Biochemical Individuality
Our ideas of health and disease have changed dramatically in the past decades. Once, we talked of illness as something we caught and could control; now, we talk about being susceptible to the forces around us because of our genes. Once we understood the role of genetic in disease as important only with respect to the defined “inherited disease of metabolism” Biochemical individuality is not new topic in functional medicine. Each individual has a unique biochemical composition, based upon individual genetic make-up.
The “One size fits all” doesn’t work
Recognizing the uniqueness of each individual (genes, genetic expression to environment) is imperative for the development of custom therapies supportive of health restoration.
Patient Centered
Describing and illness as “unexplained” should not be taken to mean “unexplainable” or “imaginary”. Functional Medicine practitioner will Treat beyond a symptom or a marker. As opposed to disease centered.
Our best word is WHY? Why you have cholesterol, why you don’t digest certain foods? Why is our blood pressure elevated? Rather than (or in addition to) simply treating the marker (example: catopril/HCTZ - conventional medicine or bonito peptides/celery seed extract – natural medicine).
Which event (or series of events, i.e. antecedents) in our immediate and distant past could have triggered (or impacted) imbalance resulting in hypertension.
Could it be insomnia, stress, or a new medication? Possibly an injury, recurring intestinal disturbance, migraines? Digging deeper nearly always offers additional opportunities for intervention supportive of genuine wellness.
Dynamic Balance Internal & External Factors
The concept that disease mechanism originate at the molecular biological level and are related to intricacies of interaction between the environment and genes and their expression heralded a new age medicine.
What we eat, drink, and breath (external factors) can impact (positively or negatively) our risk of disease.
According to Walter Willett (MD and Nutrition Dept. Chair, Harvard School of Public Health), “Genetic and environmental factors, including diet and life-style, both contribute to cardiovascular disease, cancers, and other major causes of mortality, but previous lines of evidence indicate that environmental factors are most important.”
Web-Like
Interconnections of Physiological Factors
The web is multidirectional- multiple factors can underlie a single condition, and multiple conditions can be influenced by a single dysfunctional process or imbalanced system.
Instead of looking for a single “root cause” of a disease and finding the “cure” from a single pill, in functional medicine we ask what is unbalanced, what shifted the flow of biochemical information, energy, physical structure, and emotions too far to one side or the other of a healthy range, thus skewing the web.
The impact of some systems interrelationships is now well-documented.
Which organ connection in your imbalances was involve, was it gut-liver, gut-liver-brain, brain-endocrine system, immune system-cardiovascular system, psychosomatic influences-immune system, etc.? Let a Functional Medicine practitioner answer you.
Health as a Positive Reality
We are aware of literally thousands of highly useful disease markers. However, ruling out disease by using laboratory measures doesn’t necessarily rule in good health. Positive indicators of wellness may be found to some degree on objective testing ( e.g., cellular nutrient levels, beneficial flora cultures, antioxidant levels, hormone metabolites, etc.) The interaction of the mind and body has been said to be symbiotic inpursuit of optimum health.
Nurturing the human spirit in support of robust, healthful living is an important issue recognized in Functional Medicine.
Promotion of Organ Reserve
“Most of us believe we age by genetically predetermined processes that are beyond our control… and hope we have gotten the genetic luck of the draw “ In the past 15 years, however, researchers have deciphered the genome locked into Homo sapiens 23 pairs of chromosomes, this deterministic model of sickness has been found by most scientists in the field to be incorrect. Genes do not code for specific diseases of aging.
Instead, they for various strengths and weaknesses in the human constitution that give rise to resistance or susceptibility factors for age-related diseases
Some people get the “luck of the draw” and have more resistance genes to factors associated with 21st century living. For most people, however, the occurrence of illness as we age is a result of the blending of genetic susceptibility factors with environment exposures.
It’s no secret that many of us acquire disabilities at the end of life requiring assistive living and/or machines for survival.
Plotted on a chart, this period is known as the “morbidity curve”.
An ongoing pursuit of functional medicine is to postpone disability (thereby gaining a few more “quality” years) and compress morbidity (shortening the time we are dependent on others before we die).
