Treating Symptoms Versus Treating the Person

In the dominant health care model today, medication is used to get rid of people’s symptoms. If the patient stops taking the medication, symptoms generally return. Functional Medicine approaches health problems differently. Instead of masking the problem, it aims at restoring the body’s natural functioning. Although Functional Medicine practitioners may prescribe pharmaceuticals, they are used to gently nudge the patient’s physiology in a positive direction so the patient will no longer need them. For example, conventional doctors would normally prescribe pharmaceuticals like Prilosec, Prevacid or Aciphex to treat acid reflux or heartburn. When the patient stops taking such drugs, the heartburn symptoms come back. In contrast, a Functional Medicine practitioner might find that a patient’s acid reflux is caused by Helicobacter pylori bacteria. Eradicating the Helicobacter pylori might very well lead to the end of heartburn symptoms, permanently.

It’s also important to note that in Functional Medicine, treatment for similar symptoms might vary tremendously for different patients, according to their medical history and results of laboratory tests. Factors that can come into play in producing the same symptoms include toxic chemicals, pathogenic bacteria, parasites, chronic viral pathogens, emotional poisons like anger, greed or envy, and structural factors such as tumors or cysts.

The Hallmarks of Functional Medicine

A patient seeing a functional medicine practitioner can expect to spend a considerable amount of time in the clinician’s office due to the specific care given to individuals health related conditions. Not only is critical information collected about factors that may have set the stage for (or may be contributing to) the present problems, but a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s habits of daily living, prior illnesses and traumas, environmental exposures, and genetic influences must be gained.

Patients may be asked to complete questionnaires on a variety of topics, such as toxic exposures at home and at work/school, a diet history, and characteristics of chronic and acute symptoms. Answers provide the clinician with in-depth health-related information that is difficult to gather by interview alone.

Laboratory tests are often recommended, including tests both familiar (e.g., CBC) and less conventional (e.g., stool analysis). These tests help determine which key biological processes are functioning properly and which are not essential information for the development of a customized, comprehensive treatment plan to restore health.

Treatments may include drugs, botanical medicines, nutritional supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, and counseling on lifestyle, exercise, or stress-management techniques.

The patient is an active partner with the functional medicine practitioner, taking a leading role in improving health and changing the outcome of disease.

A look at the process of taking the patient’s history reveals some key differences between functional medicine and conventional medicine. To simplify, the conventional practitioner has been trained to ask questions that narrow down the patient’s story, focusing efforts as rapidly as possible on achieving an organ system diagnosis. Once that diagnosis is made, the next step in conventional medicine is selecting the drug(s) or surgical procedure(s) that address the diagnosis.

What Does a Diagnosis Mean?

For the functional medicine practitioner, the diagnosis is the beginning, not the end, of the detective work. Functional medicine has been referred to as the “medicine of why” because it asks, “Why this diagnosis, for this person, and why now?” The extensive information collected from the patient’s history and lab work is used to determine the underlying imbalances and influences (whether genetic, environmental or psychosocial) that have produced the context for disease or dysfunction. The clinician evaluates seven key functional systems to understand the full network of vectors underlying the disease.

Once a comprehensive understanding of where and how these systems have gone haywire a plan is developed, to initiate and reestablish balance and functionality.

Functional medicine practitioners understand that there are often common pathways underlying what may seem like very different conditions or complaints; therefore, interventions affecting several systems may be identified. For example, improving the patient’s sleep beneficially influences the immune response, melatonin levels, T-cell lymphocyte levels, and often helps decrease oxidative stress throughout the organism.

Tools in a functional medicine practice are drawn from both conventional and integrative medicine, including lifestyle adjustments based on clinical scientific research.

The interventions are individualized and unique, because two people with the same diagnosed condition often have completely different underlying causes. One person’s heart disease or diabetes is not necessarily the same as another’s (one disease, many causes). A single trigger (e.g., food sensitivity) may produce very different signs and symptoms in different individuals (one cause, many diseases).

Functional medicine gives the paradigm shift needed in healthcare practices, encompassing the uniqueness of each person, the importance of the therapeutic partnership, and the role of environment and lifestyle in the development and treatment of disease, thus producing a more effective response to clients’ chronic conditions.

Our Holistic Clinic uses the most advanced diagnostic testing available through Cyrex Laboratories and Genova Diagnostics. Helping us find better answers to your healthcare needs has never been so easy.

You can be assured – we have a commitment to excellence when it comes to the level of care we provide. We hope you enjoy our refreshing view on health and want to explore the difference for yourself. Feel free to contact us for more information.