Why Integrative and Functional Medicine?
Medicine the way it was meant to be
Integrative and Functional Medicine providers approach the practice of medicine holistically. We treat the whole person rather than a specific disease. Because of our holistic approach, we prioritize the physician-patient relationship and focus on understanding the upstream driver of illness, as opposed primarily focusing on the downstream symptoms.
This page explains why the District Center for Integrative Medicine (DCIM) in Washington, DC practices both integrative and functional medicine, and how that approach differs from conventional care. Integrative medicine combines Western medicine with complementary healing modalities like acupuncture, botanical medicine, and nutrition. Functional medicine goes further, using advanced diagnostic testing and in-depth patient histories to identify the root causes of illness rather than only managing symptoms. Through a detailed case study of a patient with 30 years of eczema and allergies, the page illustrates how DCIM’s 90-minute, one-on-one appointments allow physicians to uncover upstream triggers that conventional 15-minute visits miss, and build individually tailored treatment plans that address illness from the ground up.
Integrative Medicine
Integrative Medicine uses a combination of “Western” medicine and various complementary healing modalities (including, for example, acupuncture, botanical medicine and meditation) to treat a patient and support her healing. Integrative medicine doctors also incorporate the importance of nutrition, exercise and other lifestyle support.
Functional Medicine
Functional Medicine embraces these integrative medicine practices, but it also uses a systems-oriented approach to understand the underlying cause (the “root cause”) of a disease. Accordingly, Functional Medicine utilizes many modern testing and laboratory methods. For example, a doctor may request a patient to undergo genetic marker testing and/or gastrointestinal laboratory analysis. Functional medicine doctors combine this information with in-depth patient interviews to construct a holistic view of the individual and her lifestyle. The resulting “deep dive” is a highly personalized and detailed analysis of the patient’s health. This personalized, systems-based approach has proven particularly effective in treating chronic diseases like Hashimoto’s Hypothyroidism, fibromyalgia, and depression.
Case Study: A 30 Year Old Woman with Allergies and Eczema
To really capture the difference an Integrative and Functional Medicine approach makes over conventional medicine, consider a recent DCIM patient: A 30 year old woman (we’ll call her “Linda”), who came to us complaining of surface level eczema and allergies.
The Conventional Approach: Suppress from the Top, Down
Conventional medicine had an entire toolbox of medications and creams designed to suppress Linda’s symptoms for 30 years of her life. She was given antihistamines, steroids and inhalers. She managed okay, but found all these treatments were short-lived and/or resulted in further problems that left her with an overall poor quality of life. She came to us hoping to feel better but did not exactly know *what* that would entail.
Our Difference from the Start: A Deep Dive into the Patient…from before Birth
We began with an extensive history dating back to her mother’s pregnancy. A true deep dive into someone’s medical and environmental history is essential to uncovering the root cause of an illness, but it’s impossible in the context of the conventional less-than-15-minute appointment. Our initial appointments are 90 minutes, one-on-one with your doctor.
Uncovering Triggers and Root Causes
We learned that Linda’s mother was exposed to numerous pesticides during her pregnancy as a result of living on a farm. Linda was born via c-section and then lived exposed to these same pesticides as well toxic waste from a nearby nuclear power plant. She had eczema as a baby and developed allergies to animals, plants, and food in quick succession. We begin to understand how she developed her early vulnerabilities.
Linda coped through her 20’s but then landed an incredibly stressful job. She also worked part time at a restaurant where she began to eat fried foods, consume more alcohol, and was exposed to massive amounts of smoke. Her stress and symptoms further increased when her father fell ill to cancer. Through lens of our integrative and functional medicine approach, it’s obvious to us why her symptoms worsened significantly at this point in her life.
She first sought the help of an Ear Nose and Throat (ENT) Doctor. He gave her multiple medications to control her skin rashes and allergies but she continued to feel “unwell.” Much to her frustration, she also began to have poor energy, gastrointestinal complaints, and weight gain!
Our Approach: Tackle from the Ground, Up!
Collecting the story is an integral part of our detective work, but it’s only the beginning. With this granular information we have a fine-tuned sense of her vulnerabilities and early triggers. We also understand inflection points that clue us into the perpetrators of her dis-ease. As trained functional medicine physicians, this invaluable life-story helps us map her immune system’s journey, including where it went off the rails, and what options we have. Thus, we design a micro-tailored treatment plan, focusing on identifying and tackling the root causes, and then addressing them from the bottom up:
- Toxic Exposures
- Food Reactivity
- Stress
- Gastrointestinal Imbalances
Advanced Diagnostic Testing and Integrative Medicine
Our plan for Linda also included various diagnostic tests to validate our hypotheses, as well as integrative approaches to provide interim relief while our treatment plan attacks the root causes of her illness:
- Nutrient Laboratory Work (to look at all the nutrients that are integral to the immune system)
- Functional Stool Test (to assess the health of her microbiome and digestive capacity)
- Elimination Diet (to target and remove any foods in her template that were worsening her symptoms)
- Integrated Mind-Body Practices
- Acupuncture for Symptom Management
- Toxin Analysis and Assessment of Baseline Removal Capabilities
- Advanced Stress Management Techniques
- Botanical Supports (to alleviate her symptoms while the rest of our Treatment Plan delivered its results)
Linda’s Results: Full of Energy and Empowered
Today, Linda is eczema free, full of energy, and down to her college weight. She continues to live with some outdoor allergies but they are manageable and controlled, as long as she is careful about certain triggers and sticks to the health regimen we created together. She’s also been medication free for the last two years! Most importantly, she’s empowered. She can identify triggers before her immune system goes off the rails, and she has a plan of attack. She is a cherished example of benefits of our Integrative and Functional Medicine approach, as well as teamwork between clinician and patient.
What is the difference between functional medicine and regular medicine?
Conventional medicine typically focuses on diagnosing a disease and managing its symptoms, often through medication. Functional medicine starts from a different question: why did this disease develop in the first place? Rather than treating symptoms in isolation, a functional medicine physician investigates the underlying drivers of illness, including hormonal imbalances, gut health, nutrient deficiencies, environmental exposures, and chronic stress. At DCIM, this investigation happens during a 90-minute appointment spent entirely one-on-one with your doctor, which allows the kind of detailed, personalized inquiry that a 15-minute conventional visit simply cannot accommodate. The goal is not just symptom relief but identifying and addressing root causes so the body can heal.
What is integrative medicine?
Integrative medicine combines the best of conventional Western medicine with evidence-informed complementary approaches, including nutrition, botanical medicine, acupuncture, mind-body practices, and lifestyle optimization. It treats the whole person rather than a single symptom or disease. At DCIM, we practice both integrative and functional medicine together. Our physicians are board-certified medical doctors who draw from a broad set of healing modalities and use advanced diagnostic testing to build a care plan tailored specifically to you. Every appointment is one-on-one with your doctor, who knows your full history and can adjust your plan as your health evolves.
What happens in a functional medicine appointment?
Your initial appointment at DCIM is 90 minutes, and the entire time is spent one-on-one with your physician. There is no shuttling between rooms or waiting for a rushed consult. Your doctor will review your full medical history, including family history, environmental exposures, nutrition, stress, sleep, and the timeline of how your symptoms developed. She will perform a physical exam and discuss advanced diagnostic testing tailored to your situation. You will leave with an individually tailored care plan that includes nutritional and supplement recommendations, any indicated lab work, and a follow-up strategy. This depth of inquiry is what allows us to uncover root causes that are often missed in shorter conventional appointments.
Is functional medicine evidence-based?
Yes. Functional medicine uses the same peer-reviewed science, laboratory testing, and clinical evidence that conventional medicine relies on. The difference is in how that evidence is applied. Where conventional medicine often focuses on standardized treatment protocols for a given diagnosis, functional medicine uses evidence to investigate the unique constellation of factors driving illness in each individual patient. At DCIM, our physicians hold board certifications from institutions like the American Board of Family Medicine, the American Board of Internal Medicine, and the American Board of Integrative Medicine, and are trained through the Institute for Functional Medicine. The diagnostic tools we use, including comprehensive lab panels, genetic markers, and functional stool testing, are grounded in clinical research. We apply rigorous science within a model that prioritizes the time and depth of relationship needed to use it well.
Why do women choose functional medicine?
Many of the conditions that bring women to functional medicine, including Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, hormone dysfunction, PCOS, autoimmune conditions, perimenopause, chronic fatigue, and unexplained weight changes, are conditions where conventional medicine often falls short. Women are frequently told their labs are “normal” while they continue to feel exhausted, foggy, or symptomatic. Functional medicine takes those experiences seriously. At DCIM, over 90% of our patients are women, and our physicians specialize in the kind of complex, multi-system investigation these conditions require. The 90-minute, one-on-one appointment format gives your doctor the time to listen to your full story, connect the dots between symptoms that other providers may have treated in isolation, and build a plan that addresses what is actually driving your health concerns.
Medicine, The Way It Was Meant To Be
At DCIM, we believe that Integrative and Functional Medicine are complementary and intertwined. Accordingly, we embrace both. We understand that each patient is unique and requires a deeply personalized approach. We also believe in the body’s innate healing ability. Our role as physicians is to honor the individual and cultivate her ability to heal with the least invasive approach possible. For our Practitioners, it’s a return to the motivations that brought us to medicine in the first place. For our Patients, it is an opportunity to experience medicine as it was meant to be practiced.
