Functional medicine an alternative approach to healing

There is a vastness between disease and cure. And this huge difference is filled with an uncountable number of theories, researches, and attempts to discover the best healing approach by the medical practitioners.

Throughout the human history, diseases, and illness has been the subject of fear and curiosity.

And the journey of healing this fear has already taken its turn from divine miracles to decisive science.

Marching on this path of advancement, some medical practitioners have come up with a relatively new term, which is called functional medicine. Functional medicine or treatment is a thought process of a collective few who are delving deep to find new and better ways of treating diseases.

What exactly is functional medicine?

Now breaking it up for a better understanding, functional medicine is essentially a "biology-based approach" of treatment. So in the functional medicine approach, the root cause of the disease is targeted.

The root cause of a disease can be different for every individual. Hence in the simplest terms, this can be termed as an individualised form of treatment.

How is functional medicine different from conventional medicine?

In the conventional form, the treatment depends on recognising the symptoms which an individual is experiencing and then identifying the illness. The process then is followed by finding the appropriate pharmaceutical composition for the treatment.

Whereas in the functional medicine approach the treatment targets on deciphering the root cause of the symptoms. It does not treat the symptoms alone but the issues from which they are generating. 

                                        

The primary principles of functional medicine.

The questions regarding functional medicine which often comes under the spotlight are – how is it beneficial? How can it help in boosting health? Why should one consider functional medicine?

The answer lies in what can be stated as the primary principle of this approach which is the core of this approach – an individualized or personalized treatment.

●       Personalized treatment plan: in this approach, all individuals are considered unique in their physiological and genetic makeup. Every individual has a distinct coping mechanism, and hence the treatment should be planned accordingly.

●       Scientific: It is completely scientific in nature. This approach, in fact, can be called deeply stemmed into science. It is a holistic form of treatment that focuses on the cause and mechanism then the illness itself.

 The functional medicine approach is also beneficial as it is a one collaboration with the doctor. It is the partnership between the patient and the practitioner. The patient here can be a part of the planning process of the treatment along with the physician. 

The treatment process here does not aim to heal the symptoms and mask the cause of it. The aim here is to eliminate or decrease the existing health issues of an individual and prevent any future illness from occurring again.

Why do we need functional medicine?

If we look at the current scenario, there is a sharp rise in health concerns. The human body is projected to an unhealthy lifestyle and an immune system that is not able to fight the disease by itself.

We Whole body Health located in Ohio is looking at functional medicine approach as an evolution. It is a patient-centric model where the practitioners don't follow the same pattern for treatment. They try to find factors which might affect the patient rather than conducting multiple tests and prescribing medicines which might or might not cure the disease. 

Functional medicine is the effort to fill the gap between the research and methodology of practice in dealing with complex factors and mapping out the landscape for the elimination of chronic disease like cancer, heart disease, diabetes, mental illness, and even autoimmune disorders like rheumatoid arthritis.

Let's sum it up with this question, do we want a partial recovery or should we prefer an inclusive approach, which seeks to trace the root cause of the disease. To restore balance and health.