What is functional/preventative medicine?

Functional medicine is an integrative and patient-centered approach to healthcare that seeks to understand and address the underlying causes of illness and dysfunction, rather than just managing symptoms. It emphasizes a comprehensive understanding of an individual's unique genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors to create a personalized and holistic treatment plan. Practitioners of functional medicine use a systems-based approach, considering the interconnectedness of bodily systems, to promote optimal health and wellness. By examining the root causes of health issues, functional medicine aims to empower patients to actively participate in their own care and achieve long-term well-being.

Although the acute care I practice is an undoubtedly interesting and essential part of medicine, it was after seeing thousands of patients that something started to bother me; I was seeing all these patients too late - and so entered my passion for functional and preventative medicine. In my perspective, there are multiple pillars of health, unfortunately, due to multiple influences the majority of our society fails to sustain these pillars throughout life, resulting in the chronic disease and medication dependence we see today. I use medications from the primary care side of things daily to ensure ones physiologic and mental safety, whilst emphasizing the multifactorial functional medicine solution (diet, exercise, sleep optimization, mental/emotional/spiritual well being, etc), albeit always with the goal of discontinuing those medications as soon as possible, if possible, depending on the specific patient characteristics.