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Alternative medicine Start‑class

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Notability

Functional medicine is just as notable as other healthcare approaches outside the mainstream that are described on Wikipedia. Physicians are now being trained in functional medicine in order to meet continuing medical education requirements, and patients are seeking physicians with this training. To demonstrate the notability of functional medicine, I will add references to medical journal articles and Web sites that discuss functional medicine. I will also delete details in order to make the article more neutral. I appreciate your patience.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 66.186.245.225 (talk • contribs)

Support Articles

Dr. Jeffrey Bland, founder of the Institute for Functional Medicine, has 22 peer-reviewed publications listed in PubMed, a service of the US National Library of Medicine and the National Institutes of Health. Here are the most recent citations:

Minich DM, Bland JS. Dietary management of the metabolic syndrome beyond macronutrients. Nutr Rev. 2008 Aug;66(8):429-444. PMID: 18667004

Hall AJ, Babish JG, Darland GK, Carroll BJ, Konda VR, Lerman RH, Bland JS, Tripp ML. Safety, efficacy and anti-inflammatory activity of rho iso-alpha-acids from hops. Phytochemistry. 2008 May;69(7):1534-1547. PMID: 18358504

Minich DM, Bland JS, Katke J, Darland G, Hall A, Lerman RH, Lamb J, Carroll B, Tripp M. Clinical safety and efficacy of NG440: a novel combination of rho iso-alpha acids from hops, rosemary, and oleanolic acid for inflammatory conditions. Can J Physiol Pharmacol. 2007 Sep;85(9):872-883. PMID: 18066133

Minich DM, Bland JS. Acid-alkaline balance: role in chronic disease and detoxification. Altern Ther Health Med. 2007 Jul-Aug;13(4):62-65. Review. PMID: 17658124

Minich DM, Bland JS. A review of the clinical efficacy and safety of cruciferous vegetable phytochemicals. Nutr Rev. 2007 Jun(6 Pt 1):259-267. Review. PMID: 17605302

SynthesisbyJBland (talk) 22:29, 15 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Contrast with conventional medicine--"straw man"?

Information meant to illustrate the contrast between conventional medicine and functional medicine keeps getting deleted, with the comment that it is a straw man argument. These two approaches to patient care are certainly different, but I don't understand how to communicate this in a manner that is acceptable.— Preceding unsigned comment added by Gonzales1234 (talk • contribs)

It is because the (implied) claim that modern medicine doesn't consider "the whole person" is untrue, and a straw man argument. Modern Dr's may send you to specialists, but they will have case conferences, shared notes, and other regular communication - they do not work in isolation and without consideration of the "whole patient". Also, they do suggest preventative measures such as diet, exercise, lifestyle, and give what alternative medicine advocates term "holistic care". Verbal chat 06:14, 21 October 2008 (UTC)[reply]

I am a modern doctor, a recent graduate of an Emory University Residency program.( We all have to agree, I am swimming in the main stream). I must say that in my years there as a primary care doctor, I never participated in one of these case conferences with cross talk for different specialties about a single patient. Functional medicine is the real application of a General/Family/Internal medicine model. The primary question of Functional Medicine is "when was the last time you felt good? and what was the first problem you had?" In looking to this question, be the answer joint pain or GI distress, the answer to unraveling a patients multiple problems is often to go back to this original problem. The goal of this regression to the first bad day is to address the problem that started that day. Not to "block" the receptor that is involved, but to address the underlying imbalances that led to the disease state. I have always been a believer in "Evidence based Medicine" and Functional Medicine is the best applicatio of this I have found. Not to mention I have very happy and very healthy patients. 72.152.94.210 (talk) 01:37, 3 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Modern day medicine does not always consider the whole person. That depends entirely on the doctor in question. Let me give you an example (by the way I work with nutrition in a clinic specializing in Functional Medicine). We routinely get patients that have thyroid disturbances with autoimmunity being the main reason. These clients often also complain of digestive problems. It is quite well-documented, that there is a link between celiac disease and autoimmune thyroiditis. Yet none of these patients have been checked for celiac disease, despite persistent digestive problems for many years. Quite a few of these patients have turned out to be suffering from undiagnosed celiac disease. Once they are off gluten permanently, their thyroiditis either improves or disappears. Had they been looked at as a whole person, their symptoms tell much of the story, but rather than looking at the potential connections between different symptoms and systems, they were only treated with their thyroid in mind…without much success. So the whole person approach advocated by Functional Medicine suggests looking at such connections, not once in a while, but in every single patient from the get go. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Umahro (talk • contribs) 22:21, 2 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Source? Anecdote isn't evidence, and this isn't a forum. Verbal chat 07:29, 3 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

With regard to the issue of communication between practitioners/different specialties, here is a recent reference from The New England Journal of Medicine:

Bodenheimer T. Coordinating care--a perilous journey through the health care system. N Engl J Med. 2008;358(10):1064-1071. PubMedID:18322289 SynthesisbyJBland (talk) 20:46, 3 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Here are two additional references about interdisciplinary communication, both of which pertain to countries other than the US:

Manca D, Varnhagen S, Brett-MacLean P, Allan GM, Szafran O. Respect from specialists: concerns of family physicians. Can Fam Physician. 2008;54(10):1434-1435. PubMedID:18854474

Schaller P, Gaspoz JM. Continuity, coordination and integration of care: from theory to practice. Rev Med Suisse. 2008;4(172):2034, 2036-2039. PubMedID:18946962 SynthesisbyJBland (talk) 22:44, 3 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]

Article needs splitting

This article has merged two topics: (1) Functional Medicine (2) the Institute for Functional Medicine

It appears that Functional Medicine is an alternative medical discipline, and as a medical discipline, articles about it should restrict the content to the tenets of the discipline.

The Institute for Functional Medicine is an organization and should be covered in a separate article.

Limited cross-references between the two articles might be appropriate. However, extensive criticism of the Institute is inappropriate content within the article on the discipline.

—Preceding unsigned comment added by Roy Fultun (talk • contribs) 02:32, 30 November 2008 (UTC)[reply]