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The conventional approach is great for acute care! Putting you back together again after an accident or saving your life in the ICU is what conventional care is great at!

Chronic care is where functional medicine shines. Conventional care can get stuck in what we call “diagnose and adios” or “a pill for every ill,” without ever getting to the root cause of the diagnosis and often masking each new symptom that pops up as your body spirals further into dysfunction from never getting to the source of the illness or dis-ease.

Our body talks in whispers with symptoms like pain, discomfort or recurrent health complaints; it is our body’s way of getting us to pay attention and change something. If we suppress so that we can ignore those symptoms, our body will start screaming, which is when the disease can happen. It is important to not only state “what” is going on but uncover the “why” symptoms are occurring.

The functional approach looks to see if you are missing something you may need, such as vitamins, minerals, water, and nutrients. It also considers things you have too much of, such as environmental toxins, heavy metals, bacterial or fungal imbalance, infections, or parasites. It may be simple or complex, and it takes more detective work than prescribing pain medication or antidepressants—it gives you a more satisfying answer!

Functional medicine is:

• It is patient-centered

• based on each person’s unique needs

• helps to balance your biochemistry

• It focuses on improving and integrating physical, mental, spiritual, and emotional functions.

• It encourages you to take an active role in your program.

• It is interested in outcomes rather than controlling the symptoms

• Functional medicine aims to help your body come back into dynamic alignment

• It is holistic rather than specialized. It approaches the body as an interconnected web where you pull on one string and realize it is connected to everything else.

Many people turn to alternative and complementary medicine, such as functional and integrative medicine, because they feel listened to, cared for, and treated as a whole person.

Rather than the top-down expert approach, the functional approach looks at how you are doing and feeling. By understanding and painting a complete picture of your total lifestyle, we can uncover specific clues and information that we can act on to help you feel better. Remember, you are the expert on you! We listen to you and combine our knowledge of how the body works so that we can maximize diet and lifestyle to support your vision of optimal health.

Rather than naming a specific disease, the functional approach takes you and your lifestyle into the practice of medicine. It looks at you in the context of your life and choices, and the personalized protocol will reflect your needs.

The complex patient that has been passed around from specialist to specialist with no results. Maybe they have told you it is all in your head, or that you are a busy mom and feeling chronically tired and run down is a side effect of being a busy mom, or that your blood labs all look good, so they send you on your way, but you know something isn’t right, and you aren’t feeling like yourself.

Many people today have health problems that don’t fit into simple categories or diagnoses. Complex health problems such as chronic infections, mold exposure, inflammatory responses, immune dysregulation, nervous system dysfunction, digestive problems, low energy or chronic fatigue, cardiovascular issues, blood sugar dysregulation, brain fog, acne, infertility, recurrent miscarriages, nutritional imbalances, impaired detoxification, endocrine imbalances, etc. A functional approach best helps these people.

A functional approach is also for those interested in preventative health care who want to take an active role in their well-being. These people seek out a collaborative team to act as guides for their continued good health.

Your relationship with a functional medicine practitioner differs from most conventional doctor experiences. It is an equal partnership of expert collaboration. You are the expert on you, and together we piece together the puzzle pieces or clues that lead up to the source of when you started to lose your health, and from there, we will work back towards health. We are more like advisors and explorers in your journal toward optimal health.

The functional approach to medicine treats you as the individual you are and considers your lifestyle and choices.

You may find that you have more time with your practitioner and that the intake forms look extensively at medical history, diet, exercise patterns, stress, stool questions, hobbies, supplements, medication, and home and work environments. All of this information is gathered to ensure that the personalized program will be specific, measurable, achievable, and reasonable to you and your individual needs and lifestyle.

You have a primary role in this health journey. We do not take the “expert approach” some may be used to where we fix you. We assist, guide and explore all the ways to help your body do the healing. We can give you the best diet and lifestyle adjustments to get you feeling better as soon as possible, but the ball is in your court after that. You are asked to participate in the process fully! You may be expected to make small and consistent changes in how you eat, think, feel, and experience life. This is where we pair you up with our health coach, Kevin, who is super powerful in helping you navigate the treatment plan.

In the functional approach, we look at the person as an entire being rather than sectioning the body off for different specialists to treat your heart condition, lung condition, a gastroenterologist for GI problems, a rheumatologist for joint pain, and so on. Sometimes all of these can be interconnected because the human body is interconnected, and looking at the body through that lens can uncover the source of the problem rather than trying to quiet the symptoms. We are realistic about limitations but also optimistic about connecting the dots and helping you towards optimal health.

In the functional approach, we are looking at “function” rather than “pathology” or “disease states.” The functional medicine reference ranges on blood labs are a little tighter as we like to see that the water is about to boil rather than waiting for the water to boil and then intervening. We like to support optimal health rather than wait for disease to intervene. Prevention is much more attainable than curing after reaching a disease state.

Many new tests have been developed to assist functional practitioners in supporting the optimal health of their clients. Many of these tests are fairly new, and most physicians can be unfamiliar with interpreting such tests unless they have been trained to through programs such as the Institute of Functional Medicine.

Many of these tests are used at The Source in conjunction with some of the common blood labs and tests that your physician may run. The more information we have, the better we can determine the source of your complaints.

Some of the functional tests we may examine are:

• CBC, CMP, vitamin status, and other specific markers on blood labs.

• We can use hair analysis to check for heavy metal toxicity or if malabsorption of minerals is suspected.

• A stool analysis can indicate parasites, dysbiosis, H. pylori, fungal imbalances, intestinal permeability.

• Urine tests can determine how your energy metabolism, mitochondria, and how detox pathways are functioning by analyzing 70+ metabolites in the urine.

• We can use breath tests also to determine infections like H. pylori or if you have methane-producing bacteria.

• We can use saliva tests to determine your genetics to personalize a specific nutrigenomics plan that caters to your specific SNPs and genetic makeup and susceptibility. We can also use saliva to check the hormonal status and more.

  With this approach, no disease is being looked for. We are looking at how to best support health and well-being in a preventative approach.