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Functional Medicine Q & A

What is functional medicine?

Functional medicine is a holistic form of health care that evaluates your physical, mental, and emotional well-being before focusing on treatment. The whole-body approach prioritizes proper assessment and prevention to limit the risks of chronic disease, promote longevity, and reduce your need for invasive and costly treatment in the future.

How is functional medicine different from traditional care?

While conventional medicine often focuses on treating diseases that you already have, functional medicine prioritizes preventing them. Prevention is more effective, less expensive, and less invasive than most treatments. It is also easier on your body.

Functional medicine has many core principles, including:

  • Patients are people, not diseases
  • The body has natural healing properties
  • The absence of disease isn’t the same as health
  • Balance between mental and physical wellness is important
  • People should take an active role in their health

Since founding Aging Gracefully, Dr. McElroy has helped many people achieve optimal health through the practices that functional medicine promotes.

What are some examples of functional medicine?

With a strong focus on prevention, functional medicine aims to intercept disease progression through:

Nutrition

Many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease, stem from high-sugar and high-fat diets. At Aging Gracefully, Dr. McElroy can design a personalized nutrition plan that helps stabilize your blood sugar and insulin levels, lowers high cholesterol, and helps you to maintain a healthy weight.

Comprehensive assessments

Gathering the whole picture of your overall health is an essential part of functional medicine. Reviewing your medical history, evaluating your lifestyle, and examining your diet helps Dr. McElroy identify potential threats to your health.

Testing and screenings

Dr. McElroy performs adrenal testing, gluten sensitivity testing, thyroid screenings, and other types of blood work to assess your overall health.

Lifestyle modifications

Many lifestyle factors can negatively impact your quality of life, including smoking, drinking alcohol, consuming caffeine in excess, and physical inactivity. Dr. McElroy may recommend several lifestyle modifications to improve your health and promote longevity.

Functional medicine allows people to take an active role in their health to prevent hypertension (high blood pressure), diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other preventable chronic diseases.

To learn more about functional medicine, call Aging Gracefully or schedule an appointment online today.