Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is a branch of holistic medicine that aims to identify unique underlying causes of disease and then targets these issues directly with nutrition, lifestyle changes, supplements, and herbal medicine. The goal is to help patients overcome their symptoms of illness and reach optimal health and vitality. This new model of medicine incorporates the traditional Western blood testing, as well as specialty lab testing to identify nutritional deficiencies, genetic predispositions, sources of inflammation, digestive health status, food sensitivities, and hormonal imbalances.

Functional medicine differs from Western medicine in that Western medicine treats symptoms and disease with pharmaceutical medications and surgical interventions. Advances in Western medicine have saved countless lives, and are a critical part of our healthcare system. Western medicine falls short when it comes to disease prevention and the long-term management of chronic health conditions including digestive disorders, hormonal imbalances, metabolic disease, cardiovascular disease, and some of the milder mental health conditions like depression and anxiety.

The Western model treats specific symptoms or diseases with pharmaceutical drugs. Western drugs mask symptoms of disease, but do not treat the root cause of the disease. This is similar to mopping up the floor if a sink is overflowing, rather than turning off the faucet to prevent the water from spilling over. 

Functional medicine views nutrition, environment, and lifestyle as critical factors that affect the manifestation of our health. Specifically, these roots of our health include proper diet, exercise and movement, good sleep hygiene, stress management/relaxation, good supporting social relationships, and an environment free from harmful chemicals. These positive inputs can favorably affect our physiology and gene expression (known as epigenetics). Functional medicine identifies different systems of the body that need to be in balance in order for our health to be optimal. These systems include digestion/absorption, inflammation, detoxification pathways, hormone communication, and circulation. Throughout our life, these systems may become out of balance. Functional medicine identifies which systems are the most imbalanced and targets them directly with nutrition, lifestyle, supplement, and herbal interventions.

The basic principle of functional medicine treatment is to remove anything that impairs the body from functioning at its optimal state, and add what is lacking to ensure normal physiology can take place. To help identify what needs to be removed and added functional medicine utilizes specialty lab tests. You can read about these tests by clicking the below link “Specialty Lab Tests”. 

Nutrition and lifestyle coaching are a critical part of the functional medicine treatment. This participatory healthcare model empowers patients to take control of their own health, and provides patients with the resources and tools to find success on this new journey. 

Getting started with functional medicine: