What is Functional Medicine? 

Treating symptoms versus treating the person is the dominant health care model today, medication is used to get rid of people's symptoms. If the patient stops taking the medication, symptoms generally return. Bee Wild Functional Medicine approaches health problems differently. Instead of masking the problem, we aim at restoring the body's natural functioning. We focus on gently nudging your physiology in a positive direction so you will no longer rely on the medications.

 

Below, you will find a list of common chronic conditions. Now you may have been told you have one of these, from the list below; whether your primary care doctor or Dr. Google because you told he/she/it all your symptoms and they matched the symptoms with the condition so they could get you on the medication management train on a charted circular course to medicate/surgery ->relieve - > condition reoccurrence -> repeat medicate/surgery and over and over again.

 

• Coronary Artery Disease

• Diabetes

• Autoimmune Conditions

• Cancer

• Obesity

• Fibromyalgia

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

• Irritable Bowel Syndrome and other gastro-intestinal conditions

• Inflammatory conditions such as Crohn's disease, Rheumatoid

• Arthritis, Lupus, Ankylosing Spondylitis

• Asthma and chronic sinusitis

• Female hormonal issues such as pre-menstrual syndrome and menopause

• Stress related diseases and conditions of fatigue and lack of energy

• Thyroid and adrenal dysfunctions

​​

It's important to recognize that a lot of Functional Medicine is about assessing and treating dysfunction (below list) long before it manifests as a medical condition (above list).

​​

• Inflammatory Imbalances

• Hormonal Imbalances

• Detoxification Imbalances

• Immune System Imbalances (Inactive or overactive)

• Structural Imbalances (musculoskeletal deficiencies, tumors or cysts)

• Mitochondrial Dysfunction (chronic viral/bacterial infections)

• Digestive, Absorptive, and Microbiological Imbalances (pathogenic bacteria, parasites)

• Toxic Emotions (anger, fear, resentment, etc.)

• Toxic Chemical Exposure (mold, heavy metals, xenobiotics {Drugs, Pesticides, Cosmetics, Flavorings,       Fragrances, Food additives, Industrial chemicals, and Environmental pollutants}

 

We see problems based on what we call “derangements or blockages in normal physiology” and present as dysfunctions in one or more organ system that left unchecked would ultimately lead to disease and pathology.

 

Typically, patients come to us having usually been told that everything looks “normal” based on the standard tests routinely run by their doctor (physical examination, urinalysis, blood tests, etc.).

 

At Bee Wild Functional Medicine most of our patients are by no means “normal” but are a long way from being in a state of optimal health.

 

So why is the standard medical approach to use and rely on diagnostic techniques and standard interpretations that are designed to identify disease states and pathology only?

Shouldn't we use interpretative and diagnostic methods that can help us assess a wide range of problems that are more suggestive of sub-clinical (asymptomatic yet unhealthy) or functional problems?

 

Many patients fall through the cracks of the current medical paradigm because they are neither sick from a pathological perspective (no tissue changes, no findings on diagnostic testing etc.) nor 100% well. These patients fall into a gray area of medicine, and we need a different approach to be able to deal with this.

 

Functional medicine is the way to deal with this because functional medicine is about becoming the ultimate medical detective.

 

Bee Wild Functional Medicine works in the realm of function and dysfunction, using as many tools as possible to assess the body. We “cast our net wide”.

 

It's also important to note that at Bee Wild Functional Medicine treatment for similar symptoms might vary tremendously for different patients, according to their medical histories and results of laboratory tests.  We gather as much data from you as possible, all flowing into your assessment funnel:

​

• Data from your story and history

• Data from your past/current medical records

• Data from your body’s physical changes

• Data from urine

• Data from saliva

• Data from blood

• Data from stools

• Data from a whole range of Advanced Functional Medicine tests

 

The roots of Functional Medicine, you may be surprised to learn, aren’t new. It actually represents a return to the roots of modern scientific medicine, captured in this statement by Sir William Osler, one of the first professors at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and later its Physician-in-Chief, "If you listen carefully to the patient, they will tell you the diagnosis," and "The good physician treats the disease; the great physician treats the patient who has the disease."