Stance for Health

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Stance for Health

What is Functional Medicine?

April 22, 2024 • Rodney P. Wirth DC • Season 3 • Episode 3

What is Functional Medicine?

Functional Medicine is a systematic approach that focuses on root causes why you are currently lacking optimum health by:

Identifying and addressing the root causes of disease.

Providing a systems-oriented approach
Engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership.
Addressing the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms

Functional medicine supports your very own expression of health and vitality.

What makes Functional Medicine practitioners different?

Functional medicine practitioners are different because they:

Spend time with their patients

Listen carefully to their histories
Look at a variety of subtle interactions that influence long-term health including:
- Detailed history that includes genetic elements
- Environmental conditions
- Lifestyle factors (nutrition, diet, and exercise) that influence long-term health
- Lab work to determine the beginning of possible complex, chronic diseases

Why did Dr. Rodney choose to study Functional Medicine?

Dr. Rodney had been interested in making a difference in the long-term health of our patients (we now call health partners).

This new functional approach allows us to partner with you and empower you to live a life free of disability as you age so you can go the distance to fulfill our life purpose.

We want to help those who have health issues that have been overlooked because they fall within the “normal” range yet know that something needs to change.

We look forward to partnering with you as a medical detective helping those willing to take responsibility for their own health by making the choices that allows you to live a rejuvenation lifestyle.

What is Functional Medicine?
[00:07] Dr. Rodney: Welcome to Stance for Health podcast with Doctor Rodney and Karen Wirth, where becoming healthy is not complicated. Control your health by focusing on six areas of life that we teach you so you finally have the energy you want, have to do what you want instead of being a victim of your age. I have over 20 years experience working as a chiropractor and Karen is an author, speaker and longevity coach. We've seen how a tiny change in your habits today can open up your life to a powerful future. Start today and take your stance for health.

[00:50] Karen: Welcome to Stance for Health. Today we're going to be talking about a topic that has really been on our hearts and minds for months, and it is the topic of Functional Medicine. Doctor Rodney, welcome to the podcast.

[01:10] Dr. Rodney: It's good to be here. It's good to be here again. It sounds like it's been forever.

[01:15] Karen: Well, it has been a while because we have been focusing so much on Functional Medicine. More about that later. But what is Functional Medicine?

[01:24] Dr. Rodney: It's a systematic approach. In other words, a group of systems. It's looking at the body as a whole and then getting to the root cause of why that person is in front of you based on their history.

[01:40] Karen: Okay, so how is that different than the regular medical, as you like to call it, allopathic. Allele path?

[01:52] Dr. Rodney: Allopathic.

[01:53] Karen: Allopathic medicine.

[01:59] Dr. Rodney: Really what allopathic does, for the most part, my opinion is it takes what your symptoms are and takes a prescription that fills that toward the end of easing the suffering of that person, regardless of what the cause is.

[02:16] Karen: So you never get, or you seldom. Right, let's not use the word never. You seldom get to the root cause.

[02:24] Dr. Rodney: Yes.

[02:24] Karen: And you are basically masking symptoms.

[02:28] Dr. Rodney: Right. Whereas with Functional Medicine, what you're wanting to do and what the goal is, is to basically hit a home run. You want to hit a home run with this person when you catch the problem soon enough and their bodies haven't degenerated so much that it's to the point of no return. So the root cause, I don't want to give any case studies or instances, but let's just say that somebody comes, for instance, one of the most recent patients comes to us and has the history and the symptoms of being around pesticides, being around smelters or the north where steel is, and where the auto manufacturing is and where there's lots of indoors because it's Michigan. And so the symptoms and the, the case involved somebody that was fatigued a lot, sick a lot, and lot of sinus issues. Sinus issues, depressed and just not herself. And so really what it came down to was two different types of tests. One blood and two urine, or just basically a series of urine where you take and just look at urine analysis over a 24 hours period and see what the body's getting rid of or not getting rid of.

[04:01] Karen: So what I'm hearing you say is that it's very patient centric, not disease centric.

[04:07] Dr. Rodney: Right. Instead of that same scenario, instead of helping that person get over what became, what we became really clear as a mold exposure and mold living in her body in several different strains, causing different symptoms. Instead of masking those symptoms and treating those symptoms with drugs, we're going to be able to eradicate the mold and support her body in detoxifying it and then preventing it from preventing re exposure. In other words, changing her lifestyle.

[04:42] Karen: I love that this so coincides with that little sign you have in your office that defines health.

[04:49] Dr. Rodney: Oh, you're so good. Yeah, it's Dorland's medical dictionary, and it's been in, it's been in my office for the better part of 25 years now. 20, 24, 25 years.

[05:03] Karen: What does it say?

[05:04] Dr. Rodney: It's basically, health is not the mere absence of symptoms, but it's the optimal or optimal physical, social and mental wellbeing. And that's really what is so funny. You say it that way because physical, chemical and emotional stresses are what ultimately drag us all down one way or the other, whether it's inside produced chemicals that are out of, out of whack or out of balance. If you want to say it that way, that's the endocrine system. Or it could be the gut, it could be the brain, could be both the gut and the brain. I mean, there's so many different things. We could talk about systems, but that's maybe getting ahead, too far ahead.

[05:49] Karen: So basically, you are truly listening rather than being too quick to speak. You're listening to each health partner.

[06:00] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. Listening to their story, their specific story.

[06:05] Karen: I love that.

[06:06] Dr. Rodney: Even if it sounds like somebody else's symptoms, it could be a completely different historical cause. Right.

[06:13] Karen: Love that so much.

[06:14] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[06:15] Karen: And it also is a partnership with, interesting, what we are calling now, instead of patients that are suffering, we are wanting to use the new term we have for at least a year now of health partners because it also involves them partnering in some changing.

[06:37] Dr. Rodney: Yeah, that is such a great point, because when you consider health to be something that someone has done to them, in other words, health as a passive process, that's the allopathic model, that's, what pill can you give me? What can you cut out? What can you splice together in order to fix me? Whereas basically a functional approach is, how can we empower you and partner with you to help you live a life that's relatively free of your body being broken down, you know, and having disorders and fully functional until you go the distance?

[07:22] Karen: Love that. And that dovetails into our interest in longevity. And I think for myself personally, that's when I first became connected with Functional Medicine, because it was around vitality, it was around being healthy. It was around living the best life that we can without disability, like they do in the blue zones. And so that is kind of what piqued our interest. So talk to me a little bit more about why you. I'm telling you my interest, why you chose to pursue Functional Medicine.

[07:57] Dr. Rodney: Great time for that question because I was literally just thinking about it. It was ultimately about the time my brother died.

[08:06] Karen: Last October.

[08:07] Dr. Rodney: Last October. It was about then, mid October that I elected to do this. I suppose it was. That was 2000. That was 2023. So eight years. Hard to imagine I'm even saying this. Eight years prior, my late wife had died of cancer. Seems really odd to be saying that on the side of it. And then your. Your dad ultimately dying, even though he was, most people would say 100, almost 102, is a full life. I believe we could have gotten another 1025, maybe ten years out of that guy, who knows, to 120, which is our goal. Right. And so. And then your late husband. Your late husband. And so all of those different things. And then, you know, coupled with the. The present health of a lot of our health partners and the history that I have with my own health, you know, issues with things that I feel like I'm dodging a bullet with. With different types of cancers. I've had dysplastic nevis. Nevis cut off and a slow growing basal cell carcinoma. And if I have control over that, then I want to be able to do something about that for myself, and I also want to be able to do something about that for those that are looking for answers.

[09:27] Karen: I so love that you just said if I have control over that because so many people feel like they have no control.

[09:34] Dr. Rodney: That's what I used to think.

[09:36] Karen: Like, oh, I was. I was unlucky. Yeah, what a, what a. What a bad break that, that happened to you and, and, or I dodged a bullet, but there's nothing. That helplessness of nothing that I can do. Do you think that's part of what has been done by having a professional with all the answers.

[09:56] Dr. Rodney: Yes. Yeah. We've given ourselves and the practitioner the God complex. We really have. Like now you, you're the doctor, right? In other words, I think in some ways it may be not the God complex, but at least, well, small g. At least small g. What do they call those guys in jewish culture, rabbi? Rabbis have to be really smart, and so do doctors.

[10:26] Karen: Let's give them credit. However, they are studying disease. They are studying symptoms. They are not studying prevention.

[10:37] Dr. Rodney: Spoiler alert. Karen will be taking the health, basically Functional Medicine coach class coming up this fall, and I'm looking forward to partnering with her on this. For whoever's listening to this or any of our future health partners, that will come for whatever reason, whatever health problem.

[10:59] Karen: There is out there in our own personal history. Right after you had discovered that you had the basal cell carcinoma and had the surgery for it, we had gone to a conference, and you've heard a lot of us, a lot of podcast of you. Look, if you're just starting, go back and listen to a lot of them around the difference of what we eat and the supplements that we take, and we completely changed our life. I feel better. I feel younger now than I did before we started, that there's a lot.

[11:33] Dr. Rodney: Of ways in which I feel 20 years younger.

[11:36] Karen: Absolutely.

[11:37] Dr. Rodney: Absolutely. And I believe I can feel even younger.

[11:40] Karen: I do, too.

[11:42] Dr. Rodney: Just there's a few things that, that we can tweak, I believe. And so the things that we're doing right now, I believe, can propel us far into the future.

[11:54] Karen: And the reason that I've decided to pursue the coaching is that I came back and expected everybody to be just like me. We threw out half our pantry after coming back from a conference, and it also dovetailed with the shutdown, the pandemic. And so I was cooking every meal at home. But we completely revolutionized what we do. Most people find that a little bit more difficult to do.

[12:20] Dr. Rodney: Yes. Not just for the, for the investment that you've made initially on the food, hundreds of dollars, maybe thousands, depending on what you have in your freezer, but also that, hey, I've gotten used to those. I'm very fond of those flavors.

[12:36] Karen: Yes. Of that sugar, of that package. That. But it says healthy on it.

[12:41] Dr. Rodney: Come on. Yeah. And so what this also says is something that I would go to seminars and study pretty deeply. Or not. I wouldn't say pretty deeply. I dabbled in Functional Medicine in the early part of last decade, actually, even earlier than that. In the early two thousand and around Doctor Brimhall's work, and he had a systems approach, and quite honestly, could have been maybe the roots of Functional Medicine, who knows?

[13:17] Karen: Absolutely.

[13:18] Dr. Rodney: But I just have to give him some props and some credit.

[13:22] Karen: Absolutely.

[13:24] Dr. Rodney: Doing that, initiating me.

[13:26] Karen: We're looking at practices that sometimes are considered, quote unquote, alternative. So therefore, people snub them.

[13:36] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[13:37] Karen: As long being legit.

[13:39] Dr. Rodney: Right. As though it's. As though it's not efficacious, it's. It's more placebo in a way. If you believe about alternative care enough, then 25% of the time it might work, 10% of the time it might work, or if you just persist in it long enough. And what I found over and over and over again was that the product that was recommended, that was. That was natural, was as good or better than the. Than the drug for the same purpose.

[14:12] Karen: Without the side effects.

[14:14] Dr. Rodney: Right.

[14:14] Karen: And with that focus on prevention, we've always heard this nutrition, your. Your way of living and your approach to life and exercise can do so much for longevity.

[14:29] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. Spending more time on your feet and moving throughout the day, rather than trying to just get it done, and maybe a half an hour to an hour per day than spending the rest of the time sitting. There's a reason why it's called sitting.

[14:42] Karen: Disease and why it's called weekend warriors. So, one of the main things that I love about where we're headed is the lab testing.

[14:52] Dr. Rodney: Can I say something about that? Right.

[14:53] Karen: That's what I'm asking you. Tell us about the lab testing and why that will make a difference in this quote unquote alternative.

[15:02] Dr. Rodney: Yeah. I used to think, as a chiropractor, I used to think that even though it was part of the requirement for graduating, I had to have a certain number of cbcs, a certain number of UA's, a certain number of SMACs water. All of those tests were types of blood tests. And some of the smack was the really stands for something. Obviously, SMAC was. Don't remember all the acronym, what they all meant, but it was a more involved test, a deeper test. It went into some of the liver enzymes, it went into some of the endocrine function. It went into some of the, uh, just some of the dug a little bit deeper, maybe even the a one c, if that was even around then, uh, you know, your lDl, hdl type stuff. And then, um, just a cell differential, just to see if there was white blood cell. What? Your white blood cell count is checking out. Okay, let's differential between here's normal types of leukocytes. Here's a normal number of red blood cells, and then here's where yours lie. And then the urine analysis. Okay, well, what can you see in the urine analysis back then? This is stuff that I studied back 30 years ago. You can actually look at whether or not someone has extra uric acid in their urine. Okay? So those are just some of the basic things. Now, you're taking some of those same blood tests, and you can look at it and say, this is a predictor. If this is high, then this is a predictor of, say, prodrome to cancer or prodrome to diabetes or prodrome to, let's say, even degenerative joint disease or heart disease or early caused early stage dementia of some sort, all cause dementia. So you're taking the same tests, but you're spreading out. You're still using blood, you're still using urine, and you might even use saliva. Right. And just expanding on that and looking deeper with. With the technology that we have now, we can. We can thwart some of this stuff that's. That's coming on the horizon and say, well, you know what? I see that, and I have control over that. I'm not powerless with that, I'd like.

[17:16] Karen: To say, but I got blood work done when I went for my physical. What do you want to say to that?

[17:24] Dr. Rodney: It depends on how you want to interpret it. And also, it depends. Let's say, take, for instance. I know what you're thinking, too. There are two things that we think of that are predictors of certain diseases. And let's say that we're talking about cholesterol as a contributor to heart disease or cardiovascular disease. And the reality is that when we break down LDL and HDL, they're nothing more than fat carriers. Right. And you need both. They're neither bad nor good. Right. Unless you talk about that, we could go into a little bit more detail about the size of the particle, but, you know, high density lipoproteins. Right. Pick it up, take it where it belongs, do its job in the brain, or whatever target tissue it is, and then let's take it back to the liver. That's the job of HDL. Right. So why is it bad?

[18:26] Karen: Exactly. And the studies that have shown that when they track people that are in the ER with heart attack, it's not cholesterol.

[18:36] Dr. Rodney: Exactly.

[18:37] Karen: And so those are so entrenched in our belief system and in the whole drug prescribing world that it does take a little bit of courage or at least knowledge to break out of that pattern.

[18:53] Dr. Rodney: Yeah.

[18:54] Karen: And so that's what I love about these blood tests, is that they're individually unique to each person and to their situation, and they're the latest, greatest lab testing and diagnostic technique.

[19:09] Dr. Rodney: Right. What are we focusing on and what can we get out of the blood or what can we get out of the urine? And, well, I started to say what I, that's how I got trained. But then I thought, well, that's just for medical doctors. Only medical doctors do that. And the state that I might go to might require that. Why? Because people expect something from a doctor, from a chiropractor that happens to be a doctor, or a doctor that happens to be a chiropractor. They expect some things out of that, that designation, out of that study. Back to smart people again. Well, these are, we're teaching people, that's what doctor means. Physician means teacher, rabbi, rabbi. It does. And so we expect more out of that person. And we should, we should. And this is, didn't know this, but this is going to be lifetime study.

[20:03] Karen: Yes, it is.

[20:04] Dr. Rodney: How ironic. You know, it wasn't necessarily what I signed up for as a chiropractor.

[20:09] Karen: This is changing ever. Every day. There are new discoveries and new things and new situations that come to us around all of this. And chiropractic has always been your forte and it is powerful. We're not going to stop the chiropractic side.

[20:30] Dr. Rodney: Powerful modality, there's no question. I've been getting results for years with chiropractic, with generalized myofascial release using percussive therapy, you know, obviously postural neurology, vibe percussion, I'm sorry, vibe plate use, laser use, nutritional use in a general sense.

[20:51] Karen: We’re not throwing that out.

[20:53] Dr. Rodney: We are expanding it.

[20:55] Karen: Yes. And I could not be more excited, more to come, folks, and we will just continue to educate you, let you know about how you can take your stance for health, because we want you to live a long, vibrant and productive life. Thank you for tuning in.

[21:19] Dr. Rodney: Thank you for joining us at stands for Health podcast where getting healthy and staying that way are not as complicated as you might think. Subscribe now and discover steps and small changes that can increase your energy and open the door to vibrant health and longevity. If this podcast has been helpful, please write a review. We'll see you next time.