Course information

This course presents the fundamental concepts of functional medicine, including genetic predisposition to illness, biochemical individuality, environmental factors (nutrition/diet, xenobiotics, exercise, physical trauma, psychosocial changes), physiologic functions and imbalances, triggers and mediators of illness, common clinical imbalances (oxidative and reductive stress, energy production, structural integrity, assimilation, immune surveillance and inflammation, other defense mechanisms, hormone and neurotransmitter regulation, detoxification and biotransformation, nutritional genomics, and the relationships of mental, emotional and spiritual elements to health and healing). The personalized, whole-person, integrated systems approach of functional medicine will be compared and contrasted to conventional approaches to healthcare. Specialized clinical 54 assessments, diagnostic functional tests and measures/biomarkers of allostatic load will be explored, along with some of the core therapeutic approaches used in many patients. This course lays the foundation for many of the subsequent courses in this degree program and must be taken in the first quarter of the program.