In order to understand Functional Endocrinology you need to know the basics of Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine is personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease. It is a science-based field of health care that is grounded in the following principles:

• Biochemical individuality describes the importance of individual variations in metabolic function that derive from genetic and environmental differences among individuals.
  
• Patient-centered medicine emphasizes "patient care" rather than "disease care," following Sir William Osler’s admonition that "It is more important to know what patient has the disease than to know what disease the patient has."
  
• Dynamic balance of internal and external factors.
  
• Web-like interconnections of physiological factors – an abundance of research now supports the view that the human body functions as an orchestrated network of interconnected systems, rather than individual systems functioning autonomously and without effect on each other. For example, we now know that immunological dysfunctions can promote cardiovascular disease, that dietary imbalances can cause hormonal disturbances, and that environmental exposures can precipitate neurologic syndromes such as Parkinson’s disease.
  
• Health as a positive vitality – not merely the absence of disease.
  
• Promotion of organ reserve as the means to enhance health span.

Functional medicine is anchored by an examination of the core clinical imbalances that underlie various disease conditions. Those imbalances arise as environmental inputs such as diet, nutrients (including air and water), exercise, and trauma are processed by one’s body, mind, and spirit through a unique set of genetic predispositions, attitudes, and beliefs. The fundamental physiological processes include communication, both outside and inside the cell; bioenergetics, or the transformation of food into energy; replication, repair, and maintenance of structural integrity, from the cellular to the whole body level; elimination of waste; protection and defense; and transport and circulation. The core clinical imbalances that arise from malfunctions within this complex system include:

• Hormonal and neurotransmitter imbalances
  
• Oxidation-reduction imbalances and mitochondropathy
  
• Detoxification and biotransformational imbalances
  
• Immune imbalances
  
• Inflammatory imbalances
  
• Digestive, absorptive, and microbiological imbalances
  
• Structural imbalances from cellular membrane function to the musculoskeletal system

Imbalances such as these are the precursors to the signs and symptoms by which we detect and label (diagnose) organ system disease. Improving balance – in the patient’s environmental inputs and in the body’s fundamental physiological processes – is the precursor to restoring health and it involves much more than treating the symptoms. Functional medicine is dedicated to improving the management of complex, chronic disease by intervening at multiple levels to address these core clinical imbalances and to restore each patient’s functionality and health. Functional medicine is not a unique and separate body of knowledge. It is grounded in scientific principles and information widely available in medicine today, combining research from various disciplines into highly detailed yet clinically relevant models of disease pathogenesis and effective clinical management.

Functional medicine emphasizes a definable and teachable process of integrating multiple knowledge bases within a pragmatic intellectual matrix that focuses on functionality at many levels, rather than a single treatment for a single diagnosis. Functional medicine uses the patient’s story as a key tool for integrating diagnosis, signs and symptoms, and evidence of clinical imbalances into a comprehensive approach to improve both the patient’s environmental inputs and his or her physiological function. It is a clinician’s discipline, and it directly addresses the need to transform the practice of primary care.

Approach We Have Helped:

• Female Hormone Problems / Menopause
• Andropause
• Metabolic Syndrome
• Insomnia
• Multiple Sclerosis
• Rheumatoid Arthritis
• Hashimoto's Disease
• Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome
• Lupus, SLE, Scleroderma
• Infertility

At the Plateroti Center we utilize the latest research in Functional Endocrinology.   Endocrinology is the branch of medicine dealing with the endocrine glands and hormones. Functional endocrinology identifies and treats changes in the endocrine system not in a disease state. Functional endocrinology uses diet, nutrition, lifestyle and other non-invasive therapies to manage metabolic conditions. The goal is to optimize physiology to restore health and function.

Functional endocrinology's' approach and tools therefore, differ from general or medical endocrinology. General endocrinology uses pharmaceuticals or hormones to replace, suppress or support the endocrine system. This approach is often appropriate for disease patterns or genetic disorders.

People that suffer from functional endocrinology disorders are often left untreated, or perhaps, over treated in the traditional healthcare system since there is no pathology. For example, "menopausal syndrome" is a collection of symptoms, but not a disease.

Common problems successfully treated by functional endocrinology include PMS, infertility, peri-menopausal and menopausal symptoms, gastro-intestinal problems such as IBS or indigestion, fatigue, insomnia, anxiety and depression or mood swings and irritability, difficulty losing weight, and generalized aches and pains including fibromyalgia. Many of these problems affect men as well as woman but the symptoms might be different. For example, when a man's hormones are not in balance common problems are high blood pressure and cholesterol, weight gain around the middle and depression. 

The root of many functional endocrinology problems often lies in physiological reactions to stress. Stressors can be mental or emotional, chemical, including diet, lifestyle and pharmaceutical, or physical. Ignoring or minimalizing the effects of stress is a common as the manifestations. According to the World Health Organization, stress is the leading cause of degenerative disease in developed countries. In the US, stress related complaints account for 60% to 90 % of primary care physician visits.

To summarize, there are two different approaches to hormone balancing; replacement and functional. If we have a patient with low progesterone, for example, the replacement approach will prescribe progesterone as the means of therapy. The functional approach will address why the progesterone is low. For example, if a menopausal patient has low progesterone, it may be because they have low adrenal function since the majority of progesterone produced during menopause is from the adrenal glands. On the other hand, if we have a menstruating woman with low progesterone levels, we need to consider factors impacting the pituitary-ovarian feedback, like a decrease in Luteinizing Hormone (LH) output due to adrenal cortisol elevations.

The functional approach involves a much more in depth thought process than the replacement approach. This is not to say that hormonal replacement lacks value. There are indeed times that replacement is beneficial or necessary. However, our starting place in functional endocrinology is the evaluation of factors underlying the hormonal imbalance and seeing if we can restore proper function.

Functional endocrinology can help you manage the physiological effects of stress better. If you want to take charge of your health and life, or simply feel better, functional endocrinology may have answers for you.