There is an exciting paradigm of health coming to the forefront of modern health care called functional medicine. This field, which is open to all health practitioners, has piqued the interest of both traditional and alternative health practitioners. The term "functional medicine" (FM) has been around for more than twenty years. However, the growth of FM in the past five years is reaching pivotal critical mass. FM is a health movement tliat has the potential to turn the tide of modem illness. The question most often asked is. "What is FM?" The definition and practice of FM is as varied as the number of doctors calling themselves FM practitioners. This is a major hurdle to implementing a standardized definition that has consensus among FM practitioners, let alone developing standardized graduatc-lcvcl curricula. However, some galvanizing principles are common among most FM doctors. At its core. FM is a way of looking at a person's health or symptoms as a consequence of the interaction of genes and environment. This means that the health, or lack thereof, that one experiences in a lifetime is a result of influences from the environment, such as nutrition, stress, pollutants, etc.. which starts in the womb. These "antecedents" affect the genes in ways tliat last throughout a person's lifetime. This is also called "personalized medicine." Interestingly, the philosophy of FM is much the same as chiropractic—the body can heal itself if given the right inputs, and if the interference is removed. Another way of understanding and explaining FM to patients is with the four Ps: personalized, predictive, proactive, and preventive. With an understanding of the person's environment, past and present, and with the appropriate laboratory and clinical examinations, a FM practitioner is able to personalize a diet, supplement, and lifestyle plan tliat fits the patient's phenotypic gene expression. It is predictive because a FM practitioner can reliably predict mam diseases a person is most susceptible to. such as autoimmune. Parkinsons, diabetes, etc. It is proactive because FM requires patient participation, not just taking supplements (or dnigs in the case of the current healthcare model) that a practitioner has prescribed. Finally, it is preventive, with research clearly indicating FM interventions arc effective for reducing the chances of many of the modem chronic illnesses, potentially saving hundreds of billions of dollars annually on unnecessary medical procedures. This truly is exciting stuff! FM understands that the cause of any illness is multifactorial and is not solved utilizing a pharmaceutical, symptom-based approach. Dealing with inflammation, energy metabolism, hormonal imbalances. GI imbalances, etc. takes looking for the deeper cause in nutritional deficiencies, aberrant lifestyle habits, toxic exposure, and even mental attitudes. Unless doctors are trained to discover these causes and arc given effective means to educate their patients using diet, nutritional supplementation, exercise, and other natural means, the state of health in this country will continue to deteriorate and bankrupt our society. Let"s take a concrete, clinical example to illustrate how FM works. In almost every FM office, extensive initial labs arc drawn (or should be). Some tests arc ordered based on clinical presentation, while others arc done regardless of the patient's symptoms. For example, a good FM practitioner will check for autoimmune tendencies, such as thyroid antibodies and anti-nuclear antibodies, even if the patient is not displaying "typical" autoimmune symptoms. It is not uncommon to find these antibodies positive in patients years and sometimes decades before any symptoms manifest. By intervening with appropriate diet, supplement, and lifestyle measures that are proven to stop or reverse autoimmune processes, that person is saved from waiting until significant damage has been done and expensive and ineffective medical treatments are needed. To be a good FM practitioner, much study is required. If a practitioner is to take on the responsibility of ordering even routine wcllncss labs, then that practitioner must be able to assess the lab findings accurately and correlate the lab data with clinical findings in order to provide a more complete, thorough, and accurate assessment of the patient's condition. Rather than "dabbling" in any area of the healing arts and sciences, including functional medicine, it is better to learn the material in a comprehensive manner. There arc main tools for learning such as computer-based lab interpretation programs that can expedite the information processing and facilitate analysis, but practitioner knowledge is still critical. FM training must strive to teach practitioners how to use laboratory and clinical evidence to uncover the most important imbalances. In order to do this, the practitioner should be trained (and trained well) in such methods. An excellent opportunity to learn and incorporate functional medicine into practice is offered in a scries of modules designed to increase confidence in this area. The series is taught by Dr. Brandon Lundcll. author of this article. Brandon At. Lundell DC, APC, DABCI, IFAICP, Dip/. Ac, A'E, FAACP, CAC has a successful, one-year wailing list practice, lectures nationally on functional medicine, and is assistant professor at Southern Cali- fornia I'niversity of Health Sciences where he has developed anil teaches a functional medicine program for students. You may reach Dr. Lundell at his office 303-651-1502, or call 1-866-271-8888 for more information about these educational classes, which will be offered in 2014 in Denver, Colorado.
