An introduction to Entavida Functional Healthcare
with
Dr. David Ward, DC, MS, ATC
A Wiser Mind is excited to announce the launch of Entavida, our new Functional Healthcare clinic as a partner in our comprehensive approach to supporting health and wellbeing.
Functional Healthcare is a personalized approach that empowers individuals to achieve the highest expression of health by working in partnership with their provider to address the underlying causes of disease. It’s an evolution in the delivery of healthcare that better addresses the needs of the 21st century. By shifting the traditional disease-centered focus of medical practice to a more patient-centered approach, Functional Healthcare addresses the whole person, not just an isolated set of symptoms.
Our society is experiencing a sharp increase in the number of people who suffer from complex, chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias, autoimmune disorders and diabetes. According to the Centers for Disease Control six in ten adults in the US have a chronic disease and four in ten have at least two. Chronic diseases are the leading causes of death and disability in America, and they are also a leading driver of health care costs.
The traditional system of medicine is oriented toward disease-specific acute care. Typically, this is centered on the diagnosis and treatment of illness or trauma that is of short duration such as an infection or a broken bone. Despite notable advances in treating and preventing infectious disease and trauma, the acute-care, organ-specialty medical model is not effective in treating and preventing the chronic illnesses that are so prevalent today. Why? Because the primary driver of these conditions is the interaction among genes, lifestyle, and the environment.
Most physicians are not adequately trained to assess for the underlying causes of complex, chronic disease and to apply lifestyle-based strategies such as nutrition and diet, exercise and stress management to both treat and prevent these illnesses in their patients. In addition, there’s a huge gap between research and the way doctors practice. The gap between emerging research in basic sciences and integration into medical practice is enormous, in some cases as long as decades, particularly in the area of complex, chronic illness.
Our current healthcare system fails to address both the causes of and solutions for chronic illness. It must be replaced with a model of personalized, lifestyle-based care in order to effectively treat and reverse this escalating, chronic-disease crisis.
Functional Healthcare involves understanding the origins, prevention, and treatment of complex, chronic disease. When a person’s clinical history, signs, symptoms, and story are viewed through the Functional Healthcare lens, the root causes of illness can often be identified.
Practitioners can then support the healing process through personalized, lifestyle-based treatment strategies focusing on modifiable factors such as
- Nutrition and Diet
- Exercise and Movement
- Sleep and Stress and
- Exposure to and accumulation of toxins and dysfunction in the body’s detoxification system.
For more information about Entavida’s Functional Healthcare program and to explore whether our lifestyle-based approach for supporting health is right for you, please visit Entavida.com or click below to schedule a free discovery consultation.