Functional medicine doctors have a different role than acute care doctors. Our focus is to support health and repair, not symptom suppression or disease management. It is sometimes called “whole systems medicine.” It’s not a “one size fits all” treatment. Functional doctors investigate the clues about your condition; evaluating and addressing the core underlying imbalances.
The goal in functional medicine is to reverse altered function and restore health. Functional medicine is not an acute-care medical system. Functional medicine is not allowed in hospitals.
Dr. Lieberman uses integrative assessment methods to find root causes, and help you recover from long-standing conditions.
“…[Functional Medicine] requires a slightly higher order of thought from that which is commonly in vogue in medicine.”
– Dr. Willoughby Wade, 1871
Anaheim Functional Doctor
“[functional doctors] provide those things that enhance, optimize, and normalize your functioning by balancing your system, rather than treating the symptom.” – Dr. Mark Hyman
Natural functional medicine is not the “wait and medicate” model used for chronic conditions in acute care types of practices. Our primary focus is not to immediately suppress symptoms with branded chemicals. Functional doctors recognize that alterations in function come before disease or pathology. If more people would understand natural functional medicine, acute-care strategies would only be used for acute conditions.
Dr. Lieberman’s methodology uses a rational, detailed way of reasoning and understanding about conditions. He strives to improve your body’s condition, step-by-step.
Key point: Why don’t all doctors use functional medicine? Because the natural remedies and treatments are not centered around pharmaceuticals. The typical doctor’s training is in pharmaceuticals.
We Listen to Our Patients
We begin by spending enough time with you, listening to you and learning your story. Your care is based on your individually unique needs. We observe the environmental, epigenetic, and lifestyle factors that influence your long-term wellness, or may contribute to chronic conditions.
Functional Medicine Chiropractor
“We use a natural medicine, patient-centered focus to understand what is contributing to your condition and your symptoms. Our goal is to properly address your whole body system; not just a symptom, or a disease. Most people don’t know that this type of care is available.” Dr Barry Lieberman, DC, ACN.
As a functional medicine chiropractor, Dr. Lieberman uses functional medicine with other natural tools for restoring optimal health and healing. Request your appointment, now!
FAQs about functional medicine
Why Do We Need Functional Medicine?
To prevent disease in the first place, and support recovery from chronic conditions we need the right help, not more symptom suppressing drugs.
The current system of medicine practiced by most physicians is an acute care model. Therefore, it suits the short-duration diagnosis and treatment of trauma or illness that needs immediate care.
Most physicians are not adequately trained in functional medicine to assess the potential underlying causes of chronic illnesses. Also, they do not apply clinical nutrition strategies, with daily routines such as diet and supplementation, as prevention or treatment. Surgery or drug therapy training does not include those crucial, functional medicine tools.
There’s a huge delay between current research and how most doctors practice. It takes many years for a drug, or a surgical procedure to establish a safety record. But since functional medicine doctors use natural remedies already regarded as safe, we can use current research, today.
Why Doesn’t The Acute-Care Approach Work For Everything?
The acute-care approach of medicine lacks the methodology and tools to prevent and treat chronic conditions. For example: rarely do acute care methods assess the unique background of each individual. When the symptoms are the sole focus, suppressing the symptoms becomes the goal of the care.
Examples: The acute care treatment for Eczema is topical steroids. That’s an acute care drug, so using it for a long time will present problems. The acute care for heartburn symptoms is to block stomach acid with antacids. That’s a temporary fix, but it disregards what may be causing the heartburn symptoms in the first place. For Irritable bowel, or IBS the treatment is anti-inflammatory drugs which may harm your liver or kidneys. The problem is when the doctor never investigates why the underlying inflammation is there.
How Else is a Functional Medicine Doctor Different?
Top functional medicine doctors understand the theory of multiple underlying causes of disease. The functional doctor would apply this knowledge instead of just suppressing chronic symptoms.
● Improving your underlying condition is our goal. This focus is very different than fitting you into a disease category, with an unchanging diagnosis and prescription. In other words, our focus is on you, not your prescriptions!
● An integrative, science-based healing approach: A natural functional medicine chiropractor looks at the roots of your condition. He determines your natural remedies considering current metabolic science. and your physical exams. Compare this multimodal treatment approach to the one disease/one-target/one-molecule philosophy that powers the pharmaceutical industry.
● When functional doctors review your blood tests, we compare them to “optimal” instead of to disease. When you don’t feel well but your blood tests look normal, this strategy helps break through the “wait and do nothing” stalemate.
How Do You Implement Functional Medicine in Anaheim?
Traditional diagnostic methods as well as applied kinesiology blend with our integrative medicine treatment.
We use leading-edge in-office chiropractic neurology, kinesiology, and the latest lab testing like Cyrex Labs when we need further testing. Recommendations include functional herbal therapy (FHT), whole plant medicine, whole food supplements, diet, weight loss, integrative chiropractic, or stress-management techniques.