What is Functional Medicine?

Every day I get questions about what functional medicine is, how it fits in with the traditional medical system, and why we need functional medicine at all. While it may feel new and different it has been around for decades and has evolved to fill a growing gap in modern wellness and healthcare. 

Traditional medicine (and yours truly) relies on diagnostic testing, like the CBC and blood chemistry panels we all know from routine checkups and emergency room visits. And for good reason, those tests provide broad insight into the overall function of your body. When a doctor tells you your labs look normal, that indicates two things: first that you’re free from urgent troubles that require immediate action , and second that you are free from indicators of major disease like some cancers, diabetes, heart disease. That’s great news but for anyone who’s been trying desperately to feel better, it can leave you frustrated to say the least.

Needing answers and finding none can elicit feelings of disappointment, frustration, and it can even activate a trauma response. Having your symptoms ignored, or dismissed can cause dysregulation in the human nervous system and contribute to worse health outcomes and ruptured trust with care providers. It’s a malignant and often ignored aspect of the American healthcare system that set the stage for a new resource to emerge.

This is the gap between illness and wellness. The space between normal lab results and optimal functioning. It’s often at this point that patients will look beyond their primary care provider to consult with a functional medicine practitioner for deeper analyses and guidance for feeling good.

Here’s what you need to know about ‘normal’ lab results. The normal ranges are determined not by comparing your results to optimal functioning numbers, but in comparison to the average functioning numbers for our current population. Traditional medicine evaluates blood labs on a bell curve, and that curve has shifted significantly in recent decades. Obesity, heart disease, chronic illness, and cancer are all on the rise despite significant strides in detection and treatment. Processed foods and a weakened agricultural system leave us overfed yet undernourished. Normal lab ranges have shifted because we shifted what is considered ‘normal’ as Western medicine accepts dysfunctional sleep, sluggish digestion, high cholesterol, and stress as a social norm. Your doctor isn’t telling you that your body is performing well, she’s saying your body is performing to the standard average.

The period after symptoms appear is when functional medicine and functional coaching are ideal support - because this is where we can stop the dis-ease of poor sleep and digestion from becoming major disease like cancer. By examining the everyday functionality of our bodies, how we sit, eat, think, breathe, digest, sleep, poop, feel, and move, we get clues to where our body needs support or redirection to function optimally, and avoid further dysfunction and disease down the road. We also get the keys to unlocking brighter days with more energy, nights with deeper sleep, relationships with healthy boundaries, and healthy habits that self-perpetuate.

Functional medicine is about a way of living that works for you