Functional Medicine To Balance Your Body
Functional medicine is a systems-based approach to patient-based care that is better suited to the complex and chronic health problems that many patients today have.
A person is seen through the lens of all components that cause disease rather than viewed as a disease: “he/she is a diabetic.” Functional medicine finds and addresses the root cause of diseases, which works better with complex, chronic, and autoimmune conditions as well as hormonal imbalances. Many patients will tell us they have been feeling tired, fatigued, have chronic pain, weight gain, and haven’t changed their lifestyle, and have been trying to find answers for years. We look at lifestyle factors, genetics, epigenetics, and the environment to address and balance each for optimal health.
Functional Medicine & Lifestyle:
Functional medicine treatments for chronic and complex conditions start with lifestyle, which is a very powerful treatment. We address nutrition, sleep, activity, stress, and the mind-body-spirit connection.
Nutrition
Nutrients are essential for our bodies to work their best for repair and regeneration. Nutrition is fuel for every single cell in our body. Food can turn on or off inflammation and increase or decrease hormonal levels.
Sleep
Sometimes, we feel like sleep is a waste of time. But while we are sleeping, our brains are active, our bodies are restoring and resetting, and hormones are being regulated.
Activity
Activity or exercise is essential for our bodies to keep joints, muscles, tendons, and ligaments functioning well. It also decreases inflammation and improves mental health.
Stress
Stress is unavoidable in life and can even be motivating, but too much stress or not having the ability to cope with stress well can be at the base of many lifestyle-related diseases.
Mind-Body-Spirit Connection
It is important to recognize that all three of these components interact with each other at all times. Just fixing the physical issues may not improve health if there are mental and spiritual problems. All of these factors can contribute to physical disease.
Thanks to the Rejuv Medical team, I finally feel not only good but great! I’ve spent the last three years trying to figure out why I just felt “off.” After balancing my hormones and getting me on some much-needed supplements, I finally got my energy back, my outlook on life is positive, and my weight is stabilized.
Functional Medicine & Beyond:
In addition to lifestyle recommendations, providers may use supplements, herbs, prescription medications, and IV therapy to further provide the body with what it needs for total balance and optimization.
Supplements
There are many vitamins, minerals and nutrients that make a difference in symptoms. Sometimes, patients say that adding vitamin D or a probiotic changed their lives!
Providers may use herbs, supplements containing elements our bodies naturally make, or supplements that work to improve health conditions without prescription medications.
Bio-Identical Prescriptions
You may also need a prescription to treat the root cause of your symptoms. The most common prescriptions we write are for thyroid medications, adrenal support, and male and female hormone replacement.
When possible, functional medicine providers prescribe ” bio-identical hormones,” meaning they are as close as possible to what your body makes.
IV Therapy
Other functional medicine therapies may include nutritional IVs and injections. Nutrients are quickly absorbed and used by the body and can be helpful for fatigue, immune system repair, weight loss, etc.
Peptides are also used. Peptides are amino acids that stimulate the body’s systems to turn on or off various processes. Many peptides work in more than one area of the body.