I am glad you are interested in starting a functional medicine practice. Here’s why:
We all have pet peeves. My main one is our national healthcare bill reaching $4.5 trillion annually, around $13,000 per year for every man, woman and child in the US.
Whether you believe we should pay for it in taxes or take care of it via the private sector, $4.5 trillion is a crippling amount of money. One reason for this high bill is our healthcare system, which focuses on finding the best “patentable” solution for chronic health problems—not always the best solution. This habit drives up costs. We are getting sicker as a society because our important health issues are being ignored.
Take small steps forward
In the mid-19th century, Ignas Semmelweis was mocked when he suggested surgeons wash their hands between patient encounters. He was ignored and told his ideas were unproven.
The same sorts of people who mocked Semmelweis are in charge of healthcare today; they just have different things to suppress. Those surgeons a couple of centuries ago finally relented and decided surgeons should wash their hands, but common sense at times still eludes them.
The following are a few more unproven ideas typically suppressed by our current healthcare system but important if you want to practice functional medicine:
- Subclinical vitamin deficiencies may have a lot to do with many of our diseases and symptoms.
- The environment is making us sick.
- Our digestive systems are the key to many health problems, including autoimmune disease, allergies and even autism.
- The bacteria in our intestines are vital to keeping us healthy. They affect our immune system, inflammation levels, even our mood.
- Balancing the nervous system through chiropractic care can help the body heal itself.
- You can reduce inflammation and even heal your body with diet.
The prevailing attitude held by those in authority in our healthcare system is the model put forward by the pharmaceutical industry: “It’s not a real treatment unless someone holds a patent for it.” Even if they pay lip service to some of the above concepts, these ideas never work their way into regular treatment.
The result is that medicine fails miserably at treating chronic health problems—and it is expensive.
The antidote to the high healthcare bill
Since we don’t prescribe medications, DCs are physicians who are not beholden to the pharmaceutical industry, but somewhere along the line we defined ourselves as musculoskeletal experts, which has hurt some practices. (Another one of my pet peeves.) Insurance money is drying up.
Look beyond the musculoskeletal and think of treating people who are chronically ill. We have no shortage of sick people who are not being helped by traditional medicine. By starting a functional medicine practice, you can be part of the solution to our healthcare woes. Your practice will grow, you will help more people, and you will make more money.
Functional medicine: Start simple
Considering a functional medicine practice but intimidated by the thought of getting started? You can overcome that feeling by learning nutrition the same way you learned reading. You started with simple words and sentences, then moved on to more complicated ones. You can apply this method to functional medicine, too. Some conditions lend themselves to simple turnkey solutions, so begin with those. Later, more complicated cases will teach you new things, and you will gain skill.
My functional medicine series program is set up the same way, giving you the easiest information first. It will enable you to learn a few basic things and quickly be able to help patients.
The material in these articles represents a way to approach these problems, not the way to approach these problems. Many different solutions will work, but you have to start somewhere. As you get better at this, you will probably find better ways to do things.
You are not learning to treat disease; you are fixing infrastructure. This fact explains why many different approaches work.
Check out parts two and three of this article series for the next steps to transforming your practice into one that utilizes functional medicine. Next up is part two, focusing on communicating and educating patients.
PAUL VARNAS, DC, DACBN, is a graduate of the National College of Chiropractic and has had a functional medicine practice for 34 years. He is the author of several books and has taught nutrition at the National University of Health Sciences. For a free PDF of “Instantly Have a Functional Medicine Practice” or a patient handout on the anti-inflammatory diet, email him at paulgvarnas@gmail.com.
