WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE?
Functional Medicine 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.
WHY DO WE NEED FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE?
Functional Medicine involves understanding the origins, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic diseases. Hallmarks of a Functional Medicine approach include:
- Patient-centered care. The focus of functional medicine is on patient-centered care, promoting health as a positive vitality, beyond just the absence of disease.
- An integrative, science-based healthcare approach. Functional Medicine practitioners look “upstream” to consider the complex web of interactions in the patient’s history, physiology, and lifestyle that can lead to illness. The unique genetic makeup of each patient is considered, along with both internal (mind, body, and spirit) and external (physical and social environment) factors that affect total functioning
- Integrating medical practices. Functional Medicine integrates traditional Western medical practices with what are sometimes considered “alternative” or “integrative” medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; use of the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress-management techniques.
A HOLISTIC APPROACH TO HEALTHCARE
Our Mission
With this in mind, it is our commitment to treat you, the individual, and not the diagnosis. We look to understand your body as a whole and believe that your health is intertwined with your perception, your mindset, and your identity. As such, we seek to educate, inform, and inspire so you can achieve long-term, positive health outcomes that help you reach and achieve your goals and ambitions.
OUR PRACTICE
At the Wisconsin Institute of Functional Medicine in Appleton, Wisconsin, we seek to go beyond the treatment of symptoms alone—indeed, it is our goal to provide a unique and balanced approach and help you achieve whole-body wellness through our functional medicine expertise and treatment solutions.
Offering a variety of therapy options to both men and women, we provide unmatched convenient medical care, a supportive and reassuring medical team, and the latest in treatments and diagnostics. Through our integrative medical approach, we place significant emphasis on combining the trifecta of functional, holistic, and conventional medicine.
