Feedback from our Chicago Functional Medicine Doctor

Most people define a “real” doctor as an MD who will run some tests, have a nurse or physician’s assistant take your blood pressure, and write a prescription for a drug that you can’t buy yourself over the counter at Walgreens. 

What has your experience been with “real” doctors? 

Here is the bottom line…  YOU WOULDN’T BE SPENDING YOUR TIME RESEARCHING FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE DOCTORS IF YOU WERE SATISFIED WITH “REAL DOCTORS.”

So what is a real doctor anyway? 

What is a doctor?

“ A doctor, is a professional who practices medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring health through the study, diagnosis, prognosis and treatment of disease, injury, and other physical and mental impairments.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Physician

The key here is that a doctor is supposed to promote, maintain, or restore health. 

If doctors are supposed to restore or maintain health, then how would they accomplish this? How does a doctor help a patient become healthier? Do drugs make people healthier? If medications were the solution to our chronic health problems then Americans would enjoy greater health than any country in the world. Sadly, we do not. 

The United States spends more on healthcare than any other country in the world, yet we are not even in the top 20 of healthiest countries. 

https://worldpopulationreview.com/country-rankings/healthiest-countries 

What is a “real” doctor? 

• MD?
• Someone who runs tests? 
• Someone who provides a diagnosis? 
• Someone who writes prescriptions? 

What happens when you see a “real doctor” because of a chronic health issue such as diabetes, high blood pressure, autoimmune disease, migraines, chronic fatigue, high cholesterol…?

You probably get a basic blood test and then a prescription for a drug to mask or manage the problem. 

Is the drug going to make you healthy again, or mask the underlying health problem? 

• Do you have high cholesterol because you have a cholesterol drug deficiency? 
• Do you have an autoimmune disease because you lack prednisone or Humira? 
• Do you have IBS because your body does not make enough Bentyl? 
• Do you have migraines because your body fails to make Imitrex?

The point is that we don’t have poor health because our bodies lack drugs. We have poor health because we lack wholeness…more specifically we lack healthy function in our bodies. 

Pharmaceutical Healthcare

Our healthcare system is a pharmaceutical healthcare system. There is no disputing that. The problem is that is model is not working. Chronic disease is higher than ever and the astronomical costs of managing these diseases continues to rise. Unfortunately, there is too much money at stake for the system to change at this time. To the pharmaceutical industries, sick people make them money, healthy people do not. 

“The remarkable magnitude of the total direct costs of diabetes in the U.S.: $116 billion in 2007, $176 billion in 2012, and $237 billion in 2017. The cost of care for people with diabetes now accounts for ∼1 in 4 health care dollars spent in the U.S. Care for a person with diabetes now costs an average of $16,752 per year.”

https://care.diabetesjournals.org/content/41/5/929

“Nothing kills more Americans than heart disease and stroke. More than 868,000 Americans die of heart disease or stroke every year—that’s one-third of all deaths.”

https://www.cdc.gov/chronicdisease/about/costs/index.htm

If “real” doctors and “real” medicine is working, then why are 90% of all healthcare costs going toward managing chronic health problems? They are chronic because the person is not getting better, and not getting healthier with the treatment they are receiving. 

Since “cholesterol is the cause of cardiovascular disease” and we have had drugs to lower cholesterol to “medical standards” then why is it still the #1 cause of death? 

Real doctors and real medicine are draining our health and our pocketbooks. 

What is a Functional Medicine Doctor? 

Functional medicine doctors, like our functional medicine doctor in Chicago, may be an MD, DO, ND, NP, DC…etc. It is not the degree that makes someone a functional medicine doctor; it is the training they have in how the body works as a whole and how to restore health, without relying on drugs to change what is happening in the body.

It takes a much greater level of understanding of the human body to help someone lower blood pressure through lifestyle than writing a prescription for a drug to do it for you. The process requires more education and understanding of the human body to determine why someone has chronic headaches and how to prevent them than to take Aleve. 

Functional medicine doctors do not focus on the diagnosis. They focus on how to reverse/heal the dysfunction that has led to the diagnosis. They restore health, increase health, and maintain health. Medications do not do this. Medications can alleviate the unwanted symptoms of a disease, but they do not restore health and function to the body.  Looking to make functional medicine simple? Our Functional Medicine 101 blog is perfect for you.  

Functional Medicine Doctors

A functional medicine doctor restores and maintains health in a patient by restoring proper system function. Would you agree that if your body was working the way it should, that you would be more whole and healthy? 

Functional?

“Having a special activity, purpose, or task; relating to the way in which something works or operates.

(Of a disease) affecting the operation, of an organ.

If your organs and body systems are working or “operating” properly, then they are healthy and so are you. 

Functional medicine doctors use diet, nutrition, and other lifestyle changes and only when necessary, medications to get the whole body working/operating better. Here I am mainly referring to replacing something the body normally makes. If you don’t’ have a thyroid gland then you need to take “thyroid medication” if you have type 1 diabetes and your body does not make insulin, then you need to take “insulin medication.” 

What is health? 

What is health?

“The state of being free from illness or injury.”

Old English hælþ “wholeness, a being whole, sound or well,” from Proto-Germanic *hailitho, from PIE *kailo- “whole, uninjured, of good omen”

If you are healthy, then you are free from illness, sound, well and whole. If you don’t feel well, then you are not whole or complete. 

Doctors are supposed to restore this wholeness, but they would need the education and clinical experience to know how to do that. Unfortunately, this is not taught in medical school. Diagnosing the disease and matching that disease to a drug is taught. Nothing “functional” is taught in the schools that healthcare providers attend and graduate from. 

What is Disease? 

Disease

The term disease broadly refers to any condition that impairs the normal functioning of the body. For this reason, diseases are associated with the dysfunction of the body’s normal homeostatic processes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disease

Homeostasis: the state of steady internal, physical, and chemical conditions maintained by living systems. This is the condition of optimal functioning for the organism.

Functional Medicine Doctors treat your body as a whole…

Specialists treat isolated body parts and systems.

As you can clearly see, health is balance, wholeness, harmony and properly functioning systems in the body. 

Traditional medicine does not treat the body as a whole and complete organism. They break it into separate parts, but the body does not work in parts, it works as parts that form a complete and functioning whole. Specialists focus on the pieces and Functional Medicine Doctors focus on the whole. 

Good Functional Medicine Doctors are specialists in the entire human body and identifying the root cause(s) of disease…

As a Functional Medicine Doctor, I had to gain a good understanding of gastroenterology, endocrinology, neurology, hematology, dermatology, immunology…etc. I also had to learn how one system affects other systems…the biological web of systems. I am not claiming to be a specialist in all of these areas, but I understand how they can help or hinder each other. A good Functional Medicine Doctor understands system relationships, how to discover the root causes of dysfunction in the body and reverse them when possible. 

Functional medicine cannot reverse all diseases, nor can it cure all people. I can tell you that it is a missing piece in our healthcare system today. We see patients everyday that have been to numerous doctors and specialists. I see patients every day who have been to the top university health centers and institutions in the country. 

They did not contact my office because they had received the help they needed at these institutions. They contact Functional Medicine Doctors like me because the “real doctors” didn’t know how to help them.

Do “real doctors” explain what systems are dysfunctional, how they affect other systems and how to improve, heal or reverse what is happening?

Functional Medicine and Osteopathy

You may have been wondering, is functional medicine the same as osteopathic? Functional medicine and osteopathic medicine both focus on the patient, but they have different approaches. Functional medicine is a system of healthcare that focuses on addressing the underlying causes of disease rather than simply treating the symptoms.

It is based on the belief that the body’s systems are interconnected, and that an imbalance or dysfunction in one area can lead to problems in other areas. Osteopathic medicine, on the other hand, is a type of manual therapy that helps to promote balance and homeostasis in the body by manipulating the musculoskeletal structure and the body’s energy pathways. It is based on the idea that the body has its own self-healing mechanisms, and that restoring this natural balance can lead to improved health. 

What about common conditions like these? 

• Autoimmune disease 
• Type 2 diabetes
• Cardiovascular disease (cholesterol is not the most important factor) 
• IBS 
• Insomnia
• Chronic fatigue
• Obesity and poor metabolism
• Inflammation and what causes it 
• What role the adrenal glands play in perimenopause and menopause 
• Dysautonomia 
• Neuropathy due to gluten sensitivity in non-celiac disease patients 
• Brain fog 
• How gut health affects brain health 

When was the last time you walked out of a doctor’s office and felt like you learned more about your body and how it works or your health issue and what you can do about it…other than taking another drug? 

I believe we need all of our health professionals for the system to work. We value and appreciate anyone who has dedicated their lives and careers to helping others. I just think we need to change the paradigm we have been following. Functional medicine is not the answer to all of our health problems, but it is underutilized and misunderstood.

We are experiencing significant changes in so many these days, lets add better healthcare to that list.

I think we all deserve more, better than what we have been getting…lets all do the best we can for each other.

Are functional medicine doctors “real doctors” 

or 

Are they what a real doctor should be? 

The purpose of functional medicine is: 

Understanding how the body works, knowing how and where to investigate health issues, knowing what to look for, understanding the significance of what is found and creating a plan of action to reverse and correct the root cause the health problems.

My wish for you…health, happiness and a better quality of life! 

If you would like more information about functional medicine and integrative medicine or Dr. Sexton go to napervilleintegratedwellness.com

Do your own research, inform yourself and ask lots of questions. When collecting information, you MUST consider the source. There is no shortage of false, misleading, outdated, profit-driven and utterly biased information in healthcare today; even from the most respected sources and organizations. 

This approach to healthcare is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, mitigate, or prevent any disease. This article is for information purposes and is not a substitute professional healthcare services. Contact our office for more information.