Evidence-Based Functional Medicine
Newcastle, Lake Macquarie & Hunter Functional Medicine
Functional Medicine involves assessing and correcting the core imbalances that are underlying your health condition/s.
Chronic disease is preceded by a gradual decrease in function of one or more body systems for many years before the disease is “diagnosed”. The time prior to diagnosis is often viewed in conventional medicine as “in good health” however, a functional medicine practitioner will be able to address subtle imbalances before long-term complications emerge.
The functional medicine tree represents your body and its systems.
Your symptoms are the “leaves”, which are looked after by the organ systems in the “trunk”. It is easy to see that the trunk gets everything it needs to function correctly from the “roots”, which represent your diet and lifestyle.
To alleviate your symptoms quickly and effectively, Functional Medicine practitioners work from the ground up. They do not try to “paint the leaves green”, but instead identify the source of the problem and recommend holistic treatments to restore your functional health and give your “leaves” the nutrients and energy they need for optimal “growth”.
We test organ “function” not just damage
To ensure you get results we can measure and assess key biomarkers for nutrition adequacy, organ function, hormone balance, immune function, gut health and inflammation. We do this via symptom review, in-clinic testing, general pathology and functional lab testing. The tests that we conduct are based on what we believe will be the best test for your specific needs. We discuss the relevance of any testing we suggest and do not test “just for the sake of testing”. We believe that testing is important to ensure that we are on the right track, and also to assess the effect of your treatment.
We help you become a master of your own body
Effective treatment depends heavily on education and building awareness, so that you understand your unique strengths and weaknesses, recognise signs of body system sub-function as well as your required nutritional and/or lifestyle needs.
Supplementation, functional foods and herbal medicines may also be suggested. Most importantly, we will support you to make the necessary changes at your own pace. We believe that you, the client, should be the master of your own health and should call the “shots”.
We get results!
The results of functional medicine speak for themselves. Getting started may seem a bit overwhelming, as we need to take time to look deeply at your whole health picture. This involves completion of comprehensive Functional Medicine Appraisal Questionnaires, as well as a thorough initial consultation
You may also benefit from further testing and supplementation to find and address nutrient deficiencies or system imbalances, however, these costs decrease once the deficiency or cause of the imbalance has been fully addressed. We always discuss options with you, depending on your needs.
