The Digestion Coach Est. 2008

DISCLAIMER:

First and foremost, only the powers that be, MDs and pharmaceuticals, are authorized by decree to say they can treat, mitigate, or cure disease. Everything else, including myself, is relegated to using the word “support.”

Though the optimal outcome of my care is a “well and satisfied patient,” they got well through my functional and integrative medicine’s supportive measures – NOT because I CURED them.

It’s funny how medicine prohibited nature from being able to cure and instead legislated pharmaceutical chemicals to have the right to take all the credit when it comes to curing human beings. Logic be dammed.

WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL AND INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE?

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

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 support and diagnostic testing to include lifestyle modification, nutritional imbalances, environmental exposures, underlying infections, immune dysfunction, and neurochemistry evaluation, which may underlie various health challenges.

Both integrative and functional medicine approaches are very similar, and there are many crossovers between these two terms. So, for our purposes here, we will simply use ‘Integrative Medicine’ to include 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 contributing 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 conventional medicine only works to either activate or suppress reactions (symptoms) within the body, merely slowing, at best, the progression of the disease. This is called symptom management. Integrative medical approaches such as targeted nutrition and lifestyle modification (diet, sleep, exercise, and positive mental attitude) are often all that is needed to stop the progression of most health challenges, including GI-related conditions. In the best-case scenario, a reversal of the health challenge and a durable resolution is the outcome.

WHAT TYPES OF GASTROINTESTINAL ISSUES CAN INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE HELP? 

Integrative medicine is well suited to “support” almost any condition affecting the gastrointestinal tract. Whether it possesses a physical, chemical, or emotional component, integrative medicine has a supportive tool to address any contributing factor. In reality, there are not many conditions affecting the stomach, small intestines, or colon, where integrative medicine doesn’t have an answer diagnostically or in supportive measures. Conventional ‘allopathic’ 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…).

Chronic health challenges are where integrative medicine shines!