Fall has always been my favorite time of year with the cooler nights, the beautiful colors, and the joy of a good harvest. I don’t necessarily like what comes next — I’m always in favor of winter weather holding off a bit — but for a few weeks the weather is perfect, the bugs are gone, and life is good.
I am finding this season of life is something like that transition from summer to fall. I am currently sixty-two and enjoying life as it transitions to new things. I am not retiring yet, but we have gone from preparing for school to preparing for a wedding, from traveling for sports to traveling to visit kids, and from preparing for tomorrow to preparing for the next phase of life.
As we enjoy this season of our lives, we are more aware than ever how important it is to take care of ourselves. A younger patient recently told me he came back from his 30-year class reunion and everyone there was old, overweight, and complaining about their health issues. And they’re not even 50 years old! We hear these complaints from our patients as well. People are weaker, more tired, taking more pills — just sicker in general. In a recent podcast I listened to, I heard an alarming thing: just over 100 years ago, doctors used to write case reports about obese patients — meaning it was out of the ordinary. Now we have a society where the CDC tells us over 40% of the U.S. population is obese (Canada is at 28%). Sixty-six percent of Americans are on one or more medications. This compares to only 48% of Europeans on medications. (Among developed nations we rank last in a number of parameters, including highest in antidepressant usage.)
Fortunately, there is a new trend on the horizon. It is not more drugs, or a new celebrity doctor, or the latest diet. It is functional medicine. What is functional medicine? At its roots, it is the science of finding root causes. It is not a pill for high blood pressure, it is finding out why you have blood pressure. It is not prescribing a new antidepressant, it is finding out why you are depressed (which could be your diet, lack of sleep, a side effect of one of your current medications, etc.). It combines a healthy diet, exercise, and supplementation to get you to your healthiest self.
Which leads me to ask: why is it that more people are not using functional medicine? There are a couple of reasons I can see.
The primary one is that a lot of people have never heard of the term, or they have heard it and don’t know what it means. It is not very popular because it doesn’t cost much and you likely won’t become rich practicing functional medicine. Meaning no pharmaceutical company or big-name clinic will promote it. You probably haven’t seen many ads for it outside of authors like Mark Hyman and Dave Perlmutter (who are M.D.s who have been practicing and promoting it for years).
The other reason is because it is hard to find doctors who actually practice it, especially locally. I am a CFMP, which stands for Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner. I also have a Master’s Degree in Human Nutrition, and have achieved Diplomate status with the American Board of Clinical Nutrition — this is one of the highest designations you can receive in nutrition, and there are currently only 14 doctors in Minnesota & Iowa combined with this status. If you are looking for an expert in functional medicine, look no further.
Are you entering a new season in life? Would you like to do that with a great chance of it being your healthiest one yet? Change how you approach your health. If you stop treating symptoms and start treating root causes, you’ll see the symptoms and the conditions that cause them start to disappear.
Dr. Burtis, D.C., M.S., CFMP, DACBN, has been providing natural healthcare to the Fairmont area at Burtis Chiropractic Center for over 35 years. He uses a combination of chiropractic, nutrition, and functional medicine to help individuals restore and maintain health and healing through individualized care plans. The mission of Burtis Chiropractic Center is to provide transformational healthcare that takes an individual’s life to the next level. We strive to be a solution for families to experience transformational healthcare and help create vibrant and resilient lifestyles that can be passed to future generations.