Though often overlooked or misunderstood, functional medicine is a unique, powerful approach to personal health.

Working to treat symptoms of your ailments can feel like a game of catch-up, much like cleaning soiled tables in a busy restaurant. What if you could identify why you tend to fall ill or address chronic problems at their source? Prevent illness, and you can stop fighting to manage symptoms like pain or fatigue.

That’s the aim of functional medicine, a growing segment of the health care industry. As the Cleveland Clinic’s Center for Functional Medicine explains, “The functional medicine model of care offers a patient-centered approach to chronic disease management . . . so you can receive personalized, effective care for your needs.”

What is functional medicine?

This innovative view of medicine roots its practices in the “bioindividual,” a combination of each person’s unique environment, genetics, and lifestyle. To those who feel that other medical practitioners don’t listen to their unique needs or simply dismiss them and prescribe meds, functional medicine offers an alternative.

As nutritional therapy practitioner Laura Mauroschadt states, “Symptoms are the body’s way of alerting us that something deeper is going on, that we are out of balance in some way. Functional medicine takes into consideration that each person is bioindividual—and what works for one person will not work for another due to their unique circumstances.” By focusing on the bioindividual, functional medicine can help promote whole, lifelong health and wellness rather than mere symptom suppression.

And yet this field goes well beyond the individual. As the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) states, “Functional medicine plays a key role in the effort to address the modern epidemic of chronic disease . . . [and] the recurring threat of pandemics. Using these concepts and tools, functional medicine practitioners contribute vital skills for addressing and reversing the global health issues of the twenty-first century.” For example, the IFM has developed exposure-prevention and immunity-boosting tips, which it pairs with CDC guidelines to help patients avoid some of today’s most common diseases.

What is functional medicine not?

It’s also important to address some myths and misunderstandings surrounding functional medicine. First, functional medicine doesn’t intend to be a substitute for modern medicine, nor does it claim to replace high-level medical services like surgery and chemotherapy. Instead, functional medicine is a service within the medical field focused on promoting healthy living and focusing on imbalances in your body. As the IFM confirms, “Functional medicine is a vital partner to conventional medicine, along with a variety of other approaches to healthcare . . . [and] each play[s] an important role in addressing patient needs.”

Nor is functional medicine a spa treatment. Industry practitioners are trained and licensed medical-care providers, many of whom complete an MD or DO education and then specialize in functional medicine. Functional medicine practitioners include family doctors, physician assistants, nurses, nutritionists, pharmacists, and other scopes of medicine, according to the IFM.

Some may confuse functional medicine with holistic, herbal, or alternative medicine—the latter being a comprehensive term that may even include relying on essential oils for unproven health effects. However, this is not the case with functional medicine. Mauroschadt explains how functional medicine differs with a hard line: holistic and alternative approaches do not utilize conventional medicine, whereas functional medicine is research-based and partners with traditional, scientifically backed methods of patient care.

What can functional medicine treat?

The answer is a wide and comprehensive list of chronic and acute health concerns. The IFM’s list includes chronic pain, fatigue, digestive disturbances, diabetes, insomnia, autoimmunity, headaches, and many other conditions. However, the organization stresses that functional medicine is most effective when part of an integrated health care plan.

Here is what you can expect during your first visit to a functional medicine practitioner. They will review your responses to a series of questions about your medical, family, and lifestyle history. You can then discuss your health concerns, including chronic or acute needs. The expert may recommend testing and will then design a unique treatment plan catered to your unique body.

Your practitioner may offer dietary or lifestyle changes that can effectively promote improved health. They may even inform you that certain activities are causing negative health effects like back pain, insomnia, or skin problems—empowering you to make changes to prevent these symptoms in the future.

Overall, visiting a functional medicine expert may feel very similar to seeing any other physician. However, they pay special attention to and spend more time on your bioindividual profile. In addition, they aim to create more space for you to ask questions, address your concerns, choose from natural treatment options, and feel at ease with your health care needs.

How can you find care?

The IFM has a simple online tool you can use to find a practitioner near you. You can also do so through another medical provider like your family doctor or internist.

Through your own research and conversations with other health specialists, you may determine that functional medicine is not for you. However, as with any approach to health care, patients or their caretakers make all final decisions. How you choose to guide your health needs and address them is up to you. But for those in search of a long-term, whole-body solution to ongoing health concerns, functional medicine may provide a solution—not just a Band-Aid, but a salve that can offer lifelong benefits.

For more information, visit IFM.org.