How can Functional Medicine treatment work when nothing else has? The foundational principles of Functional Medicine are what sets it apart in terms of methodology and results. We have the principles that food is medicine and that patients are people, so taking an individualised and holistic approach is best. We also have the principle of looking for the root cause of illnesses which can lead to some surprising and unorthodox approaches to chronic illness. However, this is why Functional Medicine can succeed in making progress with patients who have conditions that are consistently unresponsive to conventional treatments.
What Is a Root Cause Approach?
As doctors, we are problem solvers. Patients describe a set of symptoms, and it’s our job to figure out how to relieve those symptoms. A root cause approach leans into the problem-solving nature of medicine. Instead of taking symptoms at face value and prescribing a treatment that targets the symptoms alone, we investigate what is causing the symptoms so we can tackle the problem upstream. What’s the trigger point that sets off the symptom? What was the first domino to fall, if you will?
This is not just out of professional curiosity (although I do find the process of customising patient treatment plans to ensure the best possible recovery very rewarding). The most effective way to treat symptoms is to find their cause. You can ease symptoms with symptom-focused treatment, but the issue isn’t actually being resolved. The symptoms will probably keep coming back and requiring treatment because of the bigger underlying issue triggering it in the first place. When it comes to our health and bodies, we don’t want to let underlying issues fester.
How Does a Root Cause Approach Work?
This is how the Functional Medicine root cause approach takes patients from struggling to find an effective treatment to feeling healthier than they have done in years (or ever!)
Root Cause Diagnosis
The first thing we want to do is find out what is going on in the body of a patient at a molecular level. What’s their biochemistry, and what does that tell us about their health? We use Functional testing that’s a lot more detailed than standard blood tests, to check levels of vitamins, minerals, hormones and so on.
That will start to tell a story of what’s causing symptoms. For example, a patient could be reporting symptoms of Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome (PCOS). Before going ahead with standard treatment, we will check their hormone levels for signs of hormone processing problems. Knowing these can help us to choose the correct treatment for the specific imbalance identified (taking the guess-work out of treatment).
Root Cause Treatment
Being guided by the health issues uncovered from our intake forms and initial testing, we can then investigate what is causing the disruption to healthy functioning on a deeper level. One of the main focuses of Functional Medicine treatment is to figure out the foods that are inflammatory for you, the individual patient. Inflammation disrupts vital processes in the body and can lead to the onset or the worsening of multiple symptoms.
We have a process for identifying trigger food, as it’s not the same for everyone. There isn’t a test for all food sensitivities and triggers. If it has got to the point where the gut lining has become permeable and undigested food is leaking into the bloodstream around the gut, the body will use antibodies to attack many of the foods which are commonly consumed. In this case, testing can’t differentiate the trigger foods from innocent bystanders. This is where the process of elimination and food challenges becomes so much more practical and clinically relevant than any blood test.
To get to the exact root cause, we use very practical experimentation:
- We start by reducing inflammation and healing the gut so the body will return to its healthy response. This involves cutting out everything that could be triggering a negative reaction in the gut. We call it the elimination diet.
- After a few weeks on this diet supported by plenty of anti-inflammatory food, a patient may already be feeling at least a bit better and ready to start introducing food one by one to test their effects.
The trigger food identified could be just gluten. It could be a list of 10 foods. For most patients, it’s no more than a handful. By identifying the exact food-causing issues, patients only remove the food from their diet that is bothering them and continue to enjoy the nutritional benefits of a diversity of food. This is vital for keeping the gut healthy and so the rest of the body healthy.
Treatment that uses food as a medicine to feed the gut, reduce inflammation and introduce nutrients treats health at the root cause. We know the ripple effect of food in the body and how it will be used in internal processes to keep the body functioning properly and prevent health issues. In that way, using food as medicine is also preventative against future health problems.
Root Cause Recovery
Functional testing combined with the elimination and reintroduction of food gives us a really good idea of what is causing issues in the body on a molecular level and how to treat it at effectively at the root . Going this deep allows us to get transformational results. In a matter of months, some patients have eliminated problematic food, resolved any lacking nutritional levels and sent their symptoms into remission.
The timeline and outcomes of treatment depend on a patient’s health status and health history. With some of our sickest patients, it may take a period of trial and error to figure out what to take out of their diet and what to put in to rebalance their levels and relieve symptoms. In other patients, non-dietary root causes may also need to be addressed.
That being said, I can think of patients who had made no progress for years and were deteriorating and were able to not only put the brakes on their deterioration but make significant improvements just through a change in approach when it comes to diet and nutritional support.
We don’t stop once we have the results. We continue to monitor patients and suggest other changes for optimal health. Our bodies do change over the years, which could mean a change in treatment plan. For example, the onset of menopause completely changes the body’s hormonal levels, which is why its symptoms are so disruptive. We can make adjustments in treatment plans to account for that. When you focus on the root cause, it’s easier to make adjustments in response to bodily changes.
While the root cause approach to health and medicine does tend to take more time and a bit of experimentation, our patients would say that it’s well worth it. We are able to diagnose underlying issues, prescribe treatments that deal with the root cause directly and, as a result, help patients recover their health and well-being to an extent that hadn’t seemed possible before. Experience the power of Functional Medicine and its root cause approach yourself by joining the Functional Nexus clinic or the next round of our group programme, the Functional Foundation Programme.
