What is Functional Medicine? and how is it different?

Science-based: Functional Medicine uses the latest research to inform the practice of cutting-edge medicine that stays ahead of the curve. It is a commonly accepted fact that medical discoveries take 20-30 years to evolve from groundbreaking research to “standard of care” medical practice. Given the health of many Americans, we do not have 20-30 years to wait. The future of medicine is now. Your health and the health of your family matters now. 

A few examples of Functional Medicine being 20 or more years ahead include the importance of the gut microbiome (initially ridiculed by western medicine) and “leaky gut” or intestinal permeability with endotoxemia. Both of these concepts have been a cornerstone of Functional Medicine for decades, have a huge impact on our health, but were mostly ignored by the mainstream until recently.

Personalized Medicine: Functional medicine uses a very personalized and detailed history as well as  physical exam and targeted laboratory testing to uncover the upstream antecedents, triggers, and mediators of the individual patient’s disease and ill health. Armed with this information, we can utilize personalized dietary & lifestyle changes, nutritional supplements and judicious use of medications to restore health to that individual. Functional medicine is the opposite of the cookie cutter, one-size-fits-all approach that is pervasive in the modern medical model, and we believe it to be the future of healthcare.

Root Cause Medicine: Functional medicine takes the opposite approach to the standard symptom-based care, which offers “a pill for every ill”. Functional Medicine is always asking how and why. How did the patient get to their current state of health? Why are they having the symptoms they are having? What events in their personal and family history, their dietary choices, their environmental exposures contributed to declining health? How do we make changes based on their personal story that will lead them back to a state of health and wholeness? 

Functional Pediatrics refers to the practice of Functional Medicine specifically in the Pediatric population.

Integrative & Functional Gastroenterology is the practice of treating gastrointestinal disease with a more holistic approach utilizing dietary, lifestyle and mind-body therapies in addition to or in place of conventional medication.  

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