Functional Medicine
Functional medicine is a holistic approach to patient care. While traditional medicine has a focus on a specific disease diagnosis as the end state, functional medicine looks to find the underlying causes for those disease symptoms. For example, a conventional doctor may stop after writing a prescription of an anti-depressant after diagnosing depression, their job is done. The functional medicine doctor will look for the underlying causes of the depression by taking extra time listening to patient histories, ordering specialty metabolic and nutritional lab work, and looking at the complex interactions among genetic, environmental, nutritional, metabolic, diets and lifestyle factors that influence long term health and chronic diseases.
I have been practicing Function Medicine for the past 12 years. Unlike many conventional medicine doctors, I will not lump you into a particular disease category (or organ system dysfunction) and then prescribe you a one-size-fits-all prescription drug. Instead, I will take the time to listen to you and review your entire health history. In doing so, I am able to formulate a plan that involves specific testing to search for the underlying causes of your symptoms as well as provide information to recommend a program unique to you. I am very open to working with your other health care providers. I believe that providing other complementary treatments is both supportive and the wave of the future.