If you’re suffering from a chronic illness or simply want to understand the root cause of your health condition, consider visiting a functional medical practice like Peak Physical.
Functional doctors provide a multi-disciplinary approach to treating and understanding your illness. And with specialized training and access to providers in a variety of disciplines, you’ll receive care that looks at all aspects of your life, not just your medical history.
What is functional medicine?
Functional medicine is a health model designed to provide patient-centered and science-based care to the patient. Functional doctors work across multiple disciplines to get a detailed understanding of what is happening in the body.
A doctor may look at the patient’s genetic makeup and biochemical and lifestyle factors to put together a treatment plan that addresses the root cause of the condition.
Functional doctor education and training
When you choose to work with a functional doctor, you’re selecting an individual who has gone through traditional medical school and may have chosen to get additional certification from an organization such as The Institute for Functional Medicine.
Doctors then apply functional medicine teachings to their original field of practice. Additional training allows the doctor to form relationships with doctors across multiple disciplines.
What to expect when you see a functional doctor
A functional doctor completes a more comprehensive treatment plan by looking at the following factors.
Lifestyle:
A look inside your diet, activity level, work life, hobbies and stressors.
Genetics:
A look at your family’s physical and mental health histories.
Environment:
A look at the toxins and allergens that may be present in your everyday life.
Come prepared to answer in-depth questions about how you complete your daily activities, common stressors in your life, or how your diet impacts your mood.
Benefits of Functional Medicine
At the core of functional medicine is the belief that each person is an individual with a unique body chemistry and distinct living conditions — everyone lives and works in different environments, eats different diets, has different stressors.
Each of the things that makes a person different is a part of a puzzle that functional medicine doctors can tap into not only to diagnose and treat disease, but also to prevent it. Here are a couple benefits of functional medicine.
- Focuses on root cause of disease, not symptoms
Instead of focusing on relieving symptoms, functional medicine seeks to treat your condition by discovering and addressing the root cause. But functional medicine takes it one step further.
One of the core principles behind functional medicine is that once you understand the cause of an illness, you’re armed with the knowledge to obtain wellness or prevent disease in the first place through making lifestyle changes. The ultimate goal of functional medicine is to optimize health.
Functional doctors support you through your entire wellness journey. In many practices, you have access to more than one provider. You may have access to a provider (physician, physician assistant or nurse practitioner), registered dietitian, health coach, or a behavioral health therapist.
Working together, these specialists can address your holistic health from many angles.
Focus on chronic conditions
Functional doctors are particularly helpful in treating chronic conditions like:
- Adrenal disorders
- Dementia
- Arthritis
- Asthma
- Autoimmune diseases
Older adults are treated more than younger individuals because older adults have more complex health concerns and conditions, all of which can be addressed by a functional doctor.
Focus on alternative medicine/treatments
While some doctors may prescribe traditional medication, you may also be offered alternative treatments like acupuncture, meditation, or herbal remedies. If you’re open to trying a variety of treatments that may also include lifestyle changes, a functional doctor may be the right choice for you.
Peak Physical
Your medical history and overall health can be influenced by many self-care routines in your life such as work-life balance, lifestyle and environment, connections with others, as well as your approach to physical activity, sleep, nutrition, and mental health, among others.
By treating the whole person, our integrative health physicians delve into your unique experiences to develop a personalized plan that can impact your long-term health and well-being.
At Peak Physical, our physicians provide an evidence-based, patient-centered approach to patient care
Call us today at (559) 627-2225 or conveniently request a consultation online by clicking here.