As we prepare for the upcoming holiday season, a time of year for making connections with friends and family, it’s also a great time to connect to overall health and to the understanding that whole health includes a unified, inter-connected, inextricable composite of the body, mind and spirit.
When considering functional medicine in this context, one of its foundational principles is based on the very idea of cohesion and goes as follows:
"web-like interconnections of physiological factors…the human body functions as an orchestrated network of interconnected systems, rather than individual systems functioning autonomously and without effect on each other.”
In taking a step outside of the reductionistic medical model box, wherein health dysfunction is typically isolated rather than explored within its matrix, let’s consider a number of examples by way of common health conditions:
Heart Disease
Deficiencies of magnesium, taurine, carnitine, fatty acids and other essential substances often accompany heart disease. And we can look to the Mayo Clinic for more causative factors. Factors such as physical inactivity, poor dietary habits, tobacco usage, drug usage, and stress contribute to this growing epidemic. Without accounting for the sum of all parts, and connecting the dots, heart disease cannot be properly managed.
Obesity
Many obese patients have multiple nutritional deficiencies of a different sort. These deficiencies brought about and compounded by poor eating habits only worsen the deficiencies—similar to the chicken before the egg argument. In addition, many studies have now pinpointed the connection between mental/emotional disorders such as depression and obesity—connecting the once completely separate, mind and body. It’s time to unite the pieces of the obese puzzle—time to go beyond the physical.
Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
CFS is an enigmatic disorder that frequently involves mitochondrial inefficiencies. There may also be an inherent toxic exposure, infectious bowel overgrowth and/or the predisposition towards poor mental health. Is the reason why this condition remains so enigmatic simply because we’re not fully appreciative of the dynamic dysfunctional interplay involved?
The common thread in these conditions, and many more, is the need to connect the dots and address all facets of health in the most comprehensive way possible. Metametrix offers the Cardio ION, ION, and Pediatric ION, as tools for the task. In evaluating whole health, through these composite analyses, an understanding of the underlying complexity of an individual’s health can be explored further. Within the fine details of the test—which includes inflammatory factors, vitamin and mineral status, toxic burden, ability to detoxify, amino acid levels, hormone balances, and more—the inter-connectedness of biological, physiological and metabolic inner-workings of a person’s health can be more fully understood.
Long-story-short, practitioners are able to better serve their patients by customizing individual treatment plans through comprehensive, functional testing. Talk about a connection!
Best of Health ~ Dr. Rachel Marynowski
References
Cass Nelson-Dooley, MS (18)