{"id":9065,"date":"2017-11-13T14:00:01","date_gmt":"2017-11-13T20:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/?p=9065"},"modified":"2022-03-21T15:18:19","modified_gmt":"2022-03-21T20:18:19","slug":"functional-medicine-101-introducing-dr-alaina-gemelas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wholehealthchicago.com\/blog\/2017\/11\/13\/functional-medicine-101-introducing-dr-alaina-gemelas","title":{"rendered":"Functional Medicine 101 + Introducing Dr. Alaina Gemelas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Functional Medicine is without a doubt the fastest growing medical specialty of the 21st<\/sup> century. Public interest in it and public acceptance of it continues to please me. Every day I hear the sentence, \u201cI made this appointment because I wanted a functional approach.\u201d When I ask patients how they learned about it, the answer is a variation on \u201cDr. Google.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We\u2019ve been practicing functional medicine<\/a> at WholeHealth Chicago for decades and many of our practitioners regularly attend professional meetings to learn the latest advances. While some mainstream MDs and DOs do use functional medicine tests and treatments, their numbers are small. The vast majority of conventional physicians are pretty clueless about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thus I\u2019m truly delighted that Alaina Gemelas, DC, a specialist in functional medicine<\/a>, joins WholeHealth Chicago this week. Because Dr. Gemelas (the G is soft, like \u201cgem,\u201d her nickname) is a chiropractic physician who has chosen to concentrate on functional medicine, this seems like an ideal time for a quick review of how exactly functional medicine (FM) works.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Functional medicine, the basics
<\/strong>The FM model is a patient-centered, science-based approach that at its core is a collaboration between patient and practitioner to address the underlying causes of dysfunction and promote wellness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

FM practitioners focus on root causes rather than symptoms. They understand that dysfunction may have a variety of causes and that, as a result, FM treatment must be targeted to the individual, not the dysfunction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because FM tests can be ordered by any health care professional and treatment usually involves lifestyle changes and nutritional supplements rather than Big Pharma, functional tests are widely employed by chiropractors, naturopaths, nutritional counselors. Most FM practitioners are happy to remind you that correctly taken prescription medications, the fourth leading cause of death in the US, and are rarely needed when FM tests show abnormalities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let me make four important points about FM.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1–When you go to a doctor with symptoms, the odds are in your favor that the cause of those symptoms is dysfunction rather than an actual disease.
<\/strong>Functional symptoms are your body\u2019s response to the situation in which you\u2019ve placed it. The burning sensation in your chest that awakens you from sleep is not a heart attack or cancer of the esophagus, but rather the lasagna-chianti you were semi-consciously devouring while watching \u201cCurb Your Enthusiasm.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Your afternoon fatigue crash is likely not the first sign of serious illness, but rather a signal from your exhausted adrenal glands that there\u2019s too much stress in your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two major factors distinguish functional from disease-based symptoms:<\/p>\n\n\n\n