What to Expect When You Seek Care From a Functional Medicine Practitioner

Functional medicine is for every person at any stage of their wellness journey. The first step is a consultation with a care provider to discuss your reason for seeking a holistic approach to wellness. The next steps in the process include:

• Reviewing your personal health history.
• A physical examination.
• Specialized, patient-specific diagnostic tests.
• Identifying your unique health and wellness goals.
• Discussing treatment options.
• Developing a personalized treatment plan.

At each phase of care, your biochemical individuality will be considered. That means that a plan of care that works for another patient with the same medical condition won’t necessarily be the default plan of care for you. The interconnections of your physiological and lifestyle factors will be used as baselines for creating an effective plan for long-term wellness.

What Are the Goals of Functional Medicine?

The core of functional medicine is the goal of identifying underlying causes of illness based on each patient’s unique health history. Genesis Chiropractic understands that illness can be the result of more than one underlying cause.

The goal is not to suppress symptoms of illness. Functional medicine operates on the idea that identifying and treating the underlying cause of symptoms will cause those symptoms to subside while also bringing the body back into balance for sustainable long-term health.

What Conditions Can Functional Care Treat?

First, it’s important for patients to know that nothing has to be wrong for them to utilize the benefits of the functional medicine model. Many patients use the functional approach as a tool for wellness and preventative care. However, the functional medicine model can be extremely beneficial for people suffering from a wide variety of illnesses and conditions. For some patients, the search for answers through a proper diagnosis lasts for years until they are able to identify the root cause of physical dysfunction with the help of a functional medicine provider. While a patient may have an accurate diagnosis when coming to the functional medicine model, they are unable to make meaningful progress in managing or curing their condition using traditional medicine. Here’s a look at some of the conditions that are commonly treated using functional medicine: