Functional Medicine

	Alternative Physical Medicine of Colorado, 4925 S Santa Fe Dr Unit 300 Littleton, CO. 80120
	(303) 794-5255

Functional Medicine

Functional medicine (FM) is an evolution in healthcare that shifts the disease-centered model to a patient-centered approach.

Why Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine is important in recognizing the dramatic rise in complex chronic disease, like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, autism, thyroid, GI and autoimmune disorders. This is because modern medicine is superb at relieving the pain and suffering of trauma and short term illness, but unfortunately the current acute-care model does not work well for chronic diseases. Today's standard treatments consists primarily of drugging the symptoms as the condition continues to deteriorate. Functional medicine significantly departs from mainstream medicine in its emphasis on treatments and concepts of health and disease which are not currently known to be effective or which have been shown to be ineffective by clinical research.

Have you ever wondered why medicine is not considered ‘alternative’ and natural health care isn’t the standard? In all seriousness, I believe that you should attempt to stay out of the ‘health care system.’ It’s a ‘sickness care system.’ Nothing about it gives you better health. Drugs given to a healthy person will make them sick. Have you ever seen what they feed people in the hospital?

I mean… are you kidding me?

You have people in there who are sick, diseased, dying, giving birth, infected, injured and you further insult their bodies with a bunch of dead food?

Try this idea… big government…big pharma, I dare you:

Take all the money that gets dumped into research to discover the next ‘wonder drug’ and use it to feed people in hospitals who are sick and diseased a diet of fresh, real food.

Wait… that’s not all.

Do that for a year and while you’re at it, fund a double-blind randomized placebo controlled study. What you would find (because it will never happen, I’ll tell you what you would find) would most likely be the most amazing statistics ever produced in the history of ‘medicine’- people would get better faster. I know nurturing health instead of treating sickness with more poisons is an under-appreciated concept but when is ‘conventional wisdom’ going to wake up? The problem with your current diet is that you think just because your body is the best machine on Earth that it’s invincible. Well it’s not! That’s why 25% of America’s population is suffering from metabolic syndrome…they are literally unable to effectively convert food into usable energy. The sad truth is that many people have been eating this way their entire lives and have no idea how bad they really feel. These people are surviving but they are far from thriving. The paleo diet naturally provides a perfect balance of fats because it suggests both in healthy amounts while other diets limit one or the other.

The paleo diet relies heavily on animal flesh and with it comes healthy protein. This protein is very anabolic and is used for building new cells like muscle mass. The paleo diet suggests eating pasture-raised meats and eggs. This means that the animals are truly able to roam in grass for their entire lives. Ideally cows and chickens will roam the pasture together as this creates synergy. Most of the processed food that we consume nowadays has only been around for the last one hundred years or so. Agriculture has only been around for 10,000 years or so. We’d rather not get into the specifics of what exactly cavemen actually ate, but suffice it to say that it was a lot more natural than what most people eat on the Standard American Diet (SAD). With that in mind, paleo focuses on eating whole, nutrient-dense, unprocessed foods that your body can digest easily and use to perform optimally.

Paleo Foods to Eat

Vegetables
Meats
Fruits
Nuts
Seeds

Foods to Stay Away From

Processed Food
Sugar
Grains
Dairy
Legumes

If I hypothetically asked you to list the 3 most important things in your life, what would they be? Wait, this shouldn’t be hypothetical, let’s play for real. What are they?

Write them down before you read on…I’ve seen a multitude of combination’s with God, family, health and job usually vying for the top three spots.

Is health in your top three? If so, what day-to-day actions do you take to that substantiate your answers?

Do your lifestyle choices reflect that list? (I did this this exercise myself a while back and it opened my eyes and woke me up).

Do you allocate time for activities that promote and build health?

When I ask patients if they exercise or not a frequent answer I get is, “I try to.”

“Health is a natural byproduct of a body that functions properly.” - Dr. Ron Spallone

For a body to function properly you must eat well, think well, move well and most importantly act well. How much time and focus do you put into lifestyle, exercise, attitude and nutrition?

Contact Alternative Medicine Dr. Ron Spallone of Littleton Colorado Chiropractic and consider starting down an alternative path towards good health and a long life.