What Are The Benefits Of Functional Medicine?

There are several benefits of functional medicine. This approach to healing is highly personalized and begins with a comprehensive medical history to identify disease antecedents, triggers, and mediators. This information will help your doctor organize a specific treatment tailored to your health background. Next, functional medicine practitioners focus in on the root causes of your health condition. There are often holistic treatment options for you whether you have a history of  heart disease, digestive disorders, or other illness. Many of these treatments are rooted in nutrition and exercise and your doctor will  work with you to identify the best course of treatment for you.

In this article, we discuss the functional medicine model. This is a patient-centered approach and we will discuss how functional medicine may benefit you. Many factors go into functional medicine treatments to ensure they are as highly individualized as possible. Find a functional medicine practitioner and get a complete picture of what you need to make your lifestyle as healthy as possible to prevent disease. Now let’s learn what functional medicine is.

What is Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine practitioners take a holistic approach to health and wellness. Functional medicine focuses on the whole person, not just individual organ systems or diseases. Functional medicine practitioners employ various techniques to help their patients achieve optimal health.

Functional medicine is based on the belief that the body has an innate ability to heal itself. This means that functional medicine doctors work to identify and treat the root cause of illness rather than just treating the symptoms. By taking this approach, functional medicine practitioners can help their patients achieve long-term relief from chronic illnesses.

What a Functional Medicine Doctor can Provide.

Functional medicine is a branch of healthcare that looks at the whole person, not just disease or illness. Functional medicine doctors use a systems biology approach to understand how the different systems in the body work together. They then use this information to develop personalized treatment plans for each patient.

There are many benefits to seeing a functional medicine doctor. Functional medicine doctors take the time to get to know their patients and understand their unique needs. They focus on preventing disease rather than simply treating it and look at the whole person, not just their symptoms.

Functional medicine focuses on uncovering the underlying causes of illness and disease as opposed to conventional medicine which focuses on treating symptoms once a disease or illness has been diagnosed. A functional medicine practitioner will carefully review your medical history and make personalized recommendations to help prevent diseases and illnesses from attacking your body.

Benefits of Seeing Functional Medicine Doctors.

Functional medicine is an approach to patient care that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease. By taking a holistic and integrative approach, functional medicine practitioners focus on providing patients with individualized care that addresses their unique needs.

There are many potential benefits to seeking care from a functional medicine practitioner, including:

  • A focus on preventative care: Functional medicine doctors take a proactive approach to health prioritizing preventative measures to avoid illness and disease.
  • A personalized approach: Functional medicine doctors work with each patient to develop an individualized treatment plan that considers their unique circumstances and needs.
  • An integrative approach: Functional medicine doctors use an integrative approach that combines conventional medicine with alternative and complementary therapies.

Functional Medicine Practitioner’s Purpose

Functional medicine focuses on health and wellbeing, chronic disease prevention, and lifestyle optimization. The functional medicine doctor’s purpose is to design a treatment plan to help you achieve your best health. With a variety of labs including advanced nutrient, blood, hormone, stool, saliva and genetic testing, you can prevent chronic conditions with the guidance of your functional medicine doctor. Typically, your first appointment focuses on your medical history and what your major health goals are.

Patient Care and Treatment Plan

Functional medicine is a type of patient care that focuses on identifying the root cause of disease and using a systems-biology approach to treatment. Functional medicine doctors work with patients to create individualized treatment plans that address the underlying causes of disease rather than simply treating symptoms. Functional medicine is often used to treat chronic conditions such as autoimmune diseases that are difficult to manage with conventional medicine.

Functional medicine has many benefits, including its focus on addressing the root cause of disease, its individualized approach to patient care, and its holistic view of health and healing. Functional medicine can be an effective tool for managing chronic conditions and may offer a more comprehensive approach to healthcare than conventional medicine alone.

The Approach to Treatment

Functional medicine recognizes that system imbalances cause many chronic diseases in the body’s systems and that many of these imbalances can be corrected through lifestyle changes and natural therapies. Functional medicine doctors often treat patients with complex, chronic disease including autoimmune diseases, as they are particularly skilled at identifying and correcting imbalances in the body that lead to chronic health conditions such as autoimmunity.

Your health history is important to your functional medicine doctor. You will receive a personalized treatment plan based on your chronic health conditions.

Chronic Disease Management

Chronic disease management is focused on preventing and treating chronic diseases. The functional medicine approach is a comprehensive, individualized, and integrative approach to healthcare that considers each person’s unique medical history, lifestyle, environment, and genetic factors. A health coach is a trained professional who can help you make lifestyle changes to improve your health.

Functional Medicine Takeaways

Functional medicine is a medical approach that looks at the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms or individual organ systems or diseases. It considers a person’s medical history, lifestyle, diet, and stress levels to develop a comprehensive treatment plan. This approach is beneficial because it can help identify the root cause of a person’s health concerns and address them holistically. A health coach can help you understand and implement the functional medicine approach into your life.

Bio: Index Health is a healthcare team specialized in personalized healing and  root cause diagnosis and treatment. Our multi-disciplinary care team is made up of physicians and nutritionists that are trained and certified in functional or root cause medicine.