In my clinical practice, I use a Functional Medicine (FM) approach with my clients to move them beyond their symptoms to the root cause.
Functional Medicine is a preventative, proactive and client-centred approach, taking into account a client’s complete health history, biochemical individuality and cultural, social and ethical factors.
By thoroughly considering the impact of diet, environment and lifestyle influences, alongside the results of functional testing where necessary, the origins of many chronic conditions can be identified.
Through careful investigation, we can gain a better understanding of how each client functions and what has made them become unwell.
This knowledge is key to creating a personalised plan that aims to reduce or resolve the underlying problem – hence alleviating the cause, rather than masking the resulting effects of the imbalance.
The focus is on identifying and addressing the underlying cause of disease.
There is no “one size fits all” approach in functional medicine. Building a timeline of your health and illness progression and using in-depth functional testing helps us to identify the root causes of illness or dysfunction and create a health plan that is tailored to your own specific needs based on the most up-to-date research available.
I use cutting-edge laboratory testing alongside a detailed medical history to reveal the underlying issues that are causing chronic symptoms and dysfunction.
In Functional Medicine, it is the person, rather than the disease, that is the focus. The body is viewed as one whole interconnected system, not just an isolated set of symptoms. By using this holistic approach, it may be possible to restore balance in any of the challenged functional areas and ultimately prevent or even reverse disease.
Instead of choosing a way to suppress the symptoms, we ask the question “why has the symptom occurred in the first place?” as there is always a reason
The principles of FM are represented visually in the Functional Medicine tree
For the tree to flourish, it’s necessary to look after the foundations (roots), which are the most basic elements of health.
When the roots are influenced by predisposing genetic factors (antecedents), the events that provoke dysfunction (triggers) and others that promote ongoing physiological processes (mediators), it can lead to functional imbalances. If these imbalances are not addressed, it eventually leads to symptoms and disease.
However, by using lifestyle interventions that address the root cause, it is possible to restore balance in any of the body systems or even reserve disease.
You can read more about Functional Medicine here.
“Poor gut health is at the root of just about every chronic health condition in our modern world. If you want to be healthy, you have to get your gut working properly”
Dr Mark Hyman