WHAT is Funtional Medicine?

Functional Medicine involves understanding the origins, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic disease. Hallmarks of a functional medicine approach include:

Patient-centered care The focus of Functional Medicine is on patient-centered care, promoting health as a positive vitality, beyond just the absence of disease. By listening to the patient and learning his or her story, the practitioner brings the patient into the discovery process and tailors treatments that address the individuals unique needs.

An integrative, science-based healthcare approach Functional medicine practitioners look "upstream" to consider the complex web of interactions in the patient’s history, physiology, and lifestyle that can lead to illness. The unique genetic makeup of each patient is considered, along with both internal (mind, body, and spirit) and external (physical and social environment) factors that affect total functioning.

Integrating best evidence based medical practices Functional medicine integrates traditional Western medical practices with what is sometimes considered "alternative" or "integrative" medicine, creating a focus on prevention through nutrition, diet, and exercise; use of the latest laboratory testing and other diagnostic techniques; and prescribed combinations of drugs and/or botanical medicines, supplements, therapeutic diets, detoxification programs, or stress-management techniques.

Functional medicine is a patient centered approach

Conventional medicine usually focuses on diagnosing the name of each disease. On the surface, observed symptoms are only the end result of long timed interaction betw

Functional medicine recognizes the role of genetic influences on disease

Almost every health problem comes from 2 main factors - Genetics and the Environment (which includes factors like nutrition, pollution, work environments etc). It is true that a genetic problem might be the beginning of a disease but if we can identify that weak-point and control the influences from the surrounding environment to support the expression of genes in a desirable way, we can control, retard or prevent the occurrence of those symptoms and diseases.

HOW does Functional Medicine work?

The Functional Medicine has been worked through the fantastic concept of 4 R.
The 4R program lies at the heart of the Functional Medicine Treatment Program.

REPLACE

Replace or Refill the missing part to recreate the balance in the basic system. This step focuses on adjusting the nutrition using supplements such as vitamins, minerals, probiotics and digestive enzymes.

REPAIR

Repair or restore function by stimulating the healing and repairing process of the damage caused by the disease, to shorten the recovery period.

REMOVE

Remove the unwanted factors to eliminate the blockages in normal physiologic functions. That may prevent healing, or sustaining causes of dysfunction. This might include helping remove waste that can’t be eliminated from the body, toxins or heavy metals, bacteria, fungus and parasites, or food allergens.

REBUILD

Rebuild and reinforce new cells regeneration. Help the body to repair itself and allow proper biochemical function to return by various interventions.

WHO will be benefit from Functional Medicine?

Those who have incurable chronic illness will be beneficial by Functional medicine treatment such as Chronic pain syndrome, Myofascial Pain syndrome, Congenital Brain disease, Cerebal palsy, Organic brain syndrome, Chromosome abnormality conditions, Muscular dystrophy, Spinal cord injury, Autistic child, Neurological Degeneration disease etc.

If surgery, taking pills and suppressing or living with symptoms is no longer your answer consider how the comprehensive approach of Functional Medicine can help you to improve or heal your condition.

Typically, conventional Medicine or mainstream practice has strongly emphasized the diagnosis and the standard medical solution many of which have their own side effects.

The Functional Medicine treatment approach is not only based on current scientific research, but also based on experience of both medical doctors and alternative and complementary medicine physicians. This is the reason why Functional Medicine is considered as a perfect bridge linking these two medical practices, and is able to help so many who have been forced to live with an "incurable" condition.

Functional medicine ,as a philosophy, is open to many different interventions that may help a particular condition. There is no fix treatment formula for specific condition. The treatment plan is always needed to be individualized.

For example, when a patient has a problem with constant stress, anxiety and an inability to relax, this causes strong biochemical changes that affects the course of the disease. Functional medicine treatment may include some nutritional treatment such as vitmain B12 treatment, if there is the evidence from laboratory testing confirming the depletion, or sometimes the treatment may have to aim for suppression the chronic inflammation , which lead to cytokine sickness and resulted in emotional changes. In certain conditions , we may consider the mind management method such as meditation to be included in the treatment plan.

Functional Medicine likes to figure out the starting point where disease is coming from, and correct it at the source, whilst Conventional Medicine wishes to find out the endpoints (or symptoms) of the problem and deal with it at the symptom level.

Functional Medicine is interested in you, your life, your well-being, your life style, what you eat, your work environment, your relationship with others, how you relax and what medicine and treatments you have already taken.

Now… Name your disease a curable biochemical function
Not yourself as an incurable

FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE ACCREDITATION

Functional Medicine was first established in the U.S.A. by Jeffrey Bland, PhD, and Dr. Susan Bland. The Institute for Functional Medicine, or IFM is a non-profit organization focusing on providing education to medical personnel and the public, in order to help physicians improve the efficiency of treatment in patients with chronic illness.

The IFM is now accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), an organization that reviews and certifies continuing medical education in the United States. The medical curriculum of IFM has been certified by the ACCME and Continuing Medical Education (CME) credits are awarded to IFM course attendees, and are accepted by the international medical community.

IFM currently provides publications and training courses in Functional Medicine. The Textbooks and Courses include Textbook of Functional Medicine, Applying Functional Medicine in Clinic Practice Course (AFMCP), The Functional Medicine Certification Program (CFMP) and Functional Medicine Advanced Practice Modules(APM).

In 2010 ,the number of physicians who have completed the introductory AFMCP course was 1,534 people, 19 of which came from Thailand. But for the course of Institute For Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner (IFMCP) , up to January of 2014 , there was only one doctor in Asia and only one in Thailand that passed this certification program of IFM.That is Dr.Torsak Tip-pairote, the founder of Better Being Hospital. All of the physicians of Better Being Hospital have also been trained along this educational program. They apply the principles of Functional medicine in clinical practice daily. All Better Being ,physicians are committed to attending all advanced education modules as they are released.

In 2009, the Thailand Institute for Functional Medicine was established in order to promote the principles of functional medicine, and to provide support and education to physicians wishing to apply these principles in their own clinical practice. The physicians at Better Being Hospital are the pioneer in this field and Dr.Torsak Tip-pairote has served as Director of Medical Education for the Institute until present.