What is Functional Medicine?
And how can it help me...
Western/Conventional vs. Functional Medicine
Functional medicine is more of a holistic system view that looks at the body as a complex, interconnected system instead of a mechanism of individual organs and parts. Functional medicine focus on optimal body function by helping the body function in the best way possible. In addition, functional medicine understands that every individual is different – from genetics to biochemical makeup. Because of this, functional medicine has a personalized approach for each patient – with both diagnostics and treatment. Our functional approach relies heavily on understanding a patient’s unique needs.
Functional medicine not only works to repair problems in organs but the rest of the body and only using natural supplements and herbs mostly. While it does incorporate some traditional medicine when necessary, functional medicine aims to use only natural ways to fix health problems.
Our Functional medicine practice also heavily highlights lifestyle changes to better resolve health issues, such as exercise, sleep patterns, diet, stress levels, and other aspects of life.
What's the Difference?
New prospective patients often ask us, “How does functional medicine vary from western/conventional medicine?” Many used to ask why they should choose us over their western/conventional medical doctor. The problem is that people are feeling worse, and their doctor tells them nothing is wrong with them. Chronic conditions and diseases are on the rise. More and more kids are suffering from asthma, allergies, and autism than ever before. Obesity is now at epidemic levels, and more people are showing up with digestive disorders and a host of other chronic illnesses, including chronic fatigue, IBS, autoimmune diseases, and cancers. Truth is, western/conventional and big pharma medicine has not made us any healthier but worse.
Functional medicine is more distinct and better mostly because we focus on rooted health issues. When you talk about your symptoms to a western/conventional doctor, he/she either suggests surgery or prescribe medications to help eliminate your illness. While our diagnosis doesn’t stop at your symptom or illness level, we continue to peel away the onion layers to identify the source of your illness, which is almost always at a cellular level.
Our goal is to restore your health instead of merely eliminating symptoms & sickness. As a result, we tend to be more pro-active and our patients commonly feel much better after receiving our treatments, returning to their favorite activities that they would never have been able to engage in, or at a level they once did. We find the underlying illnesses that may not yet be showing signs, helping to prevent the onset of future diseases like the ones listed below.
Gut Imbalances
Almost 80% of our immune system is found in our digestive tract, and there is a strong link between gut health and 95% of most illnesses. With every patient we see, we look for common issues such as small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO), dysbiosis (an imbalance between healthy and unhealthy strains of bacteria), yeast overgrowth, and gut inflammation. You might think gut problems would invariably manifest as digestive symptoms, but that’s not always the case. Although, unfortunately, almost every patient these days have Gut issues that need to be handled, impaired gut issues can also be displayed as anxiety/depression, cognitive impairment, joint pain, skin rashes, sleep disruption, brain fog, or fatigue. Regardless of the symptoms, we always look at the gut as a starting point.
Auto-Immune Activation
Yes, our immune systems are amazingly complex and powerful. Unfortunately, we are seeing a monumental rise in autoimmune conditions such as Sjogren’s syndrome, Ulcerative Colitis, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Hashimoto’s thyroid disease, Crohn’s disease, and much more. Western/ Conventional medicine has few therapy options for autoimmune diseases. Western/Conventional Doctors often use inadequate and expensive medications to solve these issues. Unfortunately, this rarely handles the main question, “what is causing these immune system overactivations”? At 360, this is our starting point. From this point, we work to identify and treat root causes, enabling your immune system to calm down and reset. This approach helps alleviate the associated symptoms. Gut issues and chronic infections are powerful triggers for autoimmune activation and must be addressed to reset and heal.
Hormone Imbalances
Your body’s hormonal systems and gut is a delicate balance and communication that needs to be carefully investigated within the functions of the various systems like the thyroid, adrenal, and sex hormones – estrogen, progesterone, and testosterone, to the metabolic hormones like insulin, leptin, and adiponectin. We combine and incorporate acupuncture, detox and nutritional interventions, herbal supplements, vitamins, and nutrients to lifestyle and behavior modifications to normalize hormonal systems and their function as appropriate and in careful understanding of each unique case.
Chronic Infections
Studying microbiology, Dr. Jasmine believes our bodies are basically elaborate transport mechanisms for other microbes, which we maintain in our bodies in staggering numbers. While numerous microorganisms are essential for our health, many can trigger and cause chronic illnesses. In addition, many pathogens can exist as persistent infections or be reactivated when our bodies become imbalanced, causing various symptoms. These might include conditions like Lyme disease, coinfections, Epstein-Barr (EBV), or other viruses, resulting in chronic inflammatory response syndrome (or mold illness). Identifying these chronic infections and their impacts on your health can be complicated and subtle, but it is critical to deliver the proper therapy, so you can get better.
Inflammation
Inflammation is another critical driver of many, if not all, chronic diseases, including Alzheimer’s, chronic fatigue, coronary heart disease, and diabetes, just to name a few. There are numerous factors that contribute to inflammation. However, we are able to modulate inflammation through interventions such as gut and detox protocols, treatment of chronic infections, exercise, sleep, and more. Our objective is to uncover where the hidden inflammation issue are and eliminate it fast, understand why the issue started in the first place, and clean up any other collateral damage.
Genetics & Epigenetic's
While many think of genetics as fixed and unchangeable, only a very small minority of illnesses are determined entirely by your genetic makeup. The reality is, our lifestyle choices, environmental exposures, and internal body conditions regularly communicate with your genes, switching them on and off, changing which enzymes and proteins are produced, and how our body functions. You may have heard, “genetics load the gun, but the environment pulls the trigger.” Epigenetic’s is a growing area of study for us on how our genes are impacted by what we are exposed to. We can think of them as tags that switch genes on or off. While it all may sound complicated, the important take-home message is that your genes are not always in control. You are and thats good news!
Food & Nutrition as Medicine
It is often said that food can either be medicine or poison. At 360, we believe food and water are key foundations of good health, and we recommend nutritional supplementation with every patient we work with. Unfortunately, we live in a time when our foods are becoming more toxic and nutritionally depleted. In addition, too many “food-like” products are highly processed and create chronic inflammation in our bodies. We show you a nutritional and hydration strategy that provides a more optimal option that helps minimize inflammation and supports your body’s system to function more optimally.
Stress & Allostatic Load
Allostatic load is “the wear and tear on the body,” accumulating Dayley as we are exposed to repeated chronic stress. Chronic stress with an increased allostatic load can devastate your health, including your mood and brain function, which results in immune dysregulation, accelerated aging, inflammation, hormone disruption, and much more. Many factors can act as stressors to our body, including hidden infections, poor sleep, inadequate movement, or an unhealthy diet. Furthermore, stressful experiences can quickly stack up over time and literally destroy the body. At 360, our goal is to identify current and past stressors, modify or eliminate them to reduce the overall load shared by your system, and assist the body in healing the brain and nervous system.
Sleep is Critical.
How's Yours?
Virtually every part of the body experiences substantial changes during sleep. When you fall asleep, thousands of neurons in the brain switch from waking to a sleeping state, sending alerts throughout the body. “The less your sleep, the shorter your lifespan.” Unfortunately, we are in the thick of an epidemic of poor and inadequate sleep quality. Many people do not realize how insufficient sleep contributes to increased rates of metabolic diseases like diabetes, weight gain, cardiovascular diseases, anxiety and depression, suicide, impaired immunity, and even cancer. Our body needs sleep to repair and rejuvenate itself; our health will deteriorate quickly without it. Sleep allows our brain and body to slow down and engage in a recovery process, enabling better physical and mental performance, not just the next day but over the long term. Sleep is the KING of body-hacking to anti-aging!
At 360, we work closely with all patients to optimize sleep. We look to identify underlying imbalances that are triggering poor sleep and use Body Talk techniques to bring mental and emotional balance. In addition, we like advanced wearable technology (such as the Oura ring) to provide sleep data, proven lifestyle hacks, and supplements that help you sleep better, feel rested, and function to your optimal potential.
Exercise & Movement
What is stopping you from getting more exercise? For most of us, it’s either a shortage of time or energy levels. We all know that exercise/movement helps with weight loss and/or weight maintenance. Still, it is also linked to improvements in your gut microbiome and cognitive health symptoms like stress, anxiety, and depression. Our bodies were designed to move and is a foundation for overall health. A study involving over 100,000 U.S. adults found that those who sat for more than 6 hours a day had a 42% greater risk of death over the next 10+ years versus those who sat only 3 hours a day. WOW…We seek to help you understand and incorporate more exercise, active movement, and “non-exercise” physical activity into your daily lives.
What To Expect with our 360 Functional Medicine Exam
Here’s how it works:
Step 1: New Patient Pre-eXam & Assessment
Dr. Jasmine will do a pre-exam evaluation to get to know you and clarify any questions you may have.
Step 2: Initial Exam and Treatment
During your initial exam, Dr. Jasmine — will review your medical history, diet, and lifestyle factors and ask questions to really understand your symptoms. Try to consolidate your most essential questions to allow Dr. Jasmine time to truly sit with the information and try to be as effective for you as she can. Sometimes she likes to collaborate with our nutritionist and other colleagues that have more profound insights on your particular issues. At 360, we want to get to the root cause of why you came and do my best to turn over every stone! Your initial visit will also likely include an acupuncture treatment and possible frequency therapy session.
Step 3: Follow-up Session
In your follow-up session, Dr. Jasmine will explain the possible root causes of your health problems and recommend possible lab tests if needed. We will also create an initial treatment program consisting of a therapeutic diet, therapy protocols, and lifestyle plan personalized to your health care needs.
Step 4: Ongoing Visits
During the treatment duration, follow-up visits are usually once a week so that your functional medicine doctor can monitor your progress. Depending on your response and lab test results (if applicable), Dr. Jasmine may adjust your treatment plan to better improve your results.
If you’d like to become a new patient or learn more about our services, please give us a call at (512) 360-9480.
Cupping Therapy
Cupping is one of the oldest treatments used in Chinese medicine, and today it still provides the benefits of increased blood flow, improve the flow of energy, relaxes muscles, removes inflammation and toxins, promotes healing, and alleviates pain.
Chinese Herbal Medicine
We use over 7,000 medical herbs and spices with over 100,000 formulas passed down through generations – find out more how Chinese Herbal remedies are customized just for your body and illnesses
Fertility Acupuncture
One of our specialties is integrative reproductive medicine, including fertility, pregnancy, and women’s wellness care. Acupuncture can be used alone or in conjunction with IUI or IVF, to improve fertility and increase the chance of a successful pregnancy.
