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Functional Medicine
It is an evolution in the practice of medicine that provides a fresh approach to the healthcare needs of the 21st century, where people are often so busy and stressed that they do not focus on the cause of certain diseases and symptoms they may be experiencing.
Functional Medicine is a science-based approach that promotes optimal wellness, leveraging personal health, lifestyle and nutrition-based information that directs individualised treatment plans.
Functional medicine recognizes that the bodily systems are not separate silos but are interconnected through our biochemistry of hormones, neurotransmitters and enzymes.
At Functional Medicine Wimbledon we can help restore health by addressing the root causes of disease, whilst supporting the unique expression of health and vitality that is particular to each individual.
Why Functional Medicine
Why should patients and healthcare professionals consider Functional Medicine as their model of care?
In an overstretched NHS, doctors and patients alike often experience the frustrating inadequacy of consultations that are too short and too infrequent to fully address the complexity of chronic disease management.
As busy healthcare professionals, we often see patients with ongoing intractable symptoms ranging from chronic headaches to unexplained allergies, from abdominal cramping to debilitating fatigue, to raised blood sugar levels that do not respond to oral therapy or to insulin, and so on. In the conventional model of care, after investigating to exclude sinister causes, trials of medications are given to alleviate symptoms, but often the causes remain unknown. The symptoms may be partially or wholly managed for a while, but the underlying causes have not gone, leaving the patient open to recurrence or chronicity.
This may result in both the doctor and the patient feeling frustrated or even helpless, asking themselves if there is truly nothing else that can be done. Functional Medicine fills this gap. It searches for the root causes of the symptoms and attempts to correct them. This therapeutic approach is usually highly effective and, speaking as conventional practitioners for many years, often pleasantly surprises even the most critical of colleagues.
What is Functional Medicine
The FM model was initially developed in the 1990s in the United States and has since spread exponentially across the world.
Functional medicine is a systems-based approach, providing clinicians with a systematic method to identify root causes of symptoms and therapeutically address disturbances in the body’s functions. When function is disrupted, many different symptoms may manifest in different parts of the body, leading to the impression that you are dealing with different conditions, when in fact the underlying cause is primarily one. For example, if gut function is disrupted, the symptoms may present as abdominal symptoms, fatigue, or migraines, or skin conditions, or inflamed joints. By restoring the function of the gut, we can therefore achieve resolution of many different symptoms.
This is why the question we pose in functional medicine is not ‘what’ , so much as ‘why’?
The Functional Medicine Model
If you have not yet heard of Functional Medicine (FM), chances are you will be hearing a lot more about it in the very near future. The FM model has been created by doctors for doctors, and for the wider healthcare community, to better manage the burgeoning landscape of chronic disease.
What is the difference between the Functional and the Conventional Model of care?
In the conventional model, doctors are trained to make a diagnosis and provide treatment to manage the relative symptoms. Where a cause can be identified, such as bacteria or viruses causing an acute infection, medication is given to eliminate the cause and therefore restore health. When the cause/s cannot be easily identified, as is often the case with chronic disease, the main objective is to improve the patient’s symptoms. The underlying root cause is usually not sought.
The conventional medical model was created in the 20th century to manage acute medical and trauma presentations, and it rapidly excelled at this. The era of antibiotics allowed the medical establishment to effectively cure killer diseases such as infections or sepsis, but in doing so it also created a default single-intervention mentality: for each symptom a single drug or intervention is sought that will solve the patient’s complaint. Whilst this approach firmly remains the gold standard of treatment in the acute scenario, we are finding that it doesn’t extrapolate so easily or effectively to the management of chronic disease, with its complex, overlapping, interconnected elements.
The Functional Medicine model, conversely, is specifically suited to the management of chronic disease, because it addresses its root causes, which derive from lifestyle choices, environmental exposures, and genetic influences. Central to the Functional Medicine approach is the therapeutic partnership, which engages the heart, mind, and spirit of both practitioner and patient, and facilitates moments of shared insight that contribute to more comprehensive answers to stubborn, complex medical problems. Functional Medicine offers a paradigm shift in clinical practice, thus producing a more effective response to chronic disease.
What is the difference between a Dietitian and a Nutritionist
There are many types of nutritionists. Our nutritionists are registered dietitians.
Dietitians are licensed medical professionals, who are regulated by HCPC, and trained to treat medical conditions using nutrition and lab-based care. Because our patients often have complex or chronic issues, that level of training is essential—and it’s why our pricing reflects clinical, not wellness-level, care.
Training
Who are Functional Medicine Practitioners?
The FM community is formed of medical doctors, whether primary care physicians or hospital specialists of all kinds, dietitians, nutritional therapists, health coaches, physiotherapists, chiropractors, osteopaths, dentists, pharmacists, and other allied medical professions.
The FM model encourages a multidisciplinary, holistic approach between all functional professionals.
What additional training do FM Practitioners undertake?
FM certification requires an initial attendance at the foundation course, the AFMCP (Applied Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice), followed by the completion of six advanced modules, a written paper and a case presentation. The Faculty of Functional Medicine is accredited for CME by the Accreditation Council on Continuing Medical Education (ACCME). ACCME recently commended the Institute of Functional Medicine for going above and beyond what’s required to reach the standard of excellence. This achievement recognizes IFM as an agent of change that provides relevant, practical, targeted medical education.
Applicants must have medical background either as medical doctors or as accredited allied medical professionals.