Functional Medicine
What is Functional Medicine?
A Functional or Integrative approach is to identify and manage the root cause of ill-health.
Addressing the underlying root cause provides longer term benefits to ill health or chronic conditions.
Where a traditional medical approach to skin issues such as acne or eczema may be to prescribe topical antibiotics or steroids, a functional approach would investigate and address the underlying microbiome gut health, inflammatory triggers, external environmental stimuli or emotional triggers in additional to providing symptom relief options. The body and our experiences are view as interconnected systems that relate and influence each other, rather than isolated systems that function independently.
RACGP defines Integrative Medicine as the application of therapeutic and lifestyle approaches integrating spiritual, social, lifestyle and environmental factors as important drivers of chronic conditions and ill-health.
Who are Functional Practitioners?
Functional practitioner is a broad term that can encompass medical doctors, naturopaths, acupuncturists, nurses, occupational therapists and osteopaths who have completed extra qualifications as a functional practitioner.
Whilst there is a broad scope of knowledge and capabilities of functional practitioners, their common thread is the search and addressing of underlying causes to ill-health rather than a singular treating of symptoms approach.
What makes Dr Anjana Unique?
Dr Anjana is both a Functional/Integrative doctor AND a Medical General Practitioner (MBBS).
This means that she has two clinical toolboxes to address her patients: the Traditional medical approach and the Integrative Functional approach. This means greater scope of care for you.
Additionally, she has the ability to prescribe herbal and traditional pharmaceutical medications, prescribe authority medications like CBD oil and order functional and traditional testing like blood tests, ultrasounds and MRI’s. Our patients are also eligible for Medicare rebates for consultations and additional testing where appropriate.
As your doctor, Dr Anjana takes the time to listen and understand you, your history, lifestyle, environmental exposures and genetic risk factors to understand their impact on your health.
She integrates the best of conventional and holistic medical approaches.
Why Functional medicine?
Many people find their way towards Functional or Integrative medical approaches, as they cannot find the solutions they seek within the traditional medical system. This may be because they feel they are dependent on pharmaceutical drugs addressing symptoms but not underlying causes, they don’t feel heard by practitioners, chronic ailments are worsening, they told to tolerate worsening symptoms or they feel their symptoms are disregarded as psychological or emotional.
Functional medicine also attracts people who desire to function at optimal levels to get the most out of their lives and their time. Optimal performers whether it be business people, athletes, entrepreneurs or busy mums and dads attend Functional practitioners to ensure their body and lives are balanced and optimised so they can thrive.
Functional Medicine is likely to be the future of medicine with greater personalized approaches where health conditions are related to peoples individual circumstances, genetic predispositions and environmental or lifestyle triggers rather than a one sized fits all approach to health.
Is Functional testing the same as Traditional testing?
Functional testing is used as an adjunct to traditional testing.
Traditional medical testing includes: blood tests, ultrasounds, CT scans, MRI and manual palpation.
Whereas Functional testing includes: microbiome mapping, stool testing, specialised hormone and metabolic testing and hair sample testing. Not all testing is the same. Some testing requires samples to be sent Internationally for better quality testing in higher accredited laboratories.
Clinical investigations into your physiology, biochemistry, gut microbiome and hormonal balance guide personalized treatment plans.
How are Functional Treatments different?
Functional treatments look beyond the one sized fits all pharmaceutical approach. Personalized management approaches may include diet and lifestyle changes, mineral, herbal supplements and/or prescribed medications.
Treatment decisions will be made in conjunction with yourself, based on your values, priorities, financial considerations, expectations and staged in order to restore and nourish your body rather than cause further stress.
Functional treatments can include:
- Supplements and herbs
- Pharmaceutical medications
- Specialist appointments
- Diet planning
- Lifestyle changes
- Chelation
- Addressing of emotional symptoms – how?
Click here to find out more about what Services and Conditions we treat