The benefits of functional medicine

In certain circles, there remains a tenuous understanding of what functional medicine actually is. While functional medicine is quickly becoming part of the mainstream medical scene, many people are still quite unaware of its benefits, with some people still considering functional medicine to be a “new age” or “hippie-style” method that flies in the face of modern science.

Of course, this couldn’t be farther from the truth. Let’s address a few misconceptions.

Functional Medicine Is Only An Alternative: The term “alternative medicine” is generally burdened by ingrained preconceived notions of yogi poses and strange herbal concoctions, which, while they may fall under the genre of alternative medicine, do not comprise alternative medicine.

In fact, these days, many functional medicine providers are also credentialed, trained and experienced medical doctors. Functional medicine is designed to look at the body and illness as a whole, and not relying only on treating the symptoms. In this way, it is a positive complement to traditional Western medicine.

Science Does Not Back Functional Medicine: Our bodies have a remarkable ability to heal themselves, which has been proven time and time again in countless research papers and scholarly articles. This is something you can see with your own eyes.

Functional medicine works in harmony with your body’s natural disease-fighting abilities and is both rooted in scientific principles and utilizes some of the same advanced diagnostic tests that conventional doctors use. One of the general themes that have become popular in mainstream awareness includes diet and gut-health. Encouraging good gut-health is becoming an idea that all holistic and traditional approaches are identifying as an important element in overall health for any individual and chronic health issue.

The fact is, you can absolutely trust a credible practitioner of functional medicine to work with you and your current medical doctor rather than against you and your doctor.

By addressing your body’s needs from a holistic approach, assessing your bodies systems as interconnected and not independent, functional medicine acts as an effective complement to traditional Western approaches.