Functional medicine is a unique approach to health care that fuses the best conventional and alternative medical research to address the cause of a patient’s illness. It’s a complete rethinking of health and disease that examines the interaction between an individual’s genetic uniqueness, environment, diet and lifestyle.
What Is Functional Medicine?
Rather than simply treating symptoms, functional medicine practitioners look to discover the root causes of chronic conditions and then help restore health. Our bodies are very complex, with countless variables that can contribute to illness. These include genetics, lifestyle, diet, and stress. Doctors trained in conventional and functional medicine can be more effective at treating patients because they can look at the big picture and address these different factors. Functional medicine clinics such as Trivida Functional Medicine use advanced diagnostic testing and treatments to treat a patient’s disease as the root cause rather than just their symptoms. This approach can also help prevent illness and improve overall health and wellness.
How Does Functional Medicine Work?
Rather than relying on short visits to treat diseases quickly, functional medicine seeks the root cause of illnesses and works to prevent them from developing in the first place. It looks at a patient’s history, stress levels, diet, and overall well-being to understand what’s causing their symptoms. In contrast to conventional medicine, which looks at a patient’s disease as a stand-alone entity that can be cured with prescription drugs, functional medicine recognizes that most illnesses are caused by interactions between genetics, lifestyle choices, and environmental exposures. This leads to a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet and exercise; the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of herbal medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs or stress management techniques. This approach has been shown to improve health outcomes and lower patient medical costs and is now gaining more traction in the healthcare industry.
Why Is Functional Medicine Different From Conventional Medicine?
Functional medicine is an approach to healthcare that focuses on preventing, managing and reversing complex chronic diseases. Its approach to wellness is based on understanding the interconnected systems in your body and how they interact with each other and the environment. Conventional Medicine diagnoses and treats specific symptoms or diseases using drugs, radiation and surgery. These techniques can often reduce symptoms, but they aren’t designed to address the underlying causes of your health problems. Using your full history and results from laboratory tests, your Functional Medicine practitioner can identify the root cause of your symptoms. These factors can be anything from toxic chemicals, pathogenic bacteria, parasites, and chronic viral infections to emotional poisons like anger, greed or envy.
What Are the Benefits of Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine is an individualized, science-based, patient-centered approach to treating and preventing disease. It requires a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical and lifestyle factors and leverages that data to create personalized treatment plans. Unlike conventional medicine, functional medicine practitioners look for root causes rather than symptoms. By seeing each patient’s body as a whole, they can identify how different parts of their system are interconnected and how they interact. This is important because it allows for a more targeted and effective treatment plan.
A key aspect of functional medicine is the belief that we can influence our health and disease by modifying our diet, movement, exercise, sleep, mental health and environmental exposures. This makes functional medicine a proactive, preventative approach that can help you stay healthy and enjoy your life. It also empowers you to actively participate in your health care and make the best decisions for yourself and your family
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