You don’t have to have a disease to benefit from Functional Medicine.
In 1990, Dr. Jeffrey Bland created the concept of Functional Medicine as a discipline that married progress in basic medical sciences with expertise in clinical medicine to address the growing problems associated with chronic disease.
In short, functional medicine is medical practice or treatments that focus on optimal functioning of the body and its organs, usually involving systems of holistic or alternative medicine.
Much like integrative medicine, functional medicine treats the individual rather than the disease.
Functional medicine is a systems biology-based approach that focusses on identifying and addressing the root causes of disease. Each symptom or differential diagnosis may be just one of many contributing to an individual’s illness. It considers how interrelated every part of the body is. This is a process where we “connect the dots” to your symptomology.
In working with a functional medicine care provider, you can expect to do a lot of talking. A large part of functional medicine is exploring your detailed personal and family history, the circumstances around your first symptoms, and the experiences you may have had with other healthcare providers. Treatment plans focus on lifestyle changes, nutritional changes, supplements (learn more about supplement safety) and/or herbal treatments as needed.