Functional medicine is personalized medicine that deals with primary prevention and underlying causes instead of symptoms for serious chronic disease anchored by an examination of the core clinical imbalances that underlie various disease conditions. Those imbalances arise as environmental inputs such as diet, nutrients, exercise, and trauma are processed by each person's unique set of genetic predispositions. The fundamental physiological processes examined include communication, both outside and inside the cell; bioenergetics, or the transformation of food into energy; replication, repair, and maintenance of structural integrity, from the cellular to the whole body level; elimination of waste; protection and defense; and transport and circulation.

Improving balance - in the patient's environmental inputs and in the body's fundamental physiological processes - is the precursor to restoring health and it involves much more than treating the symptoms. Functional medicine is dedicated to improving the management of complex, chronic disease by intervening at multiple levels to address core clinical imbalances and to restore each patient's functionality and health. It is grounded in scientific principles and information widely available in medicine today, combining research from various disciplines into highly detailed yet clinically relevant models of disease pathogenesis and effective clinical management.

The functional medicine approach to the treatment of chronic disease is holistically centered on the principle that restoration of proper cellular metabolism, through reducing cumulative toxic load and oxidative stress to the body, will allow normalization of mitochodrial respiration, cellular energy production, and ultimately lead to a reduction of the signs and symptoms of chronic disease. The functional medicine philosophy is centered on the premise that a breakdown of the intestinal mucosa by the chronic ingestion of food and water-based toxins, and the use of common prescription and over-the-counter drugs can lead to leaky gut syndrome. This leads to the crossing of food-based toxins and partially digested food proteins through the intestinal mucosa and into the systemic blood supply resulting in an increase in food allergies and increased toxic load. This increases stress on the liver and its ability to adequately detoxify these substances resulting in increased systemic tissue toxicity.

The functional medicine therapeutic strategy is centered around repairing the intestinal mucosa by providing nutritional support to the body to aid tissue detoxification, reduce oxidative stress, and ultimately promote a return of normal cellular metabolism. This program of gut restoration is described as the "Four R' approach, Remove, Replace, Reinoculate and Repair. Assessment begins by determining intestinal health and the functional reserve of the liver and its detoxification abilities through patient symptom questionnaires and functional laboratory studies which include blood, saliva, urine, stool and hair assessments. Once the data is collected, a treatment program of specific vitamins, minerals and nutrients is instituted in order to correct any intestinal hyperpermeability. Combined with a diet which emphasizes fresh foods, and eliminates processed and allergenic foods, this will restore the optimal health that is the foundation of functional medicine.