Different doctors may offer different advice, and some may prescribe medicine that doesn’t end up helping. But don’t lose hope just yet.
Functional medicine is an alternative practice aimed at tackling diseases and illnesses at their source. From diagnosis to treatment, practitioners are focused on providing patients with the tools to live happier, healthier lives.
Does this sound like the treatment for you? Read on to find out more about what functional medical treatments can do for you.
What is Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine is a practice centered around addressing diseases at their roots.
Because diseases have many different symptoms, traditional medicine is only able to provide temporary fixes to a single symptom. Functional methods are focused on healing the different causes of a disease.
For example, let’s say you suffer from inflammation. Traditional practices would attempt to find a cure for your inflammation. Functional practitioners analyze your lifestyle and family history to find what could cause inflammation.
From there, functional practitioners would create a treatment plan centered around you that puts you on a healthy path to recovery.
In functional treatments, the focus is on the patient rather than the disease. From the beginning to the end of the process, treatment is centered around not just solving the immediate issue, but ensuring the patient truly recovers.
How is It Different?
The differences between traditional treatments and this alternative method is in the relationship between doctor and patient. In order to properly diagnose their patients, a functional medicine doctor analyzes the patient’s lifestyle to accurately find the root of the symptoms.
Practitioners want to understand the different aspects of your personal life to figure out the cause.
In a way, practitioners are like detectives. They use your symptoms as clues to finding the source of diseases and illnesses. Some of the areas doctors focus on include:
- Your risk for disease
- Your family history
- Your lifestyle
Treatment models could be as simple as altering your diet to combat inflammation or doing regular stretches to cure muscle pain. Regardless, the solutions recommended by a practitioner should be taken as seriously as medication from a traditional medicine doctor.
The key to seeing results is ensuring you’re following the doctor’s orders and you’re honest with your doctor about it.
Practitioners understand that each patient is unique. Because of this, treatment plans are crafted around your lifestyle. The result is a comprehensive analysis of your personal health.
This personal touch sets functional treatment apart from traditional medicine. This is not to say that one is better than another. In fact, the two actually work well together.
Functional and Traditional Medicine
Functional practitioners aren’t in any way anti-traditional medicine. They simply choose not to rely on them to place band-aids over problems.
Instead, they use ideas from both to create specialized treatments. This way, patients have the necessary tools to maintain long-term health and happiness. If you’re going to pay for healthcare, why not get the treatment you deserve?
Functional treatments are more than just making people feel better. The goal is to teach people how to live better, too.
Using a combination of scientific and psychological practices, functional approaches to medicine deliver personalized paths to wellness. Functional practitioners are providing healthcare that’s truly centered around the patient’s recovery.
Taking Care of Yourself
Keeping your mind and body healthy is key to living a happy life.
Don’t forget to check out our other health and fitness tips to make sure you’re doing what you can to take care of yourself.
