What IS "Functional and Integrative Health Care?"
Functional and Integrative Health Care is an approach to health that evaluates functional systems, focuing on finding the causes for dysfunction and not just treating symptoms. An example is that certain micronutrients are essential for our bodies to function optimally, and the lack of these essential nutrients can lead to illness. Functional and Integrative Health Care uses sophisticated testing and auditing procedures to examine biochemical imbalances in the body, which can cause or complicate a specific health problem. Functional and Integrative Health Care is focused on correcting underlying causes of health problems. In traditional medicine, doctors are trained to diagnose and then use a variety of drugs that can help relieve a particular symptom. This approach usually does not address the cause of the problem, but may significantly improve the symptoms. A good example of this method is migraine headaches. The traditional approach would be to treat the symptom with aspirin or other painkiller. A Functional and Integrative Health Care approach is to test for food allergies or a magnesium deficiency, since both are common causes of migraines. Functional and Integrative Health Care might also attempt to determine some other possibility (such as toxicity) that could be causing the headache.
Functional and Integrative Health Care offers a natural, non-toxic alternative in dealing with most health problems. While the focus of integrative and functional health care is on diet, eating a good diet is not easy to do these days. Research shows that certain nutrients are chronically inadequate in our diets - vitamins, for example. It is difficult to get the quantity of vitamins necessary to help prevent diseases like osteoporosis simply by eating a good diet. Functional and Integrative Medicine involves a good diet, which is fundamental, and specific supplementation based on individual need, which can make all the difference in a person's overall health.
