Western Medicine
Western medicine is the healthcare practice that will be most familiar to you. When you suffer from an illness, fatigue, or pain, your doctor will try to make a diagnosis and then likely prescribe you some medication to alleviate your symptoms. Occasionally, you may even be recommended surgery.
This traditional treatment course is the ideal route to dealing with any acute medical issue that requires immediate action. However, many chronic illnesses and general health issues are a result of poor diet and lifestyle choices. The accumulation of toxins and genetic factors can take years to manifest into symptoms. Without spending the right amount of time to get to the bottom of what has caused these illnesses, we can’t treat you effectively.
We all know that the NHS is regularly overrun, sometimes your body might have already recovered before you even get to see a doctor. Sadly, with the dramatic increase in demand of the health service, doctors can no longer take the time necessary to treat patients as individuals.
Treating the Individual with Functional Medicine
All of us are slightly different - we are all made up of different genetics, consume a different diet, grew up in a different environment, sleep to a different schedule and vary in how we exercise.
As Western medicine becomes more specialised, clinicians often focus more on one system of the body. You will see a gastroenterologist for your gut issues and a cardiologist for your heart problems. But all the body’s systems are intrinsically linked. The health of your gut may affect your heart health and vice versa. So focusing on one system means that the doctor may miss the bigger picture, and therefore, give you an incomplete diagnosis.
Functional medicine is different. It looks at you as a whole person, it sees the bigger picture. It is taking an approach that identifies why illness may be occurring based on more than your symptoms, delving deeper to find the root cause of the disease.
Rather than treating symptoms such as pain and inflammation with painkillers and anti-inflammatories that mask the symptoms, functional medicine aims to identify the root cause of the pain and inflammation, therefore, removing the pain and inflammation once and for all. Not only is Functional Medicine effective in pain management, especially in chronic pain, but it plays an important role in preventive medicine, where patients are empowered to take charge of their own health to prevent diseases from occuring in the first place.
Where does Red Light Therapy fit in?
A Functional Medicine treatment plan involves a broad range of diet, lifestyle and complementary therapies. Dietary recommendations to ensure your body is performing optimally and lifestyle changes, such as improving your sleep, increasing exercise and working to de-stress.
There has been lots of research showing that many chronic illnesses stem from mitochondrial problems. Mitochondria are the energy powerhouses that are found in each cell in our body. When they are not working well, then we can’t release the energy from food as effectively.
Red light therapy targets the mitochondria, making them work more effectively. This, in turn, makes more energy available to the body. If you think about most of the body's problems, tiredness, soreness, muscle recovery, pain, inflammation, skin rejuvenation - your energy has a pivotal role to play in healing.
Red light therapy, also known as photobiomodulation, improves your mitochondria function without any side effects. Studies have shown that through this red light targeting of your mitochondria, your body can heal faster. Pain that used to be masked with drugs can now be relieved at the cellular level. Overall, your body can begin to perform optimally.
When your body is performing at its optimal levels, we found that patients benefit from improved performance, both physically in sporting activities and mentally. The challenges of life become easier to deal with when the body has an abundance of energy.
Combining a functional lifestyle approach to your health with red light therapy gives patients the boost they need to recover from chronic conditions and improves performance. Some of the most famous athletes in the world are using red light therapy. The USA Olympic team has treatment centres to aid both recoveries and give athletes an energy boost to win Gold medals. Top premier league teams here in London and across the country have begun to use red light therapy to increase their players' overall wellness and performance.
By adding red light therapy into your health and wellness routine, you can lead a more fulfilling life, achieving optimal health, wellness and vitality.
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