Functional Medicine

If you’ve read articles or books on treating autoimmune disease with food, you’ve probably come across the term functional medicine. For those unfamiliar with what that is, the Center for Functional Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in the US gives a good summary and you can find it here. To briefly summarize in my own words what functional medicine is, it’s an extremely personalized, in-depth approach to understanding and treating the causes behind your illness by taking everything into account including genetics, past medical history, environmental factors and diet. 

I want to be clear that we are really grateful for all the care KT has gotten from doctors and nurses at the pediatric hospital where she is treated. And modern pharmaceuticals are a gift that can save lives, including KTs. However, often when you receive a diagnosis, you’re handed medications with a few instructions and…that’s usually it. When you are back in the hospital because those medications have failed, they give you even more medications…and that’s it.  And so it goes. You get the point. Taking those medications are important but it left me feeling like there had to be something more we could do for KT.

We started using a functional medicine doctor a few months ago for KT. I can’t say enough how important I think this approach to medicine is for any one who suffers from autoimmune disease or any sort of chronic pain and illness. Here’s our experience using a functional medicine doctor and some info you may find helpful if you are considering this in Ontario, including what’s covered by OHIP and what’s not.

The functional medicine doctor we use is a licensed physician in Ontario so she’s able to order any diagnostic test a regular doctor would. And she tested KT for EVERYTHING. Really. They want to get to the bottom of why you (or your child) are sick and they’ll dig and investigate until they get answers. The first consult with her was 90 minutes and, as I said to my husband after, I felt like I had been placed in a washing machine and someone hit the spin cycle. You know when you typically see a doctor and they ask you a couple questions about your symptoms, etc? Yeah, this wasn’t like that. We had given her all KT’s medical records in advance. She went through absolutely everything in the files and then started to question us about everything else including diet, sleep, potential toxins in our home, etc. After all the testing was done, she started to put pieces of KT’s puzzle together and continues to work with us to come up with an on-going plan to get KT as healthy as she can possibly be. 

Since our functional medicine doctor is a licensed physician in Ontario, that also means the majority of tests ordered are covered under OHIP. Ones we sent to the US were obviously not but we could have opted not to have those tests done and only the ones covered by OHIP. We did pay for an initial consult fee but the subsequent visits are covered under OHIP. To us, seeing the results and the level of personalized care KT has received, we’d say it’s been money very, very well spent.

As part of getting KT’s body back on track and providing it with everything it needs to function as it should, our functional medicine doctor prescribed supplements. This gave me a lot of peace of mind since I knew supplements are really important for people with autoimmunity but I needed a professional to prescribe them, in particular because KT is a child. The supplements are not your standard go-to ones. They are professional grade and specifically chosen to give KT’s cells what they need to function at their best.

So, I’m a big fan of functional medicine. I think it takes health care to a whole new level and gets the results you really want for yourself or your child. If you or your child has an autoimmune disease or chronic pain and illness, I’d consider trying functional medicine out. If it doesn’t get you the results and care you were hoping for then…well…at least you tried, right? And, to steal a line from one of our Canadian legends, Wayne Gretzky, “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.” To me, it’s well worth the shot.