Although modern western medicine is truly successful at providing acute care (such as when someone breaks their leg), its track-record in treating chronic illness is frankly quite poor. And why might this be? Because orthodox medicine is primarily focused on symptom management.

 

For example, instead of probing to understand why someone suffers from constipation, patients are frequently just prescribed a laxative. Unfortunately, the cumulative effects of this approach result in people being prescribed multiple combinations of medications to counteract the side-effects of one another. Symptom management equates to symptom suppression. 

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Instead of just aiming to suppress symptoms, it is important to identify the underlying root cause/imbalance which causes those symptoms to manifest in the first place. By addressing the root cause, symptoms may naturally dissipate on their own. And this this where functional medicine comes in.

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Functional medicine can serve to identify the driving factors behind chronic disease through comprehensive case assessment and appropriate testing. We can then work to address any imbalances through utilizing the following tools:

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