Functional Medicine

Overview

Functional medicine is the 21^st century approach to health care. It looks at the underlying causes of dysfunction in the body rather than symptoms and named disease. Functional medicine focuses on identifying and addressing nutritional, metabolic and gastro-intestinal imbalances as well toxin effects that underlie chronic disease. The focus is on the whole person rather than isolating a set of symptoms.

Functional Medicine is in essence the coming together of traditional healing techniques and modern scientific understanding of individual biochemistry.

“Functional Medicine integrates traditional Western medical practices with what are sometimes considered ‘alternative’ or ‘integrative’medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet and exercise: use of the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques: and prescribed combination of drugs and or botanical medicine, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programmes, or stress management techniques” Institute of Functional Medicine 2008

Approach

My approach to Nutritional Therapy comes from a functional medicine approach:

1. Are your individual requirements from key nutrients being met?
2. Are there any dysfuntions in the core systems of the body (detoxification, neuro-endocrine, immune and digestion)
3. What is the individual toxic load?

I assess all my clients from a functional perspective and often recommend functional laboratory testing.

I will be introducing further functional testing into my clinic and offering even more comprehensive functional medicine services into my London clinic in 2010.

Please contact me directly if you are a client or healthcare professional and would like any further information on Functional Medicine.