Improving your overall health is a good way to support every system in your body and address health concerns on a holistic level. Whether you are currently seeing a conventional doctor or are simply feeling run-down, functional medicine can help you. Functional medicine can also help you understand how different lifestyle and environmental factors affect the emergence and progression of any condition or disease you may be suffering from.
Functional Medicine Principles
Among the main principles behind functional medicine is grasping the biological uniqueness of every patient and how their individual genetic and environmental surroundings affect them. Functional medicine leads to an approach that is centered on the patient, not the disease. It seeks to understand the relationship between the mind, body and spirit of the patient and treats the patient as a comprehensive, interconnected whole, not just a set of symptoms in isolation.
When we talk about a “patient-centered approach”, we mean that we respect and respond to each patient and their own individual values and needs to ensure that the patient has input into every clinical decision. We seek a partnership rather than an authoritarian environment. We find that this approach empowers patients to take responsibility for their own recovery process. Patients who take ownership over their health tend to feel empowered to make lifestyle changes that are sustained.
Differences
There are some differences between functional medicine and traditional medical care. One critical factor that we pay attention to is that when we receive information about a given patient, we focus upon their lifestyle choices. Factors like exercise, sleep, stress levels, nutrition and genetics are the foundation for good health or the beginning of disease processes, depending upon whether the choices are good ones or not.
Another key difference between functional medicine and conventional approaches is that we first look at the basis of health, which is the lifestyle choices that set the tone for health. Conventional medicine treats all patients the same, often neglecting individual differences and possible causes that are unique to each patient.
Conventional medicine certainly has its strengths, but too often neglects the root causes of disease. This approach does little to address the fundamental basis of disease and focuses on treating individual symptoms in isolation without understanding their basis in lifestyle choices.
If you are not getting the results you desire from conventional medicine, consider functional medicine at MD Beauty Labs so that the root of your health problems can be addressed to reverse and prevent disease and enhance your general well-being. Contact us today to schedule a consultation at our office in West Palm beach!