Our culture faces enormous challenges in both the personal and public health realms. Traditional medicine focuses on the disease, and has led the way for treatment over the last century. However today’s chronic conditions that affect millions have developed from a combination of lifestyle, nutrition, and genetic factors. Functional Medicine is changing the scope of health care with a personalized approach.
Functional Medicine is a systems based approach that takes into appreciation how the body works as an integrated and complex being. A deeper investigation into how your symptoms have developed results in a better understanding of how to reverse them. We all have a very diverse history of physical and emotional experiences. We eat different foods, have taken different medications, and suffered various traumas. Unique circumstances, over time, can often result in a classified “symptom.” The path to restored health and vitality should come from a collective process between a patient and their selected health care professional, not just a generally prescribed pharmaceutical drug.
Conventional medicine has evolved into “specialty” doctors. This is a model that has been geared towards treating acute symptoms as quickly as possible. Infections or injuries can effectively be treated with antibiotics and surgery. There will always be a tremendous need for these professionals in our health care model, yet shuffling between specialists can be frustrating for a patient seeking results for a chronic condition. Often times there isn’t a quick and easy answer.
As chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, mental illness and autoimmune conditions have increased dramatically, a more in depth and personalized approach is needed. Functional Medicine maximizes the use of the latest laboratory and diagnostic testing, taking into consideration genetic and family history markers. Most importantly, this approach embraces how fundamentally important a patients day to day living is. Our movement, exercise, sleep, nutrition, stress, and emotional well being matter more than anything in reversing chronic conditions. Personal lifestyle enhancement is blended with individualized drug and supplement treatments.
Functional Medicine Practitioners typically have achieved medical degrees and have had an established clinical practice before choosing to be trained as an FMP. If you are someone who is more interested in the cause of your condition, rather than your symptoms, seek out a Functional Medicine Doctor near you.
