Functional Nutrition uses the principles of root cause resolution, taking a full body systems approach to health.

Coaches will educate clients about what’s going on in their bodies and what factors may be contributing to their current condition(s). One of the key tenets of Functional Medicine is the importance of taking a systems-based approach. This constitutes both how we consider the internal environment as a web of interconnections—with each cell, organ and reaction impacting other parts of the whole—as well as the shift in our approach to care.

Functional Nutrition Coaches use systems thinking to understand the body, and person, as a whole.

A person is more than their diagnosis. Systems help us understand all the factors that contribute to a person’s well-being. Systems thinking focuses on how something being studied interacts with other elements of the same system, no one system exists in isolation. Instead of isolating the specific item, and getting more specialized and limited in scope, systems thinking expands the view to take in a broader set of interactions.

Systems thinking is relevant when we see:

complex challenges that are due to myriad underlying factors
recurring problems or those that are made worse by previous efforts to fix them
signs and symptoms whose solutions are not obvious

Functional Nutrition coaches use frameworks to unravel the systems biology and to step into systems thinking. These frameworks support their process of discovering the root causes of a client's health issues. Diet and lifestyle changes make the biggest impact when you understand the biological systems in the body, and recognize how they interconnect.

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