Functional Medicine & Nutrition

Functional medicine and functional nutrition offer evidence-based solutions for hard-to-solve illnesses by focusing on the root causes of disease, instead of the symptoms. This individualized approach helps a broad spectrum of diseases, including those with autoimmune disorders, gut health issues, hormonal health, brain health, bone health, lung health, allergies, female specific disorders including fertility issues, male health and health challenges for all age groups men women and children. Although functional medicine is different than conventional and ayurvedic medicine systems, they can often complement and work well together. Learn how a functional medicine nutritionist can play a vital role in your optimum health, both in-person and via telehealth visits, using food as medicine.

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What is Functional Medicine?

The word “function” is essential to this kind of medicine because the entire approach is about doing what is best for your body to function at its best.

Functional medicine determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each person. Functional medicine is an individualized, science-based approach where practitioners work together with patients to discover the root causes of chronic diseases and optimize wellness. Functional medicine is not that different from conventional medicine or ayurvedic medicine and it draws on many disciplines. Using food and nutrition as medicine, the functional medicine practitioner delves into each person’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors to create a personalized plan that may reverse illness and may put disease into remission.

Functional medicine works with the body’s natural healing processes by identifying the obstacles that may interfere with normal physiological function, including exposure to toxins and allergens, microbes in the body, and stress.

Functional medicine practitioners and nutritionists are certified by The Institute of Functional Medicine or IFM. IFM sets a prestigious global standard for education, training, and clinical practice in functional medicine.

Few Examples are as follows:

Autoimmune Wellness

Approximately 700 million people suffer from autoimmune diseases worldwide, and studies show that this number is increasing each year.  Functional medicine approaches autoimmune diseases differently than conventional medicine. Functional medicine analyzes and treats the immune system so that it can calm down and stop attacking self-tissues. It helps to remove triggers of immune diseases and gives the body all that it needs to restore immune system balance.

Autoimmune disease is when your immune defense system is either underactive or overactive. Something triggers your immune system to create antibodies, and they attack your own body because they mistake tissues and organ systems as foreign invaders. The antibodies attack your healthy cells and cause inflammation and disease. Studies show that more women than men are diagnosed with an autoimmune disorder.

Functional Medicine addresses several Autoimmune Diseases including the following:

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  • Crohn’s disease
  • Diabetes (Type 1)
  • Grave’s disease
  • Hashimoto’s thyroiditis
  • Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
  • Lupus
  • Multiple sclerosis (MS)
  • Psoriasis/ Psoriatic arthritis
  • Rheumatoid arthritis

  • Ulcerative colitis
  • Vitiligo
  • Lichen planus
  • Celiac disease
  • Pernicious anemia
  • Addison’s disease
  • Myasthenia Gravis
  • Guillian Barre Syndrome

Gut Health

The gastrointestinal tract and your gut microbiome are powerfully influential to your health. Improving gut health improves bloating, diarrhea, and heartburn, and it can also improve brain function, metabolism, and joint pain. Functional medicine approaches gut health by finding the underlying issues, looking at gut microbiome imbalances, and using elimination diets or specialized diets to improve the gastrointestinal system.

There can be many causes of intestinal permeability, or leaky gut, which is when the gut lining breaks down and harmful substances from the outside world are able to invade the bloodstream. Functional nutritionists often look for (and remove) food sensitivities, infections, or environmental toxins that can alter the beneficial gut bacteria and promote inflammation in the gut.

Balancing the gut and addressing the root causes of illness is crucial to treatment. According to one study, the Indian gut microbiota may be unique compared to global populations – confirming the “most predominant organisms in Indians to be Prevotella copri and Faecalibacterium prausnitzii.”

Functional Medicine Addresses These Gut Health Issues:

  • Acid reflux
  • Bloating
  • Colitis
  • Chronic constipation
  • Diarrhea
  • Dysbiosis
  • Gas
  • Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)

  • Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD)
  • Intestinal permeability (leaky gut)
  • Ulcers
  • Gall bladder health
  • Liver health
  • Fatty Liver
  • Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD)
  • Pancreatic health

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Diabetes and Blood Sugar

Metabolic syndrome refers to symptoms that increase the risk of heart disease, stroke, and diabetes. Poor blood sugar handling is a major characteristic in this syndrome. Conventional medicine treats diabetes with medications, insulin, and a diet that manages a person’s blood sugar but keeps them on a path of diabetes for life. However, Type 2 diabetes can be reversed. Functional medicine instead focuses on food, nutrition, and lifestyle changes to turn around prediabetes and Type 2 diabetes.

Metabolic risk factors include elevated blood lipids, blood pressure, high glucose levels, and insulin resistance. In addition, high body mass index, inflammation in the body, smoking, and genes play a part in risk for metabolic syndrome. As insulin resistance increases, the body enters a pre-diabetes state that progresses into type 2 diabetes requiring lifelong dependency on insulin. Functional medicine investigates individual systems, discovers root causes, and triggers, and uses personalized nutritional treatment to reverse this process and help reduce the need for lifelong medications.

Functional Medicine Addresses These Metabolic Diseases:

  • Diabetes
  • Heart disease
  • High blood pressure
  • High blood sugar
  • Obesity
  • Overweight

Fertility Health

Hormone balance is vital for energy, confidence, and weight control. Underlying imbalances can affect reproductive and sexual functions resulting in infertility. Functional medicine takes a deep dive into hormone balance, often overlooked in conventional medical clinics. Traditional medicine addresses fertility issues with hormone therapies, surgeries, artificial insemination, and in-vitro fertilization.

Functional medicine looks closely at a wide range of hormonal, dietary, and lifestyle factors when creating an individualized treatment plan for couples trying to have a baby. Paying particular attention to environmental toxins, body weight, stress levels, sexual health, excessive oxidation, and methylation issues – your functional medicine nutritionist will help you address these problem areas and more. Functional medicine can help improve fertility with a personalized fertility program that includes fertility-boosting nutrition, herbs, and supplements.

Functional Medicine Addresses These Fertility Issues:

  • Endometriosis
  • Hormone imbalances
  • Ovulation issues
  • Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS)
  • Polycystic Ovarian disorder
  • Poor semen quality
  • Urinary Tract Infections