Functional Medicine Pike Creek DE
Welcome to Crosser Natural Health in Pike Creek, DE. Would you benefit from functional medicine in Pike Creek?
Functional medicine has its roots in traditional Chinese medicine, western health care, and the latest in health care research, taking the best of each and combining them into an independent healing approach. This new approach is one that focuses on the cause of disease rather than focusing on symptoms. Through the concentration on symptoms, our health care system has gradually been converted to a disease care system, and functional medicine offers a viable approach to reverse this trend. To accomplish this, functional medicine practitioners view the body as a whole, taking into account nutritional, environmental, and genetic factors.
Through active doctor-patient communication, functional medicine practitioners embrace the word doctor, which literally means teacher in Latin, allowing you to take control of your health.
Crosser Natural Health
OFFICE HOURS
Monday
8:00am - 1:00pm
3:00pm - 6:00pm
Tuesday
Closed
Wednesday
8:00am - 1:00pm
3:00pm - 6:00pm
Thursday
3:00pm - 6:00pm
Friday
8:00am - 12:00pm
Saturday
Closed
Crosser Natural Health
5700 Kirkwood Highway Suite 101
Pike Creek, DE 19808
(302) 994-1010
DR. CROSSER TAKES ON FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE!
Dr. Cynthia Crosser recently attended a six day intensive continuing medical education course offered by The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), located in Federal Way, Washington. Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice addresses on of the key issues in healthcare practice today -- improving the management of complex, chronic disease. IFM programs utilize the emerging research base to identify effective interventions and to train physicians and other providers to integrate those approaches for the benefit of their patients.
The training Dr. Crosser completed involves understanding the etiology, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic disease. It is an integrative, science-based healthcare approach that treats illness and promotes wellness by focusing assessment on the biochemically unique aspects of each patient, and then individually tailoring interventions to restore physiological, psychological and structural balance.
Lifestyle is a very big factor; research estimates that 70-90% of the risk of chronic disease is attributable to lifestyle. That means what you eat, how you exercise, what your spiritual practices are, how much stress you live with (and how you handle it) are all elements that must be addressed in a comprehensive approach.
"... we have been able to identify modifiable behavioral factors, including specific aspects of diet, overweight, inactivity, and smoking that account for over 70% of stroke and colon cancer, over 80% of coronary heart disease, and over 90% of adult-onset diabetes." [Willett, WC. Science, 2002:296, 695-697]
Working in partnership with a trained functional medicine provider, patients make dietary and activity changes that, when combined with nutrients targeted to specific functional needs, allow them to really be in charge of improving their own health and changing the outcome of disease.
Within the scope of practice of their own particular disciplines, functional medicine practictioners may also prescribe drugs or botanical medicines or other nutraceuticals; they may suggest a detoxification protocol, a physical medicine intervention, or a stress-management procedure. The good news is; when you look at functionality, you uncover many different ways of attacking problems -- you are not limited to the "drug of choice for condition X."
With chronic diseases currently spiraling out of control, it has been become increasingly obvious that a different health care approach is both needed and warranted. Instead of treating the disease once it is already present, doesn’t it make more sense to concentrate on preventing the condition in the first place? Functional medicine is unique in that it often focuses on variations in metabolism to both identify a predisposition to developing a condition and to discover the underlying cause if already present. As mentioned previously, functional medicine practitioner's concentrate on being your health care teacher. Can you remember a time your doctor truly educating you about your health care condition? Through this avenue, functional medicine practitioners will allow you to take back control of your health. After all, you are the one suffering from the condition, shouldn’t your treatment be focused on you and not the other people who have had similar problems?
Functional medicine is also one of the few health care choices that views the body as a whole. This is important considering that every single system in your body is dependent on the next to function properly. To take this holistic approach, these practitioners consider all variables including; your personal history, genetic make up, occupational, nutritional, and social factors. All of these factors play a role in the expression of health and disease.
Finally, once the cause of your condition has been discovered, functional medicine practitioners use the best from multiple health care disciplines to properly treat the cause. For example, after a careful diagnosis following the use of various imaging and laboratory testing, many practitioners utilize a combination of dietary changes, supplements, and exercise programs.
Unfortunately, as the state of health has changed throughout our nation, our health care system has remained fairly stagnant in its approach to healing. While our country’s traditional approach to treatment was successful for the types of diseases present in 1920, it has grown less effective at treating the current epidemics of heart disease, cancer, arthritis, and diabetes. While the diseases of days gone by were typically of short duration and responded well to quick fixes such as surgery and medication, it has become increasingly evident that todays chronic conditions require a different approach.
The complexity of diseases such as cancer, diabetes, heart disease, and arthritis far outweigh that of conditions previously treated by our health care system. An increased complexity of diseases requires an equally comprehensive approach to treatment. Where traditional medicine has focused on the condition, functional medicine is aimed at treating the individual. Through this approach, functional medicine practitioners consider the unique genetic, environmental, and occupational factors that may be contributing to a persons sickness. By doing so, these health care providers can focus on individualizing nutritional, supplementation, and exercise plans as a means to address a person’s health status.