Differentiating Features of Conventional, Functional, and Integrative Medicine 

Integrative medicine is a new approach to treatment that involves all aspects of your mind, body and soul. It focuses on your total health and uses evidence-based practices. Integrative medicine practitioners assess your lifestyle habits and other factors that contribute to the cause of your illness. They then partner with you to help restore your wellness and improve your life. On the other hand, functional medicine is a biological approach that looks at the root cause of health problems. It also focuses on a person’s unique genetic predispositions, environmental factors, and diet. Both approaches emphasize the importance of listening to patients and providing compassionate care. However, a key difference is that functional medicine uses a systems-oriented system and involves a detailed patient life history.

What is Integrative Medicine?

Integrative medicine is a holistic approach to medical care that focuses on the patient. It addresses all the physical, emotional, mental, social, and spiritual influences that can impact a person’s health. This approach also focuses on the prevention of chronic disease. Maintaining the body’s innate healing response is essential to stay healthy. While conventional medicine is great for treating acute issues, it can have trouble tackling the root cause of a problem or preventing persistent, undiagnosed symptoms. Integrative medicine is a combination of therapies often used to deliver whole-person care. These therapies may include acupuncture, massage, bodywork, and supplements.

What is Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine is a rapidly growing medical discipline focusing on patients’ well-being. It aims to cure the cause of your disease rather than treat or suppress symptoms. The root cause of most chronic conditions lies in your lifestyle; therefore, the doctor will suggest dietary changes to promote healing. They will also recommend exercise, adequate sleep, and therapy to improve mental health. Additionally, Denver functional medicine frequently combines integrative medical treatments like acupuncture with lifestyle suggestions to improve nutrition, exercise, sleep, and stress management. A functional medicine practitioner produces a comprehensive picture of the patient by thoroughly examining the patient’s medical history, genetic, biochemical, lifestyle variables, and physiology. The same information may also be utilized to monitor a treatment plan’s development efficiently.

What are the Benefits of Integrative and Functional Medicine?

Integrative medicine is a form of health care that combines conventional medical practices (such as drugs, surgery and lifestyle changes) with complementary alternative medicine therapies. This type of treatment often includes acupuncture, chiropractic and massage therapy. On a side note, functional medicine is multidisciplinary by nature and attacks the underlying disease from several angles since it touches on many different parts of a patient’s life. Medications, herbal or botanical supplements, vitamins, and detoxification programs are all possible components of functional medicine treatment. 

What is the Difference Between Integrative Medicine and Functional Medicine?

Integrative medicine is a holistic health and healing approach involving the entire person. It addresses physical, mental, social and spiritual influences that affect health and well-being.

In contrast to traditional medical practice, integrative medicine focuses on whole-person healthcare. It considers the patient’s lifestyle habits and incorporates mind-body practices like yoga, acupuncture or massage as part of their treatment plan. At the same time, functional medicine is a science-based approach that considers your genetics, lifestyle, and environmental circumstances when diagnosing or treating diseases. It aligns with the philosophy of Hippocrates, who believed that food was medicine. In contrast, conventional medicine focuses primarily on the different organ systems within the body and compartmentalizes the treatments into specialties. It often prescribes pharmaceutical or surgically-based medication to treat the symptoms.