What is Functional Medicine?
Functional Diagnostic Medicine offers a significant breakthrough in the assessment, treatment, and prevention of numerous health conditions. With data overwhelmingly supporting the efficacy of this approach, many health professionals are integrating functional diagnostic testing and related natural therapies into their practices to provide comprehensive healthcare.
Functional Diagnostic Medicine does not focus on identifying specific symptoms, but rather addressing underlying conditions involving the fundamental physiological processes. By utilizing functional laboratory assessments that evaluate bio-chemical individuality and metabolic processes, we can identify the root cause of many complex health conditions. An evaluation of the core physiology, including the hormonal, digestive and metabolic/detoxification processes, can measure how the body has strayed from healthy function. Based upon scientific test results, healthcare professionals can offer individualized, therapeutic options to restore normal function and physiology.
Conventional Diagnosis and Therapies
Conventional diagnosis regards symptoms as indicators of a suspected health condition; laboratory testing is utilized to identify or confirm the suspected pathology. This approach more often than not fails to identify the root cause of the problem, especially in cases of chronic illness.
Conventional therapeutic protocols tend to be heavily dependent upon pharmaceutical drugs, which in most cases do not address the underlying cause of the condition. Further, many drugs have toxic side effects and mask symptoms, making subsequent attempts at diagnosis even less reliable.
Functional Diagnosis & Natural Therapies
Until recently there have been few available tools with which to evaluate basic human physiology. Today, specialized laboratories using advanced testing procedures offer functional diagnostic assessments that can evaluate an individual's physiology. By contrasting functional laboratory assessments with healthy physiological ranges, healthcare professionals can pinpoint abnormalities and contributing factors to health problems, often exposing the root causes of chronic illness and degenerative disease.
Addresses Numerous Health Complaints
Functional Diagnostic Medicine can uncover the root cause of many health common complaints. This approach is particularly adept at addressing incorrectly or partially diagnosed chronic health problems, which, in many cases, have yet to manifest as a specific disease.
Wellness and Longevity
Serious health conditions can develop over a period of years, while a patient suffers from undiagnosed and seemingly unrelated symptoms. Functional Diagnostic Medicine can be used to detect and treat health problems at their point of earliest inception, thereby providing symptomatic relief and preventing debilitating health conditions.
Further, by identifying risk factors for a wide variety of health problems, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease, Functional Diagnostic Medicine enables individuals to take preventive measures to reduce their risk of developing such conditions. Functional laboratory assessments also provide scientific data for the development of personalized nutritional plans, immune-enhancing strategies, and life-extension programs.
Monitoring Therapies
Functional diagnostic assessments provide the opportunity to monitor a wide array of therapies. Initially testing establishes an individual's baseline physiological processes. Subsequently, it can be used to closely monitor the results of therapies in restoring normal function, thereby allowing for necessary adjustments in protocols.
Twenty-first Century Health Care
By identifying the underlying causes of chronic health conditions, reducing the risk of degenerative disease, and addressing an individual's unique bio-chemical composition, Functional Diagnostic Medicine is filling a vital role in the evolution of comprehensive health care.
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