What is Functional Medicine?
- A shift from the conventional disease-centered focus to a more person-centered approach, while remaining evidence-based.
- Functional medicine believes factors such as environmental exposures and aspects of today’s 21st century lifestyle may have a direct influence on chronic disease and seeks to assess the underlying causes of chronic disease.
- Functional medicine addresses the whole person and seeks to discover how genetics, environment, and lifestyle factors influence an individuals health. The uniqueness of each individual is considered along with genetics and internal/external factors that effect total functioning.
- A functional medicine provider spends time listening to a patients history, their goals for health, and establishing a plan to support the patient toward meeting their health objectives.
- The functional medicine provider reviews lifestyle factors influencing long-term health and complex chronic disease in order to support the unique expression of health and vitality of each individual.
- Functional medicine is a complementary method to assist an individual to prevent chronic disease before it progresses, using diet, exercise, supplementation, detoxification programs and in certain situations conventional medication.
- The functional medicine provider strives to evaluate, assess, and carefully enfold emerging research in a practical, efficient, and safe manner.
- Integrating the best of medicine creates a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, exercise, stress-management, use of the latest research and laboratory testing, diagnostic techniques, and prescribed tailored combinations of supplements and conventional medications.
- If the individual does not have a goal toward functional medicine, the above techniques will not be effective for total health benefit.
