What is Functional Medicine?

We believe that our bodies are incredible creations, wonderfully made with full potential to function at optimum when we nourish them the way they were designed to be.

What is Functional Medicine

Functional Medicine seeks to identify root causes in order to truly address a condition and optimize health instead of simply suppressing symptoms. Unfortunately, the current standards of care in conventional medicine often skip over root causes like nutrient imbalances, stress response, and metabolic dysfunction that have dramatic impact on our health. Conventional medicine often treats symptoms in isolation and relies heavily on medication as first-line treatment, often driving further dysfunction over the long term. 

On the other hand, Functional Medicine considers the complex interactions between dietary, genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and chronic disease. It then uses food and lifestyle as medicine and as first-line treatment and only uses medication as needed. This is not a quick fix but rather the holistic healing we deserve. 

Each person comes with their own unique health story. Therefore, Functional Medicine practitioners spend significant time with their clients in order to listen to their histories, looking for patterns and interactions among their dietary, environmental, genetic, and lifestyle history that have influenced their current state of health. By addressing these factors, Functional Medicine supports the healing mechanisms naturally present within the body, allowing the body to truly heal and do so on its own.

Principles of Functional Medicine

1. Patient-Centered Care: Functional Medicine emphasizes a therapeutic partnership between practitioner and patient. This means practitioners take time (much longer than the typical 10 minute visit in conventional healthcare!) to listen to clients’ histories, because the complex context of your health is so important to consider. 
2. Holistic Approach: This model views the body as one integrated system, not a collection of independent organs divided by medical specialties. It treats the whole person, not just isolated symptoms. We have to understand your past health and behaviors, identify how dysfunction has occurred in the body leading to present symptoms, and then implement a plan that holistically address your needs and ultimately promote long term health. 
3. Science-Based: Is Functional Medicine legitimate? Absolutely! It integrates traditional Western / conventional medical practices with what is sometimes considered “alternative” or “integrative” medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, lifestyle behaviors, exercise, and even spiritual wellness. This is ultimately what health-care should really be! The practice is grounded in the latest research and understands that the body’s systems are interconnected. Functional Medicine is often close to 20 years ahead of the conventional medical model. 
4. Proactive and Preventative: Rather than waiting for diseases to develop, Functional Medicine seeks to prevent health issues before they arise by addressing lifestyle and dietary habits. If disease has already developed, Functional Medicine aims to restore the body’s ability to heal in order to reverse disease where possible.

What is Functional Nutrition?

A vital component of Functional Medicine is Functional Nutrition, which focuses on how food affects the body’s function and performance. This approach goes beyond basic nutritional guidelines (often challenging old dogma too) to tailor dietary recommendations to the individual’s unique biochemistry and health needs.

Here at Wonderfully Made Nutrition, we are functional medicine dietitians, or functional nutritionists, who are trained in the practice of functional nutrition and wholeheartedly believe in a food as medicine approach in which food is respected as the powerful and important force in our health that it is.

Principles of Functional Nutrition

1. Personalized Nutrition: Functional Nutrition recognizes that each person has unique nutritional needs. Personalized nutrition plans are developed based on a thorough understanding of the client’s health history (medical, lifestyle, emotional, nutritional), genetics, lifestyle, and preferences. Functional lab testing can also play a key role in helping to identify bodily processes running sub-optimally in need of support. 
2. Food as Medicine: Functional Nutrition emphasizes the healing power of whole foods. It advocates for a diet rich in foods that are real, nutrient-dense, biologically appropriate for optimal human health. Additionally, it incorporates the use of specific foods and nutrients to target health issues and support the body’s healing processes. Certain specialized diets may be appropriate in the short term in order to match the needs of a person’s particular stage of healing. (Example: using MRT food sensitivity testing to identify need for short term dietary eliminations to reduce inflammation and calm the immune response). 
3. Gut Health: A significant focus is placed on gut health, acknowledging that many chronic conditions are linked to gut dysfunction. Functional Nutrition aims to restore optimal gut health through dietary changes and targeted nutritional supplements.
4. Holistic Perspective: It looks at the entire lifestyle of the individual, including stress levels, sleep quality, and physical activity, recognizing that these factors all impact nutritional needs and overall health.

Key Areas Addressed by Functional Nutrition:

The Impact of Functional Medicine and Functional Nutrition

Functional Medicine and Functional Nutrition empower individuals to take control of their health. By focusing on the root causes of illness and understanding the complex interactions within the body, this approach offers a pathway to not only treat and reverse disease but also prevent it.

Many clients come to us after working with other practitioners practicing within the conventional medical model. They feel that their needs had not been adequately addressed. Often their treatments consisted of medications to suppress symptoms or ineffective dietary changes based on outdated dogma. But most of our clients understand that there must be something more they can do. They do not want to simply “manage” symptoms but actually reverse the dysfunction and heal their body. And we wholeheartedly agree.

As functional medicine dietitians / functional nutritionists, we work with our clients in a partnership to identify root causes and provide them with a deeper understanding of how their body works, equipping them with the knowledge and tools to empower them to make lasting changes. We develop personalized treatment plans that address the unique aspects of their health, fostering a sense of hope that healing is not only possible but also a renewed life is available to them in the process!

We use this approach in helping our clients lose weight, overcome PCOS and normalize their hormone levels, heal their gut, quell inflammation, and more. 

You can learn more about our approach here and who we are here.