What is Functional Medicine?
Functional Medicine is an holistic and science-based form of precision medicine that focuses on creating Health, Well-being and Longevity.
It was born in the he US in the 90’ and was created by medical doctors who had the intention to evolve from the drug-based model of treating symptoms to a patient-focused model designed to reverse the growing chronic disease epidemic.
Functional Medicine provides a road map to assess all environmental, lifestyle, and predisposing factors such as genes, stress, toxins, trauma, microbes, diet, allergens and much more, that cause imbalance in the body systems.
To me, Functional Medicine is a more conscious and evolved form of Conventional Medicine that integrates the principles of Western Medicine and improves the way Medicine is delivered to patients.
In Functional Medicine we:
Focus on evaluating you in your wholeness and biological individuality, we listen to your Life story in depth, paying attention to the interconnection of your Physical, Mental, Emotional and Spiritual bodies.
Ask WHY is the dysfunction happening, WHAT are the root causes and HOW can we reverse dysfunction and restore optimal function through therapeutic plans adapted to your unique needs.
Use a systems biology-based approach that understands the interconnection in between all body systems. We organize the patient’s clinical imbalances in 7 systems that share a common physiology and function and that are the following: Defense & Repair, Energy production, Biotransformation & Elimination (detoxification), Transport, Communication, Structural Integrity and Assimilation.
Evaluate and address your modifiable personal lifestyle factors such as Sleep & Relaxation, Exercise & Movement, Nutrition, Stress management and Relationships quality.
Have a focus on evaluating how your environment is influencing your gene expression, body structure and function, because we know that by modifying your environment we are going to change the expression of your genes.
Use cutting edge lab testing that gives us a better understanding of how your body is functioning at a celular level.
Use food, lifestyle and Nervous System regulation tools as Medicine and we prescribe botanical, nutraceutics and pharmaceutic medicines when needed.
Trust the body’s capacity to self repair so we work on optimizing your lifestyle and creating the conditions for this to happen.
You can find more information about Functional Medicine on the Institute for Functional Medicine website: https://www.ifm.org/
My view on Chronic Diseases
You don’t have a Chronic, Irreversible and Incurable Disease,
If you have been dealing with symptoms that you can’t fully resolve for a long while, you probably have:
A dysregulated Nervous System that is prioritizing survival over healing, reproduction, well-being and expansion.
A high toxic load that is causing interference and inflammation in your body and, therefore, blocking your body’s innate capacity to self heal.
And by toxicity I mean, not only the environmental toxins and pathogens but also the limiting beliefs, trapped emotions in the body, unaddressed wounds and dysfunctional relational and social patterns.
All these factors act as “Health blockers” and perpetrators of disease, interfering normal function and blocking your body’s innate capacity to regain balance after Life events.
And yes, it’s possible that you have inherited genetic codes that are making you vulnerable to develop certain conditions but, you also have the power to change your genetic expression & your body structure and function by prioritizing the regulation of your Nervous System and by making changes in your lifestyle, environment and social structure.
Cutting-edge Epigenetic studies are showing that 90% of “Chronic Diseases” aren’t determined by our Genome but by our Exposome- everything we have been exposed to since we were born.
So, if you have received a diagnosis of a “Chronic, Irreversible and incurable Disease”, I want you to know that, through personalized protocols focussed on identifying and treating the root cause of your symptoms, it’s very likely that you can completely resolve your Disease or, at least, greatly improve your quality of Life.
When our goal is to completely resolve what Modern Medicine labels as Chronic Illness, it is not a good strategy to just blame genetics ignoring the state of our inner terrain and outer environment, focussing only on shutting down the symptoms. Symptoms are the language of the body and they carry messages that we need to receive in order to break free from illness.
You are absolutely capable of healing and feeling vibrant in your body. To achieve so you need to:
Feel capable and deserving, deep down in your body,
Find your unique root causes of imbalance and address them according to their priority,
Regulate your Nervous System so you can live in a continuous state of repair,
And create a lifestyle and an environment that support your unique biology and natural healing process.
You deserve it, it is your birth right and you are not alone on the journey.
The Triad Mediator and Perpetuator of Chronic Diseases:
Life has taken me to my knees many times trying to understand the healing algorithm, both in my own personal process and in the hundreds of patients I’ve had the honor to support.
During my years as an Intensive Care Pediatrician, I couldn’t understand how we would lose a kid fast after a “mild” external event and despite using the most advance Life support, while others would recover fast with less support and without presenting sequela, after a more severe event.
And, while I believe in destiny, I also believe in the body’s resiliency, and the good news are that resilience can be cultivated.
When a triggering event happens threatening the integrity of the body, the factors that are going to be conditioning the evolution towards complete resolution, chronic disease or even death, are the following 2:
The intensity of the external aggression: We cannot control it, it is destiny, Life itself. These can be infections, acute toxicity, a physical or emotional traumatic event.
The Resilience of our system: How capable we are to re establish balance and repair after a stressful event. We inherit it, we modulate it through our Life experiences and we can also build it up.
Our body’s resilience is intimately related to these 3 pillars:
Autonomic Nervous System (ANS): It is the Governor in the body and it is in charge of keeping us alive and in homeostasis (balance) with Life. When regulated, repair and detoxification happen naturally in the body. When dysregulated, these mechanisms become impaired.
Toxic Load: This is the accumulation of toxicity in our bodies due to environmental toxicity, pathogens, emotions and beliefs. It causes low-grade inflammation which becomes the perfect terrain for illness to develop. It also blocks normal function and impairs repairing systems. Toxicity can be inherited, acquired through our interaction with Life and accumulated in the body when the Autonomous Nervous System is dysregulated and drainage pathways are blocked.
Genetics: These are inherited health or illness codes that are constantly modulated by our terrain, lifestyle and environment.
When our goal is to revert a chronic condition or to be in a healthy state where our body is capable to rebalance after a life event, it’s important to understand that improving our terrain (internal and external environment) and regulating our Nervous System, are key pieces in the healing algorithm.
Genetics has its role but it’s not the end of the story. There’s strong evidence about how Epigenetics (how our environment modulates our structure, function and genetic expression) has the power to activate healthy genes and deactivate genes of illness. Recent data shows that only 10% of Chronic Illness are purely genetic and the rest are epigenic which makes them reversible when modifying the toxic load and regulating the Nervous System.
And, in the same way the dysbalance of these systems mediates and perpetuates illness, their regulation is the key for reversing disease.
I want to point out that epigenetic factors (the ones you have power to modify) are majority.
"Good health is dependent, first and foremost, on a well functioning Autonomic Nervous System"
— Dr Dietrich Klinghardt, M.D, Ph.D.