Are you struggling to feel well and healthy — especially if you have multiple, seemingly unrelated symptoms? Functional medicine may be a way to get back to better living faster. This integrated approach to health care is one of the best ways to foster wellness and prevent and treat disease.
If you’re tired of being treated like a number, it’s time to partner with a health care provider who focuses on whole-body wellness, like Peak Physical Medicine in Visalia, California. Led by Ruben Garcia, DC, our care team specializes in providing our patients with optimal support for overall health and wellness through functional medicine.
To help you better understand the benefits functional medicine offers, our team has curated this informative guide. Read on to learn more!
What is functional medicine?
As a holistic, integrated approach to health care, functional medicine treats you, the patient, as a partner with your medical team to ensure your best long-term health. Though most of Western medicine focuses on suppressing your physical symptoms, functional medicine instead is concerned with the root cause of your symptoms.
Functional medicine is a patient-centered approach to wellness. At Peak Physical Medicine, we combine science, biology, and medicine with your medical and family history, lifestyle, and habits to uncover the root causes of any conditions or disease you have.
To better understand any medical symptoms you experience, functional medicine takes into account your holistic experience. In other words, by evaluating how your body, mind, and environment work together, functional medicine promotes better living and optimal wellness.
How is functional medicine different?
Traditional Western medicine aims to suppress your symptoms. What’s more? Conventional medicine also tends to consider each part of the body separately. Functional medicine, on the other hand, seeks to discover and treat the underlying cause of your symptoms.
Functional medicine does this by not separating you from the parts that make you whole. Instead, our functional medicine team evaluates all contributing factors, including your physical condition and symptoms, lifestyle factors, environment, genetics, stress, mental health, and more.
Because functional medicine cares for the whole person, not just your condition or problematic body part, it provides a more comprehensive approach to your health. In fact, recent studies have demonstrated the benefits functional medicine provides. And since functional medicine treats you as a full partner in your health care process, at Peak Physical Medicine your wellness plan is tailored to meet your specific needs.
What is a functional medicine appointment like?
If you’re used to appointments with conventional medicine practitioners, you’ll be pleasantly surprised by the approach at Peak Physical Medicine. Since our goal is to identify any risks or precursors to disease before they show up as symptoms, your first appointment may be longer than a typical medical appointment.
By discussing in detail your medical history, family history, current conditions or complaints, and other aspects of your health, such as environmental and lifestyle factors, diet and nutrition, water consumption, and sleep hygiene, your provider can better understand the factors that contribute to your overall health.
Our goal at Peak Physical Medicine is to help you experience the best health possible. Therefore, in addition to completing a comprehensive physical exam, your provider may also draw some blood and run a number of diagnostic tests to check for markers that might indicate a health problem is present or developing.
Ready to learn more about functional medicine?
If you’re interested in comprehensive, individualized care, functional medicine could be the right health care choice for you. At Peak Physical Medicine, we treat you like a person and work to make you feel comfortable and understood throughout your appointment. We’re happy to answer any questions you may have about functional medicine, so you can make an informed decision.
To learn more about functional medicine or to set up an appointment, contact Peak Physical Medicine, or request an appointment online now!