Functional Medicine: The Best Path to the Best You

Medicine is a difficult field to navigate. With seemingly innumerable medical specialties and many types of physicians it can be hard to find the right way to address your health concerns. Something as simple as a cough can become a confusing and difficult subject as you are bombarded with a flood of conflicting advice and opinions. It is easy to be not only overwhelmed but to have your problems dismissed as irrelevant, made up, or just issues to be medicated. This is where the Karis team of functional medicine experts come into play.

According to Ms. Amy Elder, woman’s health nurse practitioner and founder of Karis Integrative Medicine, functional medicine is “addressing and correcting illness and disease from a biological basis.” Instead of compartmentalizing your body or drowning you in pills Karis’s team dives into the underlying causes of your troubles. Providers like Ms. Elder dare to ask the question why; why are your symptoms occurring? What are the root causes of your problems and what can be done to solve them?

A good way to visualize Karis’s treatment methodology is the “Making the Connection” diagram. This is a tool designed by the Karis team to help patients visualize how their symptoms impact them as a whole. Something as common as a headache might appear simple and straightforward. However it can actually be related to many different body systems! Approaching problems from this multifocal standpoint ensures symptoms are fully addressed and body’s return to its natural equilibrium. “My interest was sparked to work with and not against the body in what it was trying to achieve,” says Ms Elder.

This does not only include your physical symptoms. Often symptoms such as stress, fatigue, emotional imbalance, and depression can relate to physical disease in a very direct way! You are a whole person comprised of mind, body and soul. All aspects of what makes you you must be taken into account.

So who can benefit from Functional Medicine? What can care at Karis mean for you? If you don’t want care that takes YOU out of the your healthcare, if you feel unheard or untrusted, if you want a medical provider who truly sees you and your individual needs, Functional medicine is for you. Patients receiving care at Karis get the best personalized and heartfelt treatment. You aren’t just a bunch of symptoms. You are not just your illness. You are a person who deserves the best quality of life and optimal health. Members of the Karis team genuinely care about your health and want to form a partnership relationship with you to guide you to the best and healthiest you. When you schedule your first appointment at Karis Integrative Medicine you are not just a patient. You are the newest member of a family and everyone is happy to see you come home.