417 INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE is gaining ground as more people are demanding a different medical approach that addresses the root causes of their symptoms. The Cleveland Clinic, a prestigious medical center, has a waiting list of thousands for its Functional Medicine services and the movement is gaining momentum throughout the country with more practitioners incorporating this style of practice into their practices.

What is Functional Medicine?

The concept of functional medicine is that a patient’s health problems are like weeds in a garden. If you want to get rid of the weeds, you have to dig them out at their roots or they will keep growing back. Conventional medicine treats disease at a surface level by focusing on surgical techniques and prescribing medications for specific conditions such as high cholesterol. Functional Medicine looks deeper into a patient’s issues, such as autoimmune disease (like Crohn’s, ulcerative colitis and rheumatoid arthritis), hormonal imbalances and thyroid disorders, digestive problems such as leaky gut, food allergies/sensitivity, Candida overgrowth, inflammatory diseases and chronic infections, and mental health concerns including anxiety, depression and insomnia.

“Integrative Medicine for Chronic Conditions: A Comprehensive Approach to Long-Term Healing

A practitioner of functional medicine plots a patient’s complex signs, symptoms and laboratory values on the Functional Medicine Matrix, shown above, to help them better see how these individual systems relate to each other and form an interconnected web of functions/dysfunctions. This helps the practitioner identify and prioritize a patient’s health issues so that they can address them before they become full-blown disease or pathology.

417 Integrative Medicine & Housecalls
1335 E Republic Rd D, Springfield, MO 65804, United States
Phone: +14173633900