The Functional Medicine Approach

Which Would You Prefer?

• A sickness-based approach, fighting illness only after you start feeling sick, or a wellness-based approach, seeking health and thriving now so you don’t have to get sick later?

• The conventional system has grown so dependent on pharma, on prescribing away every symptom, that we have forgotten how to restore health: by addressing and resolving the root cause of illness, not just the symptoms.

• Functional Medicine Is That Wellness-Based Approach

One Condition, Many Causes

One Cause, Many Conditions

As the graphic illustrates, a diagnosis can be the result of more than one cause.

For example, depression can be caused by many different
factors, including inflammation.

Likewise, a cause such as inflammation may lead to a number of different diagnoses, including depression.

The precise manifestation of each cause depends on the individual’s genes, environment, and lifestyle, and only treatments that address the right
cause will have lasting benefits beyond symptom suppression.

The Functional Medicine Model

The functional medicine model evolved from the insights and perspectives of a small group of influential thought leaders who realized the importance of an individualized approach to disease causes based on the evolving research in nutritional science, genomics, and epigenetics.

These thought leaders found ways to apply these new advances in the clinic to address root causes using low-risk interventions that modify molecular and cellular systems to reverse these drivers of disease.

What Is Functional Medicine?

The functional medicine model of care offers a patient-centered approach to chronic disease management. It seeks to answer the question, “Why are you ill?” so you can receive personalized, effective care for your needs.

Functional medicine providers spend time listening to you and gathering your medical history. We use this information to identify the root cause(s) of the illness, including triggers such as poor nutrition, stress, toxins, allergens, genetics and your microbiome (the bacteria living in and on your body).

Once we identify the triggers, we can customize a healthy living plan for you. Your plan will address many aspects of your life, from physical needs, including nutrition, exercise and sleep, to mental and emotional stressors related to social, work and community life.

The foundation of functional medicine is the use of food as a first-line therapy. The right nutrition, combined with lifestyle and behavioral interventions, will help you take charge of your health.

Conditions We Treat With Functional Medicine

Anyone facing a chronic condition can benefit from functional medicine. Some of the most common conditions we treat include:

Adrenal disorders.

Alzheimer’s disease and dementia.

Arthritis.

Asthma.

Autoimmune diseases.

Cancer prevention.

Cardiovascular disease.

Diabetes.

Digestive disorders

Fibromyalgia.

Environmental and food allergies.

Women’s health disorders (PMS, menopause and polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS).

Metabolic syndrome, prediabetes and insulin resistance.

Thyroid disorders.

What to Expect

Before your first visit, you complete an extensive medical history questionnaire. The information you provide lays the groundwork for our investigation into the root cause(s) of your current chronic condition. The extensive medical history questionnaire will ask you about your:

• Lifestyle: Including your diet, activity level, work life, hobbies and stressors

• Genetics: Including your family history of physical and mental conditions.

• Environment: Including your exposure to toxins and allergens.

During your first appointment, you’ll have a one-on-one visit with Dr. Aslan and her team including a registered functional medicine dietitian. Your first visit lasts up to 2-3 hours. This gives us time to:

• Review your health history.

• Perform a physical exam.

• Order lab tests and perform specialized blood tests as needed.

• Introduce you to our “food as medicine” philosophy.

• Identify your health goals.

• Discuss treatments and follow-up care.

Why Is Functional Medicine Needed?

Society is experiencing a dramatic rise in the number of people suffering from complex, chronic diseases such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes, autoimmune, ADHD, autism, and mental illness.

Healing the patient has become replaced with treating the patient. This change in terminology implies that the patient’s problems are permanent, but the symptoms may be controlled with a lifetime of ever-increasing drugs.

Patients need an approach that embraces healing by addressing the root cause of their problems, rather than perpetually trimming the leaves of their symptoms. Functional medicine is that approach.

Functional medicine helps the patient attain true primary prevention of disease (before the disease is present) rather than just early detection (the disease process has already started). This is an evolution in medical practice that better addresses 21st-century healthcare needs.

Functional Medicine Approach to Assessment

Assessment focuses on the patient’s fundamental core clinical functions through an in-depth history, physical examination and laboratory testing. Multiple factors are considered:

Core Clinical Functions: these are the fundamental physiological processes which keep all of us alive. All of the core clinical functions are influenced by environment, genes and mental state. When imbalanced, they can lead to symptoms and then disease. It is within these core clinical imbalances that the root cause for all chronic illness may be found. The seven core clinical functions are:

• Assimilation (digestion, absorption, microbiome)

• Defense & Repair (immune system and inflammation)

• Energy (energy regulation and mitochondrial function)

• Biotransformation & Elimination (toxicity and detoxification)

• Communication (hormones, neurotransmitters, immune messengers, cognition) – Transport (cardiovascular and lymphatic systems)

• Structural Integrity (from sub cellular membranes to musculoskeletal system)

Environmental Inputs

Some researchers have estimated that up to 80% of chronic disease risk is attributable to lifestyle. To address chronic disease you must address lifestyle. Some major modifiable lifestyle factors are:

• the quality of the water you use

• the quality of the air you breathe

• the quality of the food you eat

• the type of diet you follow

• your level of physical activity

• your amount and quality of sleep

• previous and ongoing exposure to toxins

• traumas you have experienced (physical, mental and emotional)

Mind-Body Elements

Social, psychological and spiritual factors (particularly how the patient responds to stress in their life) can have an immense influence on health. Incorporating these elements are essential for a truly holistic approach to the patient.

Genetics

Every person has a unique set of genes which may cause varying levels of susceptibility to disease. Although having a genetic blueprint on a patient is helpful in assessing disease, it is important to realize that your DNA is not your destiny. New research has shown that gene expression is influenced by many factors in the environment as well as the experiences, attitudes and beliefs of the patient. This is epigenetics. People can change the way their genes are activated and expressed through their actions.

More info: http://learn.genetics.utah.edu/content/epigenetics/intro/

Our Approach

Functional Medicine Approach to Treatment

The most important emphasis is placed on primary prevention of disease (before the disease process has begun). There is much wisdom in the old adage “an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure”. Once a disease process has started, a determination is made as to which core clinical function is imbalanced and responsible for causing it. Most functional imbalances can be addressed, some substantially improved (treated) and others completely returned to optimal function (healed). Rebalancing core clinical functions always has a significant positive impact on the health of the patient. A large toolbox of available interventions are evaluated and a customized treatment plan is applied for maximal impact on the underlying functionality.

Functional medicine expands the physician’s toolbox beyond pharmaceuticals and surgery. It also includes botanicals, supplements, therapeutic diets, exercise plans, functional neuro-rehabilitation, detoxification programs, stress management techniques and much more.

The physician and patient become active partners. Such a partnership allows the patient to truly be in control of improving their health and achieving optimal wellness.

What is a Functional Medicine Doctor & Practitioner?

A Functional Medicine doctor restores normal physiology and normal body “Function” rather than focusing on the treatment of specific diseases. We find, in general, that if we can restore normal body function that most disease processes clear up. Functional Medicine doctors will order various types of labs, some used in conventional medicine but most unique to our field. Specialized GI assessments for your microbiome, measuring nutrient levels, amino acid levels, organic acids for brain health the liver detoxification pathways. SNP testing or genetic testing is common as is food allergy testing along with a variety of hormone assays.

What does a Functional Medicine doctor do with all these specialized labs in terms of treatments?

What does a Functional Medicine doctor do with all these specialized labs in terms of treatments? We recommend lifestyle changes, which are pretty basic, it’s everything you learned in kindergarten for adults basically. Get to bed early, eat your vegetables, get outside and play (i.e. exercise) and be nice to other people. That part is not rocket science. The rocket science part is the interpretation of the lab work and the development of health programs or health protocols based on the testing. That skill of lab analysis takes years to master.

This is the area where Functional Medicine really stands out because the labs often reveal hidden problems that have plagued the person for decades. Chronic low grade GI infections or pathogens that have disturbed the microbiome. An imbalance in the microbiome itself can be devastating and is instantly recognizable from the labs using PCR or DNA technology to map out your gut bacteria. Toxins such as mercury, lead and arsenic in general are not so friendly to the human brain and can be detected in a complete lab work up. The metabolites, or breakdown products of neurotransmitters such as serotonin or dopamine give insight into brain function and salivary hormone measurements for cortisol reveal the stress hormone system’s state of function. The list goes on.