Today I want to talk about functional medicine and how it may or may not be able to help you with your particular health problem. I think you will find this article to be very helpful if you are new to functional medicine and how it works to restore health and wellness. I see many people in my practice that tell me they want to take a functional medicine approach to restore their health, but they really don’t know what that means. So, l am going to explain how functional medicine work and you can decide if it is a good fit for you.

Step #1 Discover the CAUSE

The basic philosophy of functional medicine is to search for the underlying cause of poor health and address that cause (or causes) in an effort to restore normal function. If your body is able to functional normally, then you will experience health instead of poor health and disease. The tools we use to restore wellness are those things that naturally support good health like proper diet, nutrient support and lifestyle modification.

It would make sense that we would need to discover what is causing poor health if we intend to reverse it. This approach to healthcare differs greatly from that of traditional medicine. So how could functional medicine be applied to a health condition like chronic sinus infections and how would it differ from a traditional medicine approach?

If you suffered with chronic sinus infections, we might discover through functional medicine testing that dairy products put too much strain on your immune system (identified cause) and leads to inflammation of the sinuses. We might also discover that you deficient in zinc (identified cause) which would lead to poor immune system function, thus making you susceptible to infection. By removing dairy products from your diet and restoring your zinc to appropriate levels, you would cease to suffer from chronic sinus infections. The traditional medicine approach would however involve repeated use of antibiotics to combat the infection…this is not restoring proper function to your body. It is taking over where your body failed; having a sinus infection.  Prescribing an antibiotic does not address the cause of sinus infections and over time could actually lead to more sinus problems because it would disrupt the delicate balance of your gut flora (microbes that inhabit the digestive tract and other mucus membrane tissues…like your sinuses!) Discovering the dairy intolerance and the zinc deficiency are part of Step #1: Discover the CAUSE.

Step #2 Reverse the CAUSE

In Step #1 we Discover the CAUSE; in Step #2 we want to Reverse the CAUSE of poor health and illness. If we keep going with the sinus infection example, we would want to remove dairy products from the diet and increase levels of zinc in the body. This can be a problem for some people because they are under the assumption that if you find the “root cause” then you should not need to avoid dairy products or take a dietary tablet of zinc. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you understand what functional medicine can do and what it can’t do. If you are suffering with a health problem, then your body (for whatever reason) has failed to endure what it is being subjected to…in the case it would be too many dairy products and not enough zinc. If you are under the impression that you can keep doing exactly what you have been doing and experience a different level of health, then you are mistaken. You may not like it, but that is just the way nature works. If you want to experience a great level of health, then you need to do something DIFFERENT; only then can you experience something DIFFERENT. If you are not willing to do something different, you will not change your health and you will not benefit from functional medicine. Look, functional medicine is NOT for everybody and the reason it is NOT for everybody is because most people are not willing to make changes and do things differently. If functional medicine has an Achille’s heel, this would be it! Not many functional medicine doctors will say this out loud…I’m not only saying it out loud, I’m putting it down in writing. If you are not willing to make changes; if you are not willing to do things differently than you have been…then don’t waste your time contacting a functional medicine doctor! Why? Because you will not create lasting changes in your health and you will up right back where you are today…suffering with an unwanted health condition. Step #2 is Reversing the CAUSE; and that means taking actions that will REVERSE your decline in health. You slid down the “hill of health.” How do you suppose you get back up on the top of that hill again? You got it…climb back up! Is there some other way of getting back to the top? None that I am aware of.

Ok, now let’s assume you have taken the steps required to restore your health and you are feeling great. How do you stay healthy? You keep yourself from sliding down the “hill of health” by taking steps to prevent this from happening. This takes us to Step #3 Disease Prevention.

Step #3 Disease Prevention

This is my favorite step! You have discovered what caused your health to decline and you have taken steps to reverse it and you are now feeling really good! Step #3 is Disease Prevention. Once you reach this step you have become familiar with your body’s inherent “weaknesses” and don’t push your body back into a state of dysfunction and disease. What do I mean by weaknesses? If we use the sinus infection example again, it might mean that you are now able to have small amounts of dairy on occasion and that you now only require low levels of zinc supplementation. Does everyone have a problem with dairy products? No…but you do. Does everyone need the same intake of zinc? No…but you do. We are all unique and have different needs based on our genetics, age, gender, diet, stress level…etc.  In the Disease Prevention step, you are just taking the necessary actions to keep YOUR body in balance. In Step #3 most people can loosen up a little but not completely go back to what they are doing that led to their health problem in the first place. You have gained health momentum and you are able to maintain health with less effort…you are back on top of the “health hill” and you just need to keep from sliding back down. This requires less effort than Step #2 Reverse CAUSE…you were climbing back up the hill at this phase. So, in Step #3 you can coast a little more and maintain the health you have now restored.

Well there you go, these are the 3 major steps required to restore your health and feel good again. If this process makes sense to you and you want to begin your journey back to health, then functional medicine is the right choice for you.

                                    If you are looking for a functional medicine doctor in Naperville, Aurora, or Frankfort, please contact us today!

If you would like more information about functional 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. Why is this? The FDA enforces its position that these words can only be used with drugs. This approach does not use drugs.