Functional medicine brings together modern medicine, nutrition, acupuncture, and massage for total health and wellness
Key takeaways
Long-term health is achieved with an integrative approach to healing through a holistic lifestyle.
Functional medicine is based on science and the whole-person approach.
Specialists analyze diagnostics and laboratory findings to create an integrative treatment plan for patients.
Total health and well-being is a lifelong process. We can achieve it by choosing a path to wellness that considers our whole self. Health is not only about caring for the physical body, as is often seen in the Western medicine model, but about healing the elements that make up our human experience and our internal systems, in conjunction with one another.
Western medicine relies on credible research to support its approach to physical health, but it often only seeks to stop symptoms and not treat the root cause. It tends to overlook all of the facets that contribute to true health and well-being.
Functional medicine on the other hand is a systems biology-based approach that is much more holistic. It believes that optimum health is achieved by treating the body, mind, and spirit as one functioning entity. It acknowledges that long-term health is achieved with an integrative approach to healing through a holistic lifestyle.
Functional medicine combines the evidence-based science of Western medicine with a holistic, biological approach that seeks to address the root cause of disease. Patients can get the best of both worlds this way. Integrating empirical research and a holistic perspective allows us to see the bigger picture of well-being, not just soothe the physical manifestations of disease and ailments.
Functional medicine considers all aspects of health, including:
Diet and nutrition
Emotional well-being
Environment
Lifestyle
Functional medicine practitioners use a credible, science-based, integrative approach to test, diagnose, and treat ailments. They incorporate a holistic view of the body and the person’s lifestyle to not only heal symptoms but uncover the root causes for long-lasting relief.
Is functional medicine scientific?
Yes. Holistic healing is sometimes inaccurately seen as unscientific when compared with Western medicine. The functional approach may differ a bit from modern medicine, but it’s not a mystical, uninformed healing technique. Functional medical practitioners take patient history, order blood tests, collect fluid samples and more, while also recommending diet and lifestyle changes. Functional medicine also integrates techniques of Traditional Chinese Medicine which has been practiced for over 3000 years.
Holistic wellness recognizes the importance of seeing the whole person, not just the physical body. In this way, it offers much-needed relief from ailments that are caused by energetic blockages (stress, emotion, mental illness, as well as physical causes like inflammation and low Vitamin D levels) while still relying on verifiable research.
A holistic approach to health can even be more effective because it brings the empirical-based science of Western medicine together with holistic modalities. By blending these outlooks, the tools of modern science couple with the holistic perspective and ultimately help patients achieve the total wellness they seek, not just symptom treatment.
Exclusively physical-based medicine misses the complex interconnection of lifestyle factors, like diet, stress, and emotional turmoil that contribute to health. These factors are very important in a holistic approach.
A science-based approach to wellness
Opting for holistic health through functional medicine is not a departure from science. Functional medicine is itself an example of ecology or the study of an organism in relation to its environment (and other organisms.) Similarly, it calls for deductive reasoning and logic.
Functional medicine and its techniques encompass the following sciences:
Anatomy
Biology
Genetics
Pathology
Physiology
Therapeutics
Functional medicine differs from Western medicine, not for lack of scientific study, but because it considers the patient as a whole person, made up of many different aspects.
Functional medicine specialists look beyond the painful symptoms a person presents with and into their lifestyle and background to determine the deep-rooted cause of their ailment. This background review offers the ability to create curated treatment plans.
Patients usually benefit greatly from a combination of integrative healing modalities that are based on science, like acupuncture and medical massage. Assessing a patient’s diet and nutrition levels also plays heavily into healing their ailments.
Functional medicine is unique to you
Patients achieve individualized optimum wellness through the functional medicine approach. Treatments are tailored to their specific needs, not offered as a cookie-cutter one-size-fits-all solution.
Functional medicine offers relief by identifying the source of pain, not just remedying symptoms. Patients are reviewed and diagnosed on a case-by-case basis.
Individuals (and their ailments) are unique and so must their treatment plans be. Physicians take careful consideration of a patient’s system and lifestyle, run appropriate testing, and look at the big picture when diagnosing.
A blend of techniques
Functional medicine is like a Venn diagram. It takes different schools of thought and applies both scientific and holistic approaches to create a total wellness treatment plan. The resulting plan is illuminated by a wealth of knowledge.
Treatment plans often include some or all of the following integrative approaches:
Medical massage
Functional medicine: the best of both worlds
Whether you’re considering including a specific integrative technique, like acupuncture, on your path to wellness, or looking to adopt the functional medicine approach for a completely new lifestyle, you can achieve optimal health.
Functional medicine provides the best of modern, Western science and integrative holistic techniques, like those of Traditional Chinese Medicine. Your lifestyle factors and other intangible aspects of self that may cause your ailments will be accounted for. You’ll receive an individualized treatment plan unique to you. The integrative approach will lead you to the well-being you seek, without compromise.
Holistic treatments and modern science can work together to resolve health concerns. You’ll benefit from longstanding tradition and Western science, plus an entire team of experts in their field helping you along the way.
Reach out to our EACUWell team for a complimentary consultation.
