What is Functional Nutrition?
Our medical system in the US does a great job of diagnosing health issues and prescribing interventions. Generally speaking, when you feel symptomatic you go to the doctor. When you are at the doctor you may have a physical exam, blood work and/or scans performed. Through the results of the tests and measures you are given an intervention (usually medication) to take, asked to monitor symptoms and plan to follow up with the doctor to see if things improve.
What happens if your results don’t lead to a diagnosis? What happens if the intervention given does not improve your symptoms or only temporarily improve them? Then what? Western medicine is trained to treat symptoms. Sometimes that is all you need - but sometimes it's not. Furthermore, sometimes the medication you're taking to treat some symptoms cause new symptoms. For these instances when western medicine struggles, or fails completely, it is because the intervention was only intended to remove a symptom - not the underlying issue that is causing the symptom.
As human beings, we stay alive by way of the food we eat and fluids we drink. Yet we are not taught that our symptoms can relate to what we put in our bodies every day. Functional nutrition is a way to help connect you to your body. This is done by changing the food you eat and assessing how your body responds to that change. Recommendations for change are based on the symptoms that you feel which can sometimes require small and/or large adjustments in diet, lifestyle and other aspects of your life.
Our body is always trying to maintain homeostasis (a state of steady internal systems). If there is something wrong it will fight against it to make it better. If our systems are constantly working hard to get back to homeostasis, they start to get tired and that is when symptoms can present. There may have been times when you were given warning signs. Since our society has considered bloating, headaches, joint pain, skin irritation, PMS etc to be “normal” we don’t look at these symptoms as warning signals. What if you started to recognize this as your body’s way of communicating that something is not right? Also what would your life be like without accepting these symptoms as normal?
Nutrition is imperative to our existence. Working with a Functional Medicine Practitioner or a Functional Nutrition Coach can help you find the root cause of your symptoms through diet and lifestyle changes.
Every single person is different. Different genes, different likes/dislikes, different allergies, etc. There is no “one size fits all” way of eating or living life. As a Functional Nutrition Coach, I look at the whole person. This includes the food you eat, how you are sleeping, how you are managing stress, how you talk to yourself, etc. These are all factors that affect health and can be contributors to how you are feeling.
I have personally found improvement when diving deeper into my own warning signs. I used to NEED coffee in the morning to wake up but over the past few years I started to realize how this was causing me to feel anxious during my day. I felt like I was always catching my breath and I was rushing from patient to patient; my brain was unable to slow down and I had a hard time holding my pee. I decided to reduce my caffeine intake and I noticed an immediate improvement. I changed from drinking coffee in the morning to green tea (yes it still has caffeine) which my body tolerated so much better. I felt calmer, not as stressed and did not have to rush to the bathroom nearly as much. Combining the transition to green tea with a non-negotiable 7-8 hours of sleep, I still had plenty of energy.
My symptoms were not severe enough that I felt I needed to go to the doctor but something inside me told me that I could be feeling better. So I took action and made changes. Feeling the effects of those changes was all the convincing I needed. Yes, I still crave coffee and I do still drink it but I do so knowing I might feel a little anxiety later on. But that cup of joe is worth it every now and then!
This is just one example of how I checked in with my body and I realized that what I was feeling was not okay. I was able to make the connection that caffeine was the culprit and tried something different. Sometimes these connections are not as simple as reducing caffeine intake. Sometimes it can be more complicated and require larger changes. BUT would you rather continue to feel these symptoms every day or learn about how you can feel your best?
If you are someone that:
Wants to feel better but doesn’t know where to start
Or
If you have been given recommendations from your doctor but you need accountability and guidance
Then working with a Functional Nutrition Coach can help. I can help you connect what you are feeling with how the food you are eating might be affecting you, and how to improve it.
