What is Functional Medicine? 

The Functional Medicine model is an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach that empowers patients and physicians to work together as partners to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness.  In functional medicine the body is not seen as separated isolated organ systems that need to be divided up into numerous different specialties where each specialty does not deal with or address the rest but rather seen as one integrated system that is interconnected.

In Functional Medicine we treat the whole person, their whole system, all their concerns and their health and history in utero to birth to present. Doctor and patient  are partners, teammates with the common goal of optimal health and well being for the patient not managing their disease for a lifetime and monitoring decay.

It requires a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors and uses that information to implement customized personalized treatment plans that lead to improved patient outcomes. Read Dr Rashel’s The 9 Essential Pillars to Advance Health to gain a deeper understanding of all the aspects addressed when approaching a condition and patient through a functional medicine model of care. 

By addressing root cause, rather than symptoms, physicians are able to identify the complexity of the disease process as exemplified by one condition having many different causes and, likewise, one cause resulting in many different conditions.

Therefore a Functional Medicine treatment plan targets all specific manifestations of disease in each individual and aims to reverse disease and reinstate a state of optimal health and well-being for each unique individual.