Functional medicine is a concept in which the cause of complaints and diseases is searched for and the body is considered as a holistic system.

In contrast to conventional medicine, functional medicine does not (only) treat the individual symptoms. Instead, there is a comprehensive diagnosis that includes both psychological and physical criteria. The aim is to identify and treat the initial causes of diseases.

As soon as the root cause is found, health problems can be tackled at the root, so to speak. After the cause of illnesses has been resolved, the individual symptoms usually disappear. In this article, we will explain the approach of functional medicine and its implementation.

What is functional medicine?

Functional medicine is a holistic approach to the treatment of diseases and health conditions. Instead of treating individual symptoms, the goal is to find the root cause of a disease.

Durch die Behandlung der Ursache kann die Krankheit bzw. Beschwerde an ihrer Wurzel beseitigt werden, wodurch üblicherweise alle einzelnen Symptome verschwinden. Weil in der funktionellen Medizin statt der Symptome die Ursachen behandelt werden, eignet sich dieser medizinische Ansatz auch zur Prävention von gesundheitlichen Problemen.

At this point, two important questions arise: Why are the causes not currently treated in conventional medicine? And how is the holistic treatment of diseases implemented in functional medicine?

Conventional medicine does not meet the demands of the 21st century

Even though medical standards in Germany are high, the optimum is far from being exhausted in the treatment of patients. The fast pace of life and a profit orientation of individual doctors are the main problems that make it difficult to treat patients holistically.

As a result of economic progress, a fast-paced lifestyle has increasingly established itself among the broad population in industrialized countries such as Germany over the past decades. As a result, the number of psychosomatic illnesses and complaints has increased. However, psychosomatic problems cannot be treated quickly and easily due to their often complex causes.

Actually, we should take much more time for the patient than people: talk to them and find out as many aspects of diagnostics as possible – from the social environment to nutrition to the findings from conventional medical examinations.

Den Fokus auf den Menschen zu richten und sich für ihn Zeit zu nehmen, ist aufgrund der begrenzten zeitlichen Verfügbarkeit von Fachpersonal jedoch schwierig. Zudem kommt es einigen „Spezialisten” leider immer noch mehr auf den Profit als auf das Wohlbefinden und die Gesundheit der Patienten an.

Furthermore, the powerful pharmaceutical industry has concluded highly remunerated contracts with many doctors. As a result, prescribing medication after a short examination and an equally brief conversation with the patient is more lucrative for doctors than searching for the initial cause of an illness or complaint.

Functional medicine with a patient-oriented approach to diagnosis and therapy

In functional medicine, therapists take time for their patients. They consider each patient as an individual. His body is exposed to numerous external influences, all of which must be included in diagnostics and therapy.

In all of this, the consideration of interactions in functional medicine is a particular advantage. How do individual complaints or diseases develop, and how do the causes influence each other?

All in all, a person’s body is always considered as a whole system and analyzed in detail.

Als Ergebnis dieser detaillierten Analyse steht idealerweise eine klare Diagnose, die im Gegensatz zur Schulmedizin keine eindeutig abgrenzbaren Ursachen für Erkrankungen nennt. Stattdessen ist die Diagnose differenziert und komplett individuell auf den Patienten zugeschnitten. Durch die im Anschluss gewählten Therapiemethoden sollen die Selbstheilungskräfte im System „Mensch“ angeregt werden.

These are the special features of functional medicine compared to conventional medicine:

• Consideration of interactions
• Holistic view of environmental influences, medical history, living conditions, nutrition and other factors
• Close discussions and cooperation with patients
• Willingness to spend a lot of time accompanying patients

Example of the application of functional medicine and the contrast to conventional medicine

An example at this point is a patient with psychosomatic complaints who complains of breathing problems, cardiac arrhythmias and sleep problems. A doctor from conventional medicine does not find a cause for the breathing problems, but determines the cardiac arrhythmias in an ECG. So he prescribes medication for heart problems (beta-blockers) and medication for better sleep. This is a negative example of the loose treatment of symptoms with the help of medication.

Although it contributes to the reduction of the previous symptoms, other health problems occur in the patient because the actual cause of his illnesses has not been found and treated.

The same patient is now cared for by a therapist who follows the approach of functional medicine. He takes time for the patient and fully engages with him. After a thorough anamnesis, he obtains information about lifestyle, social environment, diet and other factors. All these are aspects that are decisive for health and constantly influence each other.

The therapist uses several sessions to work with the patient in the comfortably furnished practice in a pleasant environment. Through investigations and conversations, he learns how the “human” system works. In the course of this, it turns out that the patient is exposed to a high level of stress. The stress has a detrimental effect on breathing, causes extrasystoles and thus cardiac arrhythmias and robs the patient of sleep.

Together with and for the patient, the therapist develops a method of therapy that provides for lifestyle adjustments. In this way, the therapist succeeds in helping the patient in his individual situation.

Functional medicine applications for chronic diseases

Due to its special features, functional medicine proves to be helpful, especially in the therapy and prevention of chronic diseases. It is precisely at this point that conventional medicine fails again, because it does not succeed in determining the slow development of symptoms in chronic diseases and in correctly considering the many interactions in connection with each other. Through functional medicine, body and mind are considered as a bond, which contributes to early diagnosis and initiation of helpful measures even in the early stages of the complaints.

The same applies to psychosomatic illnesses, which are characterized by a slow development of symptoms and numerous interactions. Here, too, functional medicine offers the best prospects for successful therapies and successful prevention of diseases.

Conclusion and outlook: Functional medicine can play an evolutionary role

Functional medicine – as well as some other modern therapeutic approaches (e.g. integrative medicine) – is becoming increasingly important due to the systemic focus in diagnostics and treatment. It also coincides with the demands of the new generations, the millennials, that people are seen and treated as individuals.

There is no doubt that functional medicine is ideally tailored to the demands and situation of the 21st century. Even though it can play an evolutionary role in all of medicine due to its holistic and interpersonal approach, it remains to be seen how it will develop in the next few years.

It takes time for conventional medicine to undergo a major change towards the approach and methodology of functional medicine. Fortunately, there are already therapists who practice functional medicine. If necessary, you can visit such a practice and expect a respectful and individual approach, in which you as a person are placed at the center of diagnosis and treatment.