Virginia, those are wonderful resources. I opened each of the sites up and searched for practitioners within 10 miles of my zip code and found several in each search, including a list of their specialties.
I was very interested to learn about functional medicine; this is something I haven't heard of before, but it makes SO much sense. For others like me who aren't familiar with it, here's the definition of functional medicine they give on the web site:
"Functional medicine is personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease. It is a science-based field of health care that is grounded in the following principles:
-- Biochemical individuality describes the importance of individual variations in metabolic function that derive from genetic and environmental differences among individuals.
-- Patient-centered medicine emphasizes "patient care" rather than "disease care," following Sir William Osler’s admonition that "It is more important to know what patient has the disease than to know what disease the patient has."
-- Dynamic balance of internal and external factors.
-- Web-like interconnections of physiological factors – an abundance of research now supports the view that the human body functions as an orchestrated network of interconnected systems, rather than individual systems functioning autonomously and without effect on each other. For example, we now know that immunological dysfunctions can promote cardiovascular disease, that dietary imbalances can cause hormonal disturbances, and that environmental exposures can precipitate neurologic syndromes such as Parkinson’s disease.
-- Health as a positive vitality – not merely the absence of disease.
-- Promotion of organ reserve as the means to enhance health span."
After reading about their whole-body approach to such things as hormonal imbalances, inflammation, the immune system, digestive and structural imbalances, it made me want to know more. What is a functional medicine checkup like? Blood tests, I am sure, and a patient history, but how else is it different than traditional medicine?
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Virginia, those are wonderful resources. I opened each of the sites up and searched for practitioners within 10 miles of my zip code and found several in each search, including a list of their specialties.
I was very interested to learn about functional medicine; this is something I haven't heard of before, but it makes SO much sense. For others like me who aren't familiar with it, here's the definition of functional medicine they give on the web site:
"Functional medicine is personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease. It is a science-based field of health care that is grounded in the following principles:
-- Biochemical individuality describes the importance of individual variations in metabolic function that derive from genetic and environmental differences among individuals.
-- Patient-centered medicine emphasizes "patient care" rather than "disease care," following Sir William Osler’s admonition that "It is more important to know what patient has the disease than to know what disease the patient has."
-- Dynamic balance of internal and external factors.
-- Web-like interconnections of physiological factors – an abundance of research now supports the view that the human body functions as an orchestrated network of interconnected systems, rather than individual systems functioning autonomously and without effect on each other. For example, we now know that immunological dysfunctions can promote cardiovascular disease, that dietary imbalances can cause hormonal disturbances, and that environmental exposures can precipitate neurologic syndromes such as Parkinson’s disease.
-- Health as a positive vitality – not merely the absence of disease.
-- Promotion of organ reserve as the means to enhance health span."
After reading about their whole-body approach to such things as hormonal imbalances, inflammation, the immune system, digestive and structural imbalances, it made me want to know more. What is a functional medicine checkup like? Blood tests, I am sure, and a patient history, but how else is it different than traditional medicine?
December 8, 2008 - 9:55amThis Comment
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