What is functional medicine?

As you know, your body is a network of systems. We speak of the circulatory system, the digestive system, the nervous system, the endocrine system, the immune system, the reproductive system, the respiratory system — the list goes on. Each system is composed of organs that work together to perform a biological function: the heart and blood vessels of your circulatory system pump blood to your body; the brain, spinal cord, and nerves of your nervous system receive and process information that tells your body to do various things; the lungs, bronchi, and larynx of your respiratory system send oxygen throughout your system to keep your body operating.

It takes a lot for each of these systems to continue to work smoothly and at peak performance. In addition, the systems interact with one another via complex networks; this adds yet more intricacy to the dynamics of all the biological functioning going on. So, when we think about how our bodies work — something we usually do when they’ re not working very well — we ought to be thinking about how the component parts of these systems relate to one another and to all the other systems.

Functional medicine looks at the patterns of dysfunction underlying the chronic diseases that are shadowing all our lives, and it offers a model of care that can prevent or reverse these illnesses. Our genes are stimulated by and respond to what is going on around us and the kind of behaviors we practice. If we change our environment and our behavior, we can change our genes. If we can change the way our genes get stimulated and the way they respond, since our genes regulate or direct our biological functions, they can also change our pattern of health.

This is a new science. It comes out of the genomic revolution that is rewriting our understanding of how our genes form our individuality, of how we get from genotype to phenotype. The new science tells us that this does not happen according to a fixed blueprint incised at the conception into our genes; rather, it happens because if the way our genotype interacts with our environment, stimulating responses in our core physiological processes throughout our lifetime. Functional medicine accesses the newest scientific biomedical discoveries to focus on the underlying causes of an individual’s health problems. Functional medicine matches those discoveries and technologies against the health issues of chronic illnesses. It engages patient in designing a personally tailored health management program that couples pharmaceutical science, where necessary, with changes on the patient’s environment, diet, and lifestyle, not just to bring relief to the individual but to realize his or her full genetic potential for vitality and longevity.

reference
Disease delusion
Jeffrew S Bland