Worldwide rates of chronic disease continue to increase every year, and functional medicine provides an effective and replicable model for reversing that trend. Functional medicine combines current science, evidence, and clinical reasoning to offer a comprehensive approach to personalize patient care, focusing on the interconnectedness of bodily systems and their impact on health. This systems-based approach involves a unique evaluation of patient histories and assessments of lifestyle factors that help practitioners identify personalized contributors that may serve as root causes of dysfunction and disease.

Diet is well-known to change health trajectories. The idea behind a “food first” approach is that patients with chronic complaints who change their diet first, before trying pharmaceuticals or perhaps even nutraceuticals, often see dramatic improvements in their health. This approach does not suggest that food can help every patient, nor that dietary changes alone are all that is needed to bring patients to wellness. Instead, it encapsulates the idea that changing eating habits can be an effective first step for many patients, and the improvements that they experience can serve as empowering feedback, motivating them to make other needed lifestyle changes.

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 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 individual’s 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 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.