The Functional Medicine Doctor Chicago Calls In 2022 To Improve Their Quality of Life

As one of the top functional medicine doctors serving Chicago and its suburbs, I help my patients understand how to heal and restore their health. One of the biggest differences between functional medicine and traditional medicine is that functional medicine looks for the root cause of health problems. I don’t want to coverup or mask health problems with medications, I want to reverse the causes of poor health whenever it is possible and restore health and wellbeing. This makes my job harder and more complicated, but I believe it is the best for my patients. 

Doctors Don’t Think Anymore! 

One of the biggest problems in healthcare today is that doctors don’t think anymore. What I mean is that they don’t think about what patients are suffering from and what might be causing it. Today, patients only get a diagnosis and a drug.  Doctors don’t think about how the various systems of the body work together to keep the body as a whole healthy. The human body is a complex web of systems that must be functioning properly. Doctors have blinders on and only consider the specific system that is their specialty. Endocrinologist, cardiologist, neurologist, gastroenterologist, allergist, dermatologist, etc. Doctors should have a good understanding of all the major systems of the body and how they work together. In my opinion, doctors have become too specialized and no longer understand how the body works as a whole. They don’t understand how the different systems of your body are related and how they affect each other. 

How to Heal

Healing is the process of the body transforming dysfunction, damage, and disease to health. Health and disease lie on a spectrum. At one end there is perfect health and on the other there is death. 

HEALTH <<<<<<<< DISEASE >>>>>>>> DEATH

Nobody has “perfect” health and if you are reading this, then you are probably not dead. We all live on this health spectrum, some of us being closer to perfect health and some of us being closer to body death. 

We want to slide you across this scale closer to health and away from disease and death. 

If you have a chronic health problem, it means your body is not able to restore balance on its own. Under the conditions it is exposed to, it cannot overcome the dysfunction/disease process that is occurring. You are stuck on the spectrum, unable to slide over toward health. 

Functional medicine doctors are looking for the problems that are preventing your body from healing, the causes that have you stuck in the disease portion of this spectrum. These are the root causes we want to identify and reverse. 

Health = Function

The best functional medicine doctors understand that health is synonymous with function. That’s why we call our specialty “functional medicine.” If your body was functioning properly, you would not have any health problems. Its that simple. 

What is function? 

What does function mean when I’m talking about the human body? I am referring to the major system of the body including but not limited to: 

• Nervous system 
• Immune system 
• Endocrine system (all of the hormones of the body)
• Digestive system 
• Circulatory system (heart and blood vessels)
• Etc. 

Every part of your body plays its role in your health. Every system of your body affects the other systems of your body. You are not a heart or a stomach or a kidney…you are all of the body parts as a whole. 

Health Is an Effect…Not A Cause

Health is not a cause; it is an effect or result.

The variables that cause health are typically found in our lifestyle choices. The various things we choose to do or choose not to do…for whatever reason. 

The Causes of health or disease…

• The food you eat or don’t eat 
• The water/liquids you drink or don’t drink 
• The stress you manage or fail to manage 
• The medications you take or don’t take 
• The sleep you get or don’t get 
• The level of physical activity you get or don’t get 
• Negative thoughts you think or don’t think 
• The positive thoughts you think or don’t think 
• What you do or do not believe about health and disease 
• Etc. 

As a one of the top functional medicine doctors near Chicago, I identify where and how function has been compromised or lost. Then, instead of relying on drugs, I turn to the biological causes of health and disease. I want to use a combination of health-causing variables that will move the body up the spectrum…away from disease and closer to perfect health. 

I’m not suggesting we don’t need medications in our healthcare system. I’m believe lifestyle, nature and biology should be addressed first. Medications are a last resort for chronic illnesses, not the first choice.

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.