What is Functional Medicine?

Many people have heard the term holistic or integrative when it comes to a natural approach to health. To be honest with you, I always had a negative perception of these types of approaches to medical issues until I had my own health complications. I had a myriad of symptoms and doctors and specialists were wanting to perform procedures and prescribe multiple medications that only led to more complications and more side effects. I was convicted that I was a nurse and was supposed to advocate for my patients but got lost in the medical system and could not advocate for myself until I found functional medicine. With the help of a functional medicine provider, changing my lifestyle and diet as well as getting on the right individualized protocols, I was able to get to the root cause of my medical problems. I was forever changed by this experience as a patient and knew that God had a purpose through my suffering. This is when I began to pursue a career in functional medicine. I will share more details about my personal story in another post but for now, I wanted to take some time to explain functional medicine.

The Focus of Functional Medicine

 Simply put and summarized, the focus of functional medicine is getting to the root cause of conditions/diseases and not just looking at symptoms. In functional medicine, we address things such a diet, lifestyle, genetics, hormone imbalances, nutrient deficiencies, stress/cortisol levels, and so much more.

Functional medicine focuses on addressing the root cause of conditions rather than covering up symptoms. The Functional Medicine model is an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness. It requires a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors and leverages that data to direct personalized treatment plans that lead to improved patient outcomes.

For example, if a patient has hormone imbalance, rather than just treating the symptoms, or covering up the symptoms with a medication or hormone, functional medicine providers work as detectives to understand why there is a hormonal imbalance. In the case of PMS, there would be dietary and lifestyle interventions that are made in addition to rebalancing hormones through supplements if needed. The first step would involve removing triggers, such as alcohol, caffeine, stress, lack of sleep. Also, removing xenobiotics and environmental chemicals can have a profound impact on balancing hormones.

Another example of a functional medicine approach would be when it comes to gut health. If someone has irritable bowel syndrome (IBS), the diagnosis does not just leave them hanging with nagging symptoms and a pill to take. In functional medicine, we seek to understand what could possibly be irritating their gut. Is it an infection, a parasite, food intolerances, lack of beneficial gut bacteria or digestive enzymes? With the help of taking a thorough history and doing functional medicine lab testing, IBS can be improved and even completely reversed if addressed from a root cause stand point.

Root Cause Solutions

By addressing root cause, rather than symptoms, practitioners become oriented to identifying the complexity of disease. They may find one condition has many different causes and, likewise, one cause may result in many different conditions. As a result, Functional Medicine treatment targets the specific manifestations of disease in each individual.

What I love about functional medicine is that patients are not just numbers that are quickly rushed through appointments. It truly involves a partnership between the provider and the patient to improve the patients health and overall quality of life. This is how I will practice medicine and once I experienced it as a patient, I knew this was God’s plan and purpose for my life/career.

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