Conventional medicine is adept at handling acute trauma. If you go to the emergency room with a heart attack or a broken leg, the doctors who treat you will know exactly what to do. Where conventional medicine falls short is in the early identification and long-term management of chronic illness, including the kinds of digestive, metabolic, hormonal, and cardiovascular disorders in which many functional-medicine doctors specialize.
Matching a drug to a disease is a big part of conventional medicine. When you get sick. You go to the doctor. The doctor runs tests or recognizes your symptoms. You’re given a prescription to take to the pharmacy. Sometimes the medicine works wonders. Often, it doesn’t — particularly over the long haul, and particularly if what you are dealing with is a chronic disease or condition. And often the drug has side effects.
This medication-centered mindset and the industry behind it have saved millions of lives, especially when it comes to infectious diseases, such as malaria and polio. However with chronic diseases like diabetes, hypertension and many more; it seems more medications given the worst the person gets.
Chronic Disease
Functional medicine considers the diagnosis, of course, but it also seeks to answer the question why. Some people have the mistaken idea that functional medicine is simply lifestyle-based medicine, but it is a systems-oriented, science-based approach that involves taking a patient’s biochemistry, physiology, genetics, and environmental exposures into account when looking for the cause of a specific medical issue or set of symptoms.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that one in two adults (133 million Americans) has at least one chronic condition such as heart disease, type 2 diabetes, cancer, or arthritis. Chronic illness is now also linked to seven out of every 10 deaths in the United States.
Most experts acknowledge the current system is failing people with chronic illness. Where Functional-medicine will dig for different possible causes of the problem and tries to fix the root cause rather than just address the symptoms.
Functional Medicine
Jeffrey Bland, PhD, who is widely considered one of functional medicine’s leading pioneers, explains it this way: “Functional-medicine practitioners spend time with their patients and listen to their histories because they are looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease.”
Bland launched the functional-medicine movement about 30 years ago after he grew frustrated with what he calls “fragmented, organ-based specialty care.”
Think of disease as a giant weed sprouting out of the body’s soil, Bland says. “What’s above ground is easier to see and, in many ways, easier to treat. But unless you dig down and uproot the weed, you’ll never contain it; you’ll only stunt its growth.”
In 1990, Bland asked a group of medical experts to brainstorm a better way. Ultimately, the group laid down the foundations of functional medicine. The experts felt that catching the early warning signs of chronic illness would be best for patients as well as the healthcare system. They decided that employing extensive intake questionnaires and listening to patients’ stories could provide important clues.
Soon after, Bland and his wife, Susan, founded the IFM and began offering introductory courses in functional medicine. To enroll, an applicant had to be a graduate of an accredited healthcare program: Doctors, nurses, naturopaths, osteopaths, chiropractors, and nutritionists could all participate.
Today, more than 100,000 healthcare practitioners have been introduced to the principles and practices of functional medicine, and the organization’s membership is expanding by 30 percent a year. The IFM is developing courses on functional medicine that will be taught in medical schools around the country.
“Functional medicine isn’t ‘airy fairy,’” says Bland. “The method is grounded in science, and we use the best drugs available, if needed,” he says. But, when appropriate, practitioners also advise patients about nutrition, exercise, and reduction of toxic exposure. “This is simply about using the right tool for the right job,” he says.
What’s the difference between functional and integrative medicine?
The difference between functional medicine and integrative medicine is subtle but meaningful. While all functional medicine is integrative (meaning it’s open to integrating both conventional and alternative methods), not all integrative healthcare practices are functional.
An integrative doctor may be a family practitioner with an interest in Chinese medicine or an osteopath who incorporates homeopathy into his practice. Functional medicine, says David Jones, MD, from Institute of Functional Medicine (IFM), who likens the distinction to your computer: Functional medicine would be the operating system running in the background, while integrative approaches, like acupuncture and homeopathy, are like specific apps running in the foreground without an operating system connecting them.
Why haven’t I heard of functional medicine?
Functional-medicine is altering the course of conventional medicine but it takes a while. Functional medicine started in the early 1990s as the brainstorm of a few doctors frustrated with a medical system that expected them to treat chronic disease with pills and surgeries. Now, functional medicine has grown to more than 100,000 practitioners from 73 countries have been introduced to the principles and practices of functional medicine. Faculties from 30 percent of all medical schools in the United States have enrolled in continuing-education courses. One of the group’s goals is to incorporate functional medicine into medical-school curricula so that the next generation of doctors will be able to treat chronic diseases successfully.
How much does it cost to see a functional-medicine professional?
In addition to lab costs and follow-up appointments, expect to pay $200 to $400 for an initial consult. Be forewarned: Even if you can find a practitioner who takes your health-insurance plan (some functional-medicine practitioners do not), the out-of-pocket expenses for supplements and tests can sometimes be very high.
Most major health-insurance companies won’t pay for lab tests above and beyond a standard protocol. While a functional approach may cost more up front, many patients find it well worth the money — both because they get better results, and because they avoid the side effects and quality-of-life sacrifices associated with many conventional pharmaceutical and surgical interventions.
How do I find a functional-medicine doctor?
Start by searching the IFM’s website (www.functionalmedicine.org), once you find practitioners near you, be sure to check out their websites for more info.
