A More Comprehensive Approach to Wellness
Functional Medicine is an evolution in the practice of medicine that looks at the wide range of factors contributing to our overall wellness.
The focus of Functional Medicine is on patient-centered care, promoting health as a positive vitality, beyond just the absence of disease.
By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient centered approach, functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Functional Medicine practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long term health and complex, chronic disease. In this way, Functional Medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual.
-The Institute for Functional Medicine, “What is Functional Medicine”
Why do we need Functional Medicine?
Our society is experiencing a sharp increase in the number of people who suffer from complex chronic diseases. The system of medicine practiced by most physicians is oriented toward acute care — the diagnosis and treatment of trauma or illness that is of short duration and in need of urgent care. Not all physicians are trained to assess the underlying causes of complex, chronic diseases. And with increasing demands, few are able to take time to fully engage with patients after diagnosis to ensure complete and sustained success.
"Wellness is a choice, a way of life, a process, an efficient channeling of energy, an integration of mind, body, spirit and a loving acceptance of self."
— John Travis, "Wellness Workbook: How to Achieve Enduring Health and Vitality"