What Is Functional Medicine? Enlighten Functional Medicine In Ballwin

Functional
Medicine

Caring for your health properly is so much more than just taking care of individual areas of your body.
Dr. Emily follows a “functional medicine” approach that treats the unified system of your body, holistically.

While the standard of care hasn’t quite “caught up” yet with most of the current science, conventional doctors and “specialists” are still treating parts of the body separately without taking into account the fact that all these areas greatly impact each other.

When you are healthy, they work together like a symphony in perfect harmony – and you have vibrant health.

But when one of these systems is off balance, the whole symphony is out of tune! When you need a “tune-up” so to speak, not only do you need to look at areas that aren’t working right… but also the rest of your body so it remains in balance.

Sadly, most patients receive medications to treat symptoms associated with a body part that “isn’t working” when in reality, it’s oftentimes a systemic issue that needs to be treated in a completely different way.

In addition, the conventional medical approach also doesn’t consider that each person is born with unique health needs: Based on their genetic factors, the environment they were born into, what kinds of bacteria populate their gut, as well as what they are exposed to as they grow – each person’s body has a very unique health profile which means they need an equally unique healing protocol.

It’s no wonder people go from doctor to doctor and never find the answers to their illness! Conventional medicine is missing the mark when it comes to effectively treating many chronic illnesses caused by aging, environment, diet, hormonal imbalances, and food sensitivities because they try to treat symptoms with medication. In fact, we find with our patients that while they may share the same symptoms, they frequently suffer from very different imbalances.

That’s why Dr. Emily follows a more modern “functional medicine” approach that incorporates advanced functional lab testing and relies on current nutritional science to help you rebalance and finally heal.

This in-depth approach is the only successful way of treating chronic disorders because most chronic illness have many causes.

Instead of simply addressing different symptoms across separate areas, functional medicine seeks to treat the underlying root cause – while looking at lifestyle factors such as diet, environment, emotional health, and mindset that usually brings on the illness patients are seeking to heal.

  • My Functional Medicine approach is a more comprehensive form of care and coaching to help teach patients how to upgrade their lifestyle – so they don’t remain stuck in the “chronic illness hamster wheel.”
Here are just some of the things I focus on in my practice:
  • We prioritize quality over quantity with our patients. We will only make a medical diagnosis after listening carefully to a patient’s medical history, reviewing testing, looking at lifestyle factors that are materially contributing to illnesses, then making a personalized recommendation based on each patient’s unique situation.
  • Assessment, natural healing, and prevention are prioritized over wait-and-see treatment approaches.
  • The most modern and advanced medical equipment available is used along with natural forms of healing like upgrading your diet and healing herbs or supplementation with fewer or no side effects.
  • Patients are taught how to take a more active role in their own health and will learn up-to-date nutritional science & lifestyle modifications that can boost their health and overall wellness for a lifetime.
  • Instead of relying on being prescribed medications again and again for temporary relief, functional medicine diagnoses problems holistically and arm patients with the modern tools for healthy living.
Since founding her practice, Dr. Emily Hecker and her team has helped thousands of patients recover from life-altering conditions such as:
  • Mental Health Struggles (“Brain Fog,” Memory Issues, Anxiety, Depression, Cognitive, etc)
  • Infertility & MTHFR (Miscarriage, Unexplained infertility, Impaired Methylation)
  • Metabolic Syndrome, Obesity & Dyslipidemia
  • Hormonal Imbalances (Feeling “tired & wired,” Hypothyroidism, Hyperthyroidism, PCOS, PMS, Hot Flashes, Painful Periods, Mood Swings)
  • Autoimmune Conditions (IBD, Rheumatoid Arthritis, Psoriasis, Multiple Sclerosis, Hashimoto’s Disease, Celiac’s, Crohn’s, Type-1 Diabetes)
  • Digestive Disorders (GERD, heartburn, IBS, SIBO, Crohn’s, Colitis)

Take The First Step On Your

Journey With Me

Perhaps you have questions you’d like to ask before you make a decision to become a patient. My patient coordinator, Laci, is standing by, happy to answer any questions you have to determine if Enlighten Functional Medicine is right for you.

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