Why Should You Consider a Functional Medicine Practitioner?

Functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set

of symptoms. Functional medicine practitioners spend more time with their

patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions between

environmental, lifestyle, and genetic factors that influence health.

The functional medicine practitioner will consider multiple factors, including:

•Environmental inputs: The air you breathe and the water you drink, the

diet you eat, the quality of the food available to you, your level of physical

activity, and toxic exposures or traumas you have experienced affect your

health and well-being.

•Mind-body connections: Psychological, spiritual, and social factors can all

have a profound influence on your health. Considering these areas helps the

functional medicine practitioner see your health in the context of you as a

whole person, not just your physical symptoms.

•Genetic makeup: Although individual genes may make you more

susceptible to some diseases, your DNA is not an unchanging blueprint for

your life. Emerging research shows that your genes may be influenced by

your environment, as well as your experiences, attitudes, and beliefs. That

means it is possible to change the way genes are activated and expressed.

By understanding the genetic, lifestyle, and environmental factors unique

to each person, a functional medicine practitioner can identify which bodily

processes are affected. Some occur at the cellular level and involve how cells

function, repair, and maintain themselves. Others are related to how your

body processes and uses nutrients. These processes include:

•How your body rids itself of toxins

•Regulation of hormones and neurotransmitters (nerve messengers)

•Immune system function

Functional medicine practitioners promote wellness by focusing on the

fundamental underlying factors that influence every patient’s experience

of health and disease.

•Inflammatory responses

•Digestion and absorption of nutrients and the health of the digestive tract

•Structural integrity

•Psychological and spiritual balance

•How you produce energy

Any of these bodily processes can become imbalanced or disrupted, which

can cause symptoms and accelerate disease.

A Comprehensive Approach to Treatment

The good news is that most imbalances can be addressed to restore or

substantially improve a person’s health.

•Prevention is key. Nearly every complex, chronic disease is preceded by

long-term disturbances in function that can be identified relatively early on

and effectively managed.

•Changing how the systems function can have a major impact on health.

The functional medicine practitioner examines a wide array of available

interventions and customizes a treatment plan, including those with the

most impact on your health.

•Functional medicine expands the clinician’s tool kit. Treatments may

include combinations of drugs, botanical medicines, nutritional supplements,

therapeutic diets, or detoxification programs. They may also include

counseling on lifestyle, exercise, or stress-management techniques.

•The patient becomes a partner. As a patient, you become an active partner

with your functional medicine practitioner. Such a partnership allows you to

be in charge of improving your health and changing the outcome of disease.

For more information to see if functional medicine is the right fit for you and set up a free 30 minute discovery session contact Dr. Rebecca Hoeck:

drbecky@imtpilates.com or drbecky@imtfxmed.com or 303.808.9807

© 2022 The Institute for Functional Medicine