Ms. Smith came to us with complaints of chronic joint pain (already diagnosed with and treating for arthritis symptoms), muscle pain (diagnosed and treating for fibromyalgia), skin problems (psoriasis) and digestive issues (gastritis). She was also presenting with mild depression and fatigue.
When her doctor suggested that she start taking yet another medication (anti-depressants), Ms. Smith got fed up with the diagnosis and treatment options being offered. In essence, her biggest complaint was no longer the pain and discomfort she was experiencing, it was the current medical treatment and run-around she felt she was receiving. In her eyes, the medical model itself was contributing to a downward spiral in her quality of life.
Needless to say, when Ms. Smith opted to hire a skilled FDN practitioner, her entire outlook changed almost overnight. The FDN orientation gave her new insights and the motivation she needed to do something different, to take control of her own health. And the end results were nothing less than miraculous.
Our view of symptoms like joint pain, muscle pain, bad skin, gastric bloating and every other health complaint, is that they all have causal factors to be investigated. Even in tough cases, opportunities for physical repair, restoration and healing can be great and, in our mind, the opportunities to employ FDN are equally abundant.
On the other hand, masking a symptom allows the underlying condition to deteriorate, to get worse. Sometimes new symptoms will appear! Relief care is important, but if that’s all you receive then you may weaken and soon you’ll need stronger and stronger medication. Eventually, surgery may become necessary. Something we noticed a long time ago, once body parts are removed, they become quite difficult to restore to normal function!
FDN is a type of detective work that seeks to identify and correct the underlying causes and conditions that lead to the patients’ health complaints. In that sense, FDN is not diagnosing or treating any disease nor practicing medicine.
Everything we do is science and evidence based. In essence we have reached a new standard of care. We use high quality functional lab testing to investigate underlying malfunctions of the adrenal glands, mucosal barrier, detoxification systems, metabolic processes, absorption and assimilation, immune and defense mechanisms and steroid hormone balance to name a few.
We don’t go overboard, just a handful of labs really. When data from these labs plus other clues are correctly interpreted, especially with the addition of Wm. Wolcott’s Metabolic Typing® (MT) system, the opportunities for building health become markedly evident.
We do not routinely deal with acute or heroic interventions. If someone is having an appendicitis attack, or is in the throes of passing a kidney stone, by all means they should head for the nearest emergency room. If they just got hit by a truck, someone should call a lawyer, err, we mean ambulance.
The public we serve is made up of people with health complaints, who want to do something about it, and opt into our system in an arm’s length transaction under no duress. Or, there shouldn’t be any duress. Practitioners using FDN provide intelligent health care services, not attendant sickness care. Again, we don’t diagnose or treat disease, we do present opportunities for healing.
People need to know that we do not control the outcomes. The truth is, we can’t know the exact results each person will achieve because of the number of variables. We don’t use powerful drugs that artificially control blood pressure, for instance. Our natural therapies require time for the body to heal, to return to normal function. We trust that the body wants to return to homeostasis, good health, and every effort is made to assist it.
We’re not saying we don’t expect good outcomes, we know they will occur. Clients understand that they must be disciplined enough to follow our recommendations, observe the outcome or response and report frequently. Together, we’ll “probe and analyze” as objectively as possible and make course corrections based on each client’s individual needs. In our experience with thousands of patients, this principle of functional medicine cannot be overstated.
Educating patients and clients about how to get well and stay well is our paramount task. That means teaching them, not to ignore symptoms, but to realize their symptoms are only signals from the body that something is wrong. And if the patient will give us a chance to investigate, we may be able to determine what is really wrong. But, again, we do not control outcomes. Course corrections are part of the program.
The step-by-step intake and acceptance method we use works very well. In the case above, Ms. Smith was aware enough, and tired enough of chasing symptoms, that she was willing to engage in a new process. She already knew, on a gut level, that she had to get to the root cause. So the FDN orientation was music to her ears. In every case, before we accept anyone as a client, they should know exactly how we’re going to help them, what they can and cannot expect.
We are extremely confident in our ability to help almost every patient or client. The secret to success should be evident. We’re here to help you.
