Functional Medicine
“Functional Medicine determines how and why illness occurs and restores health by addressing the root causes of disease for each individual”. – The IFM
What is Functional Medicine?
Are you tired of a healthcare system that treats your symptoms without addressing the underlying causes of your health issues? Do you feel like you’re constantly struggling with chronic conditions, despite taking multiple medications or trying various treatments?
The problem with conventional medicine is that it often focuses on suppressing symptoms rather than identifying and treating the root causes of illness. This approach can lead to a cycle of dependence on medications, temporary relief, and recurring health problems, leaving you feeling frustrated and unheard.
At Equilibrium Health in Cheltenham, we practice functional medicine, a science-based, patient-centered approach that empowers you to take control of your health. By addressing the underlying imbalances and root causes of your health concerns, functional medicine can help you achieve optimal wellness, reduce your reliance on medications, and experience lasting, transformative changes in your health and quality of life.
My name is Kirsty Terry and as an experienced functional medicine nutritionist, I will take the time to listen to your story, gather comprehensive health data, and develop a personalized treatment plan that addresses your unique needs.
During your functional medicine consultation, we’ll:
✓ Conduct a thorough health history and lifestyle assessment
✓ Order advanced diagnostic tests to identify underlying imbalances
✓ Investigate potential root causes of your health concerns, such as nutrient deficiencies, hormonal imbalances, gut dysbiosis, or toxic exposures
✓ Create a personalized treatment plan that may include dietary changes, targeted supplements, lifestyle modifications, and other evidence-based therapies
✓ Provide ongoing support and guidance to help you achieve your health goals
Don’t settle for a healthcare approach that merely masks your symptoms. Embrace the transformative power of functional medicine by scheduling your consultation today. Take control of your health and start your journey towards optimal wellness.
Don’t settle for a healthcare approach that merely masks your symptoms. Embrace the transformative power of functional medicine by scheduling your consultation today.
If you would like to discover if functional medicine can help you with your existing health challenges, then I offer all potential new clients, a free initial consulation via Phone or Zoom. It’s an informal chat so I can find out more about you and what you current challenges are, and discuss what therapies are available to help. Just follow the button below to schedule your free call.
How does functional medicine work?
Functional medicine is a structure model to help evaluate your health with detailed history taking, establishing a timeline of your story with the presenting symptoms, contributory factors and your current state of health.
This process itself, can be very therapeutic in understanding the root causes and drivers of your symptoms and your own narrative.
Combined with cutting edge, detailed laboratory testing and functional testing, the precise reasons for illness and imbalance can be analysed and the information is then collated and used to create a personalised treatment plan of how to restore health.
This is the essence of integrative medicine, where multiple treatment modalities complement your existing conventional medicine, such as Diet, Physicl Activity, Nutrition, sleep , stress, Supplements, psychological, and spiritual therapies, lifestyle medicine and complementary medicine are blended.
Results from functional medicine treatment protocols demonstrate this approach is an excellent and holistic method of treating a wide range of health problems.
One Condition Many Causes, One Cause Many Conditions
Read More about the Benefits of Functional Medicine
Let’s start with what “Functional” means. You might have already heard about Functional Medicine. Functional Medicine addresses the underlying causes of dis-ease engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, Functional Medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms.
Functional medicine practitioners are NOT medical doctors. We are more like “health detectives” and we educate our clients on how they can get healthy with mindful lifestyle choices. We use a toolkit of over 400 resources to investigate the hidden stressors and underlying causes of dysfunction, then use that information to identify healing opportunities.
Check out this video by Mark Hyman, MD, describing why one condition can have many different causes and how one cause can lead to many different conditions.
Some of the resources we use when working with you are:
Intake questionnaire, Functional Medicine Matrix, Timeline of health symptoms, Symptoms Questionnaire and many lifestyle questionnaires including: sleep, stress, toxicity, nutrition, exercise and self-care.
We may use either functional lab testing or bio-energetic screening to investigate the hidden stressors and underlying causes of dysfunction, then use that information to identify healing opportunities.
Even though we look at functional test results or screening information, we don’t diagnose dis-ease or treat symptoms. Symptoms are not “normal”, they’re your body’s way of telling you something is imbalanced. They give us clues into the causal factors of what’s throwing your organs and body out of whack.
We then devise a personalized lifestyle protocol based on the 7 Pillars of health (which stands for Diet, Rest, Exercise, Stress Reduction and Supplements) to rebuild the body and promote healing. Over time on the functional medicine prescription, we’re looking to see your symptoms decrease as you move towards your optimum health and vitality.
These are some examples of how we can work together:
- Changing eating habits.
- Improving sleep patterns.
- Stress reduction techniques such as meditation, visualisation, and mindfulness.
- Incorporating physical activity into your day.
- Creating more joy and fun in your life.
- Letting go of old habits, beliefs and behaviours which are no longer serving you.
Your journey to wellness will be just that—a journey. A journey doesn’t happen over night, in two weeks, or even a month, however with every day, you should start to feel better, better and better.
You current health is a reflection of your whole life so far, it took many many years to feel sick, become exhausted, toxic, gain weight, and create bad habits—that it also takes time, patience and dedication to refocus, rebuild and reverse old habits to new healthier ones and as your perspective shifts over time and you start to feel great, you’ll also find it hard to imagine ever going back to unhealthy habits.
This process IS for you if:
- You are committed to making the lifestyle changes necessary to flourish and are ready to take charge of your own health.
- You fully understand that neither I, nor a drug, supplement, therapy or modality don’t heal you, YOU HEAL YOU.
- You understand this is a process, that change does not happen over night and you must invest your time to get well.
- You are willing to invest in yourself financially to make lasting improvements.
- You’re willing to look at all aspects of your life and how they contribute to your overall well being.
- You visualise and dream of a vibrant life where symptoms or limitations holding you back from enjoying living a purposeful life you love.
This process is NOT for you if:
- You want to continue masking symptoms with medications for the rest of your life—both over-the-counter and prescription.
- You look to other people to “fix” you and are not interested in getting educated on how you can take charge of your health.
- You don’t believe in the concept of “food as medicine” but would rather “count calories”.
- You’re not willing to examine other aspects of your life including stress, emotions or adverse events or trauma in relation to your overall well being.
- You don’t understand it takes an investment of commitment, time and money to get educated and get well.
HOW it works:
- We’ll start out with a timeline of your health history and go over your intake forms to discuss your main concerns.
- We’ll move forward with appropriate functional or bioenergetic screening as needed, to uncover hidden contributors to your symptoms and seek healing opportunities to help you on your journey to vibrant health.
- We’ll go over a customised self-care lifestyle prescription that over time will help these symptoms diminish or disappear.
- We’ll put in place a review process to help you stay on track and accountable. I recommend at least every four to six weeks until your are symptoms free for at least one month.
You should know, we can’t guarantee results as we don’t control the outcomes. We educate you on how to tap into your body’s innate healing ability to promote health and wellness. However, it’s up to you to take action and follow the advice, and I’m here to guide you throughout the process.