Functional Medicine…Saving Our Healthcare System By Sean McCloy, MD, MPH, MA
“So, what do you do?” “I’m a doctor.” “Oh, really? What kind of doctor are you?” “A good one.”
efore the person I’m talking with thinks I’m just being glib, I go on to explain that I practice Functional Medicine. “What’s that?” The short answer (quoted from Institute for Functional Medicine website): “Functional Medicine addresses the underlying causes of disease, using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both the patient and practitioner in a therapeutic relationship.” The longer answer involves discovering the Meaning of Life as well as saving our healthcare system.
B Let’s talk about Functional Medicine fi rst. Here are some key principles:
• Biochemical diversity. Simply put, we are all different. Our uniqueness means we don’t all respond the same way to our environment. A recent fi eld of science called Epigenetics shows that our DNA gets turned on and off by what we eat, how we handle stress, the presence of toxins, shifting hormones, and even the seasons (Nature Communications, March 2015). Some of us drink a cup of coffee and feel a nice buzz, while others stay up for days after a few sips, and still others can drink a jug of joe and fall fast asleep. That’s because the enzymes responsible for breaking down caffeine work great for some of us but not so well for others. This genetic uniqueness plays a role in everything we do, and our medical treatments need to account for biochemical diversity.
• Patient-centered care. Functional Medicine practitioners are trained to listen to the whole patient, to hear their story. Studies
18 Essential Living Maine ~ July/August 2015
show that the average physician interrupts the patient all too quickly: 23 seconds in 1999 (JAMA) and 12 seconds in 2001 (Fam Med). Our insurance system is partially to blame, as the pressure is on physicians to see as many patients as possible in a day. William Osler, the 19th century “Father of Modern Medicine” said, “Listen to the patient because he is telling you the diagnosis.” We use a powerful tool called the Functional Medicine Matrix (See page19) to organize this story in a way that explains why this patient is sick and how to help them get better. I fi nd this tool especially helpful for patients who have suffered for many years from complex and chronic problems. Once they both understand what is going on, the patient and the practitioner become partners in care, both members of the same team who share the same goal.
• Web-like interconnections. Functional Medicine practitioners view the body as a complex network of systems that all talk to each other, as well as receive information from outside the body. This communication explains why people can “fall apart” after a triggering event like an accident or acute illness. The dominos fall one by one as the systems shut each other down. It also helps to put people back together again, by using this beautiful interconnected web to heal the very wise human body.
• Dynamic balance. We hear it all the time, but strive to achieve it: Balance. Functional Medicine seeks to promote physical, emotional, and spiritual health. All are important to a person’s vitality and well-being.
• Health is not the absence of disease. Our bodies are built for health. By removing harmful factors and promoting healing and vitality, Functional Medicine practitioners enjoy watching their patients not only recover from illness, but go on to truly thrive.
• Organ reserve. This is another way of saying Functional Medi- cine helps us to achieve the longest, happiest, healthiest lives we can live. We talk about the health span, not just the lifes-
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