Functional Diagnostic
Medicine
Gold Coast Functional Diagnostic Medicine
Functional Diagnostic Medicine is a patient-centred, systems-oriented approach to health; instead of viewing and treating health problems as isolated symptoms and diseases. The approach addresses the ‘whole’ person and aims to uncover the root causes of disease. It is less concerned with putting labels on patients, and more concerned with changing the underlying imbalances and dysfunctions that are causing the diseases. Named labels or diagnoses are just the tip of the iceberg; below the surface are the real causes of a patient’s health problems. Almost always, the cause of the disease and its symptoms is an underlying dysfunction and/or an imbalance of bodily systems.
Functional Diagnostic Medicine focuses on balance and on how to restore balance and function from a holistic framework. It is therefore very beneficial for the prevention of illness and not just cures! It uses the knowledge of biochemistry and physiology from conventional medicine. In addition, combines it with the latest scientific research about how our genetics, our environment, our diet and our lifestyle all interact with one another other to impact our state of health; both mental and physical. Functional Medicine focuses on assessment and intervention at the root levels of the imbalances. When patients have multiple symptoms, they are clues to the ways in which your body is not functioning the way it should be.
A Holistic Approach to Wellness
Today’s health care system is in major crisis because it applies a philosophy that works very well for acute health problems such as acute diseases, trauma, infection, and emergencies – to chronic health problems such as allergies, metabolic, digestive, hormonal and neurological problems. We are all very grateful for all the fast-acting interventions of modern medicine, such as life-saving equipment and technology, surgery and antibiotics for acute medical emergencies. However, this approach is much less successful in helping patients with chronic, debilitating ailments.
In the today’s conventional health care model, medication is often used to ‘get rid’ of patient’s symptoms. However, if the patient stops taking the medication, symptoms often return. Functional Medicine approaches health issues differently; it aims at restoring the body’s natural functioning for a patient’s long-term optimal health, instead of just masking the problem.
This is neither conventional nor alternative, instead it is a looking at health from a holistic perspective. The approach encourages and empowers a patient to fully participate in their own healing, engaging both the practitioner and the patient in a therapeutic partnership. Functional Medicine practitioners spend time with their patients; listening to them, gathering a lot of information from their histories. Exploring the interactions among genetic, environmental, nutritional and lifestyle factors that influence health and chronic disease, and conduct complex functional pathology tests to examine detailed information about their current health status.
Functional Diagnostic Medicine laboratory tests may examine blood, saliva, stool, hair, or urine in order to gain more insight into a patient’s genetic predisposition, current nutritional status, heavy metal toxicity, digestive function, allergies or intolerances, hormones, detoxification capacity, and more.