What is Functional Health?

Traditional Chinese Medicine looks at the body and mind systems as a whole and looks for root causes of imbalance.

Functional Medicine is a modern discipline with a similar perspective. It additionally involves testing and supplementation to promote balance of nutrients, biomarkers and the microbiome.

Specifically, Functional Medicine emphasises a definable and teachable process of integrating multiple knowledge bases within a pragmatic intellectual matrix that focuses on functionality at many levels, rather than a single treatment for a single diagnosis. Functional Medicine uses the patient’s story as a key tool for integrating diagnosis, signs and symptoms, and evidence of clinical imbalances into a comprehensive approach to improve both the patient’s environmental inputs and his or her physiological function.The Institute for Functional Medicine teaches health care professionals how to apply these principles in practice through an intensive 5 day training course called Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice™. I attended and completed the AFMCP™-UK training in London in 2018 and further Advanced Practice Modules in Hormonal Health, the Immune System and Gastro-intestinal health over subsequent years.

My practice blends these traditional and modern approaches to promote health and wellbeing and I may suggest certain functional medicine tests and/or supplements if appropriate.