What is a Functional Nutrition Counselor?

If you are keeping up with recent trends in healthcare, you may have heard the term “Functional Medicine.” Let’s start first of all by defining what that is.

Functional Medicine

Functional Medicine takes a comprehensive approach to prevention, health and well-being; treats root causes of disease; and restores healthy function through a personalized patient experience with a focus on the importance of diet and lifestyle modification - all while being a vital partner to conventional medicine.

According to the Institute of Functional Medicine there are 3 foundational conditions for a Functional practice.

1. The goal is to address the underlying cause of any sign, symptom or disease state - aiming to get to the root of what is not functioning and preventing a person from feeling his or her best.

2. The practitioner engages in a system-based approach, always understanding that one physiological system in the body affects others and that it is a network with constant crosstalk and the sharing of common pathways.

3. The patient and practitioner are ultimately to engage in the most therapeutic partnership.

Functional Nutrition Counselor

A Functional Nutrition Counselor is trained in the basic tenets of functional medicine and supports and educates a patient in what’s going on in their body and how making uniquely targeted diet and lifestyle modifications will shift the internal terrain and help them to meet their goals.

A Functional Nutrition Counselor helps to bridge the gap between the physician and the patient to yield both better and more sustainable outcomes.