The practice of medicine is changing. Functional medicine and Integrative medicine have been around for several years now and are rapidly gaining popularity in the 21st centuryst century. Both disciplines are highly regarded by world-renowned healthcare providers such as Drs. Deepak Chopra, Mark Hyman and Dean Ornish. Many believe that functional and integrative medicine are the future of medicine. Doctors are beginning to take a more holistic approach to treating patients and no longer just focusing on treating one disease.
What is Functional Medicine?
Although functional medicine and integrative medicine share similarities and overlap in several areas, there are some factors that make each discipline somewhat unique. What are the most important points for a healthy life? According to the Institute of Functional Medicine, functional medicine restores healthy function by treating the root causes of disease. The functional medicine framework allows physicians to systematically identify and address the underlying processes and dysfunctions that cause imbalance and disease in each individual. By understanding a patient’s genetic, environmental, and lifestyle influences, functional medicine physicians create personalized interventions that restore balance, health, and well-being.
In other words, it is medicine as it should be practiced. Western medicine looks at how to treat a symptom for a population group. Functional medicine looks at how each person’s health and function can be optimized. Anyone facing a chronic condition can benefit from a functional medicine perspective. Here are some of your lifestyle components that we will evaluate:
- Lifestyle: Your diet, activity level, work, hobbies and stressors
- Genetics and predispositions: family history of physical and mental disorders
- Environment: Early life events, trauma, and exposure to toxins and allergens
Functional medicine is essentially a partnership between doctor and patient, and practitioners provide patients with tools so they can gain a sense of control over their own health and understand how the body functions.
What factors should be taken into account?
1. Food
. First, make sure you get at least 30 grams of fiber per day. Then add “lean and clean” proteins and lots of healthy fats. You don’t have to avoid saturated fat, but you should avoid damaged fats, such as oils used over and over again in restaurants, as well as many pro-inflammatory omega-6 fatty acids (found in most vegetable oils). And eliminate artificial trans fats from your diet.
2. Exercise. You can’t be healthy without exercising. Understandably, a normal routine can seem insurmountable, especially after a long, stressful day at work or home. However, even the smallest amount of exercise is helpful, from getting up and taking a walk for five minutes every hour to playing yoga, pilates, or pickleball for just 15 minutes a day.
3. Heart Healthy Supplements. I recommend fish oil and vitamin D (“an important predictor of plaque”), magnesium, vitamin K and coenzyme Q10.
4. Manage stress. Get enough sleep, exercise, do some meditation or watch the Heart Math program.
5. Sleep: Expert advice says that seven to nine hours of sleep per night is necessary to achieve optimal health. But learning how to sleep is just as important. In that regard, wearable technology, including watches and rings, are extremely useful for providing real-time feedback to learn more about our sleep hygiene.
6. Fantastic flavors. If it doesn’t taste good, people won’t eat it. I encourage the liberal use of antioxidant and anti-inflammatory spices such as chili powder, curry, garlic and ginger.
Take a holistic approach to staying healthy; you only need to see a doctor if you are sick.
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