Functional Medicine is the practice of medicine that reaffirms the importance of the relationship between the practitioner and the patient, focuses on the whole person, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches, healthcare professionals and disciplines to achieve optimal health and healing. – Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine Steering Committee.
How is Functional Medicine Different from Conventional Medicine?
While conventional medicine focuses on suppressing the symptoms of a medical condition, Functional Medicine discovers and addresses its underlying causes.
Unlike conventional medicine, Functional Medicine addresses the patient as a whole – not as an isolated set of systems and symptoms.
Functional Medicine looks at both external (environmental) and internal (lifestyle) factors to determine the best course of patient care.
Functional Medicine Consultation is a one hour consultation performed by one of our highly trained Functional Medicine providers. During this consultation, your physician will be listening for the big picture and identifying the tests needed to uncover root causes of illness that may not yet have been uncovered.
After a Functional Medicine consultation, your physician may recommend laboratory work, urine, stool or saliva testing, or allergy testing. Each of these tests is designed to give our physicians information about what is happening in your body so that we can improve your health.
We typically recommend that you return for follow up approximately six weeks after your initial visit. This allows for the time required to perform these tests, and the results to be returned to your physician so that you can review them together.
Our facility is also able to perform standard laboratory testing, which your consulting physician may order if appropriate. Due to the complex nature of many of the tests performed, we review these lab results with you in person so that we can discuss them with you directly, and make appropriate referrals and adjustments to your plan of care.