The goal of Functional Medicine is to find the root underlying cause of disease and work towards restoring and/or optimizing the incredible power of the body to heal. It is about asking the question “Why” the patient is sick not “What” is the disease (see previous blog).

Medicine unfortunately has been deconstructed to a state of symptoms and diagnoses (labels) and drugs that treat these symptoms and diagnoses. We wait for patients to get sick then treat them with drugs, most of which block the body’s natural ability to function and heal. This approach is not working. We are getting sicker and sicker with more and more chronic disease like diabetes, cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, and dementia. Drugs are not making us well. WE need to make ourselves well.

Symptoms are a signal from the body that something is out of balance. The correct approach is to find out why the system is out of balance and restore that balance. We will not reverse the trend of the chronic disease epidemic until we change our approach.

Functional Medicine is the future of medicine. Over the next several months, I will be blogging about some of the core strategies for health and healing, strategies that can help patients prevent disease and stay well. Join me on a journey towards wellness of mind, body, and spirit.

Upcoming blog topics:

• The 8 Essentials of Health: The 8 essential elements for strong health
• Gut Health: How the GI system protects us from disease
• Nutrition: How to use food as fuel and medicine for our bodies
• Chronic Inflammation: The link to heart disease, cancer, and dementia
• Detoxification: How to optimize your body’s ability to neutralize toxins
• How to Optimize Hormone Balance
• How to Maintain Structural Integrity of the Body
• Genetics & Disease: You have more control than you think
• How Emotions, Stress & Spirituality can affect disease
• Environmental Toxins: how to best avoid toxins in our environment
• Navigating a Profoundly Dysfunctional Health Care System
• Monetary Issues: how to be a smart consumer of health care

To learn more about Functional Medicine, check out Institute for Functional Medicine