Functional Medicine and Health

I’m visiting my dear friend, a science technology teacher and mother of two. We are in Kings Beach, Lake Tahoe discussing health care, insurance and pharmaceuticals.

Both of our parents are baby boomers and highly prescribed patients.

I'm discussing with laughter the strange behavior I’ve observed in my parents in regard to Lipitor, their cholesterol medication.

During my my last visit home, I have taken over the shopping for food for the simple reason that when I open the overstuffed fridge there isn’t anything in color. As far as I’m concerned, there isn’t food or room.

Styrofoam containers, formaldehyde filled jars, sulfite pressed meat, aspartame, corn syrup, and dairylike substances get thrown away leaving empty shelves. I go to the grocery store, head to two places...protein and the produce section.

When I return home with fruits and veggies my dad cries, exclaiming “There is nothing to eat!”

“Dad,” I say, “Eat food. Look, Dad, I bought grapefruit. You love grapefruit.”

“I can’t eat it anymore.”

“Why not?” I ask as I spy the section of bread products I haven’t gotten to yet and see him with an apple fritter poised at his mouth.

”Because,” he says between bites, “ It interferes with my cholesterol medication.”

I’m watching him silently, hoping he’ll laugh and see the same irony of high fat in his body, his need for the medicine and his current choice of food intake.

He doesn’t and so I do. Laughingly I say, “Dad, are you trying to tell me the people who prescribed the medication said nothing about the donut but prohibited grapefruit consumption? Did it occur to you that if you made healthier choices like the grapefruit to begin with your body would be in better balance and you wouldn’t need the medication?”

I see his eyes raise. I look back at amused.

”Dad, a spoonful of lecithin in a smoothie with fruits and color would lower your cholesterol and free you to eat grapefruit again. Plus, you’d lose weight.”

He eyes me, takes another fritter bite, “This is easier.”

( Ok ok pause for factoid check. Father: this is filled with hyperbole and Trumpisms😂 Me: Would you like to despite accuracy. F: I would. M: What would you have me say? F: Just make sure they know I love fruit, avoid pain killers at all costs, go to the gym and only eat apple fritters on occasion. M: Ok true. Maybe you are a hybrid of you and mom in this story. F: Now that’s true. M: So for the record, my pops is one bad ass ex Vietnam vet who goes to the gym and has biceps like my thighs. He taught me everything about using my body and interfacing with the physical world. Thanks, dad. Love you. Also this scenario is true😂)

Paula and I sitting in the living room in Tahoe laugh. Listing out strange baby boomer stories such as in-house reverse osmosis water filters and reusable bottles unused but plastic bottles in the fridge.

She holds up a book she’s reading, “Zonia, you’d love this book.”

Its called Functional Medicine and it’s written by doctors who are freeing themselves from the tyranny of insurance companies and big pharmaceuticals in order to actually heal people of lies and false information.

The main tier dedicated to a very important fundamental truth, diet and lifestyle matter.

I hold back the urge here to shout, “Duh!” and instead focus on the language and vocabulary to communicate these basic concepts to the masses.

I’ll use whatever words people want me to, how do we learn to speak truth in the medical community. Meaning someone is heavily obese with 30 pounds of weight pulling the spine forward and complaining about back pain.

Honesty. I have actually said this to people.

The weight of your belly is pulling your spine forward. If you want the pain to diminish you, have to lose weight.

Common practice now, pain killers.

How about personal accountability and radical truth speaking from those whose opinions people trust?

This is the premise of Functional Medicine, a restructuring of the health prescription of doctors.
In this example, a doctor, instead of prescribing pain pills would write a prescription to a dietician and exercise specialist.

Radical honesty. A patient instead of saying what they know they should actually eat, would have no other choice but to eat that way to eliminate pain and, instead of sitting on the couch watching t.v. while their psoas shortens and pulls the skeleton inciting sciatica, would actually go for a walk.