Dr Daniela Mo, MD, MRCGP, IFMCP
My Background
Since I was a child, growing up in northern Italy, I wanted to be a doctor, to help people heal and be happy. Whilst I was training for years in the science of the body, and becoming proficient in the treatment of its ailments, I realised I was always more interested in the people who were inhabiting that body.
My instinctive belief was that everything in the body and mind is connected. Why does disease occur? Why does the body stop functioning normally? Although I was being trained to focus on symptoms and organ damage in isolation, I suspected that the key to healing was to look at the body’s systems as a connected whole.
Why I chose General Practice
This is why I chose General Practice as my speciality. How better to see a person in their entirety than to be a generalist? And yet, after 20 happy years working in NHS General Practice I realised that even this type of generalism didn’t go far enough for me. We are still following a conventional medical model, putting temporary patches on seemingly isolated and diverse conditions, but not necessarily getting to the bottom of them.
Add the constraints of a system that doesn’t allow for more than a few minutes at a time with a patient, and you have a recipe for unsatisfactory management of chronic disease. And so patients carry on living with the daily drudgery of pain, fatigue, physical and emotional limitations, taking medication upon medication, with little sense of if and when they may improve.
My introduction to Functional Medicine
My “a-ha!” moment came when I was introduced to Functional Medicine. This evidence-based, tried-and-tested medical approach speaks to my need for a better model of care, one that delivers results. Functional Medicine moves away from a symptom-oriented approach and strives to find out the root cause of those symptoms, to identify and fix the underlying mechanisms of malfunction in the body. In doing so, symptoms frequently resolve and the body is restored to its former function. Click here to find out more about Functional Medicine
The conventional medical model firmly remains the gold standard for acute and emergency medicine: if you have pneumonia or you break a leg, you need prompt hospital intervention, without a shadow of doubt. For best prevention and management of chronic disease consider turning to Functional Medicine.
Training and qualifications MD, MRCGP, IFMCP
After graduating in Medicine in Italy, I completed my specialist training in General Practice in the UK in 2000. Over the years I sought further specialist training in human nutrition.
In 2015 I completed the foundation course in Functional Medicine AFMCP and then went on to obtain full certification with the Institute for Functional Medicine in 2018. I continue to work in the NHS alongside my Functional Medicine practice.
- Fully registered with the General Medical Council
- Member of the Royal College of General Practitioners
- Member of The Institute for Functional Medicine
- Member of The British Society of Environmental Medicine
My interests and hobbies
I was born in London and raised in Italy. I have an Anglo-Irish-Italian background and I consider myself European and a Citizen of the World. I love a wide spectrum of musical genres. I am passionate about choral music, especially baroque, and I sing with the English Baroque Choir in London. My favourite form of exercise is walking. Good food, good movies and good books rank top of my favourite activities.