Health Focus
Dr Simone Silver is a medical practitioner heading up a busy medical practice in Gardens, Cape Town. Simone’s approach challenges many of the conventional approaches of the medical fraternity through her application of functional medicine.
As Simone explains, “The conventional approach to medical care is quite paternal, and patients are generally passive partners in the relationship. However, I believe that the patient should be a far more active participant in what is, after all, their own health journey. It can be extremely empowering for a patient to be more involved in their health journey. I believe that the medical practitioner and the patient should rather work together in a partnership arrangement. My role as the doctor is to educate and guide the patient, rather than to be prescriptive.”
Understanding more about the concept of functional medicine
Functional medicine embraces conventional medicine, but offers a different approach to the management of diseases, especially to chronic conditions. This is a way of thinking about health that is more holistic in that it appreciates far more about the actual patient and their unique issues than about the disease per se. It looks at the same elements that a conventional approach does – the symptoms, the health experience, the disease – but it also takes a deeper look into who the patient is; what their unique biochemistry and unique genetics are; their particular hormonal imbalances; the context of the person with regards to their relationships, their family life, their work or occupational life; as well as how the person is placed within the greater society and community they live in.
“What I love about this approach is that it allows me to get a much deeper understanding of the person and what their health vulnerabilities are. It also gives me an insight into what the person’s health potential and goals could be,” Simone says. “And this is something that a conventional medical approach does not do.”
With functional medicine, once the doctor and patient have worked together on the unique patient profile, the practitioner can identify how the patient’s health scenario could be transformed.
In addition, biologically, functional medicine recognises that the body is a system of systems. In other words, all the body’s systems are connected. So, the patient may have a hormonal malfunction, and this hormonal problem could impact the gastro-intestinal system. And the gastro-intestinal disruption could then affect the immune system or even brain function.This scenario highlights the interconnectedness
of the human body.
Functional medicine works together with conventional medicine
Simone makes it clear that functional medicine does not involve discarding the conventional approach. “In fact, functional medicine embraces conventional medicine but goes deeper, and provides a greater focus on the patient, rather than on the disease alone. Where there is a clear diagnosable disease or condition, such as a heart attack or a broken bone, conventional medical treatment is most appropriate. And so the functional medical practitioner may include the best conventional medicine, such as medication that is known to be effective,” she says.
The contrast with conventional medicine is that functional medicine can be more effective where there is no specific disease but the patient is experiencing a loss of wellness. It also applies well to certain chronic conditions. “In these instances, the doctor may also work with the patient to make some lifestyle changes, which could include initiatives geared to strengthen the patient’s emotional or psychological wellbeing. We may look at prescribing a particular exercise regime, or look at the judicious use of supplements to boost energy and vitality, and to improve sleep.”
An integrative approach
Functional medicine is a far more integrative approach to healthcare. Using the science-based approach of conventional medicine, it deepens the investigation into a patient’s wellbeing. It looks beyond symptoms only as the basis of the diagnosis of disease, and is geared to allow the doctor to understand the patient in a deeper way. “To achieve this, I look at this from many perspectives: psychological, physical and societal,” Simone explains.
As for treatment modalities, the concept embraces a combination of strategies, far wider than is the case conventionally. So, the treatment may include pharmacological interventions, hormonal adjustments, and lifestyle changes specific to each individual.
Instead of just grouping a bunch of symptoms together to diagnose a disease, it’s a far more insightful process, allowing one to understand the patient in a deeper way.
Functional medicine and specialist medicine
Simone comments that, “Within the framework of conventional medicine, we have specialists for each element of people’s health. There is a great need for specialist medicine, which allows one to zoom in on a particular organ system; but there is also the need to zoom out and connect the dots between all the systems. There is merit in looking at how all the body’s systems connect to one another – which is what functional medicine does.”
The functional medical approach is certainly one that makes one rethink one’s own role as a patient. The concept may appeal to many people because of the integrative nature of this way of practising medicine.
Dr Simone Silver is the founder of Hormonal Health & Wellness Centre, a medical practice that applies a functional integrative approach to medicine. Areas of special focus include:
● Chronic Diseases and Healthy Aging
● Mood, Stress and Sleep Disorders
● Hormonal Imbalances/Disorders
● Gut Disorders
For more information, visit the practice’s website: https://hormonalhealth.co.za/
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