Treat Patients. Not Symptoms. Our 5 Principles of Functional Medicine
The Hoag Functional Medicine Approach
Whether it’s hormones, muscles, fatigue, recovery or sleep, all of these components involve habit and behavioral changes to live the most optimal life. Our mission is focused on helping others to make lifestyle changes that encompass movement, sleep, nutrition, stress, detox and more. These all work together to impact our lives directly and indirectly. As you get started with us, we ask that you commit to our program as much as we are going to commit to helping you. This program takes commitment and consistency.
Sleep
Sleep may be the most important factor to your overall health. Our program not only evaluates your sleep patterns, but also makes recommendations to improve your sleep hygiene (environment and habits around sleep).
Many patients don’t need a doctor to just tell them they “need more sleep”. Working with our whole team, your personalized action plan will focus on how to improve the quality of your sleep.
Whether that’s pre-sleep eating or drinking habits, mental or environmental factors, we’ll dive deep into how to maximize the lymphatic system of the brain to clear out waste products of the day.
Diet
One of our primary focuses is incorporating real food that is hormone and pesticide free (i.e. mostly plants). Red meat and dairy should be grass-fed and chicken and eggs pasture raised. Limit sugar/processed food and alcohol.
We’ll also look at food groups that are the most inflammatory foods in our diet. Time restricted eating habits are examined to help the body be more prepared to rest and repair.
Your diet should contribute to better health for you, a better world for humans, including food workers and farmworkers, and a better world for the environment, our climate, and our economy.
Exercise
Both aerobic (muscle-strengthening exercise) and stretching are key to healthy aging. Aerobic and resistance exercise produce differing effects on our metabolisms, hormones, appetites and even the structures of our brains that, synergistically, remodel our bodies and minds.
Our program will develop a personalized plan that works for your lifestyle and makes you stronger and have more energy, not fatigued and exhausted.
Through a combination of work with our Exercise Physiologist, Health Coach, Nutritionist and Physician staff, we’ll provide recommendations and a plan for you to exercise more efficiently.
Detox
We are exposed to many chemicals each day. The science shows that we are exposed to the same amount of chemicals each month as 2 generations ago (our grandparents) were exposed to over a lifetime!
Detox ranges from simple to complex but we’ll teach the primary principles and provide an action plan that will empower you to focus on the best path to detox.
Stress
Not all stress is bad; “Eustress” is the stress we have control over and when balanced makes us stronger and better able to manage our lives (i.e., exercise, learning new skills, starting a new job, having a child).
“Distress” is the stress we do not have control over that will lead us to a path ending in disease; autoimmune, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular, adrenal, hormonal, or cancer. The core of this stress is usually fear, negative beliefs about ourselves and/or other people’s actions that we cannot control.
No matter how much time, money, or energy you spend trying to change the things that cause you distress, it won’t do anything but make you sick. Instead decide if there is anything you can do, and let go of the rest.
Our program teaches skills to help alleviate distress that can have dramatically positive effects on your mood and overall health.
Institute of Functional Medicine
Since its founding in 1991, The Institute for Functional Medicine has trained clinicians to translate scientific advances in the areas of genomics, epigenetics, nutrition, and lifestyle into solutions for notoriously challenging clinical problems.