As we navigate through its intricate layers, from its core principles to its relationship with naturopathy, we'll uncover the true essence of what it means to approach health holistically.

Along the way, we'll explore the pivotal roles genetics and biochemistry play, the significance of personalized nutrition, and the profound impact of environmental factors and the mind-body connection.

Whether you're a seasoned health enthusiast or just beginning your journey, join us as we demystify the comprehensive approach of Functional Medicine and its transformative potential.

Do you have what it takes to out-run, out-fight, and out-live the rest? Take on the Survival Fitness Plan to find out: https://www.survivalfitnessplan.com/challenge

This podcast is available from most major podcast hosts, including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

00:00:00 Introduction

01:38:65 What is Functional Medicine

03:27:99 Naturopathy

04:23:80 Functional Medicine and Naturopathy

06:05:40 What does ‘Holistic’ mean?

07:44:44 Genetics

09:36:81 Biochemistry

10:33:19 A Big Concept

11:19:08 Personalized Nutrition Plans

12:32:20 Elimination Tests

13:38:27 Environmental Factors

14:57:81 Mind-Body Connection

15:19:81 Intergrative Therapies

15:49:39 Functional Medicine Tests

17:19:78 Closing

Hi guys, Sam Fury here with another episode of the Survival Fitness Plan, the only program where you will train yourself to outrun, outfight, and outlive the majority of the world's population. Today we're going to be talking about functional medicine just the basic concepts of it. A lot of people might not know what it is or might have misconceptions about it and I really only started learning about this.

In the last few weeks when I started reading all these books about Peter Adia brought out a new book, and I read that, and Dave Asprey had a new book out like a month ago and I read that, and so, so, all these people, and there's another one that I read by Doctor I forgot his name, but he, it was a, it was a book called Young Forever Young or Young Forever or something like that, and he and that's where I first learned the concept, and then all these people started talking about it.

So it's been around for a while. Just the fact that I haven't learned about it doesn't mean it's been not been there for a while. It's been around there for ages, I imagine. But I'm guessing that there's still a lot of misconceptions about it and and I wanted to learn more about it. So I decided to do a podcast.

So, we're going to be demystifying functional medicine, which is actually a holistic approach to health and how it relates to the survival fitness plan. Now, just a preemptor, I'm sure all of you know I'm not a doctor. So, any advice I give is I mean, I learn it from doctors but I'm not a doctor. So, if you're, if you just go see your doctor. Alright, here we go.

 So what is functional medicine? So first of all, let's have a look at what the difference is between a medical doctor a naturopath, and a functional doctor, or a functional medicine doctor. So a medical doctor which is your MD, which we use most of these days, that's where you get your prescription drugs from, that's where they it's what they call medicine 2. 0, okay?

Well, I think Peter Adia refers to it as medicine, Atea, A T E A, I don't know how to say his last name, refers to it as Medicine 2. 9. And it's quite a good way of looking at it, okay? So they're very good at saving lives when you're already sick, okay? That's, that's what a medical doctor does, and they treat, each condition separately.

So, if you come in and you've got something wrong with your heart, for example, they'll treat it, they'll give you the drugs, they'll do surgery if they really need to. They might not even do anything, they might just say, Listen take it easy on the cholesterol or whatever. So, so there is some, these days there is some nutrition and exercise factors they, they start to understand.

But definitely, certainly like 20 years ago, I don't think a lot of doctors even had training like that. So there are still a lot of doctors who don't have the training just to tell you to go exercise and to fix your body holistically. But that's a medical doctor, I'm not, there's nothing wrong with them.

Of course, I go to medical doctors everyone should have an MD that they trust and they like. Because when you get sick, they're the ones that are going to fix you the fastest, right? But, they don't really fix the core problem most of the time, they just kind of bandage over the symptoms.

Okay, so that's the Medical Doctor Medicine 2. 0. If I'm in a car accident, they're the ones I want to go to, right? Because they're gonna, they're gonna save my life.

 That's not how I see it. Naturopath is more of a holistic approach to health and wellness, right? It does attempt to fix the root cause and it works on lifestyle-related diseases. So, things like, Like, let's say you've got, you've got, I don't know, chronic skin problems or something like that. Naturopathic will try to find, instead of going to your doctor and taking the medicine, they'll try to find natural ways to cure it.

Maybe they'll give you herbal teas and things like that. And functional medicine, which is what we're going to talk about mostly today, is a more specialized approach to figuring out and treating the root causes of chronic disease. So, there is...

 There's a little bit of similarity between functional medicine and naturopathy, and there is a little bit of similarity between functional medicine and medical practice, like today's medical practice but it kind of combines the two.

So they call this medicine 3. 0, right? It's better at preventing the problems, in the first place, as opposed to trying to fix them once they're already a problem.

Okay, so it's, it focuses a lot on prevention, that's where the survival fitness plan is very, very much. Functional medicine. I mean, it's a workout program but it has a lot of healthy habits and it's because you're trying to prevent getting things like cancer and heart attack and all that in the first place, right?

Once you have cancer, medicine 2. 0 will help you will have the aggressive radiotherapy, chemotherapy, sorry, not radiotherapy, even though it is radioactive stuff they're putting into, chemotherapy and all that sort of stuff. Naturopathy, you might say, alright, change your diet, take all these herbal teas or whatever.

Functional medicine will be like, listen do what you can beforehand, before you get it. It's about extending your health, your health span and your lifespan is just a, is just a happy bypass, like it's a happy thing that happens when you extend your health span, your lifespan extends as well.

And if you do have cancer or whatever, one of those, one of those horrible things. Functional Medicine might be able to help you as well. But of course, Functional Medicine knows when it's beating, and it needs medical, 2. 0 medicine to step in with its drugs and that as well if needed.

Alright. So, let's have a look at the word holistic for a minute because a lot of people, even me, I was a bit confused about holistic a while ago and then I figured it out. So, the holistic, by holistic, means The interconnectedness of the body's systems, right? So this is one of, these are the characteristics of functional medicine, medicine 3.

0. It's holistic, right? So, it realizes the interconnections of the body's symptoms. It's patient-centered, right? It focuses on the root causes of illness rather than just treating the symptoms. Like medicine 2. 0, a lot of it just treats the symptoms, okay? Like if you've got An ulcer, or for example, IBD, or whatever it's called, right?

They'll give you drugs to like, stop that happening, but it won't fix the root problem. That's why it's chronic, that's why it keeps coming back, right? Functional medicine might say, listen, change your lifestyle, take some of these things, and then it's in conjunction with medicine 2. 0 if you need to if you've got like real serious symptoms that you can't get rid of, take the medicine, but also you've got to change your lifestyle, fix up your gut lining, and all that sort of stuff, right?

And so that is kind of the biggest difference. Yeah, so it combines conventional and alternative therapies, you could say, right? Considers the unique genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors of each patient. Alright, so we'll get into that a little, in a, in a bit about what, what, what that all means.

It's personalized treatment plans that aim to restore balance and of course, promote overall wellbeing.

 So the main focus area that Medicine 3. 0 or Functional Medicine looks at is genetics, right? Which is the individual's genetic makeup. Alright, so, hang on. Let's, let's look at the main focus areas in a bit more detail.

That's, that's what we're going to do. Alright, so the first thing is genetics. Okay, so they're going to look at your individual genetic makeup. And how do they do that? Well, DNA testing, right? So you see a lot of these ads, DNA testing to find out your ancestry or whatever. But they actually have DNA testing specifically for things pre-pregnant.

Positions, predispositions to certain health conditions. So you can go and get one of those DNA tests and it'll tell you listen, you're predisposed to heart attack or to stroke or to these types of cancer or whatever, right? And then you can be like, all right, I'm going to take charge of that.

And do whatever I can to prevent it because I know that I'm more inclined to have those problems, right? And you can just look at your family line as well I mean DNA testing is obviously going to be way more accurate, but let's say all the men in your family On your father's side, had heart attacks or something, where you can be like alright, I need to definitely not smoke, no one should smoke.

And maybe cut down on the alcohol eat better, and all that sort of stuff. Basically, the funny thing is, all these things, and it all just comes down to really, is just eat better and exercise, right? In the crux of it, there are a lot of things that you can do, but the main things that are gonna help you, are to eat better and exercise.

And that's basically what the Smile Fitness Plan helps you do, in a unique way, obviously. We like to train to outrun and outfight, as well. But there's, we're also training to outlive, and we are training those things in the most efficient ways possible. So anyway, let's, let's get a sorry, we've got a, got a bit sidetracked there. Let's get back to the podcast.

So we're also going to look at the individual's biochemistry, right? So your unique biochemical processes and imbalances and stuff, and the ways that the doctor, the functional doctor might figure that out is by your medical history, like a deep dive into your medical history.

They might just interview you. They'll probably do all these things to tell you the truth. They'll interview you about your lifestyle, and your diet. How stressful you are at work environmental exposures, all that sort of stuff. A physical examination, just like your medical doctor, maybe they'll look at a few other things.

Lab testing, blood, urine, stool, saliva, genetics, all that sort of stuff. They might also have some other functional tests that Medicine 2. 0 wouldn't usually do, but Medicine 3. 0 likes to focus on, such as adrenal stress index, your organic... It's acids test or heavy metal testing to see how many heavy metals are in your body because that's poisoning you, basically, right?

 Another big concept and this is why I touched on this before. So a lot of doctors aren't trained in nutrition and stuff, right? I mean, these days, they, I assume that they are, but especially back like 20 years ago or whatever, it wasn't even really part of it. People didn't really know. I mean, 20 years ago, we had a good idea.

Everyone knew that you have to be healthy or whatever. But like in the 50s or the 60s, like doctors that are trained in the 50s, 60s, 70s, I bet they didn't even have like a, a nutrition component in their syllabus, right, when they went to university. I think Pete Addy has said he got it, he was trained in the 80s or 90s and he still didn't even have it.

So, that wasn't that long ago. So now, well nowadays I'm hoping that they do. But everyone knows regardless that nutrition is very important. But you can't just say, all right, I'm going to go on the keto diet, I'm going to go this way.

 So... In functional medicine, they're going to be like, here's personalized nutrition plans based on testing, right?

Based on what you feel good having and what your body needs. So you can take a proper test through companies such as Viomi. And there are lots of these tests that online these days where you send in your samples and it'll send you back what you should be eating, what you shouldn't be eating, probiotics and prebiotics, especially, specially designed for your gut microbiome, right?

But if you don't have access to that or you're just starting out, right, you can just follow the SFP nutrition habits. SFP, we're really big, on accessible nutrition, so it's not difficult it's simplified, right? It's like, we're not going to say, oh, you can't eat this, this, this, this, and this.

It's, it's more about listening, just, this is the basics, follow the basics, and, but the basics are, are like big ones, like get more protein, get more vegetables have a, have a wide range of stuff, and then you're pretty much good, right? And yeah. And of course, one of the things that you definitely can do is just, if when you eat something, and it doesn't feel right, don't eat that thing again, right?

You can always do elimination tests to find out you might have a gluten intolerance, or you might have an insulin intolerance, or something like that, alright? So you can, you can always use the food diary inside the app, track your mood, and all that sort of stuff, alright? The next thing we're going to talk about is lifestyle factors.

So this is another one that the Swole Fitness Plan is big on, right? Because we have all the healthy habits that you get drip fed, or you can get the, the, the live book, right? And it's things like physical activity, and sleep. Stress management, emotional well being how often you connect with people do you go to bed at the right, like, do you get enough sleep every day?

How deep is your sleep? Do you do physical activity? If you're a part of the survival fitness plan, you do enough physical activity, well, you should be. You've got to train every day, but that's not all, you've got to, like, you've got to get up throughout the day, right? You don't want to just be sitting all day.

It's all right to do your survival fitness. It's a Bible fitness workout every day, but that's, that really isn't enough, right? Because then if you go on to like me, then the rest of the day you're in front of the computer, you've got to get up, walk around every once in a while.

All right. And then you can also look at functional medicine looks at your environmental factors, right?

What toxins are you exposed to? What pollutants, and allergens do you have? This is addressed in the app as part of the longevity habits, right? So it's like, What water are you drinking? Do you drink filtered water? Do you have a filter on your shower? Do you, what, what creams you use? Are you using, like, anything you put on your skin?

Can you, you should be able to eat it, not that you would, but you should be able to, like, it shouldn't poison you if you're gonna eat it, because your skin is just a massive thing that, it's just gonna go straight into your bloodstream, or whatever you put in your skin, if you, if you wouldn't eat it, like, Alright, there are lots of things that I wouldn't eat, but I could eat, right?

So, like, for example, if I put coconut oil on my skin, would I just drown, like, down 300 ml of coconut? Probably not, but I know that I'd be alright if I did, right? I might get the shits. But I know it's not poisonous, right? It's not gonna adversely affect... Of course, anything, if you have too much of anything, it's poisonous, right?

But, things like that, like... So, it's Nivea, a Nivea body cream. I wouldn't drink that, right? Never. Wouldn't drink like a lot of the shampoos. Never, right? So, just think about stuff like that. If you're gonna put it on your skin, would you be able to eat it? Alright?

 Also, the mind-body connection, right? So mental and emotional health on your physical well-being.

So, this is, this is addressed, in the app as well as part of daily meditation and breath work. And other habits, right? We do this breath like meditation is built in straight from day one. Just from day one, you're doing meditation, and breath work, it's important, right?

 Functional Medicine might also consider integrative therapies, right?

Combining conventional treatments with alternative therapies such as I don't know, herbal medicine, acupuncture, chiropractic care, right? And it's really in a bid to support overall health and wellness. So, that is just a little primer on functional medicine, and of course, you can go see a functional medicine doctor, and I highly recommend it.

 In fact, next week, that's, I'm gonna go get all these bunch of functional medicine tests from a thing that I got out of, it's only in the United States, unfortunately, at the moment. It's from the guy, Doctor, ah. Dr. Mark Hyman, right? It was in his book, and it's the functional health panel, I think it's called, the full health panel.

And yeah, so just go look up that, look that up, and then it's in better form at the moment, and I think it's like 500 bucks and they do these, all these tests, right? That you would usually have to pay thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars for, and I think you get them twice a year.

And then, so they do it and then they, they, there's an app apparently and they help you analyze what the tests actually mean because a lot of times you go get all these tests, you can get all these blood work tests and that, you can do that from the medical doctor, right? You can say, I want this, this, and this.

First of all, you have to figure out what the, what ones you want, and then you have to figure out what they mean which unless you're medically trained or you, you're going to train yourself up to do it you probably don't know, because a lot of the times you'll ask the doctors for these tests and they'll be like.

What do you want that for? Right? And then they probably won't explain. They might not even know. They won't even realize why you want it, what you're trying to look for, right? So yeah, I'll let you know how that goes when I do it. I think I go on my first appointment on Wednesday, and the next one's on Thursday, right?

And then, apparently, each appointment's only 15 to 20 minutes. They're just taking samples, and then I'll get my results, and I'll let you know.

 Alright, so that's it. Don't forget, to train yourself to outrun, outfight, and outlive the majority of the world's population with the Survival Fitness Plan app, get it now, www.survivalfitnessplan.com/app. Don't forget to like, subscribe, share leave a comment, love comments, leave a review, leave, leave a rating on Apple Podcasts or wherever you're listening to this podcast because that helps a lot. Alright, that's it guys, thanks again, I'll see you next time, bye.