An Individualized Functional Medicine Approach

A transformation in the practice of medicine is here!

Introduced over 25 years ago by Susan and Jeffrey Bland PhD, it is a sensible system-based approach to taking a holistic look at patient health.

The Functional Medical Mdoel is a shift from the traditional conventional model of disease-centered focus in medical care, to a more patient-centered approach addressing the whole person - the root cause of illness, not just an isolated set of symptoms. This model of care provides an operating strategy that works to promote health and optimize function by addressing underlying root causes, symptoms, and functional imbalances in our complex, interconnected biological system.

Practitioners who subscribe to the individualized functional medicine approach look to uncover the very root cause of your illness by spending time with you, listening to your history and studying interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that influence your long-term health and complex chronic disease.

Functional Medicine is not passive. As a Nurse Practitioner originally trained in Western Conventional medicine, I have integrated the best practices of Functional Medicine to create a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise, lifestyle factors, use of the latest laboratory testing, other diagnostic techniques, and prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress management techniques in alignment with the Clinical Practice Guidelines.

Let us help you on your journey to optimal health and wellness!

Your Functional Medicine Treatment Plan is individualized and can involve dietary and lifestyle modification and hormone, immune, and detoxification support with well-researched herbal remedies and nutritional supplements. The assessment includes:

This involves the functional assessment of:

• the hormonal,
• immune,
• digestive,
• and elimination systems

This is to determine how these systems may be compromised and contribute to the cause of the disease process.

This assessment invovles an extensive clinical history, evaluation of significant events along a personal timeline and a determination of the relative interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that have a lasting impact on health and development of chronic conditions.

These specialized tests help determine the cause of, or contributory factors to, chronic conditions and allow us to unravel the complex matrix of many seemingly disconnected symptoms.

^{Functional Lab Testing is not covered by OHIP}