Chiropractic Internist | Functional Medicine

Functional Medicine

What is Functional Medicine?

Functional Medicine is a systematic approach to healthcare that incorporates several new ideas into the treatment of disease and the restoration of health and vitality.

Functional Medicine looks for the "why" and not only the "what". The present model of healthcare looks for symptoms and then correlates those symptoms into a group and calls it a "disease". It then treats the symptoms or more precisely the "disease". Functional Medicine looks further than that. It looks for the "why". In other words, why do these symptoms arise? What is the cause of these symptoms and then treats the cause thus eliminating the reason those symptoms arose in the first place.

Functional Medicine creates a partnership between the patient and the physician. Instead of the physician being the primary motivator of therapuetic activity, the patient is actively involved in their own therapy with responsibility for the outcome that is desired.

Functional Medicine is personalized medicine. No two people are the same. Their genetic make up creates different responses to different stimuli, whether the stimuli be environmental toxins, bacteria/viral, allergies or stress. So it is important to investigate each patient as an individual to determine "why" they are responding so, resulting in ill health.

In these ways then, Functional Medicine supports the unique expression of each individual's health and vitality.

Chiropractic Internist

What is a DABCI?

DABCI – Diplomate of the American Board of Chiropractic Internists

Simply put, Chiropractic Internists are doctors with the tools and training to diagnose a wide spectrum of conditions along with an education to use natural treatment options. In an era where more and more people have become concerned about the adverse reactions of prescription and over-the-counter medications, DABCIs are becoming a popular alternative. Every year, more and more patients are choosing DABCIs as the first doctor they visit when they get sick or are having health problems.

And because DABCIs are trained not only in medical diagnostics but also utilize more alternative, cutting edge testing and natural treatment plans, these alternative practitioners find themselves evaluating and successfully treating those patients deemed by the medical community as "challenging" or even "hopeless". How is that possible? It's the approach: a time honored method of doing the "detective" work in addition to using diet and nutrition to replace dysfunction and illness with normal body function and health.

The DABCI approach is generally less about giving something to control symptoms or to give synthetic hormones, and more about finding and correcting the source of the disease. The DABCI examination and diagnostic testing is to answer not only what is going on, but also to answer the question "Why is this happening?"

The unfortunate choices for many have been:

Go to their family doctor and do or take what the doctor orders.
Go online in an attempt to self-diagnose their problem.
Order the supplement they saw advertised on television.
Ask a friend (one who is typically involved in a multilevel marketing company) who sells supplements or essential oils (etc.) for their advice.

The problem with the above Do-It-Yourself (DIY) approaches to getting better is that it is missing one key feature of treatment: DIAGNOSIS. It is extremely beneficial (and in some cases critical) to have a physician (who has been properly trained and licensed) do a proper history and examination and run any necessary tests to properly determine what the issues is.

Many medical treatment protocols don't hold water when viewed with this holistic and restorative care mindset.

Inflammation is not something to just get rid of, but rather it implies some dysfunction that needs to be evaluated and treated.

For example, heartburn and reflux are not valid diagnoses. The answer is not "stop the body from secreting acid and causing symptoms". To a DABCI, the important answers are to the questions "why is the stomach inflamed?" or "what caused that ulcer?" or "Why is the stomach allowing the acid to back up into the esophagus (food pipe)?"

Irritable Bowel Syndrome is a starting diagnosis, but the question needs to be answered: "What is irritating the colon? Food? Yeast? Parasites? Abnormal bacterial balance?" Once those answers come, then the issue can be fixed.

Painful, irregular periods are not "fixed" by prescribing birth control pill or synthetic hormones. DABCIs seek out what natural help they can provide to make menstrual periods less emotional, less painful, and more regular.

This is just a very small example of what Chiropractic Internists do.

Dr. Markus McCormac, DC, NRCME is a board eligible DABCI who has completed 300+ hours of post-doctorate training in diagnosis, advanced diagnostics, and treatment strategies that treat the whole patient, not just the symptoms. To see how functional medicine can help you book a consultation with Dr. Markus by calling 316-775-0077 today.