Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is not a different kind of medicine, it is a different way of looking at disease and health. It treats the whole individual, understanding that all the systems of the body work together and affect each other. Although the elimination of symptoms is a goal, the functional medicine approach looks to get to the root of the cause and heal that, rather than just attacking symptom by symptom.

Health is not just the absence of disease, but it is a flourishing state where a person feels alive and full of vitality. Each person has their own personal combination of stressors, diet preferences, lifestyle factors, and genetic variations that, altogether, create an environment of health or “dis-ease” in the body-mind.

In functional medicine, there is a great focus on regaining your body-mind’s natural balance that it was meant to have. Since most of the ailments and illnesses we have are actually the body-mind’s response to some factor from the environment, there is significant focus placed on nutrition (to balance the gut), exercise (to balance the energy system), and examination and elimination of environmental toxins and the effect that they have on the body-mind.

The six core principles of functional medicine (as published by IFM) are as follows:

1. An understanding of the biochemical individuality of each human being, based on the concepts of genetic and environmental uniqueness;
2. Awareness of the evidence that supports a patient-centered, rather than a disease-centered approach to treatment;
3. Search for a dynamic balance among the internal and external body, mind, and spirit;
4. Familiarity with the web-like interconnections of internal physiological factors;
5. Identification of health as a positive vitality not merely the absence of disease emphasizing those factors that encourage the enhancement of a vigorous physiology;
6. Promotion of organ reserve as the means to enhance the health span, not just the life span, of each patient. A patient-centered approach refers to health care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values, and that ensures that patient values guide all clinical decisions.

I provide functional medicine counseling, but do not replace your existing primary doctor or specialist, and clients must agree to maintain a primary care physician and specialist (if needed). Usually there is lab testing done to check for deficiencies, metabolic factors, and levels. Please note that New York State is more restrictive of collection than many other states. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions.