Functional Medicine

We often hear the term “Functional Medicine” but probably don’t fully understand the term and implications. Perhaps the best way to explain it, is to compare functional medicine to conventional medicine.

A conventional medical doctor is trained to diagnose a condition or disease and treat it. Treatment is more often than not a prescribed medication or surgery. You match the disease or condition to a drug, problem solved, right? This standard form of care works well for acute diseases, trauma, infection, and emergencies.

But what if you are one of over 125 million Americans who suffer from chronic conditions? Chronic conditions such as allergies, High Cholesterol, High Blood Pressure, Diabetes, Insulin Resistance, IBS, GERD, Chronic Fatigue, Fibromyalgia. The conventional medicine approach is incredibly effective at slowing these diseases and decreasing the symptoms associated with them. Since the medications used are often designed to suppress the expression of these diseases there is little focus in conventional medicine on changing the factors that are fueling your chronic disease. Unfortunately, patients are often left unable to manage these diseases without medication for the rest of their life.

A doctor trained in Functional Medicine will explore the cause of a condition and support your body’s own mechanisms to heal itself and restore function. Functional medicine treats the cause, not just the symptoms of illness.