Functional Medicine – Managing disease or Promoting Health? – Episode #06

Show Notes

3.03 – How is functional medicine sometimes interpreted?

4.14 – Functional medicine is science and evidence based practice.

5.40 – It’s important not to discard conventional treatment options.

6.10 – Functional Medicine is a study of external factors and the ability of the body to adapt to those factors.

7.35 – In Germany and Switzerland they call it bio-regulatory medicine.

9.30 – In 3rd year of study, doctors shift from studying the body to studying disease.

12.20 – There used to be an information imbalance between doctors and clients, but now that is starting to change.

14.15 – Medicine is constantly evolving and advancing, it’s important for doctors to continue studying and stay up to date.

15.10 The World Health Organization did a study about the link between statins and a reduction in cardiac surgery, but this is not entirely relevant any more.

17.00 – It’s not no longer accepted that statins decrease heart disease.

17.25 – Functional medicine is about discovering the root cause of the disease.

17.47 – Does Dr.Sam think people are being kept sick for profit?

18.48 – Insurance companies are happy to pay for disease management but not for disease prevention.

20.28 – Dr.Sam illustrates the problem with modern healthcare using a Bell Curve.

22.00 – GP’s don’t have the time for individualized patient treatment plans covering nutrition etc.

22.45 – The individual has to make the call about their own health.

25.45 – Doctors and nurses do want to help people but are victims of the system.

26.45 – If the system is the problem, how do we change it?

27.40 – Cannabis is a good example of change affected from the bottom up.

28.10 – In Canada a doctor can prescribe cannabis as part of a supervised treatment protocol.

30.00 – What are the steps you need to take if you want to explore some functional medicine options?

33.10 – It is important to continuously test to see what is changing.

35.30 – Health screens generally test for current issues, not future ones.

37.20 – The absence of disease does not indicate the presence of health.

37.50 – Are men and women both tested the same?

40.12 – Are men or women better at making moves and decisions regarding their own health?

43.15 – People are afraid of being ridiculed, called hypochondriac.

45.10 – People are revolting against chemicals and drugs.

48.00 – We know statins don’t change the requirements for cardiac surgery, but the current medical guidelines have not changed to reflect this.

49.20 – Cholesterol is like a firetruck responding to a fire, statins stop the firetruck but not the fire. Inflammation is the fire, in the endothelial cells.

51.00 – It’s not just about the LDL levels tested, it’s more about the levels of inflammation in the blood vessel cells.

54.30 – The bigger picture of treating high cholesterol and heart disease is not about statins.

56.00 – It’s about reducing systemic inflammation in the body.

57.10 – Taking statins can prevent further plaques from forming, but there’s no evidence to suggest it helps plaques already formed.

58.05 – Things like Lecithin, Phosphatidylcholine etc can reduce these plaques.

1.00.12 – There is no link between dietary cholesterol and blood cholesterol levels.

1.01.35 – Carbohydrate intake is often a problem. Cutting out all fat from your diet is the opposite of what you should do.

1.03.00 – Sporting industries drove many performance-based advances in nutrition science.

1.05.30 – There were generally 2 ways to increase performance, by new exercise or changing the diet.

1.07.00 – The fast food industry in the UK has grown by 56% over the last 3 years.

1.08.30 – Diet is the most important thing to change to affect your health.

1.11.00 – Most people are motivated to change when they visit a functional medicine clinic.

1.12.20 – What is metabolic disease?

1.15.30 – What are IV bars and how do they differ from functional medicine clinics?

1.17.30 – the body is very good at identifying the nutrients it needs through craving and hunger.

1.22.40 – There is lots of evidence linking free radicals to disease.

1.25.10 – High dose IV vitamin therapy introduces huge amounts of electrons to stabilize free radicals.

1.29.40 – It’s up to the individual to investigate the options for their own health.

1.31.00 – IV Therapy bypasses the gastrointestinal system.

1.34.00 – It’s important to do IV therapy in the context of a guided and tested approach to get maximum benefit.

1.34.50 – Dr.Sam is like a coach when it comes to health and wellness.

Check out our previous podcast about Taking Control of Your Health and Wellness with Eoin Lacey