What is Functional Medicine?
“Functional medicine determines how and why illness occurs, and seeks to restore health by addressing the root causes … for each individual.”
(The Institute for Functional Medicine, 2022)
Functional medicine is a unique personalised biological systems-based model that enables practitioners to work with clients to address the root causes of symptoms and health problems rather than offering a ‘quick fix’. It combines science, evidence-based, and clinical insight, to offer a whole-person therapeutic approach. Practitioners start with a thorough exploration of a client’s diet, lifestyle, medical conditions, and genetic factors and then utilise this information to support their health in a personalised manner.
Functional Medicine is:
A way to find root causes, not just treat symptoms
Personalised to each client’s physiology and history, not one-size-fits-all
Client-centred and science-based
Makes diet and lifestyle changes first
Collaborative - It empowers clients to take ownership of their health
Human body systems operate via a vast network of complex, interconnected, biochemical pathways that include hormones, neurotransmitters, and enzymes. These pathways are constantly fluctuating, and have a stimulating effect upon each other. If any of these pathways function sub-optimally, or even cease working, there will be a domino effect away from natural, optimal balance - homeostasis - towards a system dysfunction that can lead to ill health.
Nutritional Therapists who have been trained using the Functional Medicine model, will look beyond a client’s symptoms to determine how and why system dysfunction is occurring. Investigation of diet, lifestyle, medical conditions, health history, and genetic factors may be supplemented by functional testing that looks into, for example, the bacterial balance in the gut, or urinary hormone metabolite levels. These tests help the practitioner to identify patterns and red-flags that may indicate certain body systems are functioning sub-optimally, and the cause of many symptoms may only be illuminated when interpreting these test results.
Functional medicine is about supporting a client to remove the causes of dysfunction, enabling them to recalibrate body systems, and to restore optimal health.