Functional Care

Functional medicine is individualized medicine in its modern form. It deals with primary prevention and underlying causes of chronic disease rather than simply removing or masking symptoms once they arise. Functional medicine emphasizes true healing, care of the person rather than a disease, and a partnership of shared responsibility between doctor and patient, with the patient being the hero in their own journey to regain health. It also embraces the most current science in diagnosing early imbalances that eventually lead to chronic illness.

Functional medicine uses botanicals and other forms of nutritional supplementation rather than pharmaceutical agents that create high levels of stress and damage. Under the influence of functional medicine, “old age” is not what it used to be, anti-aging is now a science, and optimized living is the “new normal” for people of every age. In light of the above points, one should view functional medicine as a complement to traditional medicine and not an alternative. Systems of health protection should work together where possible. One approach cannot serve all of “heaven and earth.”

Here’s the catch. People must qualify themselves to follow the prevention approaches of functional medicine and optimized living. Although a prevention or wellness lifestyle is highly rewarding, it is not for the timid. Such a lifestyle requires us to understand how The Five Triggers of Inflammation mislead us and reduce our collective wellness. The Five Triggers of Inflammation are: Foods, Microbes, Stress, Hormones and Toxins. The problem is that most people have fallen victim to the harmful mental pattern of hoping rather than (pro)acting. They hope they will somehow fare better than others whom they know are suffering degraded lifestyles. Hope, however, doesn’t have a good track record for preventing chronic disease. But hey, hope is easy!

So, what are some of the harmful thought patterns you may inadvertently hold? Here are a few examples. Do any fit you?

You’ll pop a pill as a quick fix for almost anything to improve your short-term quality of life.

You think your doctor’s job is to take charge of your health and “fix” you when symptoms arise.

Your physical activity has decreased with each passing year because you think you’re supposed to slow down as your calendar age rises.

You want your body to act and recover as it did in your teens and 20s. Hint: It can’t and won’t without ongoing lifestyle adjustments.

Please consider this: Most cancers incubate 10 years or more before they are finally detectible. An even longer incubation period applies to the metabolic abnormalities that lead to diabetes. What environmental stresses and biological imbalances occur during those incubation years to serve as such fertile ground for cancer, diabetes, autoimmunity and other conditions? It’s the job of functional medicine to answer such questions and provide tailored rebalancing programs for individuals before they find themselves needing drugs, surgery, or other medical interventions.