Anything You Need to Know about Functional Medicine

Many people seek for other ways to treat illness in replace of the conventional way. We used to believe that there should be a pill for every ill. However, there is actually a better way to treat illness and stay healthy with functional medicine.

What is functional medicine?

Functional medicine is a healing method with a chronic and complex group of symptoms such as high blood pressure, high cholesterol, chronic fatigue, thyroid disease, autoimmunity, and more. The healing method is a kind of holistic medicine based on evidence and high tech science. The main aim of functional medicine is to seek the cause of health issues and figure out why you manifest the symptoms. Different from conventional medicine, functional medicine approach focuses on the overall health instead of treating the symptoms only. It looks at the whole body and revealing imbalances and deficiencies which causes health problems.

In general, any health condition can take advantage of this holistic medicine. The modern medicine in some cases claims that some of the health condition causes are not fully understood or simply unknown. The truth is the causes of this health condition are complicated and it cannot be explained or treated using one method only.

What kind of conditions can benefit from functional medicine?

Functional medicine is believed to be able to treat any health issues. If you suffer from one of these conditions, you can take advantage of functional medicine for individual and therapeutic treatment.

  • Fibromyalgia – this is a condition which causes muscle pain all over the body. Even though modern medicine now considered fibromyalgia as a medical concern, but the available treatment is still limited. In functional medicine, fibromyalgia is a condition which rooted from inflammation throughout the body.
  • Chronic fatigue – chronic fatigue can be caused by the difficulty to sleep, extreme exhaustion, and brain fog. This condition is not always recognized as health issues but functional medicine has a method to find out the cause and treat the condition.
  • Autoimmune disorders – the common way to treat autoimmune disorders is using medication to suppress the immune response. But the conventional treatment rarely addresses the cause of the autoimmunity and inflammation in the body.
  • Irritable bowel syndrome – according to functional medicine, the gut is the center of the body immune system. This is because of almost 70% of overall immune cells live there.
  • Diabetes – among all health conditions, diabetes type II is the most diagnosed and well-research. But the treatment of the conditions still has little change for the patient. Functional medicine offers diabetic treatment and monitoring in a more holistic way through changing the lifestyle and diet.
  • PMS – stands for premenstrual syndrome, this condition is mostly characterized by mood swings, irritability, depression, and fatigue. Many women do not take this condition seriously, but it does not mean that you should live with it. The functional medicine helps to restore the hormonal balance in a natural way.
  • Obesity – Obesity is a nationwide issue which caused by many factors including bad diet and lifestyle.

Benefits of functional medicine

  • Keep you healthy – conventional medicine is good at preventing you from dying. However, the treatment approach actually has nothing to do with improving quality of life and health. The functional medicine does not only care about treatment but also improving the overall health for the long term. This is because functional medicine includes lifestyle and diet changes as well as an appropriate exercise plan.
  • Personalized service – the best thing about functional medicine is it offers personalized service according to the health concern. Functional medicine believes on genetics combination and advanced testing combined with listening to your health story.
  • Prevention of disease – instead of focusing on cures and treatments, functional medicine practitioners focus on preventative side. You will involve in nutrition plans, exercise program, and balanced diet which based on health needs.
  • Easy access to service – functional medicine provide access to healthcare anytime you need for every health issues. You do not need to wait for an insurance plan to cover your health conditions or not. Also, all of the money you paid will go directly to your healthcare without worry about insurance plans or interest rates.