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What the Func is Functional Medicine?

Writer's picture: Donna BarleycornDonna Barleycorn

Functional medicine (FM) is a systems biology–based approach that focuses on identifying and addressing the root cause of disease and areas of imbalance – not just symptoms. It looks at where our biochemical and physiologic processes have become dysfunctional.


Chronic illness is a leading cause in healthcare (15 million people in England have a long-term/chronic condition accounting for 50% of all GP appointments, Kings Fund)


Conventional medicine (CM) has its place and after over 20 years working in emergency care, it is lifesaving! But in chronic illness, this manifests ‘throughout’ the body, which defies the modern medicines speciality approach which seeks to divide the body up into different areas of disease and deal with them individually. The traditional medical approach to diagnosing chronic disease also does not take into consideration their sub-clinical stages, which have reached epidemic proportions worldwide. Conventional medicine is often not enough on its own when dealing with chronic illness or when feeling sub optimal.


Based on cutting-edge science, functional medicine offers a whole new way to understand and look at chronic illnesses, or, if you’re feeling unwell and you’ve been told ‘your fine’ and left to figure it out on your own which often ends in getting stuck in a cycle of trial and error to optimise health.


The core concept is chronic illness is an outcome of imbalances in the key underlying physiological systems in your body. When inflammation, blood sugar imbalance, insulin resistance, oxidative stress, hormonal problems, mitochondria dysfunction, immune deficiency, detox capacity, microbiome, pathogens, viruses and so on become out of balance, systemic upset and metabolic chaos occur.


So I’ll be sharing with you a deep educational dive into FM and why I’ve embarked on this in my own personal journey and in part within my healthcare role.


Stay tuned for some functional health tips and to follow advanced functional lab testing analysis and interpretation, investigating sex hormones, adrenals, thyroid, immune, gut, liver, mitochondria, nervous system, DNA, co-infections and so much more!





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Jun 26, 2023
Rated 5 out of 5 stars.

Super interesting and so true - we all need functional medicine!

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