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Functional Medicine is not like conventional medicine.  Each field has an "approach" in how they address complaints from patients coming into the practice for help.  Conventional medicine, which is what's practiced most in Western medicine, is a disease-management centered approach treating the symptoms of disease by prescribing drugs, procedures, or treatments for ailments without getting to why the patient is sick in the first place.  Functional Medicine is an approach of patient-centered, root cause and treat the problem at the source as naturally as possible.  The goal of Functional Medicine is to get rid of the problem and symptoms associated with it at the source, therefore no need for drugs, procedures, or unnecessary treatments to drag out care for the financial gain of others. 

Functional Medicine science-based field of health care that is grounded in the following principles:

Biochemical individuality describes the importance of individual variations in metabolic function that derive from genetic and environmental differences among individuals.

Patient-centered medicine emphasizes "patient care" rather than "disease care," following Sir William Osler’s admonition that "It is more important to know what patient has the disease than to know what disease the patient has."

Dynamic balance of internal and external factors. Web-like interconnections of physiological factors – an abundance of research now supports the view that the human body functions as an orchestrated network of interconnected systems, rather than individual systems functioning autonomously and without effect on each other. For example, we now know that immunological dysfunctions can promote cardiovascular disease, that dietary imbalances can cause hormonal disturbances, and that environmental exposures can precipitate neurologic syndromes such as Parkinson’s disease.

Health as a positive vitality – not merely the absence of disease.

Promotion of organ reserve as the means to enhance health span.

Functional medicine is anchored by an examination of the core clinical imbalances that underlie various disease conditions. Those imbalances arise as environmental inputs such as diet, nutrients (including air and water), exercise, and trauma are processed by one’s body, mind, and spirit through a unique set of genetic predispositions, attitudes, and beliefs. The fundamental physiological processes include communication, both outside and inside the cell; bioenergetics, or the transformation of food into energy; replication, repair, and maintenance of structural integrity, from the cellular to the whole body level; elimination of waste; protection and defense; and transport and circulation. The core clinical imbalances that arise from malfunctions within this complex system include:

• Hormonal and neurotransmitter imbalances
• Oxidation-reduction imbalances and mitochondropathy
• Detoxification and biotransformational imbalances
• Immune imbalances
• Inflammatory imbalances
• Digestive, absorptive, and microbiological imbalances
• Structural imbalances from cellular membrane function to the musculoskeletal system
  

Imbalances such as these are the precursors to the signs and symptoms by which we detect and label (diagnose) organ system disease. Improving balance – in the patient’s environmental inputs and in the body’s fundamental physiological processes – is the precursor to restoring health and it involves much more than treating the symptoms. Functional medicine is dedicated to improving the management of complex, chronic disease by intervening at multiple levels to address these core clinical imbalances and to restore each patient’s functionality and health. Functional medicine is not a unique and separate body of knowledge. It is grounded in scientific principles and information widely available in medicine today, combining research from various disciplines into highly detailed yet clinically relevant models of disease pathogenesis and effective clinical management.

Functional medicine emphasizes a definable and teachable process of integrating multiple knowledge bases within a pragmatic intellectual matrix that focuses on functionality at many levels, rather than a single treatment for a single diagnosis. Functional medicine uses the patient’s story as a key tool for integrating diagnosis, signs and symptoms, and evidence of clinical imbalances into a comprehensive approach to improve both the patient’s environmental inputs and his or her physiological function. It is a clinician’s discipline, and it directly addresses the need to transform the practice of primary care.

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Like Functional Medicine, Functional Hormone Medicine focuses on a multi-faceted approach by addressing the root causes of hormone deficiencies and endocrine dysfunction.  Many things cause our hormones to decline and using the professional HRT rubric of the Panacea Protocol, we address six areas of focus:

• Endocrine dysfunction
• Nutritional deficiencies
• Gut microbe health
• Toxic load
• Energy metabolism
• Inflammation

With addressing the above issues as naturally as possible, we're able to reduce, prevent, or eliminate 85% of mental and physical issues people to the doctor for today.  There's no reason to take a medication for a disease you no longer have.  The goal is to get rid of the problem instead of managing the symptoms of the problem. When all six if these areas are properly addressed, people stop falling apart and start healing, repairing, and preventing disease.

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Only if it remains too low for too long.  Estrogen is designed to protect our bodies against cancer and thousands of other diseases we're told we have to live with.  When estrogen is maintained in healthy reproductive ranges, women are less likely to get sick and fall apart mentally or physically. It's only when estrogen remains too low for too long that women become susceptible to cancer and disease.  Estrogen acts like a shield of armour and affects the immune system.  Low estrogen, much disease; estrogen sound, minimal disease.

Taking estrogen extraneously, synthetic or "bioidentical", does not cause cancer contrary to popular belief.

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