I’m a family practice resident and have been interested in holistic health care for several years. However, after going through medical school and residency, I found myself getting into the rut, “you have x disease, here’s a pill and I’ll see you in 3 months,” rather than figuring out the root cause of x disease and treating that. I had not heard about functional medicine until this week, but after listening to Dr. Hyman’s talk on diabetes, I have an epiphany, “this is how I want to practice!” Rather than treating 9 illnesses with 9 different pills, we should work with the patients to find the root cause of these illnesses and treat that (e.g. work with the patient to change their diet). Another question I had coming into this conference was, “which diet is the best for long-term health and fighting disease?” After listening to Dr. Wallace’s talk on the oncometabolic syndrome, I learned that there is not one best diet. You can work with the patient individually and based on their lab profile and personal preferences to come up with a diet plan for them
