Functional Joy
It all started with a bone tumor when I was 18.
I went through 4 years of being misdiagnosed, not believed, and treated by most everyone in my life, including members of my church, like I was making it up and seeking attention. I was finally accurately diagnosed, and my first thought was that I didn’t even care what kind of tumor it was…I finally had proof I was not the kind of person everyone thought I was. This was the beginning of the good work of redemption God had in store for me.
The next phase in His plan was to make me a teacher to special needs students. 10 years of this forged patience and creativity in how to communicate effectively. All while learning that I loved it and it was a gift from God.
But, His plan was not over….
He moved me to move. You know, that time in your life when you think it should look one way but it had not manifested, so you took matters into your own hands? I was 30, unmarried with zilcho prospects, and had not done anything “big” in my life. So, I trained for my first marathon. God is so good to take our discontent and use it for a better future. I ran that marathon (well, limped it). Learning to move gave me a confidence that I had never had growing up. This lit the fire to, of course, teach others this wonderful lesson. I became a personal trainer while teaching.
But His plan was not over….
The teaching job had ended. Budget cuts hit and that left just personal training. I was moved again to seek out a better understanding of the human body and its ability to move better. At 30 – eh hem – something, I went back to school…grad school.
6 years of this forged the foundation for me to know the body and have the educational and legal authority to diagnose people. This is where I dwell now. Preparing the field to receive His rain and once again redeem the hard work I put into this part of His journey.
His plan, from the beginning, has given me the personal experience to know when something is wrong with my body, the struggles and frustration of not being able to find answers and to live for years in pain, feeling alone and challenged. He secured the experience of growing as an effective teacher and compassionate listener. He gave me the education and necessary skills to lay hands on patients and take the appropriate steps to help them get through this part of their own journey. 20 years in the making designed specifically for us to meet and work together!
And…
His plan is not over yet…for either of us.
SO! That all led me here, answering the question:
What is Functional Medicine
WHO:
Because Functional Medicine is a model of medicine, there are many licensed professionals who can practice it, as long as it is within their state's scope of practice. There is no governing body that issues a specific FM license. However, there are several organizations who have worked hard to help practitioners go through a structured continuing education certification process. Chiropractors, naturopaths, and even MD’s (not as common) can all support and treat a patient with this approach.
What (and a little bit of the why):
Many people have never heard this term before, let alone experienced the benefits of it. FM addresses your overall health and wellness and can help you find answers for your medical issues that conventional medicine has not provided answers for. It is a medical modal approach to dealing with chronic illness, taking the whole person into account. It finds the root cause(s) of illness and provides treatment for lasting health and wellness.
Conventional medicine is a wonderful tool to have. If I have a heart attack, break my leg, need surgery, or go into anaphylactic shock due to bee stings...you bet I want to be seen by a CM doctor. God has gifted us with the ability to treat many diseases and injuries through this approach.
The problem lies with chronic illness. Conventional medicine's "sick-care" model is not equipped to deal with these illnesses. This is evidenced by the fact that these diseases are not getting better, only getting worse. The symptom-based (sick-care) approach focuses on disease after it happens. They prescribe medications that may indeed help the symptom but at a cost of dismissing the root cause, and putting you at risk for side effects.
Here is a sample of chronic illnesses that functional medicine can have a positive effect on:
Autoimmune
Chronic Fatigue
Depression & Anxiety
Hormonal and Gut Issues
Allergies and Metabolic Issues
Chronic Pain and Sleep Issues
ADHD etc. and Brain Fog
Joint Issues….and more!
To illustrate what Functional Medicine is I like to use the “dam analogy”
You live in a house (your body) along a river. One day the river water starts to rise and reaches flood levels, devastating your house. The flood water represents all your symptoms of your chronic issues.
So you go to your insurance company and community organizations (conventional medicine) to get help to restore your house. They prescribe you with tools (usually prescriptions) to rebuild and repair the water damage. They say that the cause of the damage to your house was flood water (that is your diagnosis).
You do your best to use their resources and repair your house. As far as you know, flood water is the diagnosed problem. It makes sense because it was indeed flood water that caused the problem.
However, little did you know that farther up the river there was a dam. This dam is what kept the flood water from rising to begin with. The dam is a healthy functioning body. All body systems are operating as they should.
When the flood water came and destroyed your house it was because that dam broke. No one is talking about the dam breaking. So you continue to do your best with the resources you have been given but water keeps flooding your home. No one is identifying the true cause of water destroying your house...the dam break. No one (conventional medicine) is looking to fix that problem – mostly because they were not trained to look farther upstream.
Functional medicine looks at everything - including what is farther upstream to identify the root cause(s) of your chronic illness. Why did that dam break to begin with? Until you know why you got an chronic illness to begin with, you will not be fully treating it. You will only be given tools (medications) to help with the symptoms.
How:
So how does one begin the journey down the functional medicine path? First, find a practitioner in your area. Many of those continuing education programs have a “find a practitioner” built into their website – those clinicians who have gone through their programs. You can also do a simple internet search for “functional medicine” and name your city.Once you reach out there is a generalized approach to care. It may not look exactly like this, but in general this is what you can expect:
Your first appointment, usually preceded by filling out fairly extensive paperwork. Remember, we look at everything so you have to share as much as possible with us! Your first appointment can take anywhere from 1 to 2 hours.
Your initial treatment plan will be built upon this information – designed uniquely to you. It will most likely have a plan to get some lab work done and maybe some early supplements going.
You will then go through the process of completing those labs. You will also order your supplements (or purchase them direct from your provider) and begin taking them. The sooner you do these steps, the sooner you move on to the next phase.
Once the labs are in you will have a follow up appointment to review the labs, and assess how the supplements are working. This appointment usually takes about an hour. It is then that modifications are made to your treatment plan.
After these initial visits then it is a matter of being diligent with all aspects of your treatment plan, including any lifestyle changes that need to be made, and then a follow up is scheduled to review how things are going. This is repeated a few more times as your symptoms improve. It will also include retesting of your labs at some point – usually about 6 months down the road.
Chronic issues need to be dealt with chronically – this means that the length of your plan is dictated by the length and severity of your issues as well as your compliance to sticking to the plan. These issues did not happen over night and to see lasting results it won’t be a switch to set it all right.
When:
John 10:10 - The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have [it] more abundantly.
I have been on both sides of chronic issues, the patient and the clinician. I know firsthand what it is like to KNOW something is wrong with my body and to go to doctor appointment after doctor appointment and STILL have my pain, while having no answers. I have been treated like I did not know what I was talking about and even treated like I was making it all up. I have had the frustration of years of seeking help only to find none. I have cried to God in the night, desperately clinging on to hope.
The enemy has corrupted all God’s ways, perverted them to make them his own, and I truly believe he uses sickness to beat us down so low that we begin to believe his lie – that this is of God.
He is hiding in the shadows of the conventional medicine model where he knows there is little hope to finding our abundant life. He uses chronic illness to steal, kill, and destroy, and then perpetuates the insult by making the standard of care for these types of illnesses of little effect.
So, the when in all of this – is now. My hope in sharing this information is that you are empowered to take action and seek a functional medicine clinician who can help you find your path back to God’s intended plan for your life – a health and abundant one!
