Functional Health, Explained: A Holistic Approach to Wellness

Functional health appears simple enough to understand: a functioning, healthy body, and balanced lifestyle, with all your systems working in unison. Sounds nice, right? But for many of us, we have chronic aches, pains, and diseases. We might not sleep well on a regular basis, or deal with inflammation that leaves our joints feeling stiff every morning. Perhaps high cholesterol or blood pressure runs in your family, and you’re predisposed to developing diseases associated with these malfunctions. Experts say these small imbalances within our physiological systems can add up over time and even lead to more serious conditions. 

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Functional health offers a comprehensive perspective on these imbalances, one that extends far beyond one-off symptom management. Let’s explore functional health's distinctiveness and the benefits it offers to individuals seeking a proactive stance on their well-being.

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Deciphering Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is a system biology-based approach to modern healthcare. It operates on the premise that true healing involves treating the whole person, not just symptoms or isolated organs, explains Dr. Mark Hyman, M.D., board president of Clinical Affairs at the Institute for Functional Medicine.

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"Functional medicine is the science of creating health,” he says. “It’s the medicine of ‘why?’ We use a systems approach to identify and treat the underlying causes of disease.”

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Functional health recognizes that chronic illnesses, ranging from diabetes to depression, stem from a myriad of interconnected factors. These may include inflammation, blood sugar imbalances, hormonal disruptions, environmental toxins, and lifestyle choices. By comprehensively assessing these root causes, functional medicine practitioners strive to rebalance the body's physiological systems and unleash its natural healing abilities.

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Bridging the Gap: Conventional vs. Functional Medicine

In contrast to conventional medicine's emphasis on early disease detection, functional medicine adopts an even more proactive stance toward health preservation. 

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While conventional methods rely on diagnostic screenings to confirm a disease’s presence, such as mammography or cholesterol tests, functional medicine delves into things like genetic predispositions, metabolic intricacies, and family histories. This proactive approach enables practitioners to help steer individuals away from the trajectory of chronic diseases before they arrive.

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In other words, as the Functional Health Institute of Atlanta explains: “We do not treat the individual diseases; we deal with underlying health dysfunctions in the individual patient.”

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Harnessing the Power of Nutrition in Functional Health

Central to the functional health model is the recognition of food as medicine. In this model, what you put in your body directly relates to your health outcomes. 

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The idea is that certain breakdowns in normal function precede most disease processes. When key nutrients become deficient in a person, it affects metabolic processes, and the body may try to compensate for such imbalances. If prolonged, this may contribute to hormonal issues, metabolic disorders, an increase in toxic load, oxidative stress, organ weakness, and more. These are the root causes of chronic disease that we want to avoid. 

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Functional health practitioners step in at this stage to develop a personalized approach to nutrition, tailoring dietary recommendations to individual needs and preferences. They identify environmental triggers beyond poor nutrition too, such as stress, toxins, allergens, genetics, and the microbiome to customize a healthy living plan for you. 

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Conclusion

By addressing nutrient deficiencies, mitigating stressors, and optimizing lifestyle habits, functional medicine empowers individuals to take charge of their health journey. This holistic approach not only alleviates symptoms but fosters sustainable well-being by nurturing the body's innate capacity for healing. By unraveling the intricate web of underlying health dysfunctions and harnessing the power of nutrition and lifestyle interventions, functional medicine equips individuals with the tools to reclaim their health and lead fulfilling lives. 

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Sources

Cleveland Clinic

Functional Health Institute of Atlanta

The Institute for Functional Medicine

Jupiter Concierge Family Medicine

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