What is functional medicine?
Functional medicine is a form of medicine that focuses on the root cause of the problem rather than supressing the symptoms of the illness itself. It involves looking at the body as a whole and is often referred to as holistic medicine.
For example, traditional medicine may look methods of treating pain caused by arthritis. This may involve using pain killers or anti-inflammatories. Functional medicine on the other hand would be looking at treating what is causing the arthritis in the first place. Treatment would more likely be based on first assessing the individual and ensuring there were no nutritional deficiencies, hormone imbalances, gut biome imbalances, environmental exposures or genetic predispositions and making a plan on treating these instead.
Some of the areas that are commonly investigated and treated by functional doctors include:
- Acne
- Alzheimer’s Disease & Dementia
- Arthritis
- Asthma
- Autism Spectrum Disorder, ADD, ADHD
- Autoimmune Disease
- Cancer Prevention
- Chronic Fatigue
- Chronic Sinitus
- Depression & anxiety
- Detoxification & healing
- Diabetes
- Digestive disorders (IBS,IBD,gerd/reflux)
- Eczema/psoriasis
- Elevated cholesterol
- Environmental & food allergies
- Fatigue
- Female disorders (PMS, menopause, infertility, PCOS)
- Fibromyalgia
- Healthy ageing
- Healthy weight metabolism
- Heart health
- Hormone Balance
- Interstitial cystitis
- Low testosterone
- Mercury & heavy metal toxicity
- Pre-diabetes
- Migraines & headaches
- Multiple sclerosis
- Obesity
- Osteoperosis
- Parkinson’s Disease
- Restless leg syndrome
- Sleep/insomnia
- Thyroid & adrenal disorders
It is a specialty field that certain GP’s, doctors, specialists, pharmacists and other allied health professionals are trained in and requires extensive training. As a result they are high in demand and often hard to find.
At Formulae, we work very closely with doctors trained in treating these conditions using a functional approach and commonly prepare personalised treatments based on their recommendations.
