Functional Medicine Offers an Alternate Approach

Sue Traeder • November 21, 2018

What Is Functional Medicine?

An Easy-To-Understand Explanation for Medical Consumers

Ever been told by your doctor that there’s nothing wrong with you, even though you have distinct, bothersome symptoms that won’t go away?

Chances are, you felt discounted and bewildered, with little or no idea of where to go next for help.

What your doctor undoubtedly meant was, “Given my training, I can’t find a specific disease or condition that you have and that I can prescribe for.” Fortunately, there is another kind of medical training that tracks down the causes of your health issues and offers treatments that may resolve your issue without surgery or drugs.

Functional Medicine Offers a Powerful Alternative Approach

In conventional medicine, a practitioner examines you, performs tests and attempts to match your symptoms to a named disease or condition, then follows the latest medical guidelines on what to prescribe for that disease or condition.

Functional Medicine, however, regards each patient as a unique individual, runs laboratory tests and looks for the biochemical, lifestyle and environmental causes of that individual’s health problems. The treatment then proceeds according to the specific causes that were identified.


In Functional Medicine, two patients who have the same outward symptoms may be discovered to have completely different causes for their symptoms and therefore completely different treatments. The great strength of this approach is in helping patients who have complicated, chronic health problems that do not get identified or improved from “cookbook” treatment.

The Healing Approach of Functional Medicine

To restore you to good health, Functional Medicine uses two scientifically grounded principles:

1. Add what’s lacking in your body to nudge your physiology back to a state of optimal functioning.
2. Remove anything that impedes your body from moving toward this optimal state of physiology.

Plainly put, your body naturally wants to be healthy. But essential nutrients might be needed for your body to function at its best, or toxins such as pollutants might be standing in the way of its best functioning. Functional Medicine first identifies the factors responsible for the malfunctioning. Then it deals with those factors in a way appropriate to your particular situation.

For treatment, your Functional Medicine practitioner will call upon natural agents such as supplements, herbs, nutraceuticals and homeopathics, recommend and support you in making nutritional and lifestyle changes, provide spiritual or emotional counseling, and if absolutely necessary to prod your physiology back to an optimal state, prescribe drugs. In addition, educating you about your health problem and its causes empowers you to take charge of their own health, leading to more successful treatment.

Call Grappin Clinic today at 941.426.9551 to schedule a complimentary consultation!

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About the author:
Dr. Ron Grisanti, D.C., is the founder and director of Functional Medicine University, a training program for medical professionals. For the general public, he has created the health information site YourMedicalDetective.com, which offers free, easy-to-understand articles on a broad range of health problems. For a free membership in YourMedicalDetective.com, go to http://www.yourmedicaldetective.com

Article Source: https://EzineArticles.com/expert/Dr_Ron_Grisanti/815401

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