The Benefits of Functional Medicine and How it Differs from Conventional Medicine
We live in a world where there are several approaches to healing parts of the body. Of course, there is medicine, but there are two different types of medicine that are very common in today’s world: functional and conventional. Conventional medicine is what most people think of when they hear the word “doctor” and is what treats separate symptoms relative to the individual body parts. Functional medicine, on the other hand, allows practitioners to treat patients with a holistic approach. There are several differentiations between the two types of medicine and there are many benefits of functional medicine.
Work with Your Doctor
Functional medicine allows you to work with the doctor to devise a treatment plan that will reduce or eliminate the patient’s current health problems and help to prevent new ones from occurring in the future. Instead of masking the issue or treating just one part of it, you are able to treat the problem as a whole and create a plan of action. Some of the functional medicine therapies offered include bio-identical hormone replacement therapy, detoxification, nutritional recommendations, exercise plans, and natural medicine.
Find the Root Cause of the Problem
Conventional medicine only looks at individual symptoms and assumes they are associated with different parts of the body, while functional medicine allows you and the doctor to look at the symptoms in order to see what systems in the body may be affected. Due to the fact that holistic medicine will not assign medications for each individual symptom, you will be able to look at symptoms as a whole to discover the root cause of the problem. By getting to the root cause of the situation, several symptoms can be eliminated or reduced.
Your Doctor will Listen to You
It may have happened to you before where you felt like your doctor was not listening to your concerns, but was rather concerned with the disease or issue you were having. While having attention on the issue is important to treat it, it is possible to miss out on valuable information that can help the doctor find the cause of the issue the patient is having. Functional medicine is patient based, meaning that the doctor will take the time to listen to you and go through your history to find the root cause and fix it. Since most conventional medicine is disease based, it may be why some issues have been unresolved for some patients.
Looks at all Sides
With functional medicine, the doctor looks at various factors that could be causing the problem. Instead of focusing on just the symptoms, they will be looking at your medical and family history, lifestyle factors, and genetics to help treat complex or chronic conditions. By looking at all sides, you and the doctor will know more about you and your body so you can treat existing issues and prevent future ones more easily.
While conventional medicine is good for treating specific illnesses such as the common cold and healing broken bones, it may not be best for finding the root cause to chronic or complex diseases. Functional medicine gives you and your doctor the opportunity to work together, know your body more, and find what is really causing the condition to persist. A plan can then be created to eliminate or reduce the condition and prevent future problems from occurring. Patient-centered care is very important when it comes to functional medicine, and functional medicine specialists can prevent the advancement of the disease process while promoting overall wellness in the patient.
