Functional/holistic medicine
Functional/holistic/alternative medicine is a kind of general medicine, a kind that many people have never experienced. It goes by several other names, each meaning and representing something slightly different, including integrative, complementary, nutritional and natural medicine. So, how is functional medicine different from “traditional medicine” (the type of medicine practiced by many medical doctors you may have been to in the past)? First, traditional medicine uses mostly prescription medicines as the first line of treatment, with surgery as the second line. Functional/holistic medicine focuses first and foremost on diet, exercise, relaxation, behavior change and vitamins to improve health. Drugs and surgery are usually the last approaches used by a complementary physician, and when they are used, drugs are generally prescribed in much smaller doses.
Second, the functional or holistic medical doctor views you “as a whole.” We assume that you can’t treat one part of the body successfully without making sure all systems are “go”. We pay special attention to the “small” details of each patient’s history that might otherwise be overlooked, such as fatigue, indigestion or constipation. It is my job as a functional doctor to work towards restoring you to a natural state of overall good health and an improved state of well-being. The focus is on achieving optimal function, hence the name. This approach helps to prevent future health problems and reduces health risks. For that reason, it is sometimes also called “preventative medicine.”
Lastly, functional doctors are very interested in innovative therapies for medical complaints that are not successfully treatable by the traditional approach, symptoms that may not even be identifiable with a name diagnosis. The bottom line is always getting good results and achieving optimal function in the safest possible way.
Is functional/holistic medicine for you? If you have gone to several doctors feeling “unwell” and been told that nothing is wrong or needs to be changed or treated; if you have ever been treated with a medication, and then you read the package insert and saw a frightening table of side effects; if you’ve ever been on a long list of medications and had an intuition that it was probably too much medication to be taking all at once; or, if you’ve ever had surgery recommended as treatment and you wondered if there might not be another way - you should consider functional/holistic medicine. It’s the most comprehensive and conservative approach to your best health.
