in play, and gut or food sensitivity testing when inflammation and immune reactivity look like drivers. We wrote up how adrenal stress and thyroid function connect if you want that piece of the puzzle first.

Then the plan gets specific: what to change, in what order, and how we'll know it's working. You leave knowing what was found and why it matters — not just with another prescription to try.

What Should You Do Next?

If any of this sounds like your story, the fastest next step is the free 15-minute discovery call. It's a phone call, it costs nothing, and there's no obligation. You describe what's been going on; Dr. Rutledge or a member of the team tells you whether this approach fits your case and what testing would likely look at first.

You can also read more about Dr. Mathew Bradshaw, the other practitioner on the team.

Frequently Asked Questions

What kinds of patients does Dr. Rutledge see most often?

People who've been told their labs are normal while feeling exhausted, foggy, and off — and people already diagnosed with Hashimoto's or hypothyroidism who still don't feel right on their current plan. She also sees plenty of women whose thyroid symptoms spiked around pregnancy, perimenopause, or a period of heavy stress.

Do I need recent lab work to see her?

No. Bring what you have — old lab slips, a medication list, a symptom timeline — but none of it is required to start the conversation. If your past testing only included TSH, that's useful information in itself, and it tells us exactly where a fuller workup needs to pick up.

Will she review labs my other doctor ordered?

Yes. Existing results are one of the fastest ways to see what's been checked and what's missing. Most standard panels stop at TSH, so a review usually shows us both what you know and what nobody has looked at yet — like antibodies, free T3, or reverse T3.

How involved is the process after the first call?

As involved as your case needs. Most patients move from the discovery call into a full intake and testing, then into a plan with regular check-ins to adjust as your numbers and symptoms change. You always know the next step and why it's on the list before it happens.