With the Nutri-West/Brimhall Homecoming on the horizon and all of the talk of FUNCTION in Evaluation and Treatment, I received two questions this week on Functional Medicine/Wellness:

1) Would you please send a paragraph describing/defining what Functional Wellness is to the layman?

The standard in Allopathic Medicine is to measure DYSFUNCTION and to treat the symptoms that are manifesting. If the symptoms get bad enough, a disease is named and treated, most commonly with drugs or surgery. A Functional Doctor measures the FUNCTION/HARMONY of the organs and systems of the body and uses nutrition and other natural treatment to allow OPTIMAL FUNCTIONING OF THE ORGANS and SYSTEMS. Our goal is to identify less than optimal values of organs and systems, treat them naturally and prevent them from degenerating to the point of dys-function or dis-ease.

You hear most commonly, the term Functional Medicine in today’s Health Care Community. Being a chiropractor, naturopath or homeopath, we may use the term Functional Diagnosis or Functional Wellness Evaluation. The term I use in the Nutri-West/Brimhall Seminars to teach Blood Chemistry, the Gold Standard of functional evaluation, is NUTRITIONAL EFFECTS ON BLOOD CHEMISTRY.

The use of the word FUNCTION is the key. We are measuring through blood, urine, saliva, hair analysis and in our office, muscle response testing to determine the function, health and ability of specific organs and systems to carry out their jobs as perfectly as possible. We do not want to wait until there is dis-ease or a diagnosed disease to implement treatment. The standard of Medical Care is to diagnose a disease and treat the disease, or in many cases, the symptoms of the disease to relieve pain and suffering.

Blood is the gold standard measured by medicine, taking all health professions under that heading, to evaluate the body. Pathological levels are determined by taking all of the blood tests completed and listing 96% as normal and allowing only two per cent on the top and two per cent on the bottom to be listed as abnormal and therefore treatable.

Let’s use the example of a patient with a SGOT and a SGPT, both at 5,000. This is listed as a disease process and the liver is involved. Now medical care is enlisted under the standard of care. Functional Wellness Evaluations measure with strict guidelines to prevent the body from developing dis-ease by promoting health and wellness. Functional evaluation recognizes a SGOT and a SGPT of 50 is not optimal and tells us we need to evaluate the liver further, use specific nutrition to support liver function, and possibly do a hair analysis to test for heavy metals. We teach in our seminars how to do visceral manipulation to the liver and other organs to allow better function. We use manual and percussion treatment, as well as cold laser therapy to facilitate optimal results. Of course, as a Chiropractor, I would want to evaluate and correct any subluxations that affect the liver and its function. As an acupuncturist, I would evaluate energy flow and balance the meridians as well. You cans see how evaluating and treating with all Six Steps is creating optimal FUNCTION.

2) The second question I received is, “As Six Steps to Wellness Practitioners, haven’t we always been doing functional evaluation?”

The answer is, YES, of course! We have evaluated Structure, Electromagnetic Stress, Nutrition, Emotional Stressors, Allergies/Sensitivities and Toxins in the body. With this system of evaluation and treatment, we have seen miracles. What we can do better is enlist other functional testing procedures as listed above, such as blood, urine, hair and saliva to a greater extent and have a road map of what we are treating, why we are treating it and when we have reached MMI or Maximum Medical Improvement.

This system gives the patient and the doctor an incredible road map for understanding the patient’s physiology and function, at a much greater level when we compare multiple functional evaluations. It also confirms you have achieved improvement by your natural treatment and shows the areas that yet need to be corrected. THIS IS EVIDENCE BASED EVALUATION AND TREATMENT, WITH PROOF OF RESULTS.

At the Phoenix, Arizona NUTRI-WEST/BRIMHALL HOMCOMING January 28-30, 2011, we will cover many functional diagnostic and treatment aspects, including those mentioned above by multiple speakers and approaches. We will cover many Chiropractic techniques, including manual and instrument adjusting, the use of cold laser, detoxification, visceral manipulation, percussion and craniosacral therapy etc. We are prepared for you whether you are brand new or a seasoned practitioner/assistant.

CLICK HERE FOR COMPLETE INFORMATION ON HOMECOMING


Yours in Health and Wellness,

John W Brimhall, BA, BS, DC, FIAMA, DIBAK & The Wellness Team