Functional Medicine Practitioners – Why They Should Be Considered

Functional Medicine Practitioners – Why They Should Be Considered

by | Feb 2, 2022 | Health & Happiness

This practice is a game-changer when it comes to the treatment of chronic illnesses. 

Many patients who have dealt with pain and fatigue for years have started looking beyond the boundaries of traditional medicines.

The manifestation of these causes is different for each individual- functional medicine is all about personalized treatment that can result in long-term benefits.This practice is a game-changer when it comes to the treatment of chronic illnesses.

Many patients who have dealt with pain and fatigue for years have started looking beyond the boundaries of traditional medicines.

If you’re curious about making a dramatic lifestyle change, it’s time to visit a functional medicine practitioner.

In this article, we will discuss why you should consider functional medicine for your health and wellness.

 What is the Role of Functional Medicine Practitioners?

Functional medicine practitioners look at your body as a whole and focus on what caused your disease rather than how it is manifesting.

They are not interested in the symptoms primarily but rather seek to find out as much as they can about your lifestyle and habits.

Why?

Because the symptoms can point to various conditions, but what they won’t show is what’s the root cause of them.

Consequently, functional medicine practitioners start by analyzing your lifestyle – most of all, things like:

● Genetics

● Epigenetics – the study of how your environment can change how your genes work.

● Nutrition

● Sleep patterns

● Stress levels

● Exercise routine

Observing everything holistically will help practitioners identify the best possible treatment that works best for you.

WHY?

WHY CHOOSE FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE?

Functional medicine provides patients with personalized care tailored to their needs.

The objective of each treatment is to identify the root cause of your illness or, to target any potential areas of your overall health that could lead to potential illness.

Functional medicine treats the root cause. This practice delves deep into your medical history through the investigation of your diet, environment, exercise routine, sleep and lifestyle.

It provides an opportunity to eliminate those triggers to improve your health.

 “Nothing excites me more than getting to the root cause of what’s troubling a patient,” says Dr Francesca Leblanc of Labwell Healthcare, who also faced burnout from chronic illness.

Functional medicine providers will spend time listening to you in order to gather an incredibly detailed medical history. The goal is to identify all the triggers that add up and cause your illness, so this step is needed.

The list often includes factors such as genetics, poor nutrition, and stress, but it does not end there. Toxins, allergens, hidden infections and your microbiome can greatly contribute to your disease too.

Once a functional medicine practitioner identifies the triggers, they will provide you with a customized lifestyle plan designed especially for you.

This plan addresses most of your physical needs, including nutrition, sleep, and exercise, but it will also tackle the mental and emotional stressors in your life.

Interested in starting your journey to better wellness?

Ready to Detox?

Learn More

HOW?

HOW WILL FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE PRACTITIONERS
HELP YOU?

Functional medicine practitioners will first alter your diet plan. It is always the initial step since the use of food is the foundation of functional medicine.

Once your nutrition is back on track, your caregivers will introduce a series of lifestyle and behavioural interventions to improve your health or reduce the burden of your chronic disease.

For instance, they may suggest swapping tap water with ionized alkaline water. It can lead to perfect hydration, and it’s needless to say that’s one of the keys to improving your well-being.

Naturopathic Doctors

Most functional medicine clinics have teams of practitioners that specialize in different disciplines:

Naturopathic Doctors-

  • ● Holistic Cancer Practitioners

    ● Holistic Nutritionists

    ● Holistic Dentists

    ●Homeopathy

If you stick to drinking alkaline water daily, you’ll achieve both short and long-term results. The benefits of drinking Kangen water include slow bone loss, neutralizing acid in your bloodstream, and preventing cancer and heart disease.

 It has a higher pH of drinking water due to nutrients added to achieve multiple benefits.

All the info you provide to your caregivers paired up with a multidisciplinary approach creates a complete picture of your current health.

Your doctors will get to know the “whole” you. As a result, they will be able to build a holistic treatment plan.

Examples of functional medicine treatments include acupuncture, naturopathy, massage, chiropractic medicine, osteopathic medicine and body movement therapies.

Having multidisciplinary teams examine your health provides you with a holistic lens of your health.

 For example holistic dentists are either on site at functional medicine clinics or are referred to by practitioners.

 

Holistic dentists not only focus on your oral health but can help identify the root cause of chronic illness. According to Swiss Bio-health, up to 70% of chronic illnesses are connected to interference fields in the oral cavity.

 The objective of these treatments is to help address the root cause of your ailment through natural remedies and movement. These treatments can be used as preventive measures to support better health and reduce your risk from illness.

 Such an innovative approach to chronic disease management has proved to be highly effective so far.

Advantages of Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is a ground-breaking concept that has multiple benefits over the traditional healthcare system for the following reasons.

It Does Not Suppress Symptoms

The primary goal of functional medicine is to identify the cause and bring the body back to its optimal state of functioning.

It’s about pinpointing the core issues that make you sick.

Moreover, treatment involves support and guidance to help you make the necessary corrective steps.

Personalized Health Plan

Each one of us is different and faces unique circumstances in our lives.

Even with similar symptoms, the actual causes behind our illnesses can vary. Personalized treatment plans can help address health concerns.

Functional medicine practitioners do this by the study of the unique history of the patient, the lifestyle and through lab tests. The plan will match your schedule and health requirements.

The solutions provided can involve multiple steps.

Quite often, changes in lifestyle and nutrition are suggested.

Medication often combines two elements:

Supplements– Oral or topical remedies that use all-natural ingredients. These could include vitamin D, L Thianine or Turmeric- which has been used by practitioners for centuries. It contains antioxidants and anti-inflammatory properties. I have a video on the healing properties of turmeric. Click here to watch.

Or

 

Perfect hydration using kangen water- an important part of detoxification.

Our bodies are over 70% water, the quality of the water we drink should matter. If you want to learn more about the importance of your water quality, I’ve created a YouTube video you can watch here.

Because functional medicine focuses on personalization, patient-doctor partnerships are developed.

If you’re someone who is interested in centring your life around health and wellness, become a network marketer with me today.

Learn More

Broad-based Methodology

Functional medicine practitioners will acknowledge the benefits of both traditional and functional medicine.If treatment doesn’t work, there’s little hesitation to tap into other forms of healing techniques. At the end of the day, the goal is to heal patients.The combination of healing methods with the proper diet, sleep, and exercise will help you see noticeable changes in your health.In functional medicine, lifestyle changes and natural supplements are the first steps of treatment. Only when these two options don’t yield the desired results, pharmaceuticals are used. In functional medicine, practitioners will use other disciplines to help you heal.

What Can You Expect When You Visit Functional Medicine Practitioners?

Most functional medicine practitioners will ask you to fill in a highly detailed medical history questionnaire before your first visit.

Your answers will form the base for the investigation, which aims to identify all the causes of your current condition.

What kind of questions can you expect to see in this medical history questionnaire?

● Questions referring to your lifestyle (your diet, work, activity level, hobbies, and potential stressors)

● Questions about your genetics (the history of physical and mental conditions in your family)

● Questions about the environment (potential exposure to toxins and allergens)

At your first appointment, your doctors will take a comprehensive medical history and lifestyle assessment- first visits on average last for at least three hours.

By the end of your first visit, you will have a better understanding of the “food as medicine” philosophy.

Your health goals will be clearly defined as well as your treatment course and follow-up care.

Conclusion

Ultimately, functional medicine helps you reflect on your habits, replace the unhealthy ones, and reinforce the new – more beneficial ones for you.

The complex interactions of the biochemical and physiological factors play a major role in becoming the healthiest version of you.

Functional medicine is a unique approach that allows you to walk away with a personalized solution that will work for you.

Without a doubt, this personalized form of treatment is something that you should consider incorporating into your healthcare.

 

If you’re interested in starting your journey to better wellness, book a call with me today.

Contact Me

Burnout and Chronic Illness: How Approaching a Toxic-Free Life Changed My Health for The Better

Burnout and Chronic Illness: How Approaching a Toxic-Free Life Changed My Health for The Better

by | Jan 26, 2022 | Health & Happiness

In 2014 my life turned upside down. I have been working non-stop in my career; following a series of projects that blurred into a never-ending line of deadlines.

Even though my schedule was intense, and the hours long, I had always been fit and my energy levels were high. So I let myself go full-throttle without realizing what the destination was.

Little did I know that I was overworking myself to a level where my body was slowly but steadily breaking down under pressure. It started with a chest infection that triggered an avalanche of illnesses.

-One important thing I learned during my recovery was the importance of the mind-body connection. The other was the need for detoxifying the fundamental elements that constitute our physical body. Taking the right steps to manage these two aspects can make a world of difference to our physical and mental health.  The complex interrelation between the mind and the body is so apparent that quite often, we tend to miss it. Ever felt your gut muscles tightening up when you are angry or anxious? You know what I am talking about.  It is true that the thoughts and emotions generated in the mind can affect our physical health to a large extent. Negative mental states can increase the levels of toxins generated in our body which can have serious adverse effects in the long run. At the same time, our physical actions and postures can have an impact on our mental state. >
Christina with a bottle

Many experts believe that there’s no exact separation between the mind and the body. Networks of communication run through the entire system, influencing the neurological, immune, and endocrine systems. At the same time, our bodies are made from some fundamental elements. The most important one among them is water. In truth, more than 70 percent of the composition of our brain and heart is water. Not only do we take in water from the liquids we consume, but also from the food we eat. So managing it in the right way is of utmost importance. Besides, helping us to stay alive in various ways, water plays an important role in the detoxification of the entire system. By controlling the quality of our water intake, we can make a positive change in our health conditions and also in our energy levels. Interested in learning about how changing your water can impact your overall health?
Watch How

After struggling with the sudden downfall in my health I was diagnosed with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome with Fibromyalgia and Adrenal Fatigue. As weeks of illness stretched into months, the reality of staying bedridden and lacking the energy to do the basic things that I enjoyed doing came as a mental shock.

Previously, I have always taken my health for granted. But at that point, even performing simple daily tasks became a big challenge. Being an energetic and active person, lying on a sickbed wasn’t my definition of life. My illness created an unseen wall that forever changed my life into “before” and “after” phases.

After struggling with a slow recovery, I was able to get back to work on a school board in 2015. With my functional capacity significantly reduced, I struggled to overcome the toll my illnesses took on my life. What really made this a life-changing chapter in my life was the realization that came with it. At the end of it, I knew that health and wellness were essential in order to experience life. Moreover, they’re not things that I could take for granted.

 Want to join my live demo?

Contact Me
While working with a doctor during my recovery, I tried some alternative therapies and they were immensely helpful towards aiding my recovery. My love for essential oils began as a part of this process. The right combination of these oils has been used in the field of aromatherapy for ages. I realized how powerful these oils can be to relieve mental fatigue, stress and help bring relaxation to the system. I found them extremely effective for calming down the mind. Also, they are very helpful for those suffering from sleep disorders. To make matters worse, I suffered another severe bout of illness in 2018. This time the primary reason was an infected root canal.  

Elements for Enriching Life

 

 

 

 

 

 

Learn More

 

 

 

 

 

“my journey towards healing and well-being was not over yet” 

 

It made me realize that my journey towards healing and well-being was not over yet. In my search for a treatment to cure the fundamental causes behind my illness, I started working with a Holistic Cancer Practitioner. This was when I was introduced to Kangen Water.

The term Kangen is a Japanese word that means “return to origin”. Now, Kangen water is alkaline in nature and has a higher pH level than normal water. The pH scale measures the acidity or alkalinity of a liquid on a grade of 0 to 14. While the ph of drinking water is neutral and measures 7, ionized alkaline water can have a pH value of 8 or 9.

Kangen water also contains alkaline minerals and elements like molecular hydrogen that act as powerful antioxidants. These antioxidants are responsible for fighting free radicals in your body.

This is how it works: This Water contains electrical energy that can be measured in millivolts. The positive or negative characteristics of water has the ability to promote or neutralize free radicals in the body which are responsible for the rusting or rotting of the human internal terrain.

 The antioxidants in ionized alkaline water will help fight the free radicals in your body which helps prevent chronic illness.

Benefits

If you’re still not sure if ionized alkaline water is good for you, here are a few other benefits of ionized alkaline water that are no less important.

  • It improves metabolism

  • Supports the immune system
  • Slows the process of aging
  • Improves digestion and colon health

  • Aids in hydration, and skin health.

Learn More

For someone like me suffering from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, ionized alkaline water made a huge difference in terms of my overall health and energy levels. After some weeks of use, I could sleep properly, wake up refreshed, and even had the energy to visit the gym. It seemed that a simple and effective key for unlocking the path to a healthy life was finally in my hand.

To stay healthy, we need to pay importance to this life-making element that we consume daily.

The truth is, normal drinking water from a RO filter will never be able to provide the perfect hydration that the body needs. Drinking ionized alkaline water daily can make a considerable difference to any person looking to detoxify their system.

 In a nutshell, Kangen water has been one of the most powerful tools that I have used in my journey towards recovering my health. Especially for people suffering from burnout and chronic illnesses, it can work wonders.

Detox your Life!

Learn More

Concluding Thoughts

No matter how my illnesses impacted my life, they allowed me to explore and understand the realities of my own self like never before.

While fatigue, pain, and weakness put multiple constraints on my life, they helped in transforming my life for the better. They forced me to make positive changes in my life and embrace a healthy lifestyle. Today, I am ready to close this chapter of burnout in my life and move ahead with maximum confidence.

The journey taught me the importance of making health a priority and the importance of living a toxic-free life at all levels. What’s more, the tools that I have shared can bring about the positive change that you might be looking for in your life.

If you want to take ownership of your wellness. Book a quick call with me today and I will show you how Kangen water helped me with my wellness journey.