Functional Medicine (FM) is a systems biology-based medicine. You are most likely familiar with conventional medicine: the signs and symptoms of disease and how they relate to organ systems and specialties in medicine like cardiology, pulmonology, and neurology. How is FM different? FM provides an explanation of the underlying mechanisms and root causes of disease. For example, take a look at this diagram below.
The roots, soil, sunlight and water all affect the outcome of the health of a plant. In this comparison to the human body, the roots are considered the lifestyle factors such as sleep, exercise, nutrition, stress, relationships, trauma, and environmental toxins. Moving up the tree, the soil acts as your antecedents (genetic predisposition, family history, circumstances at birth, your attitudes/beliefs). Even specific triggers or events in your life and mediators that continue to contribute to the manifestations of the disease can have an impact on your overall health. The branches and leaves are described as the signs and symptoms of the various organ systems throughout our body. FM looks for the core clinical imbalances, the causes that led to the imbalances and then addresses those causes. One condition can have many different causes and likewise, one cause may result in many different conditions.
FM Practitioners use two important tools to guide their treatment plan:
The Timeline and The Matrix
The Timeline is a history of the patient's entire life, creating a very personalized and precise approach that has led to their current dysfunctions and diseases.
The Matrix is a way to organize the information learned through the Timeline. It is organized into seven key physiological functions:
Assimilation (Digestion/Gut)
Defense and Repair (Immune system)
Energy (Mitochondria Function)
Biotransformation and Elimination (how we handle toxins)
Communication (Hormones/Endocrine/Neurotransmitters)
Transport (Cardiovascular)
Structural Integrity (Musculoskeletal System)
Why do We Need Functional Medicine?
Illness is changing and becoming chronic. In conventional medicine, doctors have a wealth of knowledge and are excellent at treating patients in emergency and acute care settings. However, medicine is not addressing how people take care of themselves, what they're thinking or how they're managing stress, how they're feeling, what they're eating and how they're exercising. Our medical model has become too much of a quick fix solution, instead of working on the underlying causes and lifestyle factors that play into the burden of complex chronic conditions.
The FM practitioner will work with you to develop a detailed understanding of your genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors to create a personalized treatment plan. The Functional Medicine Health Coach (FMHC) plays a critical role in bridging the gap between the FM practitioner and the client. The FMHC receives specific training in positive psychology, stress management, behavior change, stages of change and therapeutic food plans.
So, Functional Medicine is not just a test, it's not just a treatment, and it's not just supplements. It looks at the system as a whole using the seven core systems and looks for the imbalances and then addresses the causes. Between the FM practitioner and the FMHC, they help you restore your health to heal, to create balance in your life, and to optimize your health to prevent illness and chronic disease. Let's take back our health, the health of our children, and the health of our nation so that we can live a life full of vitality and longevity and not illness.
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