How Functional Medicine Can Benefit Your Overall Health

Posted by Keelie on April 6th, 2022

If you’re looking for an alternate approach to traditional medicine, functional medicine may be the way to go. Instead of focusing on symptoms and symptoms alone, functional medicine takes a patient-first approach to attack your medical ailments at the source. Understanding some of the benefits of functional medicine can help you better understand why it’s a good option for you. 

A Holistic, Patient-First Approach

Working with a functional doctor means working with someone who will work with you every step of the way to get the treatment options that best fit you and your specific needs. Functional medicine builds a treatment option around your lifestyle, history, diet, and more. Before any treatment starts, a functional medicine doctor will sit down with you to discover the best treatment option for your specific situation. 

By looking at your full history, a functional medicine doctor will be able to build a treatment plan that attacks the medical issues you’re dealing with at the source. That’s working with you every step of the way is a huge priority for functional medicine doctors. They also track the progress of the treatment and make changes where necessary. 

Different Approaches

One of the primary benefits of functional medicine is that it recognizes its own weaknesses. Functional medicine doctors understand that conventional medicine has its uses, especially when it comes to severe illnesses. However, they also recognize that conventional medicine doesn’t have the tools to handle chronic conditions. 

Therefore, a good functional medicine doctor is able to combine the good parts of functional medicine and conventional medicine to build a sickness-fighting machine. The willingness to combine these two treatment options is what makes functional medicine such an effective treatment option. 

Long-Term Treatment Options

What separates functional medicine from conventional medicine is that functional medicine aims to treat the root cause of your symptoms, not just the symptoms. For example, if you’re dealing with high blood pressure, conventional medicine treatments would call for pharmaceutical drugs to lower your blood pressure. 

A functional medicine doctor will work to address your lifestyle choices that lead to high blood pressure. This could include building a diet plan with nutritious and well-balanced meals. It may also include stress-relieving treatment methods to lower high blood pressure caused by anxiety and stress. 

Conditions Treated By Functional Medicine

There are many reasons why someone would choose functional medicine over conventional treatment options. Some of these reasons include:

• Adrenal disorders

• Diabetes

• Asthma

• Arthritis

• Thyroid disorders

• Cancer prevention 

• Alzheimer’s disease and dementia

A functional medicine doctor will work with you every step of the way to ensure you get the best treatment options possible.