{"id":521,"date":"2016-05-17T01:37:36","date_gmt":"2016-05-17T01:37:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/healthykidshappykids.com\/?p=521"},"modified":"2017-12-11T22:18:21","modified_gmt":"2017-12-12T06:18:21","slug":"what-is-functional-medicine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/","title":{"rendered":"What Is Functional Medicine?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"health

www.bigstockphoto.com<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Functional medicine is the foundation of my holistic pediatric practice. It\u2019s an increasingly popular term that you may have heard about from awesome docs like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Frank Lipman, and Dr. Oz.<\/p>\n

So what exactly is Functional Medicine?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The goal of Functional Medicine is to help each individual body thrive to its fullest potential. Shouldn\u2019t that be what medicine is all about?<\/p>\n

Health is a state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being,<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

And not merely the absence of disease or infirmity.<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

(World Health Organization, 1948)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The World Health Organization GOT IT<\/em><\/strong> <\/span>in 1948. But somewhere along the road, conventional medicine forgot it. When something goes wrong with our bodies, when our kids develop a chronic condition of any sort, conventional medicine looks at what\u2019s going on as something to attack \u2013 something to wage war against with drugs and destroy. Of course, these drugs are sometimes necessary. But in many instances they\u2019re not:<\/p>\n

    \n
  • IF<\/em><\/strong> <\/span>we could figure out the ROOT CAUSE <\/em><\/strong>of why our kids are sick<\/li>\n
  • IF<\/em><\/strong> <\/span>we could figure out how to build up our kids\u2019 bodies so that they could truly HEAL<\/em><\/strong> from the inside out and come out stronger and healthier than ever<\/li>\n
  • IF<\/em><\/strong> <\/span>we could figure out how to truly help our children THRIVE<\/em><\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

    This is the promise that Functional Medicine holds.<\/p>\n

    Functional Medicine, like homeopathic medicine (link to blogpost), takes a truly individualized approach to our kids\u2019 health. The Functional Medicine approach is very different from the conventional medicine approach that so many of you are used to when working with your regular docs. It is the future of medicine<\/em><\/strong><\/span>, at least that\u2019s what I think it should be.<\/p>\n

    Functional medicine looks at our unique genetic potential and biochemical makeup. It is how<\/em><\/strong> our unique individual makeup interacts with all of the environmental and lifestyle factors that we are exposed to (from environmental toxins, to the foods we eat, the water we drink, and even the thoughts we have), that results in signs of wellness or illness.<\/p>\n

    When your child has a chronic health condition, functional medicine tries to figure out what went wrong<\/em><\/strong>. What on earth happened in the interplay between your kids\u2019 genetic makeup and her environment to cause such imbalance that she is now sick \u2013 whether they have chronic constipation or reflux, eczema, autoimmune illness, or autism. Functional medicine tries to understand what the core clinical imbalances<\/em><\/strong> are in your child\u2019s body. Once we know that, instead of fighting against your child\u2019s body, we can figure out what to do to restore balance<\/em><\/strong> and heal your child from the inside out. This may include medications, but more often involves optimizing your kids\u2019 diet dietary, nutritional supplements, herbal medicine, and lifestyle changes.<\/p>\n

    Your kid\u2019s official \u201cdiagnosis\u201d matters less to me than figuring out what went wrong in their little bodies to cause them to be sick, identifying the root cause of their illness. We can then use this knowledge to understand out how to reverse their illness and get them well.<\/p>\n

    It is much more important to know what sort of a patient has a disease,<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    Then what sort of a disease a patient has<\/em><\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

    (Sir William Osler, famous physician in the 19th<\/sup> century, referred to as the \u201cFather of Modern Medicine\u201d)<\/p>\n

    Let\u2019s take an example. If your child has eczema, your kids\u2019 regular doc will likely recommend steroid creams, which can thin and discolor the skin, and in the worst case scenario, get absorbed into your kids\u2019 body and stunt their growth or weaken their bones (yes \u2013 I have a little boy in my practice that this very thing happened to!). And if his eczema gets worse, then you\u2019ll be asked to move onto a stronger immunosuppressant creams that could potentially cause cancer. These topical creams do nothing to cure the problem. They are only bandaids. It\u2019s like pouring little buckets of water on a forest fire.<\/p>\n

    But, if we could identify what the core imbalances are in your kid\u2019s body that is continuing to feed the fire, we could put the fire out from the ground up and prevent it from coming back!<\/p>\n

    What if we found that your kid had:<\/p>\n

      \n
    • A sensitivity to eggs and bananas (something called a \u201cleaky gut\u201d)<\/li>\n
    • An overgrowth of yeast in her gut<\/li>\n
    • An imbalance of essential fatty acids<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

      And all we needed to do to cure her eczema was to remove eggs and bananas from her diet for 3 months and give her nutritional supplements like probiotics and a 369 fish oil blend? Would you be up for giving this a try so that eventually you could get her off all her steroid creams AND<\/em><\/strong> have her come out the other end even healthier than before?<\/p>\n

      If you answered YES!!!<\/span>,<\/em><\/strong> then Healthy Kids Happy Kids is for you!<\/em><\/strong> Stick with me and we\u2019ll help your child thrive together!<\/p>\n

      Sign up and stay tuned for more advice and adventures with me, holistic mama doc, Elisa Song!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

        Functional medicine is the foundation of my holistic pediatric practice. It\u2019s an increasingly popular term that you may have heard about from awesome docs like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Frank Lipman, and Dr. Oz. So what exactly is Functional Medicine? The goal of Functional Medicine is<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false},"categories":[18,1],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nWhat Is Functional Medicine? - Healthy Kids Happy Kids<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"What Is Functional Medicine? - Healthy Kids Happy Kids\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"  Functional medicine is the foundation of my holistic pediatric practice. It\u2019s an increasingly popular term that you may have heard about from awesome docs like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Frank Lipman, and Dr. Oz. So what exactly is Functional Medicine? The goal of Functional Medicine is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Healthy Kids Happy Kids\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-05-17T01:37:36+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2017-12-12T06:18:21+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/bigstock-Alternatives-234032.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"555\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Elisa Song, MD\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Elisa Song, MD\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/\",\"name\":\"What Is Functional Medicine? - Healthy Kids Happy Kids\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/bigstock-Alternatives-234032.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2016-05-17T01:37:36+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2017-12-12T06:18:21+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/#\/schema\/person\/00aa6cbc78a4d96d27e01b5af3c044d9\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/bigstock-Alternatives-234032.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/bigstock-Alternatives-234032.jpg\",\"width\":900,\"height\":555},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"What Is Functional Medicine?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/\",\"name\":\"Healthy Kids Happy Kids\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/#\/schema\/person\/00aa6cbc78a4d96d27e01b5af3c044d9\",\"name\":\"Elisa Song, MD\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4407b00859cf9e8ad32ca53e7652671b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4407b00859cf9e8ad32ca53e7652671b?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Elisa Song, MD\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/author\/healt472_wp\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"What Is Functional Medicine? - Healthy Kids Happy Kids","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"What Is Functional Medicine? - Healthy Kids Happy Kids","og_description":"  Functional medicine is the foundation of my holistic pediatric practice. It\u2019s an increasingly popular term that you may have heard about from awesome docs like Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Frank Lipman, and Dr. Oz. So what exactly is Functional Medicine? The goal of Functional Medicine is","og_url":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/","og_site_name":"Healthy Kids Happy Kids","article_published_time":"2016-05-17T01:37:36+00:00","article_modified_time":"2017-12-12T06:18:21+00:00","og_image":[{"width":900,"height":555,"url":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/bigstock-Alternatives-234032.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Elisa Song, MD","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Elisa Song, MD","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/","url":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/","name":"What Is Functional Medicine? - Healthy Kids Happy Kids","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/bigstock-Alternatives-234032.jpg","datePublished":"2016-05-17T01:37:36+00:00","dateModified":"2017-12-12T06:18:21+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/#\/schema\/person\/00aa6cbc78a4d96d27e01b5af3c044d9"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/bigstock-Alternatives-234032.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/bigstock-Alternatives-234032.jpg","width":900,"height":555},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/2016\/05\/17\/what-is-functional-medicine\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"What Is Functional Medicine?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/#website","url":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/","name":"Healthy Kids Happy Kids","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/#\/schema\/person\/00aa6cbc78a4d96d27e01b5af3c044d9","name":"Elisa Song, MD","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4407b00859cf9e8ad32ca53e7652671b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/4407b00859cf9e8ad32ca53e7652671b?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Elisa Song, MD"},"url":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/author\/healt472_wp\/"}]}},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/07\/bigstock-Alternatives-234032.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=521"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1893,"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/521\/revisions\/1893"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=521"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=521"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vps37072.inmotionhosting.com\/~healt472\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=521"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}