Why The Shift?

My journey into Functional Medicine is probably similar to that of many of my colleagues. I was originally trained as a chiropractor. The basic premise of chiropractic is that the body is capable of healing itself when the spine (the gateway to the nervous system) is in proper alignment. This way of looking at the body was my primer for functional medicine.

Fast forward a few…AHEM several…years and I began to notice a few trends with my patients: 1. Some were not responding to care as quickly as I had previously experienced with similar conditions and 2. Many were coming to me asking what I knew or could do with their chronic conditions because I was an alternative provider and they had exhausted their medical options. I was beginning to see people with more chronic pain and with more questions than I had answers for.

Around this time I got a phone call that my father was in the hospital, so I flew home to be with family. After 13 days in the ICU, my father did not regain consciousness and he passed away surrounded by those who love him. While I was in the hospital I felt lost because I did not understand the blood tests being run or the care that was being recommended. I also felt guilt because my dad was a smoker for so long and I had begged him to take better care of himself so he could stick around for those who loved him, including his grandkids (I was pregnant with my second child, Charlie at the time). I thought that I should have pressed him harder or done other things to keep him here with us; these thoughts solidified my desire to venture further into functional medicine. I wanted to make sure that I could help others lead a long life with those they loved and to shield their families from the pain of losing a loved one too soon.

After the birth of Charlie I began to dig deeper into my options with functional medicine training and found the Institute for Functional Medicine. It was incredibly appealing to have to have colleagues in many different disciplines, including MDs, pharmacists, naturopaths and nurses, all receiving the same training. After starting with IFM, I also began my training as a chiropractic internist with Pro Health Seminars. I believe these two methods of training allow me to bring my patients cutting edge alternative care.

I look forward to helping more people live longer, fuller lives in the future and if you are reading this and I have not met you, I can't wait to!

Functional medicine has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine, western health care, and the latest in health care research, taking the best of each and combining them into an independent healing approach.  This new approach is one that focuses on the cause of disease rather than focusing on symptoms.  Through the concentration on symptoms, our health care system has gradually been converted to a disease care system, and functional medicine offers a viable approach to reverse this trend. To accomplish this, functional medicine practitioners view the body as a whole, taking into account nutritional, environmental, and genetic factors.  Through active doctor-patient communication, functional medicine practitioners embrace the word doctor, which literally means teacher in Latin, allowing you to take control of your health.

Unfortunately, as the state of health has changed throughout our nation, our health care system has remained fairly stagnant in its approach to healing.  While our country’s traditional approach to treatment was successful for the types of diseases present in 1920, it has grown less effective at treating the current epidemics of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and diabetes.  While the diseases of days gone by were typically of short duration and responded well to quick fixes such as surgery and medication, it has become increasingly evident that todays chronic conditions require a different approach.

How Is Functional Medicine Unique

With chronic diseases currently spiraling out of control, it has been become increasingly obvious that a different health care approach is both needed and warranted.  Instead of treating the disease once it is already present, doesn’t it make more sense to concentrate on preventing the condition in the first place?  Functional medicine is unique in that it often focuses on variations in metabolism to both identify a predisposition to developing a condition and to discover the underlying cause if already present.  As mentioned previously, functional medicine practitioner's concentrate on being your health care teacher.  Can you remember a time your doctor truly educating you about your health care condition? Through this avenue, functional medicine practitioners will allow you to take back control of your health.  After all, you are the one suffering from the condition, shouldn’t your treatment be focused on you and not the other people who have had similar problems?

Functional medicine is also one of the few health care choices that views the body as a whole.  This is important considering that every single system in your body is dependent on the next to function properly.  To take this holistic approach, these practitioners consider all variables including; your personal history, genetic make up, occupational, nutritional, and social factors.  All of these factors play a role in the expression of health and disease.

Finally, once the cause of your condition has been discovered, functional medicine practitioners use the best from multiple health care disciplines to properly treat the cause.  For example, after a careful diagnosis following the use of various imaging and laboratory testing, many practitioners utilize a combination of dietary changes, supplements, and exercise programs.

Functional medicine has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine, western health care, and the latest in health care research, taking the best of each and combining them into an independent healing approach.  This new approach is one that focuses on the cause of disease rather than focusing on symptoms.  Through the concentration on symptoms, our health care system has gradually been converted to a disease care system, and functional medicine offers a viable approach to reverse this trend. To accomplish this, functional medicine practitioners view the body as a whole, taking into account nutritional, environmental, and genetic factors.  Through active doctor-patient communication, functional medicine practitioners embrace the word doctor, which literally means teacher in Latin, allowing you to take control of your health.

Unfortunately, as the state of health has changed throughout our nation, our health care system has remained fairly stagnant in its approach to healing.  While our country’s traditional approach to treatment was successful for the types of diseases present in 1920, it has grown less effective at treating the current epidemics of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and diabetes.  While the diseases of days gone by were typically of short duration and responded well to quick fixes such as surgery and medication, it has become increasingly evident that todays chronic conditions require a different approach.

If you are interested in learning more about the functional medicine services we offer at Vital Principal in Memphis please call our team today.