Invest in Your Most Valuable Asset—Your Health
When you visit a functional medicine practitioner, you can expect to spend a lot more time with them than you would with a conventional provider. You can also expect to do a lot of talking, as a large part of functional medicine is exploring your detailed personal and family history, the circumstances around your first symptoms, and the experiences you may have had with other healthcare providers. The Institute for functional medicine teaches practitioners how to uncover the underlying causes of your health problems through careful history taking, physical examination, and laboratory testing.
By investing this time and effort up front, many people find that working with an IFM-trained provider helps them get to the bottom of perplexing problems that have eluded other clinicians for years.
PATIENT TIPS FOR WORKING WITH A FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE PRACTITIONER
1.Once you are ready to begin your functional medicine journey, it will be time to find a provider in IFM’s Find A Practitioner listing. Clinicians trained by IFM are the most highly respected and sought-after in the field. Patients may search for functional medicine practitioners using a variety of criteria, including by specialty, location, and accepted payment methods.
2.To help you find the best-fit provider, we have prepared some questions for you to ask practitioners either prior to or during your first appointment. These questions are meant to help maximize the success of your functional medicine experience. QUESTIONS FOR FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE PRACTITIONERS
3.After you choose a provider, the hard-but-rewarding work begins. First, both you and the functional medicine practitioner agree to be equal partners in meeting your health goals. Both of you will then create a healthcare plan, set expectations, and learn which lifestyle modifications will help achieve your goals. Finally, it will be time to implement the plan in action, with regular check-ins and revisions where necessary. LEARN MORE ABOUT BECOMING THE EMPOWERED PATIENT
4.To continue learning more about functional medicine, below is a select list of books, magazines, blogs, podcasts, and recipes that take a functional medicine approach to your health and well-being.