See us for functional medicine in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Maple Shade, New Jersey, Bala Cynwyd , Pennsylvania, and the surrounding areas. The Falcone Center uses a functional medicine approach to treating various chronic health conditions and issues that may be preventing a person from achieving optimal health.
What Is Functional Medicine?
According to the Institute of Functional Medicine, functional medicine is better able to address chronic medical conditions. The functional medicine approach focuses on the patient as a whole rather than treating isolated symptoms. Using the tenets of functional medicine, Dr. Falcone creates a one-on-one relationship with her patients in which they gather information through detailed history assessments and medical tests as well as genetic, environmental, and other lifestyle factors that may affect their current states of health. Essentially, instead of simply treating the symptoms of a chronic condition, Dr. Falcone attempts to determine the underlying causes of chronic conditions so she can design individualized treatment plans to restore her patients’ wellness.
Functional medicine follows these basic principles:
- Biochemical Individuality: This refers to the individual nutritional needs for proper metabolic function and is based on environmental exposures and genetics.
- Patient-Centered Medicine: Through patient-centered medicine, Dr. Falcone focuses on the patient rather than the symptoms of the chronic medical condition. By focusing on the patient’s complete history, she can determine which factors may contribute to the condition to help achieve optimal wellness.
- Dynamic Balance: A balance between the systems in the body and environmental influences must be maintained for optimal health.
- Correlation Between Physical Factors: The systems in our bodies are interconnected so it is imperative to address each one to ensure they are in sync with each other. Most often, the following must be addressed:
- Hormonal and neurotransmitter imbalances
- Mitochondrial dysfunction and energy imbalances
- Detoxification and biotransformation of toxins
- Immune dysfunction
- Inflammatory triggers
- Digestion, absorption, and gut dysbiosis
- Structural imbalances from cell membrane health to musculoskeletal changes
- An Understanding that Health is Vitality—Not Just Absence of Disease
As many people seek to achieve optimal health through nutrition, the environment, and their lifestyles, functional medicine offers a new perspective on medicine by addressing the root causes of chronic illness. By looking at nutrition, the environment, and lifestyle, along with genetic components, functional medicine doctors are able to focus on how these factors affect illness.
Why Do People Choose Functional Medicine?
In today’s society, health care is overloaded with people who have many chronic conditions that require treatment. With traditional medicine, the focus is acute care – treating the conditions, symptoms, and illness. Patients choose functional medicine because they seek to know why they suffer from chronic health conditions that may cause physical, mental, and emotional pain and stress.
Functional medicine is the future of health care. With this approach, doctors treat patients as a whole to achieve and maintain health and wellness rather than treat a condition or its symptoms as they arise.
How Does Functional Medicine Differ from Traditional Medicine?
Functional medicine focuses on the underlying causes of illness whereas traditional medicine focuses on treating the symptoms of the disease. In traditional medicine, prescription medication is used as a way to treat the symptoms and the disease. Functional medical doctors look at complex biochemistry, genomics, advanced nutritional testing, toxicity testing, detoxification genomics, and other factors when treating patients.
Doctors using this state-of-the-art medical approach understand that each patient has an individualized DNA structure requiring an individualized treatment plan. Through extensive knowledge, education, and training, they can incorporate genetic science and systems biology with environmental and lifestyle factors to design a unique treatment plan for each patient.
Who Benefits from Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine is beneficial to anyone who wants to determine why they suffer from chronic health conditions and who has a strong desire to restore balance and wellness to the systems in their bodies.
What Is the Cost of Treatment through Functional Medicine?
At the Falcone Center, the cost for treating patients in Philadelphia, PA, Maple Shade, NJ, and the surrounding area is based on the appointment. Deposit is due when scheduling initial appointment.
It is important to note that the Falcone Center does not accept insurance as it is considered an out-of-network provider by most major insurance plans. While we cannot file insurance claims on our patients’ behalf, we can easily provide them with receipts and the necessary paperwork to file for reimbursement. We suggest that our patients determine whether their plans cover functional medicine prior to making an appointment.
How Do I Begin Functional Medicine Treatment for My Condition?
To begin treatment at the Falcone Center, the first step is to make an appointment for an initial consultation. At that time, we ask that patients fill out the new patient forms and forward them to us prior to the initial appointment. This gives us time to review them and have an understanding of the issues we need to address.
Dr. Victoria Falcone, director of The Falcone Center, is board-certified in Family Medicine. She is licensed in Pennsylvania and New Jersey and is a member of The Institute of Functional Medicine, The American Academy of Cosmetic Surgery (AACS), and The American Academy of Family Practice. Dr. Falcone offers a unique approach to health, wellness, and rejuvenation, helping men, women and children look and feel better both inside and out. Please call today to schedule your initial consultation!