Course Objectives
• Constructs the basic processes that are fundamental to understanding integrative medicine. While systems of diagnosis are similar, understanding the basic processes behind the diagnosis is emphasized.
• Gives practitioners the basic tools and fundamental structure needed to start implementing integrative medicine into their practice immediately.
• Reviews basic laboratory assessments and other functional diagnostics giving insight into how to use these tests to glean information about your patient as well as areas that should receive the greatest focus.
This course gives a background in functional medicine, as well as an overview on the perspective and paradigm of integrative medicine. It explores core concepts in integrative medicine with an emphasis on teaching thought patterns rather than a single therapy approach. By applying patterns of inflammation, nutritional deficiencies, and models of oxidative stress to various conditions, practitioners begin to understand the underpinnings that help to unravel pathology. Incorporating whole systems thought process into case analysis gives the clinician a broader base from which to approach disease. This examination of underlying biochemistry opens up orthomolecular interventions and guides lifestyle change. Once a basis of core concepts of integrative medicine is established, students will have the necessary foundation to pursue disease-specific approaches and various procedures into a thought process that invokes integrative analysis. This integrative approach opens new possibilities for evidence-based treatment to further improve patient outcomes.
The world of medicine is experiencing an evolution in the way we think about illness, disease, health, and well-being. Patients and providers are coming together in a therapeutic partnership that addresses the whole patient through science and evidence-based Integrative and Functional Medicine. Healthcare practitioners of this “new medicine” spend substantial time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease. This course introduces practitioners to Functional and Integrative Medicine, addressing both myths and misinformation, as well as standards and practices for implementing this exciting new field into your practice through the use of lecture presentations, readings, case studies and current research.
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