Functional medicine is a patient-centered approach to optimizing health rather than treating a disease. Orlando functional medicine practitioners spend time with patients, listening to their histories and exploring interactions between genetic, environmental, cellular, and lifestyle factors that can contribute to a patient’s long-term health and wellness.
Practitioners understand that the body’s various systems are interconnected, and symptoms in one system may manifest as imbalances in another. This allows them to uncover the root causes of illness and provide targeted treatment plans.
It’s Personalized
Unlike conventional medicine, functional medicine practitioners spend time getting to know their patients. They consider the patient’s history, environmental factors, lifestyle, and genetics when developing a personalized treatment plan. This individualized approach allows them to find the root cause of the illness and provide more accurate diagnoses. It also leads to better health outcomes and can save on medical expenses in the long run.
A key part of functional medicine is that one illness can have many causes. Practitioners recognize that a patient’s symptoms and diseases are interconnected and may be caused by nutrient deficiencies, hormone imbalances, toxin exposure, etc.
They also understand that the body’s natural healing processes need support after surgery. To help patients heal, they often incorporate dietary and lifestyle changes, nutritional supplements, gut health protocols, and other holistic treatments into their recovery plans. This holistic and individualized approach is especially effective in treating stealth pathogens, as primary symptoms tend to ebb and flow.
It’s Holistic
A holistic approach to healthcare is a more complete view of how your body works, including emotional and spiritual factors. It often considers various alternative treatments, such as herbs and massage.
Functional medicine also takes a holistic approach to health but with a more focused goal. It aims to find each patient’s underlying cause of symptoms or disease. That means considering genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors impacting wellness upstream.
It’s easy to conjure up a stereotype of Gwyneth Paltrow-types mixing up $200 breakfast smoothies, but there’s a lot more to holistic health than just eating organic kale and drinking chai tea. Many people who practice holistically believe that the most effective treatment is prevention. This helps you save future medical costs and keep disease at bay before it develops. Using a preventative approach also gives you more control over your well-being.
It’s Effective
The system-based approach of functional medicine allows practitioners to focus on a patient’s health. It’s based on the principle that all body systems are connected. This includes the gut-brain connection and other connections between body parts.
With a focus on the root causes of illness, functional medicine can be more effective than conventional treatments for many patients. Plus, it can be more cost-effective in the long run because it focuses on preventative care and eliminating underlying imbalances before they become chronic problems.
Unlike conventional doctors, who treat all patients with the same symptoms with the same prescriptions, functional doctors look for the unique imbalances causing your symptoms. This personalized treatment plan can include dietary changes, nutritional supplements, botanicals, lifestyle interventions, and, in some cases, limited pharmaceutical medications.
Many doctors who switched to functional medicine came from a traditional medical background but found that the current system burned them out. They want to help their patients find the joy of living again by treating them as people, not just patients.
It’s Affordable
The underlying philosophy of conventional medicine is that symptoms should be treated reactively utilizing tools like pharmaceuticals and surgery. While this may excel at treating acute issues, it does little to address long-term or chronic diseases.
Functional practitioners take a more “upstream” approach by considering the interplay between genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that may influence your health and well-being. This enables you to get to the root cause of your condition rather than just masking your symptoms.
You are more likely to spend less on health care when following a preventative approach. For example, a functional doctor would address your blood sugar levels well before conventional pre-diabetes symptoms appear.
Functional medicine doctors offer longer consultations to spend one-on-one time with you, listening to your concerns without interruption. They also conduct lab tests that are more comprehensive than those used in conventional practices. This means they can identify the early signs of diseases such as cancer and heart disease, which could save you thousands of dollars in future medical bills down the line.
