Personalized Care to meet your Goals
The Concepts on this page are very important and will help you decide the best kind of care for your needs.
Lots of people say they do “Functional Medicine” but there are big differences in what they offer. Most will fall into 3 categories or “levels of care.” It is important to note that all three levels can be beneficial and have their pros and cons. But you need to know their differences so you can select the right kind of care to meet your goals.
Dr. Zeke explains the levels of functional medicine care and gives examples, pros and cons.
The Short Version:
The more in-depth and individualized your care is, the better results you are likely to have. The more time, effort, and resources you are willing to put into your recovery, the better changes you have of reliably meeting your goals. See below for more info about the different options are available, and feel free to schedule a free discovery session where we can answer your questions and help you find the right path.
How Far are you willing to go?
Think of your body like a house. If your foundation needs work and your floors are sagging, then your front door won’t close. You need help, and can approach the problem a few different ways.
Option 1: You could either reframe the door, or cut it to fit the frame, so it will close. This is a cheap and easy option, but does not address the underlying issue. Your floors are still sagging and if it continues, then the problem will return. This is level 1 care, it is better than nothing, but is not a comprehensive, long term solution.
Option 2: You could buy a jack, watch some YouTube videos about foundations, and try to lift the floor yourself. This may work if you do it right, but may be costly, ineffective, or dangerous without expert support. This is level 2 care, better chance of a long term solution, more expensive and more work than option 1, but still has a good chance of failure.
Option 3: You could hire a structural engineer and a contractor and have them use their expertise to fix the problem, which addresses the underlying issue and all of the symptoms for the foreseeable future. This is level 3 care, it is more work and more money, but less trial and error for you and you have a much better chance of getting the job done right. By addressing the foundational parts of the issue, we can get address the problem that brought you here and often correct the problems elsewhere in the house.
All three options do get the door to close again, and all three have their pros and cons. See below for a more detailed breakdown of the three levels.
Level 1: Green Medicine
Description:
Level 1 care is using supplements to address your problem at a very general level. It is a “this for that” model, similar to what is practiced by many general practitioners the world over, except that instead of using prescription drugs to address the issue, it uses natural compounds in the form of nutraceutical supplements which often have fewer side effects, but are sometimes less powerful.
Example:
Imagine you have diabetes. Instead of your conventional doctor telling you to “take Metformin to lower you blood sugar,” we would tell you to “take berberine to lower your blood sugar.” Berberine is essentially the natural version of Metformin.
Pros:
It is cheapest and easiest option because it only depends on basic laboratory tests and does not use any deeper investigation.
It does not require any lifestyle change.
Cons:
It is limited in that it only manages the symptoms without getting to the underlying causes.
It has a low success rate due to the fact that the treatments are not specific to your needs.
You are likely to spend money on ongoing supplements without really knowing if they help.
Best for:
People who are not motivated or able to get to the underlying cause of the issue, but still want a non-pharmaceutical option. May be appropriate for people with simple issues who just want symptomatic relief.
Takeaway:
Level 1 care is better than no care, but it has many limitations. This is not really functional medicine because it does not address any of the underlying functional issues. This is as close to “shooting in the dark” as you can get and still say you are treating an issue. It is inefficient, but easy, and you do have some chance of hitting the target.
Level 2: Protocol-based care
Description:
Level 2 care is what most functional medicine practitioners offer. It involves investigating the underlying functional causes to your issue but only addresses them in a general way with standard “cookie cutter” protocols.
Example:
“After reviewing your case it seems like your diabetes is caused by insulin resistance related to chemical toxin exposure, so here is my insulin resistance protocol and my detox protocol.”
Pros:
Does address the underlying causes.
If you have a textbook case then the protocols will usually address it well and you will get good results, but very few cases are textbook.
Is sometimes cheaper than Level 3 care, due to not having to pay for as much time with the practitioner and is easier to find a practitioner who does it.
Cons:
It does not understand the full picture of factors that are specific to that individual, which leads to less effective, more expensive care due to lack of understanding of complex relationships of other systems and “cookie cutter” nature of treatments.
Because the treatments are not individualized to you, you have a higher chance of bouncing from protocol to protocol without getting results.
It still requires nutraceutical intervention and significant lifestyle and diet change on the part of the patient.
Best for:
People who have simple versions of functional issues or cannot access level 3 care.
Takeaway:
Level 2 care works, and does qualify as Functional Medicine, but it is not the best option. You may save some time and money with a pre-designed protocol, but you may wase your time and money and not get results. I will call this one “shooting in a dimly lit room”. You may have to take a few shots, but you are much more likely to hit the target that with level 1 care.
Level 3: Individualized Care
Description:
Level 3 care uses detailed analysis and lab work and comprehensive history and exam to understand the complex web of factors in an individual that lead to the root of the dysfunction for that specific person. Then we work together to design a comprehensive plan that targets all of the key areas of your issue to give you greatest results.
Example:
Investigate the causes of the diabetes, chemical toxicity, insulin resistance, hormonal imbalances, autoimmunity, etc. Determine the functional deficits that lead to those causes, eg: mitochondrial issues, dietary factors, malabsorption, pathogen exposure, autoimmune triggers, environmental toxins, genetic factors, organ dysfunctions, medication interactions, detoxification issues, etc. to understand the whole web of interactions. Then design a specific plan for that individual using diet modifications, changes in lifestyle, and targeted nutraceutical supplementation to “pull on a thread” of the web to help the body self-regulate again.
Pros:
Vastly more effective than level 1 or 2 care with much greater chances of success.
Can address much more complicated sets of issues than level 1 or 2 care.
Is the best option for getting a clear path to correcting the functional issues and actually improve your health reliably.
Cons:
It is more expensive on the front end due to increased time an effort during evaluation and designing treatment plan.
It still requires nutraceutical intervention and significant lifestyle and diet change on the part of the patient.
It requires a much deeper level of understanding and more skill from the practitioner, and few people offer it.
Best for:
People willing to make the investment in time, money, and effort to address the root cause of the issue without guessing.
Takeaway:
Level 3 is actual functional medicine. It is not quick, cheap, or easy, but it is effective and succeeds where more superficial models of care may fail. Treatments and evaluations are specific to the individual and provide much more comprehensive and effective care and more reliable results.