Functional Medicine:

is personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease. It is a science-based field of health care that is grounded in the following principles:

• Biochemical individuality describes the importance of individual variations in metabolic function.
• Patient-centered medicine emphasizes "patient care" rather than "disease care,"
• Dynamic balance of internal and external factors.
• Web-like interconnections of physiological factors. The body functions as an orchestrated network of interconnected systems, rather than individual systems functioning autonomously and without effect on each other.
• Health as a positive vitality – not merely the absence of disease.
• Promotion of organ reserve as the means to enhance health span.

Functional medicine looks to the underlying causes of disease, rather than focusing on the "name it", then "tame it" game of modern medicine. These imbalances may consist of one or many of the following:

• Hormonal and neurotransmitter imbalances
• Detoxification and biotransformational imbalances
• Energy or metabolism imbalances
• Immune imbalances
• Inflammatory imbalances
• Digestive, absorptive, and microbiological imbalances
• Structural imbalances from cellular membrane function to the musculoskeletal system

Functional medicine uses the patient's story as a key tool for integrating diagnosis, signs and symptoms, and evidence of clinical imbalances into a comprehensive approach to improve both the patient's environmental inputs and his or her physiological function. It is a clinician's discipline, and it directly addresses the need to transform the practice of primary care.

Find out more how a custom functional medicine consultation with Dr. Karen or Dr. Ian can help you achieve your goals in health!