Traditional Medical Model vs. Functional Medicine Model

Hey guys, this is Dr. Jason Shumard, with Integrative Wellness Centre of San Diego and also the author of How to reverse your diabetes and thyroid epidemic. So, today, I really wanted to give you an overview of my office and what we do in the practice; we have an integrative wellness model. We do have other services in the office, but the focus of today will be our functional medicine, and what we do specifically in what patients we work with. But more importantly, the common question that I get is what’s unique about what we do, compared to the traditional medical model. Most patients that we see come into the practice are under some sort of medical care, They’re seeing their primary care physician, endocrinologist, or some other medical doctor help manage their situation or manage their case with their disease process. They usually come to see me because they’re not getting good results and are looking for an alternative, or they’ve been referred to our office, as we’ve seen over the years with the thousands of patients we’ve helped with their chronic degenerative diseases. So today, I’d like to take some time to give you a better understanding of our mindset or approach, as well as how we help our patients achieve optimal health. I always say that the most important component, the most important doctor you’ll ever meet. And the most important doctor who will ever help you the most is your own body. Most people suffering from chronic degenerative diseases are unable to heal because their bodies are no longer functioning. So it’s my job, or the job of a functional medicine doctor, to figure out what’s really going on with that person, what’s going on with them that’s contributing to their disease and causing their disease, or what symptoms they’re experiencing. So today, I’d like to focus on what that means and help you understand the difference between a traditional medical model and a functional medicine model. So most of us understand what traditional medicine entails; you go to your doctor, and they run some tests on you. Then, through this, disseminate that information and recommend some sort of solution. Now, typically, in the traditional model, there are three different treatment approaches. There are three different treatment approaches in the traditional model. The first treatment approach will be pharmaceutical medication, pharmaceuticals, or drugs, right? So, if you have high blood pressure, they will give you medication to help you lower your blood pressure. If you have high cholesterol, they’re going to give you medication for cholesterol. And if you have blood sugar, elevation, and so on, the other treatment is going to be injections. So it’s possible that it’s a corticosteroid. Perhaps it’s something for your knees, such as hyaluronic acid or PRP stem cells or some other type of injection, which you may require if you have diabetes and take insulin as an injection, or something similar, where it’s more of an injectable situation. And the final one will be surgery. Now, surgeries are the last step. But that’s pretty much the extent of the model: run some tests, and what will be the treatment. Is it going to be a medication? Is it something that will be injected? Is it going to be a surgical procedure? But, if you think about it, in most cases, those three types of treatments are encasing what that model shows now, and every single one of those treatments is based on symptoms. So if you have elevated blood sugar, elevated blood pressure, stomach pain, digestive issues, loose bowels, neuropathy, swelling, water retention headaches, if there’s something a rash on your skin or whatever it is, those are the treatment options that can be based on addressing whatever they’re seeing. So most of the analysis is being done in a traditional medical model that we usually see. What options do we have to treat that? Is it going to be a pharmaceutical, and that pharmaceutical can be topical, oral, or injection-type things like insulin, for example. Is it going to be a treatment option for an injection? Is it a severe enough problem that necessitates surgery, such as if you have a heart attack or an occlusion in the arteries, those kinds of things, or are they still symptomatic? For example, if you have a broken leg and symptoms, pain, broken into fixed the leg type of thing, but it’s still more of a symptomatic basis type of thing. So now that’s going to be the traditional medical model that we see. And what is the option, what is the treatment that we’re going to use of choice that’s going to help you feel better, that’s going to help you manage the situation. A traditional medical model, and at least in chronic degenerative diseases, is going to be managed. Now the only thing I would say in a traditional medical model would be in the sense of emergency or non-emergency situation, they are the best. They get the gold medal every single time. That’s what they’re trained to do. If you’re in a major car accident, you’ve got multiple injuries. So in emergency situations, the traditional medical care or model, they are the number one and they’re the best. But in chronic degenerative diseases, unfortunately, they fall pretty far behind. But for most individuals, their belief pattern is it’s their only option. The only option is to go to my doctor and have some tests done to figure out what’s wrong. Then I’ll have to take a pharmaceutical or another treatment, such as an injection, to get the situation under control. And it is in this environment that the functional medicine model thrives. Because this is where we can step in and really take care of the entire problem. So remember, the whole mindset is that our bodies are the most intelligent, best doctors. So if you have a chronic degenerative disease, something must be wrong, right? So our bodies are meant to heal, it’s meant to function appropriately. If it’s no longer working properly, something is wrong, something is broken, or something has gone haywire. And this must be discovered. So in a functional medicine mile model, we take the approach of what is the cause of what is happening beneath the surface, if you have elevated blood pressure, what is causing your elevated blood pressure, if you have elevated cholesterol, what is causing your elevated cholesterol. Whatever the symptom is, something is driving that to create that symptom. So just like if you had a sore throat, a headache, and you had a fever, it’s potentially an infection that could be viral or bacterial. So, you’re going to address the infection, because the infection is causing those symptoms, which is then going to help your body get into a place that it can heal. This is no different. So the goal, as a functional medicine practitioner, is to take a step backward, and not try to figure out what can we give you as a solution to help you feel better.But what are our options? What can we learn or discover? What is it that we can discover what is truly causing your symptoms, what is truly causing your dysfunction, or what is truly causing your poor health? And then we can figure out a way to get your body back in a better state of health so that healing can occur on its own, just like you have been given as an innate, innate response for your body to heal.That is something we are capable of. As a functional medicine provider, it is our goal to figure out what that means, what needs to happen, and what analysis will help us discover what that is so that we can come up with the best solution to help you address that problem. So what I’ve done is made a little chart here to hopefully help you understand what I’m talking about. What we want to discuss here is that we have this state right here where someone is normal. This is referred to as homeostasis in some circles. They’re in a place where everything is in order. When you get an infection, your body heals itself; when you get a cut, your body heals itself. And you’re doing well, you’re functioning optimally, you’re doing everything you want to do, you have no symptoms, nothing. This is what we want to strive for the majority of our lives. What happens now is that something starts to break down inside the body, and this time you won’t have symptoms, you won’t have problems, and you might not even notice it happening. This is referred to as di ease. So, rather than a disease, we can also say dysfunction. Things are breaking down; this could be at the cellular level, or it could be one of the systems in organ tissue; things are not working optimally, and they are beginning to fail. Again, at this point, the person is not going to start experiencing symptoms; rather, the body is not functioning properly as a whole. However, you may not even realize it isn’t working properly. Eventually, we begin to experience symptoms as we progress down this path. At this point, symptoms begin to emerge, and we’re now entering the traditional model, in which someone will go to their doctor and say, “Hey, Doc, I’m not feeling well, something’s off, something’s wrong.” As the symptoms worsen over time, you will eventually enter a disease state. And that disease could be a variety of things. It could be cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, or an autoimmune disease, but whatever the disease is. There are multiple amounts of diseases out there. But as a disease continues, the worsening of your health continues. And then eventually, we hit the bottom, which is death. As a result, if this disease is not treated properly, it will eventually kill you. And this is what usually happens over time, which hasn’t really been discussed. So all of this model, which is the traditional model, they’re attempting to address symptoms, manage the disease, and slow down death. But eventually, because they’re just trying to handle the symptoms and not fix the problem, the death situation is inevitable, and a functional model, what we typically see is we may see them here in the disease or symptom stage. But our goal is not to manage this; rather, we want to guide them in backing up this model. So we want to see them return from disease states with symptoms while using this function. So determining what is causing the symptoms. So, what is the cause of the symptoms, what is the cause of the disease, there is always a cause for whatever is going on, there is always a cause, there is always something harmed. The problem is for many of you, you’re just not being evaluated comprehensively enough. And this is where the functional medicine model comes into play. Because once we start to figure out what the cause is, then we can start to figure out a solution. And that solution will start to move you from symptoms, up to disease. Now, your body is still not normal, it’s still not functional, but it’s moving back upwards into this functional model because we’re improving the function of your health. And then eventually, as things continue to improve, as we’re really not manipulating, but improving the overall functioning, guiding the body to a place that it can start healing again, it can go back into this normal state where you’re healing again, optimally, you’re healing again, where you should not homeostasis. Now there’s one more step that we’re always trying to achieve and we’re working on a functional medicine model. I kind of gave it away there, and that next stage is optimal. How can we get your body to function optimally? What do we have to do to change your lifestyle so we can maintain this, and if you can maintain this and create a proper lifestyle for the rest of your life, you will be less likely to go down this path again? Of course, we’re all going to die at some point. But wouldn’t we want that to be our standard of living? A health-related quality? We believe I asked this question to patients regularly. How long do you want to live, and they said, “I don’t want to live past the age of 60.” Why not, I reason. Why don’t we get old? And it’s almost as if we expect to be decrypted by the time we reach those ages. Is it because we have the disease and all these problems that we are breaking down? It doesn’t have to be that way. So, in my opinion, your health is an investment. Why can’t we do the same thing with our money as we do with our 401ks, IRAs, and other investments? You’re investing for your future, to have money or finances to provide for yourself when you’re retired, so why can’t we do the same thing with our money? Until eventually, the time comes, when we are no longer able to function anymore, that’s gonna happen to all of us. However, if we want to seize the best opportunity, we can live this way. This is what we do as a functional medicine model. This is the functional or aligned health model, if you will, that will help you live your best life. So you have a choice, not one or the other, right? We still need this, as I mentioned in the traditional model because they fuel and fire up in the emergent model. So we need medicine in emergency situations. We need medicine for pharmaceuticals. But once the emergency state is over, we must figure out how to return to this optimal state.So it’s interesting when someone goes into a hospital, they have a heart attack, or they have a stroke, and they leave the hospital, the doctor saying “oh, you’re fine”. You can now be released; however, you should consult with your doctor. And now they believe they are healthy because the symptom has vanished. No, you’re still in the first stage of this disease state. There are probably still some symptoms going on, and you need to figure out how you got up here. This is where the functional model and the functional health model come into play. And this is the case. So, if you want to get to a point where you can have this quality of lifestyle for the rest of your life, and you don’t want to wait until the disastrous occurrence occurs, or potentially death, which is what we all share this mindset of, of getting better now, not waiting until the problem persists. And we’ve reached a point where we can’t do anything about it. That’s where you need to be in the medical model; we need to focus on the sooner. If you’re in a position where you’re managing your chronic degenerative diseases and looking for another option, this could be the option for you. I think it’s important that we understand the difference, because I get this question so many times throughout the day, when I’m evaluated and meeting with patients because they’re unclear, they think that the traditional model, the pharmaceutical model, the injection surgeries, the medical model are the only option. Well it’s not, we have the choice to live a healthy quality of life. Unfortunately, for most of you, you don’t know how to get there. Because you don’t know how to do the proper evaluation, you don’t know what is right to disseminate the information, to put the customized plan of action for your body’s needs. Just like whatever profession you do, I don’t really think about that.I don’t know how to put a roof on or do any type of construction. That’s not my model, and it’s not what I do because I’m an expert in this field. This functional model is my specialty. And we can help; we’ve helped 1000s of patients over the years to regain optimal health and live that quality of life for the rest of their lives. Hopefully, this helps you understand the difference between what we do in the functional medicine model and what we do in the traditional medical model. And if it isn’t, please post your questions in the comments section. I’d be delighted to respond to them. I do respond to them myself. Because I believe it is critical that I be the one to respond to them. If you have any other questions about your health, or if you want me to do a video on something that you’re struggling with, aren’t sure about, or are looking for answers about, I’m more than happy to do those videos for you as well. And lastly, if you’re at a place now where you’re looking for this, you’re looking for optimal health, you’re looking to strive above and beyond where you already are, then reach out to us, we’d love to help out as much as possible.I’ve included my contact information below. So you now have information on how to contact us. So we can arrange a virtual one-on-one meeting to determine whether what we do in our office is appropriate for your needs. If you believe that the functional model is the best approach for you. I hope you found today worthwhile. This video is a little longer than usual.But I believe it is critical that we understand the difference between what a traditional model does and what we do, and I hope that has helped you today. Again, if there is anything else I can do in the future, please let me know if this was useful information, similar to our page. So please like our YouTube page as well because we have lots of content that are coming out regularly. So make sure you’re receiving that information. Share it with your friends and family on social media. I guarantee you that someone in your network requires this information. So make certain you’re sending it to them. I’m looking for this information and the assistance they require to reclaim their quality of life. Hope you guys have a great rest of your day. Take care.