Functional Medicine: The Five Rs

The Formula for Recovering Your Health

We live in a fast-paced world where everything has to happen quickly. If this web page took longer than a few seconds to load, your coffee order took a few minutes longer to make or you have to wait for a meeting to start, you likely start feeling anxious and uncomfortable, longing for a fast resolution to the lull in your life. These hurried feelings have even extended to the way we expect to experience health care. Once you make an appointment, you want to be seen as soon as possible and have your interaction last as little time as possible right?

Maybe not, but hurry has become the hallmark of healthcare in America. In a recent survey, six percent of all doctors spend less than nine minutes with their patients. 21 percent spend between nine and 12 minutes with patients, 29 percent spend between 13 and 16 minutes. In other words, more than half of all patient consultations in this country are less than 16 minutes long. It is no wonder doctors have become obsessed with the symptom or disease a patient is experiencing and the fastest way to treat it, rather than looking at the person in front of them as a whole and the symptom as an indicator of an underlying imbalance in their overall health. It is also no wonder that as a nation we are sicker than ever, with a higher reliance on harmful medication than ever.

FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE DEFINITION

By definition, functional medicine focuses on helping the body and its organs function the way they should. Using a variety of holistic, alternative and traditional approaches, a functional medicine practitioner will not just look at your symptoms and try to resolve them as quickly as possible, they will examine the symptom’s underlying causes that are not only linked to your physical health but to your emotional and spiritual life as well. Only then will they recommend a plan that incorporates changes to your lifestyle including diet, exercise, spiritual awareness, and mindfulness.

The Five R’s

In our office, we use a unique, proprietary process called the Five R’s. This approach defines each stage of the wellness process and can help you know what to expect.

Redefine

Functional medicine is rooted in the belief that you have the ability to be your own doctor. This might sound ironic coming from a doctor, but you are in charge of your health. No one else but you. While a good doctor-patient relationship should be part of your long-term health care strategy, your doctor should be your educator, guide and trusted decision maker as you make choices about your care.

This may seem odd at first. You are likely used to your doctor being the unilateral authority, the lone decision maker regarding your health instead of a partner in the process. If you are like most people, your ability to make decisions for your own health is largely governed by outside groups that have no interest in your long-term health. Insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, corporate entities that employ your doctor all draw your doctor’s attention away from patient care. That is unacceptable. You don’t go to the doctor to support outsiders. You go to improve your health. And optimal health is always a choice.

Functional medicine redefines health care as a choice. Your choice. You make choices every day to be healthy. You choose the foods that you eat, the exercises you do, the stress levels you experience, and the toxins you expose your body to. Every time you make a choice that supports your health goal you are building a lifestyle and with that lifestyle comes freedom. Freedom from sickness, freedom to choose the best options for you and your family and the freedom not to have someone that does not truly know and understand your needs make decisions for you. Optimal health is a choice. By making the decisions that revitalize your body, you become your own best health advocate.

Remove

Once you begin to look at your health as a choice, the temptation is to change every aspect of your life. While we applaud your commitment, optimal health is not something that happens all at once but is rather made up of a series of choices in every aspect of your life. The first step is to remove the immediate hurdles to your overall health that may be impacting your wellness more than you think. I like to call the “Remove” phase of functional medicine “taking out the TRASH”.

TRASH stands for Toxins, Relationships, Allergies/Sensitivities, Stress and Harmful Bugs (infections). Removing these harmful aspects of your life is often difficult and time-consuming but can begin to resolve many health problems you are experiencing.

Toxins

You are toxic. You live in an environment that has toxins in the air, toxins in the water supply, toxins in your cosmetics and even in your food. In fact, in many cases, the food you eat is toxic to your system (more on that later). You are unwittingly exposed to more toxins than you can imagine. As the toxins increase, and they do, they begin to do exactly what you would expect a toxin to do, damage the body. Even if you attempt to eat organic foods, clean with organic products and use natural cosmetics and toiletries, you are still being exposed to toxins on a daily basis. This toxicity level must be addressed before you can go any further in your wellness journey.

Relationships

You are ready to make a change. You have embraced the commitment. Nothing is going to stop you this time because you have your mind locked into what you want to accomplish. Nothing is going to deter your progress . . . except for the relationship you have with a family member that is not supportive of you making changes to your lifestyle. Here you are, ready to move forward and now a family member is sabotaging your efforts telling you that you cannot do it. Fortunately, you are stronger than this. You are the master of your own fate. It may mean departing from the relationship or limiting contact, but rotten relationships, just like rotten trash, have to go!

Allergies / Sensitivities

Classic allergy symptoms like a runny nose, itchy eyes or congestion are most common with changes of the seasons. However, thinking of allergies in terms of pollens and grasses is a narrow way of looking at what could potentially be causing your health problems. Food sensitivities, allergies to molds, chemicals and food additives that we often consider safe may be triggers for reactions causing your symptoms. You may find that you have a food sensitivity to something you consume regularly. In this case, your immune system has a reaction to this otherwise harmless ingredient, causing unwanted symptoms. Unless you remove these “safe” items or triggers from your environment, you cannot expect much change in your health.

Stress

I can practically hear you saying right now, “I live under constant stress. It’s just a way of life.” What you now define as normal stress is taking a toll on your body whether you realize it or not. Chances are, you already know stress is taking its toll as you look at your calendar every day wondering how to pack in one more thing on your “to do” list. You recognize stress for the thief that it is as your muscles tense, your headaches and your jittery feelings persist long after that first cup of coffee. I have news for you. The amount of stress that you are under every day is not normal, even though it may be your norm. Not only is it aging you faster, weakening your immune system and stealing your energy it is actually hindering your ability to get things done. Once you can examine your life for the stressful triggers and learn to combat these by mindfulness, meditation, appropriate habits, and other stress management techniques, you can begin to

Harmful Bugs (Infections)

Your body is home to trillions of bacteria. In many cases, these microscopic organisms keep you healthy, especially those found in your sinuses, stomach and intestines. However, when harmful bugs begin to outnumber the helpful bacteria, they do not cause an all-out infection, but rather linger without any obvious symptoms on the surface. But their impact is like that of a smoldering fire, constantly burning. Since your gut plays a major role not only in digestion, but in your immune system as well, you may begin to notice that you are sick more often are sicker longer, experience more digestive problems, and have more joint pain or muscle aches than you did before. Once you begin to kill the harmful bugs and replace them with helpful bacteria you will begin to see an improvement in your overall health.

How We Discover What
to Remove

While there is no current diagnostic test for the relationships in your life that may be holding you back from gaining optimal health, advanced functional medicine relies heavily on certain tests to determine precise levels of toxicity in your body, food or chemical allergies or sensitivities and other health conditions that may be determining your current levels of health. You may be asked to undergo any combination of the following:

Stool analysis (Home Kit) – Like it or not, your stool is an informative byproduct of your health. Stool tests can uncover parasites, bacterial or yeast infections, and other markers for a “leaky gut” that may be causing inflammation in this vital system. These kits are easy to use and testing can be done at your convenience.
Fasting delayed hypersensitivity blood work – In order to uncover many of your food or environmental sensitivities, it is important to draw blood. The testing process we use can uncover delayed hypersensitivity reactions to up to 387 foods, chemicals, molds, therapeutic herbs, food colorings, and metals.
Allergy blood work – Different from delayed hypersensitivity, acute allergy testing measures your body’s immediate reaction to certain chemicals, foods, metals, or molds.
Herbicide & Toxic Non-Metal testing – These two tests assess buildup of herbicides that have been linked to numerous diseases as well as 172 environmental pollutants.
General Wellness Testing – In addition, you may be asked to undergo blood or urine tests to determine your complete blood count (CBC), iron levels, metabolic function, vitamin D levels, and uric acid levels.

Reconnect

Humans long for meaningful connection in their lives. But when was the last time you felt connected to the food you ate? My guess is that rather than being able to associate a specific time to answer the question, you are probably wondering what that even means. After all, you eat food, you don’t connect to it. Right? Herein lies the problem. If you did not know that you should be connected to the food you are eating, then you are definitely not connected.

In a time before grocery stores and restaurants on every corner, the growing, cooking and eating of food consumed the majority of a person’s life. If you did not have a continual source of food that you grew, raised, killed, and preserved, you would perish.

200 years ago, a farmer’s feet would touch the floor just before dawn. As the sun began to peak over the horizon, he would dress and leave the comfort of his home to tend to his livestock. Once they were fed, he could enjoy breakfast with his family before beginning the day’s work. Cows needed to be milked, horses tended to, sheep let out to graze, grain, grasses and vegetables planted and tended, irrigation ditches dug, wood chopped, and animals slaughtered. Lunch was the largest meal of the day, usually consisting of items that he grew or raised with his own hands. The afternoon’s work would consist of more planting, more watering, more clearing, more harvesting. The evening would bring a simple meal, chores, stories, prayers, and sleep. This farmer would not look out into his fields and see food, he would see nourishment for his family. Harvesting from the fields and preparing food for the winter months was an experience for the entire family as well as friends and neighbors. While difficult, our ancestors had an inner satisfaction for having cared for plants, nurtured animals and producing food that would feed their families.

Even 100 years ago, family farms ruled the American landscape in the pre-industrial age and this type of food connectedness was the norm. Our grandparents and great-grandparents felt value in sitting down at a family table with food that they grew and preserved. They believed in eating “farm to table” long before it became a trend in the modern food scene and the farm they consumed the majority of their food from was their own.

When was the last time that you invested in food?

We often think of investment in terms of financial commitment, but when was the last time you emotionally invested in the food you eat? When you take part in growing or sourcing your food from growers, when you take the time to prepare food for your family, or when you understand the origin of the things you consume, you are doing more than curbing an appetite, you are forging a connection. You do not have to be the farmer or rancher. It is possible to connect to the food you eat by seeking out quality ingredients from responsible sources, and then preparing them in a healthful manner. Remember, quality food offers health and wellness benefits beyond the nutrients you consume while unhealthy food robs you of that connection. And no one likes being robbed.

Replenish

Once you have reconnected to your food, you must start to consider how to replenish your body. While the human body is a complex organism of interconnected systems, better health is not a complicated process. There is no hidden formula or new idea just waiting to surface that is going to change the way your body functions. Quite the opposite. The proven way to better health is found in giving your body the elements it needs in order to heal itself.

In fact, your body is constantly striving to maintain something called homeostasis, or balance between its systems. For instance, if you eat a bowl of ice cream, your blood sugar levels begin to rise. This signals the pancreas to produce insulin in order to help unlock the energy potential of the glucose in your bloodstream. Once your blood sugar levels stabilize, the pancreas automatically slows insulin production. Your body is miraculously programmed to perform similar functions when it comes to your temperature, blood pressure, heart rate, digestion, hydration, and thousands of other processes.

Supportive nutrients found in food, corrective hormone habits, neurotransmitter support, sleep and water can help the body in its efforts to achieve homeostasis and overall better health.

What Does Your Body Need?

Food

Everyone knows that you need a certain number of calories in order to stay alive. Yet few people realize that the quality of those calories can determine your overall health. There is no replacement for nutrient dense, high fiber, unrefined, non-processed, non-GMO, chemical free food. You cannot replenish your body when you are consuming foods that are robbing you of the vital nutrients you need. It all begins with food.

Nutrients

Vitamin and minerals are how most people think of nutrients. While these are an essential part of overall nutrition, there are many other categories. Antioxidants, amino acids and fats consumed in the correct amount and in the optimal combination can help your body meet the demands you place on it. Increased demand without adequate supply equals deficit or in functional medicine terms, a deficiency. Nutrient deficiencies left unchecked can lead to disease.

Hormones

Many people only consider hormones as they relate to the reproductive system. Women experience pre-menstrual syndrome because of hormonal imbalances. In men, hormonal imbalances can lead to low sperm count and low motility as well as low sex drive. While these are important functions of the hormones in your body, these chemical messengers communicate with your brain, muscles and digestive system as well as your reproductive system. Why are imbalances hormones so common now? Stress. Too many people are living in a constant physical state of “fight or flight” triggered by chronic stress. As a result, stress hormones such as cortisol, adrenaline and epinephrine flow through your body almost constantly. This can lead to fatigue, weight gain, muscle aches, and worsening of reproductive symptoms like PMS or low sex drive.

Neurotransmitters

The nerves that run throughout your body and control everything from movement to mood do not connect directly with one another. Instead, they rely on chemicals called neurotransmitters to carry signals from one nerve to another. When you experience prolonged stress or have a nutritional or hormonal imbalance, your body’s neurotransmitters can become imbalanced. This can lead to anxiety, depression or other mood disorders. In order to reclaim your ability to think, feel and interact the way you want, you must address the neurotransmitter levels and function in your body.

Sleep

Do you remember the last time you woke up in the morning, on time and feeling refreshed? Sleep is vital to your body’s ability to heal itself. Yet most of us walk around chronically sleep deprived. In fact, 35 percent of all adults report getting less than seven hours of sleep at night. Even more dangerous are the 100,000 deaths in hospitals each year due to medical errors caused by sleep deprivation. Given the stressful lives we lead compounded by demands from work and family, it is tempting to cut into your shut-eye in an effort to be more productive. What you may not realize is that you will be more productive when you get adequate sleep each night.

Water

Water is the single most important element to your health. Up to 60 percent of your body is made up of water. This simple compound is responsible for normal blood flow, saliva production, digestion, brain function, breathing, joint lubrication, and flushing waste from your body. Everything you do from digesting food to thinking clearly depends on your ability to consume enough water during the course of the day. Most adult men need around 3 liters of water per day and females need 2.2 liters, with some water coming from the foods they eat. However, most people walk around chronically dehydrated, setting themselves up for toxicity.

How to Know What to
Replenish

While it is possible to narrow down areas in your life that need to be replenished simply by talking about your lifestyle and nutritional habits, there is no replacement for blood and saliva tests that reveal your depleted areas. These may include:

Stool analysis (Home Kit) – Like it or not, your stool is an informative byproduct of your health. Stool tests can uncover parasites, bacterial or yeast infections, and other markers for a “leaky gut” that may be causing inflammation in this vital system. These kits are easy to use and testing can be done at your convenience.
Fasting delayed hypersensitivity blood work – In order to uncover many of your food or environmental sensitivities, it is important to draw blood. The testing process we use can uncover delayed hypersensitivity reactions to up to 387 foods, chemicals, molds, therapeutic herbs, food colorings, and metals.
Allergy blood work – Different from delayed hypersensitivity, acute allergy testing measures your body’s immediate reaction to certain chemicals, foods, metals, or molds.
Herbicide & Toxic Non-Metal testing – These two tests assess buildup of herbicides that have been linked to numerous diseases as well as 172 environmental pollutants.
General Wellness Testing – In addition, you may be asked to undergo blood or urine tests to determine your complete blood count (CBC), iron levels, metabolic function, vitamin D levels, and uric acid levels.

Refine

“Perfection is not eliminating all mistakes and hurdles in life, but rather realizing that constantly striving to improve while learning along the way is true perfection.”

– Dr. Arland Hill

Once you have navigated through Redefining, Removing, Reconnecting and Replenishing, it is time to begin refining your habits in order to achieve optimal health. In fact, it can be argued that the refining process never ends as you incorporate new habits and create a lifestyle that will last you for the rest of your life.

Many people look at changes in their diet and exercise habits as temporary measures until they get their health under control. Once they achieve some measure of success, they start making exceptions here and there taking a vacation from good health habits every once in a while. Before they know it, they have to start over from the beginning of the process, redefining their health, removing bad habits, reconnecting with their food, and replenishing their bodies. This habitual yo-yo is not only damaging to your health, it is discouraging to your mind. There are several reasons that people “fall off the wagon,” but no one spends time talking about not falling off in the first place. That is where “refine” comes in.

Perfection is a tricky word. Many people shoot for it, but the reality is that it is unobtainable. In fact, most people fall off of the health and nutrition wagon because they try to be a perfect being with their diet. Or a perfect being in their habits. Or a perfect being in their exercise plan. In reality, it feels better to know that you don’t have to be perfect. You simply have to be better than you were yesterday.

Refining is the process of learning how to live the best lifestyle you can. During this process, you are encouraged to try new recipes and foods, new exercise routines, new ways of thinking about your health, or new personal goals or challenges. Some of these new experiences you will like, some you will not. The exercise routine that energizes you today may not be right for you five years from now. The foods you enjoy now may not be as exciting six months from now. The only constant in life is change, and refining is the process of allowing your habits to reflect your new tastes, goals and health needs.

Reaching the refinement stage is an achievement. Your struggle and your sacrifice are noted but the satisfaction you feel at having attained optimal health overshadows any temporary heartache you experienced. You are reaping the benefits of your efforts and living life having achieved your health goals. Refinement offers you the opportunity to continue to live the life you have always dreamed of.

Ultimately, functional medicine is a process rather than a one-time experience in a doctor’s office. When you can begin to uncover your body’s needs, you can begin to address the core deficiencies you are experiencing. For more information on functional medicine or to schedule an initial consultation, contact us.