FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE

Integrative / functional medicine practised by Dr Terry Terebro at Thrive Health, advocates using conventional medicine alongside alternative modalities such as nutrition, lifestyle modification, and the use of bio-identical hormones in order to optimise hormonal level, health and more. It encompasses anti-ageing medicine and aims to improve one's quality of life.

Conventional medicine is excellent when dealing with emergency cases, whether it be physical trauma, viral infections, bacterial infections or the need for surgery.

Integrative medicine, on the other hand, employs the basic concepts of conventional medicine as a base, in that it still requires the physician to diagnose a disorder and then treat the symptoms. However, functional medicine seeks to find the root cause of the patient's imbalances. It requires the physician to search for the 'why' instead of the 'what'.

Functional medicine is a personalised model that encourages patients and practitioners to work as a team to achieve a person's highest expression of health.

This is an in-depth process with regular follow-ups to ensure that the patient is progressing steadily towards improved, sustainable, long-term health.

An functional medicine consultation process is as follows:

Initial consultation of about 45min:

• This consists of gathering an extensive history and listening to the patient's 'life story' to ascertain how they got 'here'.
• A standard GP check-up will be performed.
• Comprehensive lab tests may be specified at this point.
• An electronic body composition analysis will be undertaken to highlight the long-term risks associated with that person's current weight/muscle/fat ratio. It will also serve as a baseline to manage weight and body composition in the future.
• A follow up visit will be scheduled at this point.

Second consultation of about 30min:

• A set of guidelines will be suggested.
• Depending on the outcome of the various tests, it may be suggested that the patient alters his/her diet and take up a specific form of exercise to optimise their body composition.

Here are some real-world examples:

• A man with high blood sugar, with a high body fat to muscle mass ratio and with higher than normal oestrogen levels, will be guided to start exercising, commence a special diet and take nutraceutical supplements to reduce oestrogen and improve blood sugar levels.
• Through this process we may find that a woman has an allergy to dairy. By removing dairy from her diet and improving detoxification with vitamins and supplements, within a short period of time her headaches, joint pain and stomach pain all resolve. This patient won't need to be on any long-term medication.

The doctor and patient will then decide, as a team, how many and how often to have follow-up appointments. For example, if rapid weight-loss is the goal then a person may be required to come for a body composition analysis and diet modification twice a month. The diagnoses and recommended treatment will determine the length of the programme and the need for follow-up consultations.