What you're really buying when you buy functional medicine

Hint: it's not a bunch of supplements and IV therapies

In my last post, I wrote about the trouble with functional medicine. Other highlights in this series include, “Why is functional medicine so expensive?” and “What most functional medicine doctors and clinics get wrong.” Today, we're going to talk about the realities of what you're buying when you engage a functional medicine practitioner.

When you buy into any paradigm of medicine, you're buying a better chance at the outcome you desire. You don't really buy botox, lip filler, or plastic surgery, you buy the attention of others. You don't really buy headache medicine, you buy the chance to be free of, or less burdened by, headaches. You don't really buy antibiotics, you buy the chance to keep your injured limbs, vital organs, and your life.

Marketers can readily tell you that people don't buy things, they buy feelings. They buy the feeling of security and status when they buy a big house. They buy the feeling of status and intelligence when they invest in an educational degree.

Like it or not, people don't buy things, they buy feelings.

This creates some serious problems in the healthcare industry.

In my last post, I wrote that, "Functional medicine is the last chance saloon for the chronically ill who refuse to settle for the misery that conventional medicine tells them they are doomed to. It is the hail-Mary play in the last game of the series, and your life may well be riding on the outcome, not to mention your life's savings."

Sometimes, we get unbelievably good results.

For example, look at this case report on gluten ataxia and psychosis. Imagine being told by a regular doctor or neurologist that you are doomed to being increasingly clumsy and crazy for the rest of your life, until you wind up an invalid in a long-term psychiatric ward. Then imagine going to a functional medicine doctor who recommends a gluten-free diet, and seeing all of your neurological problems DISAPPEAR.

It sounds, in all honesty, too good to be true. This is why functional medicine is so popular.

The truth is that this winds up attracting lots and lots of cases that are, frankly, hopeless. Because - spoiler alert - everyone winds up getting sick and dying eventually. I've worked with the best, the most aggressive, the most innovative, even sometimes downright crazy functional medicine doctors on planet earth, and I'll just be honest.

There are some cases where spending more money on a cure is throwing good money after bad.

The tough thing is knowing when that is.

What you're really buying when you buy any kind of medical care is a better chance at a certain outcome.

That's all it is.

The mistake I see people making is in thinking that the value of functional medicine lies in the "stuff" that they get from their practitioner. Without a doubt, things that come in boxes, bottles, and bags facilitate our healing, but without the proper direction, you're wasting your money on these things.

They feel like they "got a good deal" when they get thousands of dollars and supplements, IV therapies, hyperbaric oxygen sessions, and more.

They wind up thinking that "doctor-so-and-so" cured their "(insert trendy functional medicine diagnosis here)" with "(insert expensive protocol here)."

And that may well be true, but are they better forever, or better for a season?

You want to know a discouraging secret of the functional medicine industry?

"We are the sum of our actions, and therefore our habits make all the difference."

- Aristotle

Most of these people don't fix their fundamental habits, whether it's what they eat or how they live their lives, and they wind up

in

exactly

the same

place

within months to years of completing treatment.

As in, back to "square 1." Imagine spending thousands, tens of thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars, only to wind up BACK WHERE YOU STARTED after a few years.

Yikes.

What I've found is that unless you fix someone's underlying habits, you don't get them durable, significant results.

I often get my patients better at a slower pace than other doctors, because I prefer not to move too fast. When you move fast, you have a tendency to break things, and I am highly risk averse.

But what I've done with 20 years of functional medicine experience (training, practice, etc.), is high-grade the information to what works most reliably, and packs the most punch for the cost.

For example, I might boost your glutathione levels with a few hundred dollars worth of IVs. I might also just teach you to eat bitter greens, alliums (onions, garlic, leeks, shallots, scallions), ginger, eggs, and turmeric, plus take a little N-acetylcysteine.

I have found that I sometimes end up as the bad guy in someone's functional medicine story, because I am the one to tell them, "I don't think more (insert expensive functional medicine protocol here) is going to make a bit of difference if you don't fix your fundamental dietary and lifestyle choices."

They don't want to hear it. They want to hear reassuring lies that they can continue living their lives the way they are living their lives, and we can just make the pain go away with "stuff" that comes in bottles, bags, and boxes.

Or, less commonly, someone will come in with an advanced disease or a genetic illness and expect me to pull a rabbit out of my functional medicine hat, and get them unbelievably good results.

I have to admit, I'm a sucker for trying to help really tough cases, but I can't stand to take on too many such cases.

And this comes back to why I operate my practice the way that I do. With a high barrier-to-entry and a premium for my and my staff's time.

We get great results for people without selling them insane quantities of supplements, biohacks, or IV therapies. We are also honest with people about what we think is really going to happen to them, rather than telling them reassuring lies about how they don't have to change their diets and lifestyles. I'll also be honest with you about what I think is possible in your case, rather than just creating unrealistic expectations. Not that I don't think that, sometimes, we get amazing, unbelievable results. I just do my best to be realistic, based on my experience.

When you buy functional medicine, you're buying a better chance of getting better. Sadly, a lot of clinics will sell you solutions that don't hold up over the long run. They're selling you a temporary solution to a perpetual problem - your fundamental habits.

Next in this series on functional medicine, we’ll talk about how to get the most out of it, so you're not wasting your time, your money, and, most of all, your vitality.

Until next time, be well,

Dr. Stillman