The Future of Healthcare: Functional Medicine Compassion and beyond with Laurie Love

 After speaking with Laurie Love, you will fast learn why her name is her calling—she emotes a pure passion and clear love for the practice of healthcare.  In just 30 minutes of speaking with her, I was ready to change my practitioner and delve into what makes my body tick.  Her passion, as she described it, is defined as Functional Medicine.
According to The Institute of Functional Medicine, Functional Medicine addresses  erlying causes of disease, using a systems-oriented approach and engaging both patient and practitioner in a therapeutic partnership. It is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, Functional Medicine addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms. Functional Medicine practitioners spend time with their patients, listening to their histories and looking at the interactions among genetic, environmental and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease. In this way, Functional Medicine supports the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual.
The concept of functional medicine was created by nutritionist Jeffrey Bland, PhD who, along with Susan Bland, founded the Institute for Functional Medicine in 1991.  The focus is to serve the highest expression of individual health through the widespread adoption of functional medicine as the standard of care.
“There’s a saying I heard awhile ago that I work toward every day: ‘Not a drug for every bug and not a pill for every ill,’” said Laurie.
That “saying” that Laurie so passionately lives by is what drives her every day to develop a deeper understanding of how the body ‘functions’ to provide a science-based, personalized healthcare approach to help people get well and thrive in life. In her family practice Compassionate Healthcare Associates, Laurie strives to understand the root causes of symptoms versus the basic disease model where a diagnosis is made and prescription is written (the “silver bullet concept”).  This is what makes all the difference in her approach with her patients.  She looks at the person’s symptoms as the body’s way of providing information due to an imbalance and then uses her expertise (knowledge) to understand and look deeper into what the body is trying to tell us.  And in return, she tries to identify the underlining cause(s) and then provide what creates balance to help the person regain and restore health for a healthier, happier self.
“America and Western medicine are at the forefront for acute care. We are ahead of the curve, but for chronic conditions, we fall extremely short.  More patients are asking more questions, reading information on the Internet and asking for better options.  It’s something we cannot ignore, we have to provide better answers,” said Laurie.
So is functional medicine the future of medicine? It could be!  I know the next time my body is trying to share some information with me, you can bet I will be paying attention to what it is trying to share with me…
Compassionate Healthcare Associates is located centrally in Santa Clarita on Kelly Johnson Parkway and can be reached at 661-295-7777.  Give Love a call today to take control of your health.  And check out the revamped website: www.compassionatehealthcareonline.com.
Source: www.functionalmedicine.com