Functional Medicine is the field of health care that employs laboratory assessment and early intervention to improve physiological, emotional/cognitive, and physical function.  This health care approach focuses attention on biochemical individuality, metabolic balance, ecological context and unique personal experience in the dynamics of health.  The following are some basic tenets of functional medicine:

1)  Uniqueness of patient
Unlike conventional medicine, functional medicine emphasizes the physiological uniqueness of each patient.  To paraphrase a famous literary quote, proponents of functional medicine believe that each patient's physiological system marches to the beat of a different drummer.  Thus, effective treatment should be custom-tailored specifically to meet each patient's unique needs.  Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory tests support this fundamental principal by analyzing subtle differences in an individual's molecular biochemistry, hormonal secretion patterns, cellular environment, immune responses, etc., allowing for focused, precise, and individualized therapy.

2) Minor symptoms should not be ignored
Even slight imbalances in the body can set the stage for more serious diseases down the road.  This often happens by virtue of a "ripple effect," whereby a "minor" imbalance sets into motion a cascade of biological triggers that eventually leads to sub-optimal health, chronic illness, and degenerative disease.   For this reason, let's-wait-and-see-if-this-develops-into anything-serious" attitude in the most advanced and sensitive technology available, Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory tests can reveal the most subtle imbalances within the body, allowing for timely intervention to prevent much profound health problems in the future.

3) Holistic Approach
The body is best examined and treated as an integrated whole, not simply an isolated set of parts.  For accurate diagnosis and effective treatment, a clinician must consider ALL the possible long-reaching effects of various therapies/treatments on the entire body.  Moreover, by assisting and augmenting the body's natural mechanisms of health, the physician works with the dynamic process of homeostasis, rather than against it.  Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory supports this principal by offering a broad range of functional assessments covering every major system in the body.  By promoting the maximum functioning of all the body's most important functional parameters, Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory assessments allow the practitioner to effectively guide the patient toward restoring inner balance and establishing optimal health.  This powerful strategy offers a much more effective way of achieving long-range results than that afforded by temporary damage control.

WHAT IS FUNCTIONAL ASSESSMENT?
Evaluating organ "function" versus organ "pathology" is one of the principles of functional medicine, and Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory has developed a number of laboratory assessment tools that allow practitioners to understand a patient's functional status.

Our tests are non - or minimally invasive, using samples of stool, urine, saliva, blood, and hair. Our results focus on how well the body is doing its job in six important areas:  digestion (gastrointestinal), nutrition, detoxification/oxidative stress, immunology/allergy, production and regulation of hormones (endocrinology), and heart and blood vessels (cardiovascular).

Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory profiles are designed to uncover the root causes of symptoms, allowing the physician to recommend intervention strategies that will solve the chronic problem.  Many of our tests use special substances and protocols to "challenge" organs, giving the physician an opportunity to evaluate the function of an organ system while it is stressed, thereby providing information that often is missed using conventional laboratory testing.   The unique combination of the individual results provides an integrated analysis that promotes a deeper, more fundamental understanding of many health conditions.

Resource:  Great Smokies Diagnostic Laboratory