Functional MedicineNon-genetic factors that are modifiable,
including diet, obesity, inactivity and environmental exposures
such as smoking, account for 70-90% of mortality in the US.
Despite this knowledge, physician education, training, and
reimbursement are all focused on treating disease using drugs
and surgery rather than comprehensive patient-centered
treatments focused on the individual. This emphasis should give
us all cause for serious concern, because it is perpetuating a
system that is far too costly and increasingly ineffective for
the prevention and management of chronic diseases whose root
causes are to be found in a much more complex perspective on
patients’ lives. Unlike traditional medicine, which focuses on
disease, and symptom relief, functional medicine addresses the
whole person, not just a particular set of symptoms. In this
approach to medicine, significant time is spent listening to
patients, and finding the interactions among genetic,
environmental and lifestyle factors that can influ