360 Health Clinic
5 Mistakes Functional Medicine Practitioners Should Not Make in 2020
When you see a functional medicine practitioner, you need to consider their resolve and willingness to assist you. They wish nothing but to help you overcome your current health obstacles and prevent future ones for you to enjoy life better.
That being said, some functional medicine practitioners miss the mark and make certain mistakes, which impact the results their clients seek negatively. Understanding these mistakes is a useful way to make the work of these practitioners more effective and ultimately more rewarding for their clients. Let’s see a quick rundown on the most common blunders:
Doing too many tests – when you do an annual check-up, your doctor likely recommends some tests. These aim to give them some knowledge of your condition, such as blood sugar and cholesterol levels, blood count, and others. There are also functional lab tests, aiming to discover certain imbalances before any symptoms appear. But doing a whole lot of tests doesn’t equate to getting better care. It is more important that practitioners go through the fundamentals first, like ensuring you build healthy sleep habits, get on a healthy diet and integrate regular exercise. A functional lab test is not always needed, let alone useful if you are disregarding the functional medicine basics for good health.
No follow-up – in the core of functional medicine lies the change of unhealthy habits into better ones. And that is just not easy. The best results come to those who have a clear idea of why they are changing their habits, coupled with refinement and repetition. That is exactly what a practitioner should do – guide you through change and help you get back on track. That is not something they do in a single session. They need to guide every step of the journey to healthy life changes.
Doing the right things in the wrong order – many practitioners want to do the right thing for their clients, but they do so in the wrong order. What this means is that they mostly follow a one-size-fits-all protocol, which just is not the way to go. Everyone is different and what works for one person, may completely throw off another one. For instance, if a functional medicine practitioner is recommending detoxification, they need to consider whether the client is having some side effects. For instance, if the person is having constipation, detoxification first needs to follow a resolution of the problem, and not just take place at the same time. Personalisation of the plan needs to take place, based on the person’s needs and condition.
Way too heavy focus on supplements – functional medicine practitioners know that supplements are a powerful tool for healing, and they don’t shy away from recommending them. But sometimes they prescribe them without addressing the major problem of the person. Clients should inquire more about the philosophy of supplements. For the most part, these are temporary tools, which should not make the bulk of the therapy. If a practitioner thinks otherwise, they are wrong.
Not addressing diet – often people come with serious problems, which they have tried to overcome through various means. And far too often it turns out that their practitioner has failed to discuss diet. Food is a powerful healing tool and it can improve a person’s condition. Diet modification often leads to the best changes in condition and health.
All of these mistakes are red flags that the practitioner you are seeing perhaps needs more experience. Work with someone who avoids such issues.
