At your appointment with a functional medicine practitioner, expect a lengthy conversation about your diet, sleep patterns, and stress levels. These conversations are critical in understanding the source of your health issues and creating a comprehensive treatment plan that includes lifestyle, exercise, and dietary changes as part of a treatment strategy.
Functional Medicine vs. Traditional Practices
Functional medicine stands apart from traditional practices that focus solely on relieving symptoms through medication prescription and suppression by targeting their root causes directly. When this approach is taken, long-term improvements to health can often follow; this distinguishes it from more traditional practices that merely suppress symptoms with drugs and prescriptions.
Addressing Root Causes
Conventional doctors may prescribe pharmaceuticals to address your high blood pressure without considering that the issue could be caused by inflammation from food or stress levels. A functional medicine physician, on the other hand, would likely discuss these factors and offer lifestyle modifications designed to combat inflammation, ultimately leading to improved blood pressure levels.
A Holistic Approach to Healing
Functional medicine has become an attractive solution for many patients seeking holistic approaches to healing rather than quick fixes for short-term symptoms. Conventional and functional practitioners may work together in managing chronic illnesses like neuropathy and pain management.
The Initial Consultation and Testing
Functional medicine practitioners take an extensive history and physical exam before suggesting any tests, which provide valuable insight into your biological makeup, genetics, and current state at a cellular level. This allows them to determine the source of any health problems and formulate an individualized functional medicine treatment plan tailored specifically for you.
Advanced Diagnostic Techniques
At Swiss Acupuncture, our highly trained Functional Medicine Physicians use advanced techniques such as VO2 max and sub VO2 testing, DEXA scans, cardiovascular screenings, genetic analysis for neurodegenerative conditions, and blood tests to discover the source of your symptoms. By combining this data with information from both personal and family medical histories, they can create a customized plan tailored exclusively for you.
The Patient-Practitioner Relationship
One of the many advantages of functional medicine is the intimate patient-practitioner relationship. You’ll spend at least an hour with your physician during an initial consultation, giving you time for in-depth conversations while receiving undivided attention—something not available at most healthcare clinics where usually only 7 minutes will be allocated directly for you.
Financial Considerations
Functional medicine is not typically covered by insurance plans, so you will typically pay out of pocket for visits. While this might sound intimidating at first glance, paying yourself can actually give more control over healthcare decisions while helping create partnerships between practitioner and client to reach health goals more efficiently.
Swiss Acupuncture Functional Medicine Treatment for Chronic Low Back Pain (CLBP)
Addressing CLBP with Acupuncture
Chronic low back pain (CLBP) is an increasingly widespread health issue that cannot be effectively treated with pharmaceutical therapies alone. Acupuncture is an alternative therapeutic modality that has proven safe, cost-effective, and non-pharmacological; however, the ideal strategy for CLBP remains controversial. In this randomized controlled trial, we compare two acupuncture point patterns involving Jiu Gong points with standard acupuncture (SA).
The Practice of Acupuncture
Acupuncture is an ancient Chinese medical practice consisting of stimulating specific points on energy channels by applying thin, sterile needles with one use only to regulate Qi or energy and restore balance to your body’s energies. Acupuncture forms part of traditional Chinese medicine, which has its foundations both in ancient philosophy and clinical experience. The aim of acupuncture is to achieve and maintain health by regulating the flow of Qi in your body to restore normal organ functioning as well as whole organism health.
The New Acupuncture Point Pattern
The new acupuncture point pattern features Jiu Gong Points, which connect with both the spinal cord and brain stem and thus influence the nervous system. Furthermore, needle insertion into these acupoints is deeper than in other techniques; this combination of deep and shallow needle placement has proven particularly successful at relieving CLBP symptoms for participants in this study. Acupuncturists were specifically trained in Swiss Low Back Acupuncture (SLBA).
Study Methodology and Patient Selection
People diagnosed with CLBP who have an average pain intensity ≥4 on an 11-point pain-NRS will be randomly allocated either SLBA or SA therapy, delivered by four acupuncturists trained in both. Assessments will take place prior to starting, after 9 weeks (T2), and at 3- and 6-month follow-up visits.
All eligible patients will be included in this study provided that they can attend all study visits, understand and sign the informed consent form, have not undergone recent back surgery within six months, and possess adequate German language knowledge for filling out questionnaires.
Ethics and Funding
This study was approved by the Ethics Committee of Lucerne and conducted according to Swiss law and regulations as well as the Declaration of Helsinki. Patients receiving treatment received reimbursement through their health insurance provider for costs associated with acupuncture treatments. Analysis of anonymous data was carried out in accordance with Swiss privacy laws and regulations, with informed consent obtained from all participants. This research project is funded by both the Federal Agency for Evaluation of Alternative Medicine (FAEMAM) and the Swiss Foundation for CAM Research. The authors would like to thank all participating patients and acupuncturists who contributed to the project for their participation and dedication to this study. 2019 National Library of Medicine (NLM). All rights are reserved by us.
