With conventional health care often lacking personalization, and average primary care visits only lasting 18 minutes, you may be interested in trying a more comprehensive, holistic approach when it comes to seeing a physician. If you’re looking for a doctor who has the time and expertise to look at your entire health history and get to the root cause of your symptoms using a systems-based, scientifically backed approach, you may want to consider a functional medicine doctor. With 4 simple steps, you’ll be able to easily find a functional medicine doctor who is right for you. (Source)

In this article, we’ll dive into what functional medicine is, how it differs from conventional medicine, how you can quickly find a functional medicine physician near you, and how a root-cause approach to health can help you heal.

What Is Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine is an individualized, patient-centered, biology-based approach that aims to identify and address the root cause of disease by looking at your genes, physiology, and lifestyle. The term “functional medicine” was coined by a group led by Jeffrey Bland, a biochemist who wanted to bridge the gap between alternative medicine and conventional medicine. Bland found that if one of these components is not functioning properly, it could lead to disease. For this reason, functional medicine addresses your genome, nutrition, and lifestyle — making it a form of comprehensive, natural medicine.

It’s important to note that functional medicine is a type of integrative medicine. Integrative medicine incorporates aspects of research-backed alternative medicine into conventional medicine to create a comprehensive approach to medical care, allowing patients to get the best of both worlds from their medical provider. Sounds great, but is functional medicine expensive? The answer is often yes, but for good reason. This approach to health care often involves multiple consultations, advanced testing (meaning labs and tests you cannot get through your primary care provider and are often not covered by insurance). Read below to understand how functional medicine differs from conventional medicine and how you can find a functional medicine doctor right for you. (Source, Source, Source)

What’s the Difference Between Functional Medicine and Conventional Medicine?

The conventional or mainstream approach to medicine is standardized and may not always take into consideration nutrition and lifestyle factors that may affect the expression of disease. In fact, many doctors get fewer than 20 hours of nutrition education, despite evidence that 80% of chronic illnesses are driven by lifestyle factors.

Traditional treatment with conventional medicine may include interventions such as surgery and medication. Conversely, functional medicine looks at your health history, a wide range of health markers via advanced testing, and environmental factors to create an approach to your disease that not only aims to reduce your symptoms, but optimize biological systems functioning, and bring the body back into balance. (Source)

4 Steps to Find a Functional Medicine Physician

To find a certified functional medicine doctor who has gone through proper functional medicine training, visit the Institute for Functional Medicine’s (IFM) Practitioner Search Page. The IFM offers the largest referral network in functional medicine. All practitioners listed have gone through advanced training and are certified in applying functional medicine in clinical practice. To find a functional medicine physician near you on the IFM practitioner page, enter the following information:

1. Your country
2. Your state
3. Your city
4. Your zip code

Once you find practitioners in your area, click on the practitioner bios to see their medical specialities and determine whether they can support your particular condition.

How A Root Cause Approach Can Heal

Sure, functional medicine practices a root cause approach to addressing health — but can functional medicine help with autoimmune disease? Because this systems based model of care takes into account the whole person and conducts advanced testing as needed to identify underlying health issues, functional medicine can provide comprehensive care for those with autoimmunity.

Instead of putting band-aids on symptoms, functional medicine seeks to address the underlying causes of autoimmune disease, promote optimal wellness, and increase quality of life. If you have been diagnosed with an autoimmune disease, or are experiencing brain fog, adrenal disorders, thyroid issues, or environmental toxin exposure, a root cause approach will look at your genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors and use that insight to form a personalized plan intended to resolve underlying imbalances and increase your quality of life. (Source)

How to Get Ongoing Root Cause Support

Functional medicine is a great option if you are looking for comprehensive, personalized health care. However, depending on where you are in your healing journey, you may simply be looking for a Care Team dedicated to your condition and health goals that is capable of creating a care plan for you. If you are struggling with autoimmune symptoms but want to keep your primary care provider, consider connecting with WellTheory’s Certified Nutritionists and Registered Dietitians so you can get root cause guidance and round out your Care Team.