Welcome to the New Health CARE
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The Current “Disease-care” Model
Have you heard of functional medicine? Are you tired of having your nurse practitioners and physicians tell you there is nothing they can do, or everything looks normal—but you know something is off, or downright wrong. Have you been told you will likely have to take these pills for the rest of your life?
Chronic diseases are taking over our nation—we have an epidemic of metabolic dysfunction, cardiovascular disease, and obesity. Our current medical model often considers these diagnoses individually and often leans heavily on the pharmaceutical industry to come up with a new drug to lower blood sugars, help with weight loss, and make our blood thinner, decrease blood pressure, and decrease our risk of stroke and heart attack.
But our current model does not address why we have these epidemics in the first place, why all of our friends and family members have ended up on a shopping bag of pharmaceuticals without a complete resolution of disease.
A Model That Asks Questions
Here is something different—functional medicine looks at everything you are experiencing and everything that has come before to help figure out WHY you are having the symptoms.
Functional Medicine is a systems biology approach to address your symptoms of disease. It understands that each system in your body works in concert with the others rather than in isolation. That if you have high blood pressure, you also likely have inflammation—inflammatory compounds that are making your blood vessels less resilient are also working in other areas of your body as well—maybe they are causing some depression, some gastrointestinal distress, and some blood sugar imbalances. Your medication for blood pressure is not going to address the inflammation—nor will it help the depression, your GI complaints, or your blood sugar concerns. It doesn’t actual resolve your high blood pressure—it alters your body’s chemistry so the pressure goes down—but if you stop taking the medication you will have high blood pressure again. The medications for blood pressure are a band-aid for the high blood pressure.
Functional medicine though asks the question “WHY is this person’s blood pressure high?” Through a thorough assessment and investigation of personal history, complete look at all the symptoms experienced and collaboration with the patient all possible reasons are then explored and addressed.
Explore New Ways of Being & Living
This likely means addressing diet, movement, sleep, stress mitigation and management, and it often means exploring new ways of being and living. Because of our bodies amazing chemistry and processes, it has built in systems to heal and restore if we provide the nutrients and inputs needed for those processes to function optimally.
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The New Health CARE
When working with a functional medicine provider you may be asked to track the food you eat, your bowel movements, your exercise or your stress levels. You may be asked to try new foods and learn new skills. Working with a functional medicine provider means that you are taking the steps to prioritize your health in a real and intentional manner.
Because this way of living and prioritizing health often goes against social norms- you may have to leave a party early to prioritize your sleep, or you may skip desert when eating out because you are working to stabilize your blood sugars. Often this journey can feel lonely or out on the skirts- that is why it is important to also cultivate community. When building friendships and bringing others into your health journey- you are more likely to build lasting habits and increase the health of your family and friends.