According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, many Americans are demanding a better kind of medical care. One of the ways that’s rising in popularity is called functional medicine. A functional medicine doctor Denver will tell you that this approach is designed to treat the whole patient and to find the root cause of diseases so that patients can achieve total health and well being. Rather than settle on a diagnosis and then look to pharmaceuticals to treat the symptoms, Functional medicine attempts to find out why things are manifesting as they are.
Diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes
During your first meeting with a functional medicine doctor, you’ll go over your health history and current conditions with the provider. The conversation will likely be lengthy and in great detail. Functional medicine doctors want to know about all of the outside factors that might be contributing to your current condition, and it’s likely that dietary changes, more physical activity, and significant lifestyle changes might be part of the path to wellness for you.
Detoxification programs
When you say the words detoxification program, most people immediately think of substance use disorder, and many detox programs treat just that. However, in functional medicine, the term has a much more broad application. For functional medicine doctor Denver, a flush of impurities and toxins hiding out in your body—a detox—might be a great way to start your course of treatment.
Botanicals and supplements
There is a belief in functional medicine that many health conditions and ailments can be linked to diet, the food you eat and don’t eat, or your body’s ability to absorb vital nutrients and minerals from food. If your functional doctor suspects that’s part of what’s keeping you from achieving total health and well-being, there will probably be a conversation about adding specifically chosen botanicals and supplements to your daily regime. These doctors are experts in adding what’s missing so that you can jump on a path to healing.
Stress management is the prescription
They call stress the silent killer and 77 percent of Americans report that stress affects their physical health and well being. Functional medicine doctors are acutely aware of this and their therapy plans for patients dealing with stress usually address this head on. With therapies like massage, acupuncture and acupressure, yoga, and meditation, functional medicine can begin to repair the damage on your body from stress, and teach you ways to handle it better in the future.
