Functional Medicine: Getting Started Guide

One of the most common questions we receive is about how to get started with functional medicine. Whether you are a health care practitioner looking to learn more about functional medicine and how to incorporate it into your practice, or a patient looking for an aligned health care practitioner, we hope to answer a lot of these questions in this episode of Pursuing Health Pearls.

What were doing isnt working

Today in the United States, six out of every ten adults has at least one chronic disease, and four out of ten have two or more. Chronic conditions account for seven of every ten deaths in the United States, and together with mental health account for 90% of our $3.5 trillion annual healthcare costs. Our healthcare system has been designed around providing life-saving care for acute problems, but when it comes to chronic disease it is poorly equipped. The current standard approach relies on using primarily pharmaceutical medications to slow the progression of disease and manage symptoms rather than addressing the root causes which are often rooted in lifestyle.

What is functional medicine?

Functional medicine is a model that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the root causes of disease and promote optimal wellness. This model recognizes the unique genetic makeup and experiences of each individual and uses these along with the latest medical and scientific research to inform personalized treatment plans. This is a model that we have found to be much better suited for addressing chronic diseases from obesity, to type 2 diabetes, autoimmune diseases, mood disorders, and many more.

The foundations of health

The functional medicine framework aims first to ensure our bodies have the necessary ingredients to facilitate health, which include: sleep and relaxation, exercise and movement, nutrition, stress management, and meaningful relationships. When these key ingredients are not present or out of balance, the stage is set for disease or dysfunction to creep in. Many times, just improving these factors will result in the resolution of symptoms and disease. Regardless, making sure these things are in place first so that the body has the necessary ingredients for healing is important in order to allow for more advanced testing and/or treatment to be most beneficial.

A few examples

To illustrate the difference between conventional and functional approaches, lets discuss a few examples. In the conventional system, a cluster of symptoms is diagnosed as a disease, and then the standard-of-care treatment is prescribed. For example, if you have a rash it will likely be given a name based on its appearance (for example, eczema). You will then be prescribed a treatment that has been shown to improve this type of rash (for example, moisturizer or steroid cream). The rash may improve with this treatment, could come back when the treatment is stopped.

On the other hand, a functional approach would look at the rash as well as any other symptoms you may be having and put them into context with your prior environmental exposures, lifestyle behaviors, and unique genetic makeup asking, what is the underlying cause of this rash? A multifaceted approach would then be recommended to identify and eliminate this root cause with a goal of optimizing the bodys functional and permanently resolving symptoms.

Its important to note that one underlying cause may manifest in different symptoms or diseases in different individuals due to their unique genetics and biology (i.e. gluten sensitivity may cause diarrhea in one person and a rash in another). Likewise, one symptom may have a variety of different root causes (e.g. depression in one person may result from a nutrient deficiency, while in another could be due to excess stress or isolation).

In a conventional approach, a patient with a rash, diarrhea, and a headache might see a dermatologist, a gastroenterologist, and a neurologist and receive three different diagnoses and three different treatments. A functional medicine approach, on the other hand, would take all of these symptoms into consideration and search for a root cause that would link all three while optimizing the bodys function through nutrition and lifestyle factors.

Functional, integrative, and lifestyle medicine

Another question we are frequently asked is about the difference between functional, integrative, and lifestyle medicine. This is a whole topic in and of itself, but for now here is one analogy we like to use.

If someone was diagnosed with depression:

• A conventional approach would be to prescribe an antidepressant medication.


• An integrative approach would be to prescribe a supplement called St. John’s Wort.


• A lifestyle approach would be to prescribe exercise, nutrition, sleep, meditation, and relationships.


• A functional approach would be to ask: Why is this person depressed? and craft a treatment approach in response to the answer.

As this analogy illustrates, functional medicine is a framework for assessing health and disease and is agnostic to the treatment approaches used, whether they are based in conventional, alternative, or lifestyle approaches.

Functional Medicine Resources For Patients

#1 A Primer

To deepen your understanding of functional medicine and how it might help you, we recommend reading or listening to Disease Delusion: Conquering the Causes of Chronic Illness for a Healthier, Longer, and Happier Life, a book written by Dr. Jeffrey Bland, the father of functional medicine.

#2 Find a practitioner

If you decide youd like to move forward and work with a functional medicine practitioner, we recommend using the Institute for Functional Medicine’s Practitioner Finder to locate those who practice in your geographic area. This practitioner finder features those whove completed the Institute for Functional Medicines (IFM) five-day introductory course and are members of IFM. Those who are noted as an IFM Certified Practitioner have completed six additional training modules and passed a rigorous examination. Do keep in mind, much like CrossFit affiliates and coaches, functional medicine practitioners come from a variety of backgrounds and experiences. Practitioners range from MD and DO physicians, to nurse practitioners, physicians assistants, chiropractors, naturopathic doctors, dietitians, health coaches and others. Functional medicine is not one-size-fits-all and each practice and practitioner will be different. Wed recommend checking out their websites or inquiring about a free consultation to better understand the scope of practice and services offered.

#3 What to expect

Again, each practice will implement functional medicine in its own unique way, but here are some things you may expect to see:

• An pre-visit questionnaire asking you about everything from your family and birth history, to courses of antibiotics as a child, to stressors and environmental exposures over your lifetime


• An in-depth first visit reviewing your health timeline and symptoms you are currently having


• A heavy emphasis on lifestyle change including dietary and exercise interventions, meditation, and stress management


• The use of advanced testi