Functional medicine addresses the underlying causes of disease using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership. It is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century.
By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, functional medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms.
Functional medicine practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease. In this way, functional medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual.
Dr. Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., the founder of Functional Medicine, has been teaching the tenets of functional medicine to professional healthcare practitioners, students, and audiences around the world for over two decades. Dr. Bland reads and synthesizes hundreds of journal articles each month and utilizes that information to help clinicians to bridge the gap between conventional and complementary or alternative medicine.