Blog Post

I used the word “Functional†as part of my company name. Some people in the industry are familiar with what that means but most people are not. So, I thought I would share a quote from a book I was reading today that attempts to explain it. Note this is a long quote that first describes standard medical practice and then describes Functional medicine. I’ll give my thoughts at the end. The book is the Gerson Therapy: The Natural Nutritional Program to Fight Cancer and Other Illnesses by Charlotte Gerson, 2010.

_Disease-oriented medical practice directs its efforts to finding the generalized formulas for treating types or classes of people who resemble one another in certain symptomatic respects. Its classification of patients into groups or categories is indispensable for finding a treatment to be used. For uncovering the therapy that works best, single- or double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trials are frequently employed. With a patient’s physiology, whatever is found wrong, the allopathic (drug-using) physician attempts to correct the health problem with FDA-approved pharmaceuticals, chemotherapeutics, surgery, immunotherapy, radiation therapy, or other forms of high technology. Disease-oriented medicine is a system primarily employing drugs in an attempt to produce effects in the body that will directly oppose and so alleviate the symptoms of disease. Applying chemotherapy for cancer is the perfect example of disease-oriented medicine in practice. _

Patient-centered medical practice approaches its healing procedures by seeking out everything that can possibly be done to optimize the health of a given unique individual. An orientation like this, also defined as “functional medicine_†by health professional educator Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., of Gig Harbor, Washington, demands decisions based on judgments by holistic physicians, chiropractors, homeopaths, naturopaths, acupuncturists, some nurse practitioners, nutritionists, and other types of healers. It also requires close personal participation by the patients themselves. The doctor frequently devotes as much time teaching a patient as administering treatment. Even if the patient shows no outward sign of disease but has only subclinical symptoms, as manifested by irregular laboratory tests, an effort is made in patient-centered medicine to accomplish three specific physiological restorations: 1. Harmonize the person’s biochemistry. 2. Elevate the workings of a suppressed immune system. 3. Rectify the malfunctioning of essential organs. _

There are several things that I resonated with in the paragraph on Functional Medicine that I have placed below in bullet form.

• “seeking out everything that can possibly be done to optimize the health of a given unique individual.” This is really a core FDN philosopy.
• “It also requires close personal participation by the patients themselves.” Very true
• The practitioner devotes much time teaching a client and that actually is the most significant long lasting part of the whole thing.
• “Even if the patient shows no outward sign of disease but has only subclinical symptoms, as manifested by irregular laboratory tests, an effort is made in patient-centered medicine to accomplish three specific physiological restorations: 1. Harmonize the person’s biochemistry. 2. Elevate the workings of a suppressed immune system. 3. Rectify the malfunctioning of essential organs.” This is why running tests is so important to an FDN. It allows us to get hints of what is going on that you may not be aware of. So we can make more targeted lifestyle recommendations to help you feel better.

So I think that using “Functional Health†was an appropriate hint for informed clients of the services I provide.