10 Benefits of Functional Medicine for Women Over 30
For women over 30, it’s essential to understand the many positive benefits of functional medicine. Functional medicine is a holistic approach to healthcare, focusing on each patient’s individual needs and healthcare goals. It’s a personalized way to look at your health and well-being explicitly tailored to you. Let’s dive into 10 ways functional medicine can benefit women over 30.
1. Exploring the Root Cause of Illness
Through functional medicine, practitioners deeply dive into understanding what exactly caused an illness or ailment instead of just treating symptoms through medication. Your practitioner will look at your lifestyle choices, environmental factors, and genetics to determine the root cause and develop a plan that works best for you.
2. Identifying Unhealthy Habits
With functional medicine, your practitioner will help you identify unhealthy habits or patterns that may be causing some disruption in your life. Whether it’s diet, exercise, or lifestyle choices, they will work with you to create sustainable and healthy solutions for you in the long run.
3. Creating Your Optimal Eating Plan
Eating nutrient-rich foods helps support our body’s natural healing power while providing optimal energy levels throughout our day. With functional medicine, practitioners will create meal plans and diets that are rich in nutrients specifically designed for your individual needs and body type so that you can maximize your health potential.
4. Utilizing Supplements That Your Body Needs
Because our bodies don’t always get all the vitamins and minerals it needs through food alone, supplements help bridge the gap between what we get from food vs. what we need from those foods to properly nourish our bodies. Functional medicine practitioners understand how vital these supplements are and work with each patient individually on what would be best for them based on their specific needs and personal preferences when taking supplements like pills or powders etc.
5. Managing Stress Levels
Many people underestimate how much stress affects their overall health. Still, functional medicine practitioners help patients recognize how chronic stress can manifest itself physically and emotionally so they can take steps towards managing their stress more effectively using lifestyle changes such as tai chi qi gong, breath work, meditation, etc.
6. Improving Sleep Quality
Sleep is essential for our mental clarity and physical health. Still, many people struggle to get enough restful sleep due to insomnia or poor sleeping habits/habitat. Functional Medicine practitioners help patients create better sleeping environments by creating proper bedtime routines, including avoiding screens before bedtime, implementing relaxation techniques such as reading or journaling before bedtime, and taking advantage of natural remedies such as lavender oil.
7. Holistic Approach
Instead of focusing solely on disease treatment, functional medicine looks at wellness holistically by including nutrition, exercise, sleep, mental health, and other lifestyle factors in its approach. This allows clients to gain insight into how their body works optimally. Then they can make more informed decisions about their own well-being.
8. Personalized Care Plans
One key benefit of functional medicine is its personalized approach which takes into account each patient’s individual needs, such as age, gender, lifestyle, preferences, etc. when creating personalized care plans designed just for them. By doing this, practitioners can provide tailored treatments that have been proven repeatedly to be more effective than traditional approaches, which focus on general populations rather than individuals.
9. A Healthcare Partner
When dealing with a functional medicine physician, you are the captain of your healthcare team. The functional medicine team, which may consist of various medical professionals (physicians, nurse practitioners, dieticians, coaches, physical therapists, physical trainers, medical assistants, etc.), is delighted to become a part of your health and wellness team. Since the care is highly individualized, the providers are receptive to the client’s input, research, and finding about their unique situation.
In addition, functional medicine-oriented professionals are generally more aware of the current updates in medical research and more supportive of implementing the latest and greatest research with the client’s permission. Last and certainly not least, the functional medicine physician advocates for the client to maximize the benefit of all of the medical services being used, whether allopathic, naturopathic, and/or functional in nature.
10. Access to Integrative Modalities
Frequently, functional medicine professionals are receptive to an integrative perspective of healthcare and will provide access and/ or support to services such as Tai Chi Qi Gong, acupuncture, natural modalities, etc. In addition, functional medicine physician serves as an advocate for their clients and assist the client in integrating the various modalities.
Functional medicine has been proven time after time again by multiple studies to be a practical approach when it comes to improving overall health and well-being for women over 30 years old specifically. It requires a holistic perspective when looking at wellness, which includes nutrition, exercise, sleep hygiene, mental health awareness, and other lifestyle factors. It ensures every aspect is considered when creating personalized care plans tailored just for each client. By taking this approach, we can ensure we’re providing ourselves with optimal nourishment from inside and out, leading us down the path toward optimal health!