Functional medicine is a patient-centred approach that treats a disease by identifying and addressing the root cause rather than treating symptoms in isolation. This means the treatment is individual-based, analysing the underlying conditions to treat the disease completely. It is a holistic “whole person” approach, including nutrition, lifestyle, education, coaching and mindset modification as the first lines of “medicine.” Functional medicine NYC aims to enable patients to take their health back into their own hands. Unlike traditional medicine, we focus on treating disease as a whole, not only symptoms.
For example, feel gassy all the time?
Without delving much deeper to understand your daily food, circadian rhythm patterns, exercise routines, or major pressures in your life, a conventional medicine approach can diagnose you with IBS or indigestion. A doctor may then prescribe a laxative or an acid-suppressant PPI to alleviate your symptoms, or they may advise you to accept that “bloating is normal.”
On the other hand, a functional medicine approach would seek answers to questions such as how much artificial sweetener you consume. Are you having trouble sleeping? Not getting enough water? Or, worse, too many antibiotics in the past, or an untreated intestinal infection from drinking water in Mexico last summer?
Excessive chronic cardio? Taking a snooze immediately after a large meal? SIBO breath testing and a thorough stool analysis, a dietary “challenge” that involves giving up artificially sweetened protein powder and diet sodas for a few days, and additional digestive supports like HCL, digestive enzymes, and a probiotic to monitor your body’s reaction are all possible components of a Functional Medicine “triage.”
Functional medicine delves deeply and aims to see the “whole picture” of health.
What Kind Of Health Professionals Use Functional Medicine?
Medical doctors and DOs, chiropractors, registered nurses, physician assistants and nurse practitioners, nutritionists and registered dietitians, physical and occupational therapists, health coaches, and fitness professionals are among the many allied healthcare professionals who can apply functional medicine.
Within their scope of practice, each practitioner applies a “Functional Medicine framework,” taking into account the underlying causes of any health issue that may arise, as well as holistic modalities, therapies, treatments, mindset work, foods, and/or supplements that may help the patient regain their health.
For example, a functional medicine physician or osteopath would focus on an integrative or “systems-based” approach to treatment, considering the body as a whole rather than its components!
A functional medicine doctor would examine a variety of factors, such as blood sugar imbalance, exposure to toxins and the environment, such as mold, liver and gallbladder function, and hormone imbalances, to determine the “root cause” of your persistent headaches. A comprehensive patient interview, functional lab testing, and a food, lifestyle, and environmental exposure assessment may also be used.
Functional Medicine’s Benefits For Your Health Goals
Identify the Root Cause
Functional medicine “goes deep”—looking behind symptoms to determine the underlying cause of the illness state or symptoms.
Finding the “root cause” drivers of illness and symptom states using a functional medicine approach is similar to being a “health detective,” taking into account variables including diet, lifestyle, environment, genetics, health history “triggers,” and stress.
The Whole Person Approach
You are not into just a symptom or a diagnosis. Many factors affect your health and well-being.
Based-on-Systems
According to functional medicine, the body is a whole rather than a collection of pieces. Functional medicine looks at how your body functions as a whole and how all of its systems work together to make you feel your best, as opposed to conventional medicine, where you would see a GI doctor to discuss your digestive system, an endocrinologist to discuss your hormones, and a neurologist to discuss your brain.
