Integrative & Functional Medicine in Larkspur, CA
Integrative & Functional Medicine
Integrative Medicine is the practice of medicine that reaffirms the importance of the relationship between the practitioner and the patient, focuses on the whole person, is informed by evidence, and makes use of all appropriate therapeutic approaches, healthcare professionals, and disciplines to achieve optimal health and healing. (Consortium of Academic Health Centers for Integrative Medicine Steering Committee).
We view the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of life as closely interconnected and equally important in selecting approaches to treatment. In this modality, the art and science of healing address the care of the whole person: body, mind, and spirit.
What to Expect From an Integrative Medicine Consultation
Your initial consultation will take a full hour. During a typical evaluation, I take a complete medical and lifestyle history and perform a physical examination. My goal is to formulate a big picture of all that your life encompasses. I am attuned to the tests needed to uncover the root causes of illness that may not yet have been explored or considered. If you have had lab work done elsewhere, please bring copies of the results with you to your appointment. We will work together to create an individualized program for your better health that you can integrate immediately into your life.
Principles of Integrative Holistic Practice
Click on each of the principles to learn more about them.
Optimal Health
This is the primary goal of integrative holistic medical practice, deriving from the conscious pursuit of the highest level of functioning and balance of the physical, environmental, mental, emotional, social and spiritual aspects of human experience. The result is a state of being fully alive, a condition of well-being transcending the mere absence or presence of disease.
Healing power of love
Integrative holistic physicians strive to relate to patients with grace, kindness, and acceptance, emanating from an attitude of unconditional love as life's most powerful healer.
Wholeness
Illness is a dysfunction of the whole person - body, mind, and spirit - or the environment in which they live, rather than simply a physical disorder or a random isolated event.
Prevention & Treatment
Integrative holistic practitioners promote health, prevent illness and manage disease processes. Integrative holistic medical treatment balances relief of symptoms with mitigation of causes.
Innate Healing Power
All persons have innate powers of healing of body, mind, and spirit. Integrative holistic physicians evoke these powers and help patients utilize them to affect the healing process.
Integrating Healing Systems
Integrative holistic physicians embrace a variety of safe and effective options in diagnosis and treatment, including education for lifestyle changes and self-care, complementary approaches, and conventional drugs and surgery.
Relationship-centered care
The quality of the relationship between physician and patient is a major determinant of healing outcomes which encourages patient autonomy and values the needs and insights of patient and practitioner alike.
Individuality
Integrative holistic physicians expend as much effort in discerning a patient's uniqueness as they do in establishing what disease may be present.
Teaching by example
Integrative holistic physicians continually work toward the personal incorporation of the principles of holistic health, in turn profoundly influencing patients by their own example and lifestyle choices.
Learning opportunities
All life experiences including birth, illness, suffering, joy, and the dying process are profound learning opportunities for both patients and integrative holistic physicians.
What Is Functional Medicine?
The goal of functional medicine is to be able to pinpoint the root cause of the symptoms you are experiencing rather than just treating the symptoms themselves. Dr. Chan focuses on how the body functions as a whole rather than just providing isolated symptom treatment, which is not nearly as effective for long-term maintenance, pain relief, and support.
Functional medicine allows patients to take an active interest and role in their own health by working together with their doctor to create an individualized treatment plan that will provide them with long-term benefits.
Functional medicine integrates traditional medicine and alternative medicine approaches. Therefore, lifestyle modifications such as dietary changes and routine exercises may be recommended to many of our patients. Along with these lifestyle changes, nutritional supplements, stress management, rehabilitation, detox programs, physical therapy, and on occasion, prescription drugs may also be included in a patient’s treatment plan.
Benefits and Treatment
There are so many people dealing with chronic pain, long-term health problems, and serious issues that don’t know how to properly treat or manage their conditions. Unfortunately, many people mask their pain through pain relievers and other medications that don’t actually treat the problem but just numb the discomfort until it returns a few hours later.
Would you rather be reliant on medication for the rest of your life, or would you rather find a solution that can treat what’s going on? Through functional medicine, Dr. Chan can treat a wide range of acute and chronic conditions, including:
- Sinus problems
- Thyroid issues
- Hormonal imbalances
- Chronic infections
- Fibromyalgia
- Chronic fatigue
- Lyme disease
- Migraines
- Allergies
- Obesity
With the increase in chronic diseases such as diabetes, autoimmune disorders, and heart disease in the US, the use of functional medicine is becoming even more important. After all, functional medicine takes a look at everything from the patient’s physiology and history to their lifestyle to see how everything interconnects to impact their health.
Lab Services for Nutritional & Functional Testing
- Complete Blood Count (CBC)
- Comprehensive Metabolic Panel
- Thyroid Hormone Panel with antibodies
- Cholesterol/lipids
- Omega 3:6 ratio
- Blood glucose, insulin levels
- Vitamin D, Co Q10, B vitamin, copper, and zinc
- Gluten sensitivity/Celiac Disease, leaky gut
- Comprehensive digestive analysis and microbiome map
- Comprehensive sex hormone profiles (blood, saliva, and urine)
- Adrenal gland function
- Inflammatory markers
- Neurotransmitter testing (mood disorders)
- Environmental toxicity testing (heavy metals, PCBs, volatile solvents)
- Micronutrient testing
- Food Allergies (IgG antibodies)
- Gene SNP Analysis
- Viral and Spirochetal Infections
- Mold assessment
- Cognitive brain function
Marin Natural Medicine Center
Address
Phone
Fax
(415) 945-3213
Advanced Hyperbaric Recovery of Marin
Address
Phone
Fax
415-785-8697