Functional Medicine Nutrition
The Next Step for a Dietitian: Become a Functional Nutritionist
“A pill for every ill” is a phrase often used to describe the conventional healthcare model and its ubiquitous use of medication to treat symptoms, instead of uncovering the reasons for the “ill.”
The conventional healthcare model is very good at saying: you HAVE this and rarely asks the question, WHY do you have it? Functional medicine nutrition attempts to answer that question.
While the conventional approach is geared towards identifying pathology and disease, functional medicine attempts to understand and resolve the underlying root causes of imbalance and illness in the body by heeding early warning signs and making effective changes.
There is a real need for this root cause approach.
Many patients are struggling with exhaustion, anxiety, aches and pains, ongoing digestive issues, and chronic mystery symptoms. The conventional model often leaves them without any answers—feeling invalidated, under-diagnosed, over-prescribed, more stressed out, and more confused than ever.
I’m sure you’ve seen this time and time again in your own practice. And I’m sure you’ve been searching for more effective ways to help your own patients or clients. This is why so many providers are seeking to apply a functional medicine approach to better support their clients.
Functional medicine attempts to identify imbalance of normal physiology so we can address these underlying dysfunctions and root causes—ideally before it gets to a pathological disease state. With this approach, we can catch things trending in the wrong direction early on, and we have the opportunity to restore balance and prevent or reverse the disease state—all without gaslighting our clients and telling them “it’s all in your head.”
Why Functional Medicine Can Get a Bad Rap
As functional nutrition and functional medicine have garnered more interest and popularity, we’re now running into the same problem with the functional approach as conventional medicine.
While the functional approach started as a root cause approach, it has morphed into something more diluted and less effective.
Many functional medicine trainings are protocol-based and elimination diet heavy.
These tactics might work for 50% of people, but what about the other 50%? These are the people being left behind—the ones that functional medicine is supposed to help. They’ve been chewed up and spit out by the conventional approach. They end up in functional medicine looking for a miracle, and all they get is $5,000 worth of functional lab testing and a bucket full of supplements.
We have taken the conventional “pill for every ill” model and turned it into a “supplement for every imbalanced lab marker.”
Being a functional provider is more than just ordering functional labs and addressing each imbalanced lab marker with a supplement. This is what we call template medicine, or "spot treating" a lab instead of treating the human being sitting in front of you. It’s usually not a very effective or sustainable solution because it doesn’t address WHY the client got to these imbalances in the first place.
Beyond that, analyzing labs is a skill that requires a lot of training. A very common trend in the functional medicine nutrition space right now is inexperienced clinicians ordering specialty labs without knowing how to:
Interpret the data
How to direct the data from the labs into clinical treatment strategies.
While these functional labs can be a phenomenal tool for assessing root cause, they’re only impactful when used appropriately.
This is part of the reason people can spend GOBS of money working with a functional medicine practitioner, but still walk away without answers, results or solutions.
The cookie cutter approach leaves people trapped in the same position they were in with conventional medicine.
The cool thing is that functional lab testing can help you accelerate your clients’ transformation - if you approach them the right way.
Explore this topic in Erin’s Masterclass: A Unique Approach to Functional Lab Testing to Accelerate Your Clients’ Transformation
A TRUE root cause approach is highly individualized.
As functional providers, our job is to listen. We want to hear your story. We ask the right questions. We pull on the right threads. We understand systems on top of systems and webs on top of webs. We understand that much of your healing is found in your story. And this is why we understand that what works for ONE person will not necessarily work for ALL people.
Because true healing is not cookie cutter.
LEARN WITH ERIN ON THE FUNK’TIONAL NUTRITION PODCAST
Great Episodes for Practitioners
How to Be a Better Functional Medicine Practitioner
The truth is, functional labs can be super effective at uncovering root issues. And yes, an individualized protocol might be necessary to address the imbalances we see in the labs. Sometimes supplements help dig us out of a hole we’ve been in. And sometimes pulling out some foods via an elimination diet can alleviate inflammation at the gut.
But this is NOT where a “root cause approach” ends. If we really want to help people who are struggling we also need the ability to GO DEEPER. Functional labs are useful in helping to confirm an imbalance, but it will only take you so far with your clients. In order to address WHY your client has these imbalances, you must consider the entire person, including talking to your client about nervous system support, circadian rhythm, light exposure, sleep hygiene, blood sugar regulation, ACEs, trauma, and limbic system dysregulation.
It takes more than just ordering functional labs to become an excellent functional practitioner.
Not all functional providers provide in the same way. Critical thinking and individualization should be the hallmarks of a great functional provider. We must also have a deep understanding of body systems and how they all speak to each other. We must use discernment with our testing and treatment strategies. And, of course, we MUST be good listeners—and hear the things our clients aren’t even telling us. We can’t just jump right to functional lab testing and expect to get people better. If we’re relying too heavily on labs and not enough on our client’s story, then we’re really no different than a conventional approach.
This is why the Funk’tional Nutrition Academy exists.
FNA is a 14-month online functional nutrition certification program that will teach you the tools to become an excellent functional practitioner.
FNA provides not just the WHAT of functional medicine nutrition, but also the WHY and the HOW to integrate it into your own practice and into your own work with clients. It gives you the tools to dive deep with your clients and take a true, root cause approach to support their healing.
Are you ready to take your practice to the next level?
Are you ready to provide your clients a REAL root cause approach and help them FEEL GOOD, while avoiding burnout yourself? At FNA, we’ll show you just how to do that—from clinical and diagnostic education to a deep dive into what it really takes to build a strong, successful, and thriving business—taught by instructors who have done exactly that.