Unlike conventional doctors who often focus on treating symptoms with prescription drugs, functional medicine practitioners search for the root cause of your health condition. These experts know that all parts of your body are connected and a problem in one area may be rooted in an issue elsewhere.
Functional medicine practitioners are fully licensed physicians who go through traditional medical school training. They may then choose to get additional certifications in functional medicine.
Integrative Medicine
Like functional medicine, integrative medicine treats the whole person. However, it differs in that the doctor takes you into the picture as a partner and is open to your input. It also incorporates complementary therapies into your care.
The approach is centered on the idea that your physical, emotional and spiritual health are all connected. It focuses on finding the root cause of your illness or disease and treating that directly, not masking your symptoms with drugs.
Functional Medicine is an alternative to traditional medical care and is well suited to chronic illnesses. Doctors who specialize in this form of medicine focus on the underlying cause, rather than the diagnosis itself. They use a holistic approach that may include genetics, nutrition, herbal medicine, and acupuncture. They also have extensive training in diagnosing and interpreting complex conditions. They spend more time with patients than conventional doctors and use a range of tools to find the source of your condition.
Nutrition
As a functional nutrition practitioner, Colleen Flynn is passionate about whole food and wellness practices. She uses a combination of scientific research and functional medicine tools to help her clients get to the root of their health issues. She believes that symptoms are often a sign of much deeper biological imbalances that need to be addressed through lifestyle and healthy habit changes.
These tools include metabolic assessments, blood tests, and urine testing. These can provide valuable clues as to nutritional imbalances, pH levels, adrenal stress, and inflammation. This helps to pinpoint the underlying cause of your health issue and create a plan to address it.
This is a big departure from traditional medical care, which often simply masks symptoms with medication. Functional nutrition Austin practitioners take a holistic approach to healthcare that includes looking at the entire body and identifying and treating the underlying causes of disease. This can help to prevent the recurrence of chronic illness in the future.
Lifestyle
Dr Daniel takes a holistic approach to health care, which means he asks you questions about your family history and current environment. He also wants to understand your symptoms, how they started and if they are constant or exacerbated by certain foods or activities. He uses that information to help identify deficiencies, toxicities and unhealthy patterns that can contribute to a wide variety of medical conditions.
In this cohort study, patients undergoing functional medicine showed improvement in their Patient-Reported Outcome Measurement Information System global physical health scores at 6 months (mean [SD] change, 1.51 vs 0.25, P =.004 in 398 PS-matched pairs). These improvements appear to be sustained through 12 months. Although there is ascertainment bias because patients seen in a functional medicine center are different from those seeking care at a family health center, these results are promising and suggest that this model of care may improve HRQoL in patients. Prospective studies are warranted to test these findings.
Mental Health
As the name suggests, functional medicine practitioners consider all aspects of your health – including mental health. This is important because mental and physical health are closely linked. Often, a mental illness has a physiological cause and treating the physical issues can help resolve the psychological issue.
A functional medicine doctor works to find the root cause of the problem. This is unlike traditional medicine, which only treats the symptoms. Functional medicine doctors take into account genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors when examining the problem. This allows them to uncover hormonal, metabolic and nutritional imbalances that may not show up on a standard blood test.
Everest is a Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner who is also trained in Functional Medicine. She uses a holistic approach to wellness, offering comprehensive lab testing, individualized supplement protocols and holistic mental health support. Her practice is called Everest Functional Psychiatry and Wellness and she is currently taking new patients! We recently sat down with her and were absolutely blown away by her background and expertise.functional medicine austin
