How is Functional Medicine in Our Scope of Practice?

I received a great question today. How is Functional Medicine in our scope of practice? It’s a question I hear so often. I wanted to take a few minutes to answer.

Here’s an example to help explain how Functional Medicine is in everyone’s scope of practice.

Let’s say you’re working with a patient in your traditional scope of practice, say a patient with an arthritic knee. You’re using your usual techniques from a conventional medicine point of view. In Functional Medicine, we start by looking at all the underlying systems to see what systems in the body may also be contributing to that patient’s arthritic knee.

We gather data from intake forms and tests and start to put a personalized program together. The program helps that patient with their arthritis to get a quicker result. Traditionally, we would get to a situation where their signs and symptoms have neutralized and then discharge them.

In Functional Medicine we continue to work with them towards optimal wellness.

The data is pointing us and helping us to identify underlying root causes. We’re not diagnosing anything. That’s the key. We’re just understanding why that arthritic knee is in the situation it’s in because of the imbalances, inflammation, oxidative stress and immune dysregulation from all the systems of the body.

I want to inspire you to look more into Functional Medicine. It’s a world that’s open to everybody!