FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE APPROACH

It is far more important to know what person the disease has than what disease the person has.

Hippocrates (460-370 BC)

If you have read the overview of Nutritional Therapy and are already convinced about its benefits, or feel you don’t need the detail, you can skip this section and go to Services. Otherwise, read on to learn about how the Functional Medicine approach works and the benefits to you.

Functional Medicine approach

Functional medicine is the approach I use within nutritional therapy to identify and address the root causes of clinical imbalances that can manifest as a wide variety of symptoms and health conditions. I consider how underlying factors can contribute to these imbalances. Examples of underlying factors are family history, diet, exercise, sleep, stress, and environmental exposure to toxins.

By addressing the underlying clinical imbalances, the Functional Medicine approach seeks to restore the body’s innate ability to heal, rather than merely masking symptoms with medications.

In a nutshell, it’s my job to unravel what has led to your health issue(s) and what needs to be done to restore balance. In other words, what nutrition and lifestyle changes suit YOU best.

The focus is on you, not on the health issues you have.

Common areas identified for support:

Gut health and digestion

Gut health is often a central focus, it plays a major role in immune function, nutrient absorption, and overall health.

Blood sugar balancing

weight management, hormonal balance, energy …

Food sensitivity & allergies

elimination diets

Inflammation

a common underlying factor in many chronic conditions – anti-inflammatory diets

Micronutrient deficiency

nutrient status – the body needs adequate vitamins and minerals to function

Capacity to detoxify

promoting the elimination of toxins

Stress and hormonal balance

Stress contributes to many health problems, including hormonal imbalances.

Common dietary and lifestyle strategies
Rather than a diet-for-a-disease, this approach considers the clinical imbalances unique to you and seeks to address those through dietary and lifestyle strategies, such as:

Changing proportions or types of food

eg carbohydrate, protein, fat

Changing processed food for real food

eg butter instead of spread

Increasing certain foods

for their health benefits, eg nutrients, phytonutrients, phytoestrogens, anti-inflammatory effect, pre-and pro-biotics

Taking supplements

for micronutrient optimisation or for specific properties, eg antimicrobial, gut healing, antioxidant or anti-inflammatory effects

Reducing exposure to toxins

eg food, household & personal products, supporting detoxification processes; avoiding/minimising electromagnetic radiation

Lifestyle factors

eg stress management techniques, sleep hygiene, exercise

Food is so much more than calories (which you will not be counting!)

For more information on what you will receive following a nutritional therapy consultation with me, see Nutrition and Lifestyle plan.

Benefits of the Functional Medicine approach

Personalised nutrition

For every health issue, there can be different root causes. For example, a person may be struggling to lose weight (despite calorie restriction and exercise) due to one or several underlying imbalances, such as food sensitivities, toxic load or stress. When imbalances are identified, the approach can be personalised.

Improvement in overall health

This approach recognises that the body functions as a complex network of interconnected systems, so imbalances impact different areas of health. For example, a person experiencing improvement in digestive problems may also notice improvement in other symptoms, such as skin problems, mood, weight gain and arthritic symptoms.

Prevention

Chronic disease does not happen overnight – there is usually a decline in function over a period of time. If we can identify causes of the decline in function, we have an opportunity to restore healthy function before the onset of overt disease.

CONTACT ME TO BOOK
YOUR CONSULTATION