What is Functional Medicine and Why Everyone Should be Seeing a Functional Medicine Practitioner
Most people have no idea
how good their bodies are
designed to feel.
In the United States, it's common for
people to deal with fatigue, aches and pains, heartburn, headaches, and
other maladies, and consider them
to be a normal part of life. However, they're not!
There
is a reason our bodies feel the way they do, whether good or bad, and functional medicine is here to
find that reason. This post will help give you a good idea of what
functional medicine is, how it is different from the current model of
healthcare, and how it can help you!
Functional Medicine Interprets Labs
Differently
Functional medicine
interprets labs differently. Normally, when you get your bloodwork done you
will notice that there is a reference range on the side. So
how
do they determine these reference ranges? Each lab does their own set of tests
and determines their own normals. A
few hundred “healthy” people, meaning that they have no diagnosed diseases,
have their blood values drawn and averaged, and that creates the normal range.
However,
even though they may not have a diagnosed disease, many of these people are
still suffering from fatigue, upset stomach, headaches, heartburn, pain, and
more. While these may not be the most detrimental of problems, they are still
not what we consider perfect health. These problems are reflected in the blood
work. So the normal ranges being used are not truly normal and not truly
healthy. That is why functional medicine
practitioners use a different set of ranges as well as a tighter set of ranges.
Functional Medicine Takes Action Before You Have A Disease
While there are many things that modern
medicine is needed and good at, one of the big things they are failing with is
prevention. The way bloodwork is read is that you reach a certain number, and
all of a sudden POOF! You have
a disease. But there is a big hill to go up or down to reach that number. Most
medical doctors just don’t have the training to see these patterns in the blood
and step in before the patient reaches that critical number.
Functional
medicine practitioners are trained to
look at a patient’s bloodwork and know that in, let’s say 5-10 years, that
magic number is where a patient is going to be if they don’t do something to
change. So let’s make a change now!
Functional Medicine Practitioners Often
Run More Extensive Labs
All the thyroid markers instead
of just TSH and T4.
In addition to interpreting the labs that
mainstream medical practitioners run differently, functional
medicine practitioners also tend to run additional
lab markers. Typically the labs in the standard model
of care diagnose a disease so that it can be matched with a corresponding
pharmaceutical drug. If there is no drug to help with a
certain step or pathway in a patient’s physiology, that test is not normally
run, because medical doctors don’t normally know anything else to do.
Therefore, the labs your doctor runs are adequate if
he’s just prescribing medications, but they’re very much incomplete from a
functional medicine perspective.
For Example……
Here’s an example using the thyroid. Many people today are having hypothyroid symptoms (problems losing weight, fatigue, insomnia), but their blood tests don’t reflect what they are feeling. Mostly that’s because there are only two markers being tested, TSH and T4.
This
picture shows the process of thyroid hormones being
made, circulating through the blood, and attaching to cells to properly
stimulate them. Each star represents a different step and a
different place to test hormone levels, proteins, and enzymes involved in the
process. Why it became normal to test only two of these steps,
especially when the patient is having symptoms, it is unclear. However, once we
start looking at the whole pathway, it is easier to find where there is a
breakdown and how to best help the patient.
Functional Medicine Practitioners
Customize Health Care
Once you’re labeled with a disease in
mainstream medicine, you’re given the same medications everyone else with that
disease is given. This cookie cutter approach works sometimes, but more often
than not, it fails and causes other problems in the long run. Functional
medicine takes into account that we’re all designed a little differently, so
what works for one person isn’t necessarily best for you. A tailored,
comprehensive health program addresses you as the unique individual that you
are.
Functional Medicine Practitioners Spend
More One-On-One Time With Patients
Mainstream medicine
is very focused on symptom care.
That is why every six months you typically wait an hour at your doctor’s office
for a five-minute visit. At this visit, they look at your
bloodwork, match up the numbers to any drug they think you need, and send you
on your way. This system is failing millions of Americans
suffering from chronic health problems!
Again,
we are all different. Functional medicine practitioners take the time to
determine what a patient’s lifestyle is like, their stress levels, what they
eat, and how much movement they get in a day. All of these impact our health
and must be considered.
Functional Medicine Practitioners Address
Underlying Dysfunctions
In our picture of the tree, you can see
that we have the leaves and branches above the ground and labeled with
different conditions. There is depression and anxiety, heartburn, heart
disease, irritable bowel syndrome, diabetes, cancer, allergies, and more. In
mainstream medicine, once you are labeled with one of these, that is normally
as far as the doctor looks.
Functional
medicine practitioners like to go below the surface to the ROOT of the problem.
Nobody has heartburn because of a Prilosec deficiency, and nobody has high
cholesterol because of a Lipitor deficiency. That just isn’t how
our bodies were designed to function! Once we begin looking at things like
inflammation, nutrient absorption, and stress levels, we can understand why the
body is reacting the way it is and know how to help it.
Functional Medicine Practitioners Don’t
Shy Away From Natural Treatments
Functional medicine is not
anti-medication, but we do ask what the patient’s most effective option is and
what causes the fewest side effects. Very few times is the answer medication.
Somewhere in the last hundred years, mainstream medicine grew away from the
thought that what we put inside our bodies isn’t really affecting our health
and that it’s not to blame for the huge increase in chronic conditions.
However, scientific studies have shown that to be wrong with the law of 20.
The
law of 20 states that twenty years after refined carbohydrates and processed
foods are introduced into a society, they will begin to suffer from problems
like diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and other illnesses. The more
that society eats that kind of food, the more illnesses they have. This has
been shown time and time again, country after county.
So
no, we don’t shy away from natural treatments. We embrace them. More often than not, natural treatments will be more effective and have much fewer side effects
in the long run!
So Why Should You Be Seeing A Functional Medicine Practitioner?
Functional medicine is the future of healthcare. It doesn't wait for people to get "sick" or get a "disease." Rather it takes a proactive approach and makes sure that patients never reach that point in the first place! We are facing far too many health problems today. Stomach pain, headaches, heartburn, etc, are all becoming common maladies, and mainstream medical doctors have no advice to offer except for more medications. There is a reason that the body is feeling a certain way, and there are things other than medications and pills that can be done about it. Find a functional medicine practitioner near you today!
Yours in health,
Dr. Samantha Boldt
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