This is in stark contrast to traditional medicine, where the goal is to suppress “undesirable” expressions of the body; also known as symptoms. Suppressing symptoms does not support health and does not reverse chronic disease. This is because the underlying cause of the symptom has not been addressed but has merely been silenced. Failing to support the body’s efforts to heal only results in more problems. A perfect example of this fact is that drugs have side effects. So, what exactly is a side effect anyway? It is new dysfunction and new symptoms and new diseases created by suppressing not only symptoms but normal function. Once this concept is understood, it is easy to see why the traditional approach to chronic illness is failing so miserably.

Functional medicine looks at root causes and best long-term outcomes; it is not based in temporary fixes and does not bury problems so that they grow and fester into even bigger problems down the road.

I often compare chronic health problems to other chronic problems we may encounter in life. Lets apply this long-term, best solution concept to another situation; finances. Lets say that someone made poor choices regarding their finances; like spending in excess, spending more than their own personal “financial system” could take. This would result in escalating debt and emotional discomfort. Earning and spending are out of balance and this caused a problem of significant debt. The “pain” of these choices would lead to decreased financial health. Maybe they would not be able to make the payment on their car, pay their mortgage or buy enough food. The person who finds themselves in this situation would like the “pain” to go away…and who wouldn’t! This individual would have two choices to help alleviate the pain of this chronic problem. One option or shall we say “solution” would be to get a loan; a quick-fix. This would give them some breathing room and they would not experience the immediate pain of an unbalanced personal financial system.

However, this “solution” has not dealt with the underlying root cause: overspending. This is how traditional medicine deals with chronic health problems; “feel better now, and don’t worry about how this will affect you tomorrow.” Utilizing traditional medicine; i.e. drugs, for chronic health problems is like borrowing money or running up credit card debt to alleviate the “pain” of the moment.

The other choice would be recognizing that this is a situation of chronic debt, and that there might be a better long-term solution that leads to better outcomes. If this individual were to assess the truth of the situation and get to the root cause (over-spending) a treatment plan (get on budget and reduced spending) would lead to a better long-term outcome. While this solution might not provide the “instant relief” of borrowing money; it does not lead to bigger problems down the road, and ultimately to better financial health.

Functional medicine looks at root-causes and seeks the truth of chronic health problems. Deep down, we all now that most quick-fixes and “easy” solutions often lead to bigger and more significant problems down the road. We also know that chronic problems of any kind do not generally go away on their own, be it health, financial, emotional, relationship, etc. They persist; they don’t change until we identify what causes them and address those causes directly. Traditional medicine offers quick fixes and “solutions in a bottle” but we know known that this approach does not lead to good outcomes and does not address the cause of chronic illness.

This takes us back to the beginning of this article. When our brains or our bodies “break” it is because they are struggling with chronic imbalances that have root causes. You may not know what has caused these imbalances and the cause is probably not as obvious as over-spending; but there is always a root cause and the goal of functional medicine is to discover this cause. The next step is to create a treatment plan, a solution-plan, that will lead to recovery and health.

My intention with this article is to provide an explanation of functional medicine by relating it to other chronic problems we encounter in life. The best solution for any problem in life would improve the “pain” we are currently struggling with and not create additional problems for us to deal with in the future. This is what functional medicine seeks to do and this is how it differs from traditional medicine.

If you would like more information about healing a broken brain or broken body or functional medicine or Dr. Sexton, contact our Naperville office to schedule a free consultation or go to www.napervilleintegratedwelness.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.