Functional Medicine

Functional medicine addresses physical level disease in terms of how imbalances in the body come about. For example, adrenal exhaustion may predispose someone towards auto-immune diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis. In such an example, functional medicine would address the rheumatoid arthritis by returning the adrenals to health, as well as other issues a patient may have. Functional medicine at Holistic Solutions MD uses a “bio-energetic” approach, which simply means it uses treatments such as complex homeopathy, which stimulates the body to heal.

The hormonal and nervous system–the neuroendocrine system–is the critical regulator for the body, acting like the conductor of an orchestra, giving cues at exactly the right time to make sure the body’s functions work together efficiently. One of the first goals of many types of functional medicine is to balance the neuroendocrine axis. This is a key focus, and generally the first focus of functional medicine treatment at the Holistic Solutions MD clinic.

A close second to the neuroendocrine system is the digestive system. An efficiently working digestive system is essential to bring nutrition to our cells. If, for example, someone is not digesting protein well, how can they get the necessary building blocks to renew their body from stressful events? As a key component of this is the “microbiome” of the body, which bulk of which lies in the intestines. We have a system of microbes–bacteria, yeasts, and viruses–that live within us. If the microbiome is not balanced, if yeast for example, starts to grow beyond what is healthy, it can begin to cause disease.

Along with this there are the detoxification systems, the liver and gallbladder, the large intestine, the kidneys, which must work efficiently if the body is to stay clean. Functional medicine will test for, and treat if necessary, weaknesses in any of these detoxification systems.

At the deepest level, there is the targeting of toxicity that any given individual may have taken on and failed to detoxify. One person, for example, may have taken on mercury, an extremely toxic metal, and stored it in a certain organ of the body, attempting to wall it off. This may trigger key disease responses. Targeting and unloading this toxic load is another element of deeper functional medicine.