A growing branch of alternative medicine, functional medicine focuses on the causes of chronic illness. Rather than treating the symptoms, it identifies the root cause and restores health by addressing the individual’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors.
It combines traditional Western medical practices with what is sometimes considered “alternative” or “integrative” medicine. This includes a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of drugs and botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress-management procedures.
Stress
Various factors, including a poor diet, lack of sleep, emotional trauma, overtraining, and a stressful work or school schedule, cause stress. Functional medicine addresses the multi-factors contributing to chronic stress and helps patients break the cycle.
Functional medicine treats stress primarily through proper diet, exercise, sleep, and stress management. The expert will evaluate your main stressors and determine what needs to be eliminated or changed to decrease your stress levels.
When treating a stress disorder like anxiety, your Trivida Functional Medicine expert will do comprehensive testing and create a treatment plan that includes a healthy diet, sleep, exercise, and the right vitamins and supplements to help reduce stress.
Stress is a common issue that most people face, and functional medicine is well suited to treating this condition. An available medicine doctor will look at your entire history and collect detailed information about your health, lifestyle, and environment to determine your condition’s cause.
Food Allergies
Food allergies affect the immune system and can result in various symptoms, such as hives, itching, trouble breathing, stomach pains, or diarrhea. Often, food allergies can be treated by avoiding the foods that cause the problem.
You should talk to your doctor about testing if you suspect a food allergy. Skin tests can help identify foods that irritate the skin. They involve putting liquid extracts of suspected allergens on your skin and pricking them with a needle to see if reddish raised spots (called wheals) form.
Your doctor might also use blood tests to measure the amount of IgE antibodies specific to a particular food. These tests can be more expensive and take longer to get results than skin testing.
Fortunately, many children outgrow food allergies with age. However, some allergies, such as peanuts and milk, can persist into adulthood.
Digestive Issues
A healthy digestive system is the key to a healthy body. It helps your body absorb nutrients, eliminate waste and regulate a balanced immune system.
Digestive issues that go undiagnosed can lead to serious health problems such as Crohn’s Disease, Irritable Bowel Syndrome, and Leaky Gut Syndrome. These conditions can cause abdominal pain, bloating, constipation, diarrhea, and many other symptoms.
Functional medicine practitioners understand the root causes of many digestive issues and offer effective treatment options to improve overall health. Nutrition issues, an undiagnosed medical problem, increased stress, a gluten allergy, inflammation, or infection can cause these conditions.
To help alleviate these issues, a functional medicine practitioner may recommend supplements that improve digestion. They may also recommend changing your diet to include more fruits, vegetables, legumes, whole grains, and healthy fats. Moving regularly is another key to a more beneficial digestive system.
Mental Health
Mental health is a crucial component of overall well-being. It influences how we think, communicate, learn and interact with others. It also determines how we cope with stress and respond to challenges.
Traditional medical treatment of mental illness involves talk therapy and psychiatric medication. Functional medicine addresses both areas to help patients feel better and improve their quality of life.
Symptoms of depression and anxiety are often the first things to come to mind when people think about mental illness, but those symptoms are only the tip of the iceberg. Usually, the cause of those symptoms has roots in nutritional deficiencies, inflammation, and gut health.
When these factors are addressed through diet, detoxification, supplements, exercise, and other dietary choices, they can significantly improve an individual’s mood and ability to function. They can also support the long-term maintenance of mental health conditions by reducing the risk of relapse.
