I have been having more and more patients calling the office asking if I do function medicine. The simple answer to this question is no. I do not practice functional medicine, I practice Naturopathic medicine. But what is the difference between the two? Is one type of practitioner better than another? What is the difference? What is Naturopathic Medicine?
If you think of it as simply using natural medicine or natural evidence-based medicine you are running West to see the sunrise. You are simply missing the point.
Functional medicine is first and foremost a certification. The Institute of Functional Medicine (IFM) does not offer a degree, specialty diplomate, nor an even a medical license. It is simply a course (and overall a good course) in natural medicine. The IFM teaches allopathic (Medical Doctors, MD), osteopathic (Osteopathic Doctors, DO, and chiropractic (Chiropractic Physicians, DC), physicians, along with nurses, and other licensed health care providers to work holistically with patients. In a sense, they are trying to teach these medical providers to act like naturopathic physicians.
Overall this is good as naturopathic medicine is a trusted, true, and regulated (in most states) medical discipline. But what patients do not realize is that IFM is teaching a watered-down approach to natural medicine, as its only a certification and not a license. Think of it this way, would you want your doctor to take a few weekend courses and say they are an expert in natural medicine? Or would you rather see a doctor who had four years of medical training in natural medicine, passed two sets of medical boards and a licensing board, and has required continuing medical education requirements to keep their license? The scales are tipped in favor of the naturopathic community.
I am by no means saying that Functional Medicine is bad or the courses are not good, I am just saying they are not a medical program. There are some naturopathic physicians that teach in the program which is great. There are also a fair amount of NDs that take the courses either to fill in some gap in their learning, as a refreshers/continual education, or for the advertising.
If you were a doctor and wanted to practice natural medicine, wouldn’t you go to medical school to learn? To become a Naturopathic Physician you have to have your undergraduate (bachelor’s) degree in a science-related program, and then attend a 4 year accredited natural medical school. During these four years, you are learning natural medicine. At the end of the four years, you need to have completed 2 medical boards (NPLEX 1 and NPLEX 2) and pass your state licensing examination to attain your medical license.
My suspicion of why functional medicine has taken root recently is two-fold. 1: It is a way for allopathic doctors to call themselves integrative doctors and 2: With increasing numbers of both naturopathic physicians and jurisdictions licensing naturopathic physicians, the self-study distance unaccredited courses in naturopathy are no more.
Functional Medicine, at its core, is based on naturopathic roots but misses the mark. Functional medicine is a certification process that licensed health care professionals can go through to start to practice like how a naturopathic doctor would but the training in nothing of the like.
