Functional medicine is an approach to medical care that emphasizes prevention and wellness over disease treatment. It considers the patient’s lifestyle, environment, genetics, and overall well-being when making decisions about diagnosis and treatment.
While drugs have their place in treating illness, too often, people are prescribed medication without the root cause of the problem being discovered or addressed. I do not know of any drug that does not come with side effects; sadly, doctors often prescribe an additional medication to treat the side effect. And so, a vicious downward spiral begins.
Research shows that the average older adult takes four or more prescription drugs daily, and a whopping 39 percent of seniors take five or more prescriptions each day. Functional medicine can halt this downward spiral and get you back on the road to health.
What Is Functional Medicine?
We practice functional medicine on the foundation that the body has an innate ability to heal itself. We focus on supporting the body’s natural healing processes instead of focusing on treating only individual symptoms.
How Can Functional Medicine Help Me?
Functional medicine is a growing field of medicine that emphasizes prevention and wellness. It also encourages doctors to take a holistic view of patients by examining how lifestyle choices impact overall health.
How Does Functional Medicine Work?
Everyone has unique genetic makeup, lifestyle habits, and environmental exposures that influence their body functions. Every person responds differently to medications and treatments. In addition, some people respond better to certain foods, vitamins, supplements, and other therapies than others. By understanding how your body works, you can make informed decisions about your health care.
The Four Pillars of Health
We have four pillars of health that we work from to restore your health and well-being.
1. NUTRITIONAL THERAPIES AND HEALING:
We use food to properly fuel the body to get you doing better and heal the body.
2. STRESS RESILIENCY:
While we cannot eliminate people’s stress factors in their environment, we can certainly work with you to where you can cope with stress much better.
3. HORMONAL RHYTHM RESETTING:
Hormonal imbalances affect people’s physical and mental health. We work on getting your hormones back to their natural rhythm. For example, you can sleep at night, wake in the morning, and go through your natural progression of hormones throughout your day.
4. FUNCTIONAL THERAPIES:
Our objective is to get your body moving and operating at an optimal level. We must discover and address the root cause when the body is not functioning optimally. No two individuals are going to be the same. We treat your specific body problems. Here are some of the treatments we use:
- Chiropractic Adjustments
- Physical Therapy
- Platelet-Rich Plasma Therapy
Final Words
Here at Carolina Rehab, we focus on discovering the root causes of problems. In other words, we focus on locating what triggers your symptoms instead of only addressing your symptoms themselves. For example, if you were to step on a nail, we wouldn’t just prescribe pain medicine. That would only cover the pain or symptoms you are feeling. We find the nail and remove it!
Functional medicine is not band-aid medicine, and it is not a one-size-fits-all approach. It is personalized medicine.
Call us today to schedule an appointment and get you living your best life!
Sincerely,
Dr. Craig Strickland