You may be familiar with the term Functional Medicine (FM) but what does a FM doctor do? How is it different than what your regular doctor does? The FM physician takes a completely different approach to your healthcare needs and the process of taking you from sickness to health is nothing like what you have experienced with traditional medicine. It all starts with the basic treatment philosophies of traditional vs functional medicine. Traditional medicine is built around the “disease model” of healthcare. This means that the focus it not placed on health or restoring health but is instead focused on eradicating disease. The sole objective is identifying and attempting to reduce or eliminate disease through the use of drugs and medication. With this “disease-focused” approach, other organs and systems of the body are not usually considered. Functional medicine is built around the “health model.” Traditional medicine focuses on disease and functional medicine focuses on health. I could take the next few minutes and list all of the things that are different between traditional and functional medicine doctors but I think it will make more sense if I give you a real life example of how they differ. This example will clearly illustrate how these philosophies address the #1 killer of Americans…heart disease. Now, you may not be interested in heart disease but this example can be applied to whatever your health concern may be.

Let’s start with a very common health issue that appears to be related to heart disease; high cholesterol. If you have high cholesterol, your traditional doctor will generally prescribe medication to lower the cholesterol; the “disease” being treated is high cholesterol. This physician sees high cholesterol on your blood tests and the goal is to reduce the cholesterol and the only tool he or she has is a drug. The reasoning behind this treatment is that high cholesterol is the cause of heart disease and stroke. This is the fork in the road where traditional and functional medicine split off and take different paths. One is founded in “disease” and the other in “health.” How does a FM doctor look at the same problem; high cholesterol and the risk for heart disease and stroke? As a FM physician I will tell you how I would be looking at this same “problem” of high cholesterol and what my concerns would be.

Why has the cholesterol become elevated? The majority of the cholesterol in your blood is not from eating cholesterol; it is being produced by the liver…in response to an imbalance in the body. This is how cholesterol medications work by the way…they interfere with (create dysfunction) normal liver function to the point where liver is not able to produce as much cholesterol. The functional medicine doctor will look for WHY the liver is now producing so much more cholesterol. Common findings include blood sugar and insulin imbalances, elevated inflammation in the body or non-optimum thyroid function among others. As you can see, this is very different approach than traditional medicine.

Why is cholesterol considered the “disease” in this patient? As a FM doctor I do not consider high cholesterol the disease; I consider it a symptom of other dysfunction in the body. I also do not consider high cholesterol to be the cause of heart disease and stroke! I know this may come as a surprise…we have all been told time and time again, decade after decade, that high cholesterol causes heart disease and strokes. It simply is not true. Countless studies and papers from prominent medical schools like Harvard and Stanford as well as from cardiologists and heart surgeons clearly indicate that cholesterol medication has very little effect on preventing heart attack and stroke. In fact, most people hospitalized for these conditions have normal cholesterol levels. The reason cholesterol medication is so widely used is because it is the ONLY tool traditional medicine has to try to prevent the #1 killer of Americans. You can also look at it this way…millions of Americans are taking this medication…and have for decades… yet millions taking it are still dying from heart disease and stroke…and cardiovascular disease is still the #1 killer! Does this sound like a very effective solution to you?

The educated functional medicine doctor is fully aware of these statistics and studies and is not lead astray into chasing and treating false causes. They are also familiar with the health issues that will CAUSE cholesterol to rise and what will cause heart disease and stroke; these health issues cause damage to the lining of arteries. Cholesterol will not stick to the walls of your blood vessels if they are healthy…it can’t! So if you can keep your blood vessels healthy, that is the BEST way to prevent heart disease and stroke.

The FM doctor will assess the factors that cause poor blood vessel health… like high blood pressure, blood sugar imbalances, insulin imbalances, chronic inflammation and key vitamin and mineral deficiencies. Why do we look for these? Because they cause irritation, inflammation and damage to of blood vessels and cause cholesterol to stick to them! Cholesterol will stick to these damaged sites…period! It does not matter if your cholesterol level is 375 or 180…cholesterol will adhere to the damaged vessel wall! I would also like to point out that taking cholesterol medication will interfere with the body’s  ability to produce a vital nutrient called Coenzyme Q10  (CoQ10). Any why does that matter? Because it is required by the heart, liver and kidneys to produce energy! I don’t think taking a drug that lowers the heart’s ability to produce energy is a great long-term plan for heart health…considering it needs to beat about once every second for the rest of your life…do you?

I could  keep going with this cholesterol / cardiovascular disease example but I think you get the idea. The point I am making here is that the functional medicine and integrative medicine doctor looks at all health problems in a different way than traditional medicine does. In the example above, traditional medicine stopped at high cholesterol and medication. The functional medicine doctors want to preserve blood vessel health and address the underlying cause of the elevated cholesterol.  These are some of the key questions the FM doctors tries to answer with any health problem:

1. Why does the person have this health problem?
2. What is the (true) underlying cause of the problem?
3. How can this problem be reversed without causing additional problems or side-effects?

Functional medicine doctors take a very different approach with their patients. I believe FM is the best healthcare philosophy in existence today…this is why I practice functional medicine. I don’t do it because it is easier…it’s not. I do it because it is the best way to help a person become healthy again and enjoy a long and vital life. The “easy” way is rarely the best way…it is easier to borrow money than to earn it…it is easier to steal something than create it…it is easier to not do the things you should…and it is easier to swallow a pill than restore health.  The problem with all of these “easy” solutions is that they carry consequences you will be faced with…sooner or later.  

If you would like more information about functional medicine, integrative medicine or Dr. Sexton; go to napervilleintegratedwellness.com or contact our Naperville office.

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.**