WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL AND INTEGRATIVE MEDICINE
...In case you were wondering
Functional medicine
It focuses on addressing the root cause(s) of chronic conditions. Functional Medicine recognises that, one condition may have more than one cause or contributing factor. Contributing factors like low grade infection or inflammation may also result in multiple symptomatic conditions and diagnosis. Functional medicine teaches the patient about their own body’s cues, and helps put them on a journey back to health. The functional medicine approach uses a functional medicine matrix to address all the causes and conditions that a patient may suffer from. Ultimately; functional medicine explores the way in which your body is functioning and why, by recognising that you are a unique individual, whose symptoms don’t necessarily match a textbook diagnosis.
Integrative Medicine
The kind of medical approaches that would be considered Integrative are, for example; if a cancer patient decided to use functional medicine and chemo therapy together, to boost their chances of success in beating cancer OR to help ease the symptoms of cancer. Another example would be if a patient with fibromyalgia was already taking pain medication, but was looking to reduce pain medication and their symptoms, by adding acupuncture to their medical care.