What is Functional Medicine?
When health and wellness are valued above all else, Functional Medicine can begin. There are many components to a healthy person that include diet and exercise, but wellness does not stop there. Sleep, quality and quantity, are also a part of a basic evaluation. How are a person’s relationships? Are they toxic or loving? Is there time set aside every day to meditate? How is one’s outlook on life? Is there belief in a higher being? What amount of toxin exposure, current or history, is in play?
The answers to all of these questions filter into a person’s state of health. For example, it may seem crazy that some one’s negative or positive outlook could affect their health. But on a molecular and cellular level, a given orientation to life causes secretion of certain neurotransmitters. Living with fear or having a history of childhood abuse, the interaction with daily events may be more “fight or flight” (sympathetic nervous system response). This will in turn cause the cells to release certain chemicals and affect the way enzymes and hormones are made as well as affect mitochondrial function and the amount of energy the body uses and stores. Throw toxins into the mix and everything works in a distorted fashion. You get the picture?
Functional Medicine begins to unwind these connections in the body. It asks two basic questions: What does the body need more of? What does it need to be rid of? There are many types of testing that can be done to uncover imbalances. Focusing on what needs to be tested can optimize the treatment.
Who is a Good Candidate for Functional Medicine?
Functional Medicine calls to people, patients and practitioners, who want to know why a disease has manifested. And to those who want to undo the steps it took to get there.
Why am I sick? What can I do to get better?
People interested in a pill or a surgery to keep going. People who “don’t have time” to take care of their one and only body. These people are not a good fit.
Those invested in true health and want to give what it takes to work through a problem and come out the other side… these are the people who do well with Functional Medicine. It’s a team approach. We want to take care of people who care about their health as much as we do.
Are you invested in working through a health problem? We are here to be with you each step of the way.
What Type of Conditions Does Functional Medicine Address or Support?
The types of conditions treated by a Functional Medicine practitioner tend to be those that conventional medicine fails to recognize. By the time a patient walks into a Functional Medicine office, they have sought medical advice from a number of different traditionally trained physicians and specialists as well as complementary treatments.
For this reason, Functional Medicine tends to treat conditions that are obscure and present with an unusual constellation of symptoms and manifestations. Functional Medicine practitioners are taught to approach a person as a whole organism. This approach helps identify causes in many organ systems that work together to present as one condition.
Although Functional Medicine treats many conditions, the ultimate goal is optimal wellness. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. With the principles used in Functional Medicine many conditions can be treated early or avoided, especially if there is a known familial predisposition.
A list of some general health conditions treated by Functional Medicine:
