What’s the Difference: Lifestyle vs. Functional Medicine?
What does healthcare look like to you? Do you go to the doctor? Did you grow up in a family that values alternative medicine? How do you perceive our healthcare system, or your personal health?
The practice of medicine has been around as long as people have been getting sick. Far and wide, around the world, across cultures and various groups of people some form of a healing practice has been used.
In America, a prominent Western nation, we practice mainly conventional medicine. This style of medicine was born when communicable (easily spread) diseases raged around the world, and has since been built around the use of surgical procedures and pharmacology. While each of these things have a place in healthcare, most Americans (and many others around the world) are fighting diseases that conventional medicine can't beat — chronic disease. We're talking diabetes, hypertension, stroke, heart disease, osteoporosis, certain types of cancer, and more.
As we're learning, our conventional medicine practices just aren't as effective against these types of conditions, but fear not! These chronic diseases and conditions are considered lifestyle-driven and preventable. Chronic disease sufferers need a different approach, they need American medicine to shift its focus in order to truly meet the rising healthcare needs.
Enter: lifestyle and functional medicine. These are just two of the many "alternative" medical philosophies outside of conventional medicine. Something to note — the majority (if not all) of these types of practitioners were trained in conventional medicine initially, but they've since shifted their focus. Conventional medicine is often considered disease-centered, as its main focus is on diagnosing disease and managing symptoms. Whereas lifestyle and functional medicine take a different approach.
Lifestyle Medicine
Lifestyle medicine is an approach to preventing, treating, and reversing disease by impacting unhealthy lifestyle behaviors, therefore promoting health. There are six main areas of focus with lifestyle medicine: a healthier eating pattern, increasing physical activity, effectively managing stress, maintaining social relationships, obtaining adequate sleep, and avoiding risky substance abuse.
So by this point you might get the picture! Practitioners in lifestyle medicine focus on the common underlying lifestyle-factors that drive disease. They advocate for positive behavior changes and value active patient/client participation throughout the health journey.
At Live Well 365 we focus on lifestyle medicine. With this platform we intend to focus on the health behaviors that promote health. Teaching you what they are and how to effectively incorporate these habits into your daily life. By focusing on these lifestyle factors we can ensure that you're taking steps to promote your health, be happy, and live well!
Functional Medicine
As you'll soon see, lifestyle and functional medicine share many of the same philosophies about health. Functional medicine philosophies also focus on the cause and drivers of disease. Practitioners of this style of medicine seek to determine how and why illness occurs, and they restore health by addressing the root cause of disease and dysfunction.
This medical perspective also believes in using therapies such as "food-is-medicine" to promote health. They tailor their recommendations towards lifestyle factors, but they also prioritize the genetic and biochemical disease-contributing factors that each individual may be experiencing.
A functional medicine assessment puts a lot of focus on the "why" — practitioners emphasize various types of conventional and functional lab work, genetic testing, nutritional supplementation, and other lifestyle-oriented practices.
You may have noticed the words "functional medicine" sprinkled across our website. Both Dr. Houser and our health coach Caitlin have had functional medicine training. Like mentioned earlier, this is a practice philosophy. They use their training in functional medicine to get down to the root when working with clients. The premise of each approach to medicine is the same — YOU are the focus and truly promoting your health is the optimal goal.
The Bottom Line
The bottom line is that there's more than one way to approach a problem, even one that includes your health. There isn't one way that will work for everyone, because we're all so unique, but there are a LOT of approaches available.
You should be empowered by your health decisions and confident that your healthcare plan is right for you and your goals. So get out there, do some research, and be your own health advocate. There's something out there that might be different than what you're used to, but there’s a chance it will help you finally feel better.
References
What is functional medicine? The Institute for Functional medicine; https://www.ifm.org/functional-medicine/
What is lifestyle medicine? American College of Lifestyle Medicine; https://lifestylemedicine.org/What-is-Lifestyle-Medicine
What is modern medicine? Medical News Today 2018; https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/323538