Functional Medicine is an evidence-based, systems-based approach to patient care. By focusing on the root causes of chronic illness and sustainable lifestyle change, Functional Medicine expands the diagnostic and treatment options of providers.
Listen about how Functional Medicine treats the whole person by addressing the underlying causes of disease from The Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioners in the following video:
Conventional medicine tends to look at the constellation of symptoms first, which usually results in disease diagnosis. Often, this diagnosis is associated with a drug or drugs that can be prescribed to treat this constellation of symptoms, and that is the end of the story. But this approach neglects the more fundamental aspects of health. It treats all patients who present with similar symptoms the same way and completely ignores the inherent differences among patients and the myriad possible causes that a "disease" can have.
Functional medicine is holistic in how it views patients and the problems they present with. It seeks to identify and address the root causes of disease, and views the body as one integrated system, not a collection of independent organs divided up by medical specialties. Functional medicine includes the core concepts of naturopathic medicine within its system, is built on the foundation of conventional medicine, and incorporates the open-mindedness of integrative medicine when determining the most effective modality needed to get the patient well. Functional medicine has built upon all these other approaches to healthcare to make available to the patient the most effective medical system currently known. Functional medicine is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century.
In the next video IFM Board Chairman and faculty member Dr. Mark Hyman shares a great case demostrating the power of the functional medicine approach. The illness of his chronically sick client was cured in 3 weeks with funtional medical approach while the conventional medicine wouldn't make any difference during 3 and half years of this girl's life prior to that:
In the next video, a leader in nutritional medicine, Jeffrey S. Bland, explains why treating chronic illness and patients with multiple comorbidities requires a systems-based approach, why treatments must be tailored to each individual, how it can be enacted and what clinicians can do to implement this type of methodology.
To learn more about Functional Medicine, visit the website of IFM. And if you have a suggestion for more resources to be included on this page, don't hesitate to contact us and let us know.
At the moment Functional Medicine is very expensive. At Mariposa we aim to reduce the costs of medicine. One of our strategy is with Membership Medicine.