What is Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine is a root cause, personalized, and evidence based approach to healthcare. The crux of it is its focus on modifiable causes of disease rather than treating the symptoms and downstream effects of disease, as is all too common in traditional medical practice. There is a continually growing body of evidence including studies in reputable journals such as JAMA demonstrating the impact lifestyle factors can have on chronic disease. Currently, 7/10 Americans will die from non-communicable (aka chronic) diseases that are largely preventable. If there is a way to prevent these diseases and their associated morbidity and mortality, why are we not more obsessed with this topic?!

Functional medicine addresses upstream factors in disease such as chronic inflammation, chronic stress, metabolic syndrome, insulin insensitivity, gut dysbiosis, oxidative stress, mitochondrial health, and many more to prevent, modify, and in some cases reverse disease states. It is often likened to alternative or integrative medicine, but in a way, affording and empowering patients with health, vitality, and longevity is just good medicine.