WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL AND INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE?

Functional medicine is a comprehensive approach to wellness and health incorporating diet, lifestyle, and specific diagnostic testing to help uncover root causes of illness. Diagnostic testing primarily focuses on digestive function and gut pathogens; sex hormone balance, including adrenal function; blood chemistry and food sensitivities.

Integrative medicine, like functional medicine, also incorporates lifestyle, diet, and diagnostic testing as an approach to wellness and health. In addition, integrative medicine expands on treatment and diagnostic testing to include nutritional imbalances, environmental sensitivity, underlying infections, immune function, and neurochemistry evaluation, which may underlie a wide variety of health problems.

Both, integrative medicine and functional medicine, approaches are very similar and there is a lot of crossover between these two terms. So, for our purposes here, we will simply use ‘Integrative Medicine’ to be inclusive of FUNCTIONAL, COMPLEMENTARY, and ALTERNATIVE medicine.

HOW CAN INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE HELP WITH DIGESTIVE PROBLEMS?

Disorders affecting the digestive system such as SIBO, H. pylori, leaky gut, Crohn’s and many others, are often chronic in nature. For example, H. pylori and leaky gut (intestinal permeability) can cause biochemical imbalances that contribute to aggressive inflammatory and oxidative stress reactions. These reactions have been linked to conditions within the gut, such as ulcerative colitis and Crohn’s, as well as outside the gut, manifesting in conditions like Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, rosacea, and rheumatoid arthritis. The use of convention medicine only works to either activate or suppress reactions within the body, merely slowing, at best, the progression of the disease. Integrative medical approaches such as targeted nutrition, lifestyle modification (diet, sleep, exercise and positive mental attitude) are often all that is needed to prevent furthering of a GI related condition and in a best case scenario, reversal of said condition.

WHAT TYPES OF GASTROINTESTINAL ISSUES CAN INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE HELP?

Integrative medicine is well suited to help almost any condition affecting the gastrointestinal tract. Whether it possesses a physical, chemical or emotional component, integrative medicine has a tool that can address any contributing factor. In reality, there are not many conditions that affect the stomach, small intestinal or colon, where integrative medicine doesn’t have an answer both diagnostically and therapeutically. Conventional medicine excels in acute care medicine (emergencies, accidents, and trauma) through medication and surgery. Unfortunately, modern medicine falls short for most people with chronic illnesses such as digestive disorders (SIBO, leaky gut..), autoimmune diseases (Hashimoto’s..), chronic fatigue/fibromyalgia, hormone imbalances (adrenal, thyroid..), degenerative neurological problems (Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s..) and mental health challenges (ADD/ADHD..)

DIGESTION COACH

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