Why Functional Medicine?

6 in 10 Adults in the US have a chronic disease and 4 in 10 have 2 or more chronic diseases (CDC.gov). Non-communicable Disease (NCD) is the leading cause of death globally and has contributed to 71% of the world’s deaths in the year 2016. The four major NCDs (Cardiovascular disease, cancer, chronic respiratory disease and diabetes) accounted for 80% of all premature NCD-related deaths globally. The majority of these NCDs are preventable with diet and lifestyle changes.  In addition, 63.5% of hospitalizations for COVID-19 were the result of inadequate diet.  

Conventional Medicine definitely has its place and benefits, however, given the numbers listed above, our patients need and deserve better. The current medical system is geared toward acute care, which is great for actual acute care, but this approach lacks the tools needed to prevent and manage complex, chronic issues. 

Functional Medicine is based on getting to the root cause of disease using a systems biology approach.  It treats the whole person, not just the symptoms and engages the patient and provider in a therapeutic partnership together. The human body is an amazingly complex system with body systems all functioning together, in tandem.  As Functional Medicine providers, we view the body as one interconnected system, not a collection of independent organs separated by different specialities. The conventional medicine approach may only address downstream symptoms. On the other hand, the functional medicine approach will look at and address all of the different factors and causes of illness.  In most cases conventional medicine does not take into account each individual’s toxin exposure, lifestyle factors and genetic variability.  The functional medicine approach emphasizes the importance of personalized medicine; we are all unique individuals and should be treated as such.

A simple visual to explain the functional medicine approach is: If you had an unhealthy or diseased plant, would you paint the leaves green to make it look healthy, or would you look at the soil and water and nurture the plant so it can function the way it was meant to? Another analogy suggested by Dr. Mark Hyman is, if you had a faucet with running water and it was overflowing onto the floor, would you continually mop up the water or would you go to the source and turn off the faucet? 

Arkhe translates to beginning or the first principle. If we can support and nurture the body in what it needs, it can function the way it was beautifully and originally designed to from the beginning.

With a Functional Medicine approach, there are 5 main leverage points we can use to nurture the body.  These include Sleep and Relaxation, Nutrition, Movement, and Relationships. Stay tuned for future blog posts where we will dive into each of these points in more detail.  

References: 

Hyman, Mark. MD. Introducing Functional Medicine:Redefining Chronic Disease Prevention and Management. The Science of Creating Health. Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice