How to Use 21st Century Medicine to Heal From Chronic Illness

Maybe it’s happened to you too. You’ve left another doctor’s office without a resolution to your problem. The prescription in your pocket is destined for the trash.

You feel abandoned. You try not to picture your future. How many more times will you go to the well and come back with an empty glass?

So, what do you do?

20th-century medicine has failed you, repeatedly.

Try 21st-century medicine. Find a physician who has been trained in functional medicine on top of their traditional medical school training.

What Is Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine is state of the art medicine for chronic disease. It focuses on you and not the disease.

Here’s the key point to functional medicine:

A functional medicine practitioner will strive to find the root cause of dysfunction and not just treat your symptoms.

Be honest.

You can’t remember the last time a physician spoke to you about finding the root cause, can you?

To find the root cause, functional medicine addresses you as a whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms.

Here’s a good example.

Say you have gastrointestinal problems, migraines, and fatigue. A traditionally trained practitioner might send you to a gastroenterologist (because they don’t know how the gut operates), prescribe a pharmaceutical drug for your migraines and some other band-aid treatment for your fatigue.

A functional medicine-trained practitioner will take a different approach.

Since they are equipped to treat you as a whole person, they will address the root causes of these symptoms, frequently without referrals or their prescription pad. Your practitioner will strive to understand what’s driving your migraines, gut dysfunction and fatigue.

They will see you as a whole system with related parts and not pieces to be farmed out to other doctors.

Makes a lot of sense, right?

What Makes Functional Medicine Practitioners So Special & Effective

Functional medicine practitioners actually listen to you!

Admit it.

You’ve probably been in doctors’ offices where they have one hand on the door knob as you’re trying to ask a question at the end of your ten-minute appointment.

Unlike traditionally-trained doctors, these practitioners listen to your history and look at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence your long-term health and complex, chronic disease.

This is medicine that listens to you and treats you as an individual.

Functional Medicine Uses Extensive Testing

Functional medicine is science-based and uses extensive laboratory testing. Instead of a one-page blood work up report, your report will likely be 10+ pages and be filled with results you’ve never seen before.

Depending on your issues, you may have nutritional evaluation reports that show you where you are deficient in vitamins and minerals as well as adrenal function reports and so on.

You’ll wonder how your former practitioner treated you without these detailed “body system performance” reports.

Functional Medicine Requires Serious Work On Your Part

Practitioners use these laboratory tests and their interviews with you to develop your program which can include drugs and botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs or stress management techniques.

You probably realize what this means — lots of changes for you.

Once your practitioner has figured out the root causes of your issues, you’ll have to stop doing some things and start doing others like changing your diet, taking supplements and more.

You won’t have any problem being motivated because you’re strong.

After all, you’ve been living through hell and surviving, right?

The Benefits of Functional Medicine

What you’ll love about functional medicine:

• Focus is on prevention

• Treats underlying causes and not just symptoms which is critical because almost every complex, chronic disease is preceded by long-term disturbances in functionality (you probably didn’t get sick overnight)

• Relies heavily on your story and participation; you and the practitioner are partners

• Integrates Western medicine with the best alternative medicine providing many treatment options

• Treats you as a whole person including mind, body and spirit and environmental issues

A variety of practitioners including MDs and DOs can be certified by the Institute of Functional Medicine. You can find these practitioners on the functionalmedicine.org site under Find a Practitioner by zip code.

Admit it.  You’d like to get back to taking your health for granted again, right?

Will You Stay in Touch?

When you’re not well for a long period of time, you can easily become isolated. Below is a a way to help with that.

And, sign up for The Zen of Pure Living 12 week email series.

Because let’s be honest.

You’ve got better things to do than to figure out how to keep your home healthy while you’re focusing on your health. You’d like to have it neatly presented to you without feeling overwhelmed.

You’ll learn how to clean up your water and indoor air, and why. How to redecorate without health consequences. How to clean with the safest products. Why you should dust more, what cooking oils to roast with, the safest and most effective personal care products and more.

So, sign up today because you’ll get just enough information to make you wise while maintaining your peace.

Sources:

Functionalmedicine.org, Institute of Functional Medicine