Root-Cause, Integrated Approach to Health
Functional medicine (FM) seeks to identify and address the root causes of disease, and views the body as one integrated system, not a collection of independent organs divided up by medical specialties, much as Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), which is why they complement each other.
Functional Medicine believes that diet, nutrition, and exposure to environmental toxins can play a central role in your health. Without the right diet and nutrition, as well as toxic exposure, may predispose a person to illness, provoke symptoms, and effect the body chemistry and nervous system. It may also cause imbalance in hormone levels, blood chemistry, as well as nerve reactions throughout the body, not to mention food sensitivities/allergies, and intestinal related issues.
Functional Medicine is a holistic medical approach that focuses on identifying the causes of disease, rather than treating the symptoms. It utilizes lab testing, and I use it in conjunction with Chinese Medicine, to help better understand the depth of possible toxicity, deficiencies, and imbalances impacting your health. The goal of this partnership is to bring you back to health as well as to teach the you about the core principles of health maintenance and prevention.
A functional medicine approach is more of a partnership between you and your doctor. It seeks to understand the origins of chronic disease so that meaningful treatment and preventative methods can be developed and used. With FM, the “healthy” lab ranges are more narrow than the “normal” lab ranges used in western medicine. They are much more specific to what a “healthy” person’s lab values should be. This would mean, when viewing a lab value, that is just a little out of the FM range of “healthy”, we’d be able to recognize if a future illness might be developing, so that a good plan for achieving health can happen before any damage can be done internally.
The following are areas that would be evaluated:
- Comprehensive medical history
- Evaluation of the patient’s lifestyle and environmental factors.
- Functional outcomes based laboratory workup (including: comprehensive blood panel; sensitivity testing for gluten and other allergens; and possibly testing for organ/glandular systems in distress
- Education based approach so that ultimately the patient is less dependent on the doctor to maintain their health.
How will you benefit from this type of testing?
- You will have a much more definitive understanding of what is happening internally with your body’s systems.
- You will have a plan of what types of therapy will help you attain your best health.
- You will be given dietary and lifestyle guidelines to help your quality of life and prevention of worsened conditions.
- You will also receive a Chinese Medical diagnosis, that in conjunction with Functional Medicine, will give us your best prognosis.
