FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE

What is functional Medicine

Functional medicine provides a framework to systematically identify and address the underlying processes and dysfunctions that are causing imbalance and disease in each individual. By understanding a patient’s genetic, environmental, and lifestyle influences, functional medicine clinicians create personalized interventions that restore balance, health, and well-being.

Functional medicine treats the whole person, addressing the unique physical, mental, and emotional needs of each patient. Clinicians bring together the entire complement of modern scientific tools, including a deep understanding of biology, physiology, genetics, social and environmental determinants of health, and the vital connection between mental and physical well-being. It is this combination of focusing on individual patients and applying a multi-faceted treatment path that delivers transformational results.

5R FRAMEWORK

Remove

Remove stressors: get rid of things that negatively affect the environment of the GI tract, including allergic foods, parasites, and potentially problematic bacteria or yeast.

This might involve using an allergy “elimination diet” to find out what foods are causing GI symptoms or it may involve taking medications or herbs to eradicate a particular bug

Replace

Replace digestive secretions: add back things like digestive enzymes, hydrochloric acid, and bile acids that are required for proper digestion and that may be compromised by diet, medications, diseases, aging, or other factors.

Reinoculate

Help beneficial bacteria flourish by ingesting probiotic foods or supplements that contain the “good” GI bacteria such as bifidobacteria and lactobacillus species, and by consuming high soluble fiber foods that good bugs like to eat, called prebiotics

Repair

Help the lining of the GI tract repair itself by supplying key nutrients that can often be in short supply in a compromised gut, such as zinc, antioxidants (e.g. vitamins A, C, and E), fish oil, and the amino acid glutamine.

Rebalance

It is important to pay attention to lifestyle choices. Sleep, exercise, and stress can all affect the GI tract. Balancing those activities is important to an optimal digestive tract.