Functional Medicine is about understanding how the body is functioning or not functioning in its everyday habitat and environment. We determine this through symptom expression, body analysis and lab testing. Functional medicine means we are assessing how each organ system is functioning on a day to day basis in response to what’s happening inside you (thoughts, food, sleep, hormones, gut bugs, ect) and what is happening outside of you (people, air we breath, stuff we put on our skin, environmental changes); what we put it in, what we are exposed to and what is happening on a biochemical level.
In functional medicine, we asses how your body is responding to all aspects of your life. For example: if we wanted to understand how your digestive tract was functioning, we would want to know how the teeth are doing, the mouth glands, the stomach, liver, pancreas, gall bladder, small intestine and large intestine are functioning. They all have a specific job and if one goes un-done or done incorrectly or ineffectively, the entire system will have a response. Sure, the body can adapt short term, but long term it will create a sub-set of symptoms, responses or reactions in the body.
This is why having a digestive issues can actually negatively impact your immune system, skin, emotions, hormones, energy, appetite, weight and much more!
To go back to our example, in functional medicine we look at how each aspects of the digestive tract is functioning in addition to what the digestive tract interprets as inflammatory, what it likes/dislikes (foods), bacteria overgrowth, the health of their intestinal walls. We will analyze your bodies expression both internally and externally and create a treatment plan that will support restoring the function of your body as a whole.
Integrative Medicine is about utilizing all our functional medicine information and integrating an alternative approach into your treatment plan. With integrative medicine, we find supportive alternatives to your current pharmaceutical, supplement or lifestyle regimen. The goal is to create a lasting shift and remind your body how to function optimally on its own!
