Let us examine two paradigms at work within our current culture. The first paradigm forms the basis of contemporary living. I refer to it as a reductionist paradigm, because it fragments and isolates components of systems so that they may be rendered less complex and easier to manipulate.
One can see this approach in current conventional medical practice. Medical doctors work within specialized fields, isolating the scope of their practice to specific systems, functions, and regions of the body. Most doctors are specialists in treating conditions in isolation rather than in the context of all of the body’s systems. This model of practice is helpful and appropriate in many situations, such as reading x-rays, setting a broken bone, and removing glaucoma, just to name a few.
While this approach to health care is critical for urgent care and disease care, it normally does not support us in our overall effort to achieve and maintain optimum health. For instance, when patients first come to our office, they often relate their experience with conventional medical care as follows. They experience symptoms that become chronic or increase in severity. They see a medical physician who prescribes a drug to hush the symptoms of the condition. However, the drug causes side effects of its own that may surface as any number of new, undesirable conditions. Oftentimes, multiple prescriptions are offered to attend to these new symptoms.
Ironically, therefore, the field of health care as largely practiced in the US today would be more appropriately labeled disease care or symptom maintenance. Most practitioners operating in the reductionist paradigm do not specialize in discovering the underlying problem causing symptoms or in achieving optimal performance of all of our body's systems.
There is another paradigm of care that is available outside of this conventional model. This alternative is commonly referred to as functional healthcare. The functional paradigm focuses on understanding and working optimally within complex systems. Its emphasis is on increasing the optimal functionality of certain components of that system while maintaining the integrity of the system as a whole. Therefore, symptoms are not the focus of treatment; finding the underlying cause is the focus. The result is health care.
One of my clients wrote about her patient journey from the reductionist medical paradigm to functional healthcare. Below is her story.
“When I was in my teens and twenties, I had cystic acne. I consulted about half a dozen different dermatologists over the years in hopes of eradicating this embarrassing condition. My doctors gave me many different cleansers and creams. I also underwent treatments in their offices such as liquid nitrogen washes. These treatments were unsuccessful—the acne remained a constant part of my life.
I also consulted medical doctors who prescribed antibiotics, birth control pills, and Accutane. None of these drugs alleviated my condition. However, while taking the Accutane, my skin, mouth, and lips dried up so severely that I looked even worse. I also began to have intense pain in my ankles, and I became very depressed.
Finally, I was introduced to a holistic healthcare practitioner, Dr. Scott Swarthout, D.C., who practices functional health. I consulted him about the acne. He took an interest in my overall state of health. Part of his treatment included testing me on food sensitivities. We discovered my sensitivity to wheat and gluten. As part of my treatment, he recommended that I remove wheat and gluten from my diet. He also suggested foods and supplements that offered nutrients that I was missing. After only a week of abstaining from wheat and gluten, I realized that the acne was clearing up. Within about a month, my skin was completely transformed, and the acne has never resurfaced. Additionally, my periods became regular (no more PCOS!); my thinking became clearer; and I had more energy. Finally, I had the most wonderful, unexpected benefit: for the first time in my life, food was not always on my mind. I had this amazing freedom from what I did not even realize had been a lifelong food addiction.
Dr. Swarthout explained that my body could heal itself if we gave it the right support. That is exactly what happened!”
When we took the time to look at this patient’s overall state of health, diet, and lifestyle, it was apparent that acne was not the only imbalance she was experiencing. By investigating and discovering the root cause of her imbalance, many systems were able to reclaim stasis. Gluten was compromising her immune system. When she took it out of her diet, her body was able to heal itself. By providing the nutrients her system was lacking, we were able to support and speed up that healing process.
These two paradigms—the reductionist and the functional—reach far beyond the field of medicine. The reductionist approach, in fact, has been the pervasive worldview in American society for more than a century. Today, we are becoming aware of some far-reaching, negative effects of our reductionist practices, particularly as we are gaining environmental awareness.
Take, for instance, the field of agricultural science. In 1840 Justus Von Liebig promoted the theory that nitrogen, phosphorous, and potassium levels are the basis for determining healthy plant growth. Introducing these agents as synthetic fertilizers proved successful in increasing farming yields. However, the excessive nitrogen and phosphorus runoff into the Gulf of Mexico has led to an overgrowth of algae. This overabundance of algal blooms depletes oxygen concentration so much that the waters cannot support aquatic life. This “dead zone” at times reaches 6,000 to 7,000 square miles in size. Further, the depleted topsoil actually results in depleted mineral and vitamin content in these crops.
We are only beginning to understand how our practice of isolating and manipulating components of complex systems is affecting our planet’s ecological systems and our bodies. Equally, we are just beginning to understand the benefits of globalizing our perspectives—of working to maintain the integrity of a complex system as we work to maximize the functionality of specific components of that system.