What is Functional Nutrition? Exploring the Holistic Approach to Functional Medicine
Summary:
- Functional medicine is an evidence-based wellness profession that combines traditional medical knowledge with emerging sciences and innovative clinical practices.
- Functional medicine gives patients the tools to live more balanced and healthy lives and can be applied to chiropractic care, osteopathy, naturopathic medicine, and nutrition.
Interest in the discipline and direction of functional medicine has been growing. With its emphasis on addressing the cause of an ailment rather than treating the symptoms, functional medicine has important implications for the future of health care. The discipline has especially impacted the study of nutrition as practitioners consider food as medicine. But what does functional medicine mean, and how can we better understand this holistic practice?
A background on functional medicine
The word holistic is derived from the Greek word “holos” meaning entire. It’s the belief that everything is connected and that a problem in one area can cause a problem in another. Providing individualized support for each person is what holistic functional medicine is all about.
Functional medicine is a branch of health care that focuses on the root cause of an illness and considers a patient’s whole body rather than simply addressing the symptoms they experience, as in conventional medicine.
Jeffrey Bland, Ph.D., is most often credited with introducing the concept of functional medicine. Dr. Bland was curious about how gastrointestinal health, immune health, and hormone balances interacted with each other, and he began to use functional medicine to treat patients with chronic health problems.
Functional medicine, sometimes referred to as alternative medicine, is based on the idea that disease begins with an imbalance. The body systems and their related organs all work together to make up a person’s collective health—the foundation of your overall health and well-being.
By focusing on more than just the symptoms of an illness, functional medicine practitioners can completely reverse disease-causing behavior and positively create a healthy lifestyle for their patients. For example, an ill person can use exercise and mindfulness techniques to decrease stress, improve sleep, strengthen bone and muscle structure, or quit smoking or other unhealthy habits. Those techniques can also boost overall physical and mental health.
Because diet can greatly affect overall health, supporting balanced nutrition is a large focus of functional medicine. As a result, functional nutrition has become an increasingly in-demand field within functional medicine.
Functional nutrition: a holistic approach to health and nutrition
Functional nutrition focuses on one of the most important parts of the body—the stomach. It examines how food affects genes and how those genes affect health.
But that’s only the beginning. Functional medicine places nutrition at the heart of its approach because nutrition and diet have played a major role in the overall health and well-being of humans throughout history, including the evolution of our earliest ancestors.
Historians estimate that cooking has been around for approximately 1.5 million years. Over time, early humans supplemented their diet of berries and nut with meat, and the first hearth appeared at least 790,000 years ago.
In a way, cooked food helped define what early humans would become. We are what we eat, after all. With extra time to develop societies rather than gather food, humans became smarter and continued to evolve.
While cooking enabled the industrialization of society, it also meant less nutritious foods. The fruit, berries, and meat of our ancestors transformed into processed foods—which meant less time hunting and preparing food but more consequences for our bodies.
Six in 10 Americans have a chronic disease, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Often practitioners quickly resort to medication or surgery to remedy their patients’ pain. A holistic practitioner, however, aims to treat the patient, not the disease and seeks different treatment options.. To determine what is causing the body’s discomfort, holistic practitioners will delve into the patient’s medical history and supplement advanced lab testing to fill in the gaps.
Career options with a degree in functional nutrition
A career in functional nutrition has never been more in demand. An M.S. in Integrative and Functional Nutrition or a Ph.D. in Integrative and Functional Nutrition can prepare you for a successful career in a variety of areas, including:
- Spa, yoga, and wellness centers
- Culinary institutes, schools, restaurants, and corporate cafeterias
- Corporate wellness programs
- Sports nutrition
- Natural products and dietary supplement industries
- Consulting
- Public health and policy organizations
- Higher education
- Research and development
- Private practice
Graduates may also choose to pursue medical school or advanced studies in naturopathy or osteopathy.
No matter which career path in functional medicine you choose, you can expect:
- A degree that sparks innovation: With new developments and research in this field happening every day, there is always an opportunity for innovation and discovery.
- The opportunity to become an industry leader: Our alumni have gone on to become leaders across medicine and health care, pioneering new treatments in health care.
- A fulfilling career path: Getting a degree in functional nutrition gives you the opportunity to create a highly fulfilling career with wellness-focused work and long-term fulfillment.
A degree in functional nutrition also helps you be prepared for changes in licensing rules. As a practitioner in the area of functional medicine, you may need specific licensing or certification to become a Certified Clinical Nutritionist (CCN), Certified Herbalist (CH), or Certified Clinical Herbalist (CCH). As of January 1, 2024, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) will be introducing new changes that include the requirement of a graduate degree to complete the exams for certification.
What does a degree in functional nutrition at Saybrook University look like?
Saybrook University differs from other institutions in its approach to educating students in the functional medicine degree program. Our curriculum is science-based and promotes a patient-centered approach to medicine.
Saybrook’s program is based on the latest research and therapies to treat the root causes of chronic illness and disease. Students in the M.S. in Integrated and Functional Nutrition program at Saybrook study integrative approaches to nutrition and natural therapies to help manage chronic illness. These approaches include diet, exercise, stress management, meditation, and more. Students also learn from experts in the fields of yoga therapy, Ayurveda, and traditional Chinese medicine.
Satisfying many of the requirements to become a Certified Nutrition Specialist (CNS), which is the only credential other than Registered Dietitian (RD) widely recognized in state licensing laws, the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Integrative and Functional Nutrition at Saybrook provide the BCNS-approved curriculum required to sit for the CNS exam. A degree in functional nutrition also helps you be prepared for changes in nutrition licensing regulations. As of January 1, 2024, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics Commission on Dietetic Registration (CDR) will be introducing new changes that include the requirement of a graduate degree to sit for RD certification exams. Thus, many registered dietitians choose to pursue the M.S. and Ph.D. programs in Integrative and Functional Nutrition at Saybrook.
Discover more about studying at Saybrook University
At Saybrook University, we can help you become a dynamic and highly skilled individual who will transform the health of others. Combining knowledge from the fields of nutrition, clinical sciences, and traditional Chinese medicine (TCM), our M.S. in Integrative and Functional Nutrition or Ph.D. in Integrative and Functional Nutrition degrees can equip you with the in-demand skills needed for current and emerging careers across many industries.
Saybrook University offers a wide range of master’s degrees, certificates, and doctoral programs to prepare you for a career as a nutritionist. Take a look at our other programs, and listen to the UNBOUND Saybrook Insights podcast to learn more about the impact of a Saybrook education.
Have questions? Request more information about a degree in functional nutrition from Saybrook University.