Health Optimization & Wellness
Here at Apostol Health, we take a holistic approach to helping patients with various health issues. By utilizing a patient-centered approach that focuses on causes and prevention, functional medicine allows patients and practitioners to work together to discover the root of a disease. When you’re ready to experience the difference that this alternative approach to medicine can make, partner with Apostol, the best functional medicine clinic in Dallas.
FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE CAN ADDRESS NUMEROUS HEALTH ISSUES, INCLUDING:
Allergies, Arthritis, Chronic Infection, Diabetes, Gastrointestinal Disorders, Genetic Traits and Risk Factors, Hormone Imbalance, Immune and Inflammatory Disease, Metabolic Syndrome and Heart Disease, Microbiome Health, Toxicity States, Weight Management
WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE?
Before understanding how functional medicine applies to some of the health concerns above, it’s important to understand what it is, and what it is not. The Institute for Functional Medicine defines it as “a systems biology-based approach that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease.” As such, each symptom or diagnosis may be one of many different factors contributing to an illness.
Holistic
This alternative approach to medicine takes the whole body into account, not just areas where the symptoms currently are. In conventional medicine, areas of the body are compartmentalized, essentially ignoring the natural relationship between body parts. Our functional medicine practitioners at Apostol, on the other hand, understand how inefficiencies and imbalances in one part of the body can actually be related to different symptoms in another part of the body. In doing so, we are better able to target, treat, and eliminate the cause of a symptom rather than simply alleviating the symptom.
Individualized
In order to do more than just suppress a symptom, functional medicine takes an individualized approach to each patient. While the symptoms between two people may be similar, the underlying causes of those symptoms differ greatly. Some symptoms may be a result of genes, others may be a product of lifestyle, and some may be impacted by the environment. Treating each scenario with individual care is vital to understanding which combination of these factors contributes to a patient’s condition.
Collaborative
Conventional medicine puts much of the power in the hands of a doctor, oftentimes removing the most important part of everything — the patient! Treating the patient rather than the disease opens up a whole new world of collaboration that can help identify root causes of the disease. In turn, this can lead to actual removal of the illness as opposed to alleviating the symptoms for a limited amount of time.
Preventative
One of the major goals of our functional medicine clinic is to prevent chronic diseases, and we believe a holistic, patient-centered approach to medicine allows us to do just that. Whereas traditional approaches to medicine often lack proper tools and techniques needed to prevent certain chronic diseases, functional medicine practitioners utilize an integrative approach to better help patients prevent the onset of an illness.
Lifestyle-Based
Something that makes functional medicine so unique and different from traditional is its emphasis on lifestyle, environment, nutrition, and other factors that the latter tends to ignore. At Apostol, we believe that health is more than simply the absence of disease — it’s a combination of patterns and practices that lead to increased vitality, energy, and overall health and wellness.
Cause-Focused
All of these factors combine to help functional medicine practitioners and patients work together to identify root causes of a disease. While traditional forms of medicine stress the treatment and alleviation of certain symptoms, that is rarely a long-term solution to an illness and does not help identify techniques to prevent it from affecting other patients in the future. Functional medicine digs deep into what causes someone’s symptoms in the first place, thus making it possible to cut out those poor habits or adjust their environment to better prevent chronic disease.
WHAT DOES NORMAL TREATMENT LOOK LIKE?
Part of the beauty of functional medicine lies in the answer to this question — there is no answer! Remember when we introduced functional medicine as an individualized, holistic approach to health? That is especially evident when it comes time for treatment.
Even if two people report the exact same symptoms and follow nearly identical lifestyle patterns, their current situation and course of treatment can vary based on the toxins they are exposed to at work. Likewise, if two people working in the same industry with similar exposure to toxins report equal symptoms, their treatment plans may deviate based on family genetics, lifestyle choices, or nutrition.
No two people are ever the same, so why should we expect a generic approach to medicine to work equally for every patient? Though every treatment plan varies by person and situation, many of our plans are combination of:
Diet, exercise, and lifestyle changes
Sleep improvement techniques
Stress management
Detoxification methods
Botanical medicines
Nutritional supplements
At Apostol in Dallas, our functional medicine experts are committed to helping you discover a specific treatment plan designed to correct the imbalances, inefficiencies, and over-or under-exposures that are causing your disease in the first place.
We know firsthand the impact that functional medicine can have on the treatment and reversal of syndromes you may be suffering from, and we are proud to work alongside you to find what is causing them. Contact our functional medicine clinic today to learn more about treatment!