What Is Functional Medicine And Why You Should Give It A Try
The current model of conventional health care is focused on identifying a disease and prescribing a drug for treatment. Consequently, doctors often look for ways to alleviate symptoms without looking for the underlying cause. Prevention is also a factor that conventional medical practices are not designed to address. Lifestyle and diet are essential for good health, but conventional medical doctors are not trained in these areas. Functional medicine provides health care where conventional medicine is lacking.
What is functional medicine?
Functional medicine is an approach that is focused on the root causes of health problems. It is a more thorough approach to diagnosis that considers many contributing factors to illness. One symptom can be linked to several different health problems rather than a single diagnosis. Functional medicine arose from the work of a group of experts who were motivated to create an individualized approach to finding the causes for illnesses. They created a method that they called the Functional Medicine Model.
The functional medicine approach uses scientific approaches that utilize low-risk procedures to modify cellular and molecular systems. These approaches are based on new research, and they have led to dramatic results for patients. The new approach returns to more scientific principles and thoroughly looks for problems at the cellular and molecular level that lead to diseases. The Functional Medicine Model quickly grew in demand to the point where the system has been taught to practitioners in various medical fields.
The functional medicine procedure applies a set of tools that utilize thorough history, mapping systems and examining root biological processes that cause diseases. The three main tools are called the Timeline, the GOTOIT framework and the Functional Medicine Matrix.
Why you should try functional medicine
Like most people, you have probably had the experience of going to a doctor because you’re in pain or not feeling well, but they were not able to diagnose an actual disease. You may have had a variety of tests such as MRI scans and blood tests that the doctors said turned out normal. However, you and the doctor knew that your health was not normal or else you wouldn’t have gone to the hospital. This occurrence happens far too often.
The reason for this is that the health care system is set up to identify and treat acute diseases such as infections or pathogens that can be alleviated via surgery or drugs. Chronic diseases such as poor immune health, heart disease and diabetes are not curable with a simple prescription or surgery in most cases. Functional medicine is designed to treat and prevent these chronic health problems more thoroughly.
Functional medicine looks at the entire individual rather than focusing on a few symptoms. These practitioners strive to find the causes of health problems rather than treating the symptoms. Instead of examining a single affected organ, they examine the entire organism.
Functional medicine doctors spend more time with patients to discuss medical symptoms, diet, trauma, lifestyle, exercise and toxic elements in their environments that could be harming their health. The doctors will collaborate with you to search for underlying causes of your health problems, and they will thoroughly examine genetic factors, lifestyle choices in terms of activity and diet, and other factors to create a map or landscape of data for them to navigate.
Functional medicine doctors look for several possible causes for a disease rather than a single cause. For example, a conventional doctor will usually attribute obesity to a lack of discipline or a sedentary lifestyle. However, there are many factors that lead to obesity and many of them have to do with hormonal imbalances, genetics and unhealthy ingredients in foods. Health problems such as inflammation and insulin imbalance also contribute to weight gain. When various bodily systems are out of balance, it’s essential to alleviate this imbalance to treat chronic conditions such as diabetes or obesity.
Functional medicine is a solution for millions of people who have been treated by conventional doctors but have not found relief or successful treatment for serious illnesses. Many people are also suffering side effects from pharmaceutical medications that could be doing more harm than good. In these situations, functional medication can offer a solution where conventional medicine has failed.
