Integra Salud and the Principles of Functional MedicineFunctional Medicine involves understanding the etiology, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic disease. It is an integrative, science-based healthcare approach that treats illness and promotes wellness by focusing assessment on the biochemical unique aspects of each patient, and then individually tailoring interventions to restore physiological, psychological, and structural balance. Basic principles influence the functional medicine approach: Science-based medicine connecting new research with clinical practice. Biochemical individuality based on genetic and environmental uniqueness. Patient-centered care rather than disease-focused. Dynamic balance of internal and external factors. Web-like interconnections of physiological processes. Health as a positive vitality — not merely the absence of disease. Using these principles, we focus on understanding the fundamental physiological processes, the environmental inputs, and the genetic predispositions that influence each patient’s experience of health and disease. Environmental inputs include the air and water in your community, the particular diet you eat, toxic exposures, the quality of the food available to you, physical exercise, and traumas you may have experienced. Genetic predisposition is not an unavoidable outcome for your life; your genes may be influenced by everything in your environment, plus your experiences, attitudes, and beliefs. That means it is possible to change the way genes are expressed (activated and experienced). “Inherited genetic factors make a minor contribution to susceptibility to most types of neoplasm’s. This finding indicates that the environment has the principal role in causing sporadic cancer.” [Lichtenstein, P et al. NEJM, 2000; 343:2, 78-85] Fundamental physiological processes keep us alive. They involve cellular communication; energy transformation; replication, repair, and maintenance; waste elimination; protection/defense and transport/circulation. These processes are influenced by environment and by genes, and when they are disturbed or imbalanced, they lead to symptoms, which can lead to disease if effective interventions are not applied. Most imbalances in functionality can be addressed; some can be completely restored to optimum function and others can be substantially improved. Virtually every complex, chronic disease is preceded by long-term disturbances in functionality that need to be identified and effectively managed. The Integra clinic assesses each patient’s fundamental clinical imbalances through careful history-taking, physical examination, and laboratory testing. Our doctors evaluate:
Once an assessment has been made, we examine a wide array of interventions and select those with the most impact on underlying functionality. Changing how the system(s) function can have a major impact on the patient’s health. Lifestyle is often a very big factor; research estimates that 70-90% of the risk of chronic disease is attributable to lifestyle. That means what you eat, how you exercise, what your spiritual practices are, how much stress you live with (and how you handle it) are all elements that must be addressed in a comprehensive approach. “…we have been able to identify modifiable behavioral factors, including specific aspects of diet, overweight, inactivity, and smoking that accounts for over 70% of stroke and colon cancer, over 80% of coronary heart disease, and over 90% of adult-onset diabetes.” [Willett, WC. Science, 2002; 296, 695-697] Working in partnership with our doctors, each patient can make dietary and activity changes that, when combined with nutrients targeted to specific functional needs, allow them to really be in charge of improving their own health and changing the outcome of disease. Integra’s doctors may also prescribe drugs or botanical medicines or other nutraceuticals; they may suggest detoxification protocols, a physical medicine intervention, or a stress-management procedure. The good news is: when you look at functionality, you uncover many different effective ways of attacking problems.
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