FIND OUT HOW FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE WORK AND CAN HELP YOU

Functional Medicine is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. 

The meaning of the “Functional” part of Functional Medicine is that we are interested in figuring out the “Dysfunction” in your current state of health or to prevent the onset of disease. Rather than simply prescribing a blood pressure pill to lower blood pressure, Functional Medicine doctors want to find out Why your blood pressure is high and correct that.

Functional medicine is the new buzzword and for a good reason. It’s an enormous paradigm shift, that suggests diseases don’t exist in the way we thought they existed. Within its framework, diseases are actually considered as downstream effects from upstream mechanisms. 

Functional medicine aims to evaluate and understand the patient, their history, and their lifestyles before developing a holistic treatment strategy that addresses the whole person not just an isolated set of symptoms to re-establishes an optimal internal environment which often then leads to profound and longer-lasting results for patients.

Functional Nutrition Practitioners are not here to replace life saving critical care provided by conventional medicine. Rather, we work together with medical doctors, nurses, health coaches, nutritionists, and other allied health providers to support our patients as they make their journey toward wellness.

Functional nutrition is a subcategory of functional medicine based on a holistic perspective of the body - physical, spiritual, and emotional - and using healthy, whole-food approaches to nutrition to address the root causes of illness and support optimal gut health. Instead of just looking at calories and the micronutrient content of food, functional nutrition also emphasizes an individual's environment, lifestyle, cultural background, stress levels, and more to tailor nutritional recommendations for a specific goal. The field of functional nutrition embraces the concept of bio-individuality, meaning that each patient has specific needs when it comes to nutrition and overall care.

As a functional nutritional therapist I work under the framework of functional medicine. I follow The underlying premise of functional medicine is that every person’s biology is unique, and each approach to therapy should be as individual as the person being treated.

Find more about christelle.

So you might be wondering - how is functional medicine actually practiced? Functional medicine is a framework, and because functional medicine practitioners may include doctors, naturopaths, chiropractors and even nurses, the way functional medicine is practiced will vary depending on what type of practitioner you see. However, all practitioners of functional medicine follow certain principles while working with patients to help them recover their health.

One way to think about Functional Medicine is as a type of detective work.

Let’s take a closer look.

One branch, many roots. One root, many branches.
One branch, many roots: If you have a certain disease or ailment, we identify one or more “root causes” that are unique to you. This means that somebody else with the same ailment may have a different set of root causes. For example, your hormonal headaches may be due to poor liver estrogen clearance, while your friend’s hormonal headaches may be due to vitamin B deficiency, and your neighbor’s headaches may be due to a gut microbiome imbalance. One symptom (branch) with many roots.

One root, many branches: You may have a root imbalance that causes a specific symptom, yet someone else with the same root imbalance may have a different symptom presentation. For example, you may have a root imbalance of poor liver estrogen clearance, which causes hormonal headaches for you. Your friend may also have poor estrogen clearance but her symptom (branch) is heavy painful periods, and your neighbor with the same root has uterine fibroids. This is an example of one root, with many branches.

Functional medicine is a comprehensive holistic, patient-focused, science-based,  collaborative, and systems-biology based approach to health that looks at the origins and the underlying causes of the illness and symptoms. It is a comprehensive approach that emphasises not just restoring health, but also preventing disease in the first place

Think of functional medicine as a map or a GPS system that navigates the landscape of illness through physiological pathways and mechanisms, not diseases. Functional medicine looks at patterns that are present in our whole system. It’s the medicine that connects the dots between all the things that are going wrong within our biology. Something that conventional medicine isn’t able to do as many of the specialisms are separated from each other. If you have a problem with your gut, you see a gastroenterologist, if you have a problem with your skin you see a dermatologist. Functional medicine looks at the person as a whole. Very often, for example, major problems with the skin are actually rooted in the gut. Problems in the gut may be coming from poor nerve activity in the brain and so on. Investigating and understanding how the different biological systems work, and how they are all interlinked, allows us to intervene upstream at the cause of the problem, rather than just trying to manage the symptoms.

In addition to providing a more comprehensive philosophy of care, Functional Medicine introduces a focus on interconnected biologic systems in contrast to independent organ systems—looking at the interplay of physiology and function.

We dig a little deeper.

Thanks to thousands of biochemical reactions, all these systems can bring in symbiosis with the other, one or more necessary and specific functions to maintain internal balance and optimal operation to maintain health. The body is totally dynamic, these systems work cooperatively and are interconnected, they can not be compartmentalized.

It is the absorbed micronutrients that allow the cells to work perfectly.

This is why we look at the fundamental way in which your food affect your body at the cellular level and your mind.

It is estimated that an incredible number of cells form different tissues and organs which then come together and constitute a physiological system namely:

• Immune dysfunction
• Digestive system issues and imbalances within the gut microbiome
• Poor detoxification
• Energy metabolism and reduced mitochondrial function
• Hormonal dysfunction
• Compromised structural integrity of the skin, connective tissue and bones
• Psychospiritual assessment.

As an example of how these systems work together (and contribute to dysfunction), someone diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome may not only have chronic fatigue—loss of energy and decreased exercise tolerance (Energy)—but also abnormal hormone levels and sleep/wake cycles (Communication) as well as digestive issues/gas/bloating (Assimilation) and recurrent injuries (Structural Integrity). Their brain fog, lack of ability to concentrate and quick mental fatigability (Energy + Communication) limits their ability to handle their every day life.
From a Functional Medicine approach I would attempt to see how all these systems are interrelated and in what order they became dysregulated. Only then can we attempt to ‘unwind’ these tangled systems.

In this model I also take into account the patient’s medical history viewed through the lens of ATMs (Antecedents, Triggers & Mediators).

Antecedents
What preceded the development of my patient’s thyroid disease leading up to her diagnosis?
This could be poor diet, lifestyle, birth history, or even environmental factors.

Triggers
Then, I attempt to discover the triggers that pushed her over the edge into autoimmunity. Was it an acute infection, one last bout of bronchitis/pneumonia, or even the car accident resulting in a concussion?

Mediators
Finally, what event(s) are keeping the fire going? This could be poor sleep, chronic stress, work environment or even current/ongoing mold/lyme exposure.

As you can see in this model, the complexity continues to develop as we weave web upon web to help uncover the root cause of an individual’s current health condition.

After uncovering the antecedents, triggers, & mediators resulting in the current dysfunction—a combination of lifestyle & environmental factors interacting with a patient’s specific genetic predispositions—I work with my patient to progressively unwind those specific lifestyle & environmental factors.

This approach is sometimes called Lifestyle Medicine due to the emphasis on diet, nutrition, sleep, exercise, stress, and relationships. While these are all included and addressed in the Functional Medicine model, this model is more comprehensive than merely recommending lifestyle interventions.

My Functional Nutrition advices are designed to help you feel healthy, empowered, and supported.