Functional Medicine

Functional Medicine is a systems-oriented approach which engages both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership to address the healthcare needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated finding or set of symptoms. Functional medicine practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease. In this way, functional medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual. It is patient-centered approach refers to health care that is respectful of and responsive to individual patient preferences, needs, and values, and that ensures that patient values guide all clinical decisions. Patients who are active participants in the development of their therapeutic plan feel more in control of their own well-being and are more likely to make sustained lifestyle changes to improve their health.

To address the health needs of our patients, we frequently conduct specialized testing to assess:

• the internal intestinal environment
• neurotransmitters
• adrenal function
• male and female hormones
• food allergies and food sensitivities
• heavy metal toxicities
• genetic factors that may affect your ability to lead a healthful life.

Your body is a complex web of many functions and organ systems that have to work together harmoniously to achieve health, or will produce illness when this balance is disturbed in some way. Healing may require changes in diet or lifestyle. Functional medicine is an Integrative Medicine approach which combines traditional Western medical practices with what is sometimes considered “alternative” medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise. We use laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques, as well as prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress-management techniques.

Food supplementation is sometimes referred to as “Orthomolecular medicine” since it uses uses substances that occur naturally in the human body (in Greek, “ortho” means “right” or “correct”). These can be vitamins, minerals, enzymes, amino acids or hormones in their natural form. The physician follows the path of nature to achieve health or attain a better state of health by supporting specific biochemical processes which have become weakened through illness.Dietary supplements are regulated under the DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act), enacted by Congress in 1994 in order to assure safety. For your convenience, we offer a selection of supplements from trusted manufacturers that we frequently recommend.

Dietary supplements are regulated under the DSHEA (Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act), enacted by Congress in 1994 in order to assure safety. For your convenience, we offer a selection of supplements from trusted manufacturers that we frequently recommend.

We frequently use Bio-identical hormones. Unlike most pharmaceutical products, these hormones are identical in molecular structure to the hormones naturally occurring in the human body, and can be used to treat hormonal imbalances. Bioidentical hormones can be monitored in the blood to ensure your safety, which is not true for their pharmaceutical analogues.