Dr. Hannah Shohat

If you found yourself here then you are likely curious what Functional medicine is all about and what role, if any,it may play in your life.
If you search for functional medicine on the world wide web then you will be hit with numerous inconsistencies. There are many people who claim that this approach to healthcare and healing has saved their lives and there are many people who call this approach "pseudoscience" and "quackery".
So what is it in reality? Functional medicine is an approach that is more holistic in nature, it focuses on the optimal functioning of the body and its organs. It relies on alternative medicine at times but it is built on the foundation of conventional medicine. It views a patient holistically as a person in whom everything is interconnected and where in order to treat the disease process one must uncover the root cause of that process.
I am a traditionally trained and licensed physician with many years of traditional practice under my belt. I have come to functional medicine because there were numerous patients that I could do very little for in the traditional approach. The functional medicine,holistic approach, to their disease process enabled me to not only uncover the root cause of their problems but in doing so, it opened a new way of dealing with the disease process and for many it meant significant improvement.
Functional Medicine often makes the "establishment" uneasy because it not only talks about the physical causes, such as diet, vitamins, minerals, and lifestyle but it also delves into a rather taboo place for a traditional doc such as emotional and sometimes spiritual well-being of one's patient.
I worked for a number of years as a hospitalist, which is an internal medicine doctor in the hospital and I can tell you with some authority that traditional medicine is amazing at urgent life-saving treatments and approaches but it needs change where it comes to chronic diseases.
That's where functional medicine comes in, it looks at a patient as a whole, not as a collection of individually packed organs but as an amazing system that works together and is very interconnected. I truly feel that this approach is much more beneficial for great many diseases.
I am no guru and I promise you that I do not know everything but I will do my best to bring to your attention recent updates and relevant articles and will do my best to break them down and discuss them on this forum.
Questions and respectful disagreement is always welcome,that's how we all grow as human beings. Disrespectful comments and unuseful word-bashing will not be tolerated.
Thank you for reading, and as always, be well.