Our guess is that you’ve probably experienced it. You have a health issue that you want to address with your general practitioner so you make an appointment, meet with the doctor, and have a brief consultation on what the symptoms are and what the disease may be. He or she prescribes you medication to treat the issue and you are all set to go – in a relatively short amount of time.
Sometimes it works.
And…sometimes it doesn’t.
This is the way of our conventional medicine that we are used to. Having symptoms, sharing them with our doctor, and having medication or procedures prescribed to fix it. But, there is a new way of medicine on the horizon. One that could very well be the future of health care as we know it.
It’s called functional medicine.
Simply put, functional medicine treats the whole person as an individual, finds the root cause of the symptoms, and treats the entire mind and body naturally to allow for holistic healing. Many chronic diseases stem from malfunctioning systems in the body, so functional medicine finds why the body and/or mind is imbalanced and how it can be treated for health and vitality.
So how is this different from conventional medicine? Let us explain…
Conventional medicine:
What we traditionally know of medicine here in the United States, but what many of us struggle with. Do you feel unheard or left with unanswered questions? Do you have a variety of medications that aren’t curing the disease but is just treating the symptoms? Here’s how it typically plays out:
Functional medicine:
An alternative approach to medicine as we know it that focuses on your questions, your symptoms, your lifestyle, and your goals. A holistic approach that listens, nurtures, and heals from within. This approach varies and tends to look like:
So why could it be beneficial to you?
1. Functional medicine treats the entire person.
The easiest way for us to explain this is that:
Conventional medicine treats the disease.
Functional medicine treats the individual.
2. Functional medicine explores the root cause.
Functional medicine can be a remarkable and/or complementary alternative to conventional medicine because it dives in deep to finding the root cause of the issue.
Instead of listening to the symptoms and prescribing medication to relieve those symptoms, functional medicine will ask further questions and may even run specific tests to look at nutrition deficiencies, stress levels, hormonal variances, relationship issues, and genetic predispositions.
3. Functional medicine encourages the mind and body to heal itself naturally.
Prescriptions may work quickly, but also may have side effects. They may ease the issue, but is the drug healing the disease or just relieving the symptoms? The goal is to help the mind and body naturally heal itself for complete whole health.
Do you live in Castle Rock or the surrounding areas such as Parker, Highlands Ranch, Centennial, Monument, Larkspur, or Colorado Springs and have additional questions regarding functional medicine and if it could work for you?
Schedule a free 15 minute consultation with Dr. Adam Graves and discuss your questions and concerns.
References:
https://www.functionalmedicine.org/What_is_Functional_Medicine/AboutFM/
https://p.widencdn.net/wzl55z/Intro_Functional_Medicine
https://www.mindbodygreen.com/0-6014/The-5-Principles-of-Functional-Medicine.html
Leave a Reply