Why choose to incorporate a functional medicine expert onto your wellness team?

Written By Amber Barone

Functional Medicine is a personalized, integrative and evidenced based wellness model that focuses on prevention and root cause correlations that are contributing to complex and chronic disease conditions. It goes beyond treating the symptoms to sourcing the root of the imbalance(s) in order to heal and live a healthy vibrant life.

+ longevity + vitality + joy + gratitude + resilience + balance.

  • Healthcare as we know it

There has been a steady rise over the years in the number of people suffering from complex, chronic diseases conditions such as heart disease, diabetes, cancer and auto immune disorders to name a few. According to the CDC 6 in 10 adults now have a chronic disease and 4 in 10 have 2 or more. Chronic disease is the leading cause of death and disability in America and globally research estimates reports it accounting for 1 out of every 3 deaths world wide. If that’s not grim enough statistics for you, the economic burden this is putting on our nation now exceeds 4 Trillion dollars annually. Plus the additional burden and increased burnout rate of our healthcare staff. Clearly, we need a more sustainable longterm solution and that’s where Functional Medicine comes in.

  • Patient centered care

Functional Medicine focuses on preventing disease/imbalance and empowers patients to be more informed and proactive with their health and wellness path. Working with a certified functional medicine practitioner is a personalized healthcare solution that addresses the root cause correlations such as genetics, history, enviornment, lifestyle and diet contributors to a patients health or disease trajectory. Using additional laboratory testing and 1-1 consultations helps to complete the unique patient profile. From there a truly tailored approach to wellness can begin.

  • Integrative and evidence based

Using up to date research in conjunction with clinical expertise, the practitioner looks “upstream” into the complex weave of interactions that are contributing to a diagnosis or symptom. It allows for each patient to be seen as unique and addresses physiological imbalances both internal and external being expressed as “dis-ease”. Treatment honors patient preferences for holistic alternatives that include diet, lifestyle and supplement recommendations.

  • Top 5 ways Functional Medicine is Different from Conventional Medicine

    Functional Medicine vs Conventional Medicine

  • Health oriented rather than disease oriented

  • Patient centered rather than doctor centered

  • Most effective with preventing and reversing chronic disease rather than most effective with acute illness (heart attack, broken leg…)

  • Seeks out root cause rather than diagnosing based on symptoms

  • Treats all patients as unique rather than treating all symptoms the same

“The incidence of chronic disease is increasing along with health care–related costs. The functional medicine model of care provides a unique operating system to reverse illness, promote health, and optimize function.” (Beidelschies et. al., 2019)

References:

Beidelschies M, Alejandro-Rodriguez M, Ji X, Lapin B, Hanaway P, Rothberg MB. Association of the Functional Medicine Model of Care With Patient-Reported Health-Related Quality-of-Life Outcomes. JAMA Netw Open. 2019 Oct 2;2(10):e1914017. doi: 10.1001/jamanetworkopen.2019.14017. PMID: 31651966; PMCID: PMC6822085.

Ansah JP, Chiu CT. Projecting the chronic disease burden among the adult population in the United States using a multi-state population model. Front Public Health. 2023 Jan 13;10:1082183. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2022.1082183. PMID: 36711415; PMCID: PMC9881650.

Hajat C, Stein E. The global burden of multiple chronic conditions: A narrative review. Prev Med Rep. 2018 Oct 19;12:284-293. doi: 10.1016/j.pmedr.2018.10.008. PMID: 30406006; PMCID: PMC6214883.

Amber Barone

Amber is a Holistic RN and Functional Medicine Practitioner who supports whole body integrative health and uses primarily diet changes, whole foods, herbs along with lifestyle tools and supplements to help clients restore balance and align with their highest sense of well being.

Amber started her nursing career in the clinic setting where she built a solid understanding of disease progression and contributing factors along with pathophysiology, biochemistry, psychological and trauma aspects. From there she became a travel nurse, working in various settings including cardiac rehab, med surg, psych, long term care, ICU’s and ER’s. These ever changing environments satisfied her ferocious appetite to learn and grow through challenging and inspiring case loads in diverse settings. It was through all of this that she realized her true passion and where she could serve at her highest capacity was working with patients on how to prevent and reverse chronic disease.

As a functional medicine, holistic RN Amber strives to bring in the best evidence based tools and resources from both conventional and alternative schools of thought. She is dedicated to continuing her learning to stay up to speed with the latest research and trends and has built her practice around educating and empowering patients to be proactive with their health.

Most patients come to Amber through a referral network of practitioners in various medical and alternative settings including MD’s, FNP’s, Acupuncturists, Dentists, Chiropractors, Massage Therapists and Yoga Teachers… who wish to support their patients in this way but don’t have the time, education or resources to do this effectively.

The functional medicine addition to client care seems to be the missing piece of a true wellness model. It becomes a collaborative movement too, working together to promote wellness in our respective communities. It expedites healing through deep understanding and promotes life long transformation. Win! Win!

Functional medicine is a deep dive into root cause correlations contributing to one’s current state, it views each patient as unique and in so doing, more fully supports patients on their road to wellness by nourishing unique pathways effecting body systems, organs and glands. Much like regenerative farming and soil health, our bodies are designed to be resilient they just need the right inputs and tools to mitigate cumulative stress, toxins and burdens of our time. Feeling empowered with your health starts here.

EDUCATION / TRAINING

BS Nursing Montana State University-Registered Nurse

BA Psychology and Sociology University of Montana

Equine Veterinarian Technician-Penn Foster

Clinicians Mastermind Circle a one-year Functional Medicine Intensive

Functional Nutrition Alliance 10-month Full Body Systems Immersion

Yoga Motion 240 hour RYS teacher training

http://www.bar1wellness.com
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