Yebbut, 'Functional Medicine' is meaningless, it's not even a thing, it's just marketing splooge. Of course they made a slick website, con artists are always smooth. Everything it says is meaningless and just using buzzwords without any real meaning, e.g.
- Acknowledging the biochemical individuality of each human being, based on concepts of genetic and environmental uniqueness
- Incorporating a patient-centered rather than a disease-centered approach to treatment
- Seeking a dynamic balance among the internal and external factors in a patient’s body, mind, and spirit
- Addressing the web-like interconnections of internal physiological factors
- Identifying health as a positive vitality—not merely the absence of disease—and emphasizing those factors that encourage a vigorous physiology
- Promoting organ reserve as a means of enhancing the health span, not just the life span, of each patient
- Functional Medicine is a science-using profession
Can you seriously not smell the reek of snake oil?
Having thought through each of those statements, I agree with them.
I think the nub of what they are doing is to try and champion a shift away from isolated specialisms, each sat in their ivory towers, independent of the underpinning GP community, each with a "I was taught this way and I know best so but out and by the way shut up patient, you know nothing".
They are trying to get a whole person view, carefully listening to the patient and understanding for example, their family background (genetics), their lifestyle (job, stress, habit patterns, nutritional values, social environment etc), and avoiding standard medicine's pill factory regimes.
Many of the members are medical doctors and health specialists and I for one applaud their attempts to catalyse change on a grand scale.
Isn't what they are doing exactly the sort of "pushing the boundaries" of conventional and in many instances, largely unsuccessful western model we have been the Guinea pigs of for so long?
It seems to me that they are driving a coordinated attempt to put some energy behind an approach and a model which the NOF and PHC were more cack handedly trying to promote within them UK media just a couple of weeks ago.
In fact much of our discussions and anecdotal (non-scientific) advice within this community at its roots is our very own attempt to push against failed, conventional, medical wisdom that ignores us, the patient.
Just saying
Diagnosed 13/4/16: T2, no meds, HbA1c 53, FBG 12.6, Trigs 3.6, HDL .75, LDL 4.0, BP 169/95, 13st 8lbs, waist 34" (2012 - 17st 7lbs, w 42").
2/6/16: FBG AV 4.6, Trigs 1.5, HDL 2.0, LDL 3.0, BP 120/72, 11st 11lbs, waist 30" (2012 - 17st 7lbs, w 42").
Regime: 20g LCHF, run 1 mile daily, weekly fasting.
From 6/6/16: Morning BP Averaging 112/68 BPM 66
