What is Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine is a systems-based approach, asking why disease happens rather than what disease you have. Functional medicine looks at a given condition or symptom and looks for the underlying or root cause of such condition. For example, something as serious as depression can be caused by many things. It could be low omega-3 fatty acids, low thyroid, antibiotic use, blood sugar imbalances, low vitamin D, food allergies or more. While the diagnosis of depression is correct, functional medicine doctors aim to ask why and how each condition was developed.

What is a Functional Medicine Doctor?

A functional medicine doctors are medical professionals that focus on systems biology in order to look for common root causes of functional health problems. Consider an old car that has been sitting in your garage for a few years. It might not run because it is out of gas, or the battery is dead or maybe just the tires are flat. By looking at the whole picture you can prioritize what to fix first to get it running again. (Hopefully you didn’t ignore your body for a few years!) Functional medicine doctors or professionals can be holistic chiropractors, integrative medical doctors or other health professionals that have done extensive training in functional medicine.

Is Functional Medicine Legit?

Functional medicine is no longer “alternative” but rather the primary form of healthcare sought after by many people. We receive referrals from primary care doctors & specialists all of the time. They often refer someone that doesn’t want to take medication or has multiple body systems that seem to be interacting with each other. We encourage our patients to go back to their physicians and let them know how they are progressing. We often work with traditional medicine in order to help people get off medications and for emergency medical help.

How to Find The Best Functional Medicine Doctor Near Me?

Finding the best functional medicine doctor is often more about finding the right functional medicine professional first and then finding the best doctor in that niche. For example, many functional medicine doctors like to focus on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy. They like to prescribe hormones and injections for treatment. Our office on the other hand is 100% natural and focuses on root cause problems that would have made hormones imbalanced in the first place. If you resonate more with a quick fix and a medication you may choose the other office, while if you don’t want to be stuck on bioidentical hormone replacement therapy for the rest of your life, then you may choose our office.

Do Functional Medicine Doctors Take Insurance?

Our practices throughout Arizona do not accept insurance. We don’t currently know of any functional medicine practices that offer functional medicine. Even more unique to our offices is that we not only can order functional medicine lab tests, (ie comprehensive stool test, heavy metal tests, etc.) we are the only functional medicine practice in Arizona that has two Professional Applied Kinesiology (PAK) doctors. By combining both studies, we are able to get better results in less time.

Does Functional Medicine Treat C0V1D?

Our office primarily focuses on long-haulers syndrome. By focusing on the whole body, we are able to improve your health and many times long haulers symptoms will go away. We have had good success where patients are able to put in the time and continue on a protocol consistently as they work with the functional medicine practitioner.

Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is a model of treating a patient that focuses on identifying the root causes of disease and empowering patients to work with their doctor on their own health. Functional medicine takes into account structural, chemical and emotional patterns that create disease.

Root Cause Medicine

By treating the root cause of your problem, rather than focusing on suppressing symptoms, we are able to look at each condition from a different viewpoint. We accept that the same symptoms or disease can be caused by multiple root causes. At the same time, we know that one root cause can create multiple systems to have symptoms. (Ie irritable bowel syndrome that causes skin redness or eczema)

Why Choose Functional Medicine?

Typically it takes 15 to 20 years for scientific discovery to get into a standard medicine practice. By using time-tested scientific, herbal and medicinal principles, we are able to add new information into clinical practice in real-time! With functional medicine you are getting the latest information and techniques combined with traditional wisdom.

What Does a Functional Medicine Doctor Do?

By taking a holistic approach to your health a functional medicine doctor can help you to work on lifestyle factors, diet and supplements for healing root causes. Some visits include reviewing timelines, sleep patterns, exercise habit, nutrition, stressors, relationships and emotional wellbeing.

What Do Functional Medicine Doctors Treat?

Your core body system control and signs and symptoms you may experience. Functional doctors can get address most conditions by focusing on the root causes that create most chronic problems in the body.

Here is a list of just a few:

Adrenal fatigue (chronic fatigue syndrome)
Alzheimers disease, dementia, ADD, ADHD, Brain Fog, etc
Arthritis, psuedoarthritis and infectious arthritis
Asthma and chronic bronchitis
Autoimmune diseases
Cardiovasulcar disease
Diabetes Types I
Digestive disorders & Irritable Bowel Syndrome
Fibromyalgia
Food allergies and sensitivities
Women’s Health (PMS, Menopause, PCOS, Endometriosis, etc.)
Insulin resistant and metabolic disorders
Thyroid disorders (hypothyroidism and metabolic syndrome)