If Functional Medicine is the wave of the future, then Functional Nutrition is the current that drives it. Functional Health, which combines Functional Medicine and Functional Nutrition, is an innovative medical practice that is all about identifying and removing the things that push you toward disease – leaving only things that create and foster wellness. In accordance with this way of thinking, we at Restore Health Center, your Fort Collins optimal health practice, believe in the fundamentals of Functional Nutrition and Functional Medicine as well. By making uniquely targeted diet and lifestyle modifications, and educating our patients in regards to what’s going on in their bodies, we are better able to help you get healthy and stay healthy.
This is what we do at Restore Health Center, your Fort Collins optimal health practice. In accordance with this way of thinking, Functional Nutrition is, according to Functional Nutrition Lab, “A modality that works to not just support, but to educate the patient in what’s going on in their body and how making uniquely targeted diet and lifestyle modifications will shift the terrain and help them meet their goals.”
We like this definition because it addresses the fact that the body’s systems create a terrain. Signs and symptoms that you encounter are all a part of this terrain. We, as your Functional Health and Fort Collins Optimal Health Clinic, look at the array of issues and underlying root causes of those issues to ensure that you start feeling better from the inside out, rather than just masking symptoms with medications. While standard health care may simply suppress your symptoms with medication, Functional Nutrition sees them as “clues for understanding the underlying issues within your body.” (Via AFPA.com.)
The physicians at Restore Health take every aspect of your health into consideration and create an overall plan that keeps your particular biochemistry in mind. In most cases, a Functional Nutrition approach to health involves a review of everything from a patient’s medical history, organ systems, lifestyle habits, etc. and creating a customizable program. While these functional nutrition plans vary with each particular patient, most of them follow five main principles outlined by the AFPA:
- Filling up on essential nutrients
- Avoiding toxic growing conditions
- Sticking with quality foods
- Prioritizing gut health
- Tending to your microbiome
Nothing is more beneficial to one’s health journey than ensuring that each of these five principles have been addressed within the nutrition plan and dialogue between the Functional Nutrition specialist and patient is open. As the AFPA states, “Success comes from having a conversation with your body that keeps you aware of how it responds to different factors so that you can continuously set it up for better success.”
If you would like to learn more about Functional Nutrition fundamentals or set up a consultation with the Functional Health experts at Restore Health, your Fort Collins optimal health practice, contact us at 970-278-0900.