What is Functional Medicine?

Aristotle (384 BC) stated, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”  It is not possible to look at body dysfunction without addressing the body as a whole and the interaction of all the body systems. Think of an orchestra and how music sounds so different when all the instruments play together versus separately.  Your body would not function well if one major organ became dysfunctional like the orchestra would not sound the same if you removed the entire string section.  Testing might be considered to address the physiological dysfunction versus only diagnosing pathological disease.  An example might be how the pancreas or gallbladder is functioning and any related genetic variations that might be causative factors.

Lifestyle, nutrition, and botanical supplements are part of the approach to best support each person.  Family history and all aspects of lifestyle are important in creating an approach for healing. Testing may include genetics, stool, organic acids (end products of metabolic function), hormone, and cortisol (released from stress).  Additional lifestyle changes may include stress, sleep,

Functional medicine is based on the principle that all body systems are interdependent and considering how all body systems are functioning when addressing any problems.  The approach also considers each person is unique and strategies to treat dysfunction are personalized for individual cases.