A few weeks ago I was delighted to attend a seminar entitled "Neuroprotection: A Functional Medicine Approach for Common and Uncommon Neurological Syndromes" presented by Dr. Catherine Willner M.D., a Mayo neurologist until 1997 and now practicing in Durango, Colorado. In the room were MD’s, DO’s, (Doctors of Osteopathic Medicine), DC’s (Doctors of Chiropractic Medicine), ND’s (Naturopathic Doctors), NP (Nurse Practitioners), PA’s (Physician’s Assistants), TCM (Traditional Chinese Medicine) and other health professionals gathered for a common goal of applying Patient Centered Medicine in our practices.

Dr. Willner is not only an expert neurologist but she also looks at the symptoms of the patient from a functional medicine viewpoint or as I see it, a very naturopathic approach. What does this mean? Well we functional medicine practitioners look at the body like a matrix that is impacted by factors such as: environmental causations including diet, exercise, nutrition, medication, pollution of any kind; oxidative stress; detoxification pathways that are impaired such as in the liver; immune and inflammatory imbalances, gastrointestinal imbalances, structural imbalances, hormonal and neurological imbalances and the effect of the mind and spirit over the body.

When Dr. Willner looks at a neurological case looks at all these factors, rather than relying on the neurological assessment for diagnosis. She will measure essential fatty acid deficiencies because we are made up of many miles of membranes whose health relies on adequate levels of DHA and EPA essential fatty acids. She will measure red blood cell (RBC) magnesium. This measures one of the most important fuels for the mitochondria (energy source) in any cell and is especially important for nerve cells. If RBC magnesium is low, magnesium supplements are recommended and the mitochondria is revived and for example, tremors and migraines may be easily treated. Why isn’t your MD measuring these levels in patients with tremors and migraines, and well just about any health condition, as magnesium is so deficient in our society? It is because they are assuming that measuring the magnesium in the serum is the best test but this measures the magnesium outside the cell not inside the cell where it needs to be. So serum magnesium is often very normal, and the levels inside the cell as measured by the RBC magnesium are low. We as medical practitioners only find what we are looking for. So if your MD is not looking for clues in the right places they won’t find them. So what do you do? The RBC magnesium test is only offered through naturopathic physicians in Canada and by functional medicine practitioners in the United States. So I recommend everyone take a supplement of a good quality magnesium citrate with calcium citrate.

In the United States there is a quantum shift happening slowly in medicine and Dr. Jeffery Bland Ph.D., the founder of Functional Medicine Institute, is one of the educators initiating this change. His goal is to provide the research and teach MD’s, DO’s, DC’s, ND’s,NP’s, PA’s and other health professionals, the role that functional medicine has in Patient Centered Medicine. Patient Centered Medicine is approaching any health condition using the matrix I discussed above and using the best of what medicine has to offer to help the patient achieve the level of wellness they are looking for. In many cases the patient is only looking for a quick easy fix using drugs and surgery to get the quickest possible resolution to their symptoms. This may work in the short term, but in the long term the cause of the illness needs to be addressed to prevent further progression or suppression of the disease. The baby boomers however seem to a different breed. They come to their physician with a handful of articles from the internet, some of them containing good research, and the typical physician will ignore their patients questions regarding this internet research, aggravated that the public would rather get their advice from the internet rather than themselves with all their years of expertise and training. The problem is that physicians are expertly trained to deal with the horizontally ill patient but not the patient who wants to age gracefully, or who has a chronic degenerative illness.

If you need to see a medical doctor for a medical problem by all means see your M.D. but keep in mind that they are only going to find what they are looking for. I also have limitations in my practice, but you can be rest assured that I practice Patient Centered Medicine so I will be referring my patients to other health professionals who are experts in their field to provide "Good Medicine" and this of course includes MD’s.