What is functional medicine?
Functional medicine is a personalized whole person assessment and treatment of your health with the goal of restoring vitality. It is very unlike allopathic medicine in that it does not focus on the diagnosis of a disease followed by implementation of a medication treatment plan for suppression of symptoms, but rather works to understand the underlying systems imbalances that occurred to create the named disease, and then works to try to undo those imbalances through a variety of approaches. See the following link to learn more: Institute for Functional Medicine
Is functional medicine right for me?
Current scientific research is incredibly advanced and has shown that 80-90% of our health is determined by daily lifestyle choices and environmental influences and not by genetics, counter to what was previously believed. Functional medicine is a participatory program. How engaged the patient is in managing their health through daily actions will determine how much they benefit from this type of program. I help provide you with the pathway to health and help you to find obstacles that may be preventing your achievement of optimal health. It is an active program. There are often many lifestyle components in an individuals program that will need to be addressed. It is not something I do to you. It is not about taking supplements in place of a medication, although supplements are often part of the program to support body chemistry.
Why Choose Dr Budde?
Dr Budde understands you have many healthcare providers to choose from and this can be a very difficult decision to make. Many of you have probably seen multiple providers already and have not seen improvements in your health. One of the reasons Dr Budde has chosen to take this approach to treating patients, is specifically because this is what was required for her to recover from her chronic illness. She also had seen many well-meaning healthcare providers who provided little help. Many of these providers were high profile self-proclaimed “experts”. Many are expert at marketing themselves. Understand that no healthcare provider knows everything. It is impossible.
It is possible that your case will be simple. If you have been ill for a long time, you likely have multiple factors contributing to your illness, and you need to find a healthcare provider who is familiar with the underlying causes of complex chronic illness and symptoms. Please do not be fooled by healthcare providers who are offering “expensive programs” to restore your health. Functional medicine is not a protocol or program you apply to all patients. Similar symptoms can come from different underlying causes and each patient needs to be evaluated individually. The etiology of virtually all chronic symptoms and illnesses are based in the immune system. Dr Budde is a Doctor of Immunology and understands the complexity of the immune system. She has also trained extensively with many experienced providers over the years through conferences and more extensive courses beyond her training through the Institute for Functional Medicine. She is also a member of the ISEAI, the International Society for Environmentally Acquired Illness, which is an international group of physicians specializing in treating complex chronically ill patients who support each other with difficult cases through an online forum.
Do you take Insurance?
We do not take insurance of any kind. Insurance companies do not pay for spending time with your doctor and generally do not cover these types of services. Insurance does not pay for helping to create health. It pays for disease naming and management. Insurance companies are middle men that take resources away from the patient and provider and dictate how the doctor can practice and what services a patient can have. The limited reimbursements the doctor receives from insurance companies forces the doctor to have to see multiple patients per hour, and the type of medicine we do cannot be done in this model. Our conventional insurance based medical model is a poor and very expensive model of care. Health outcomes in this system for chronic disease have been shown to be below those of many other countries. This system reimburses doctors to do procedures and to see as many patients as possible. There is no interest in patient education, prevention or the possibility of restoring health. If requested, we will provide a superbill you may submit to your insurance company, but understand that insurance companies often do not pay for these services. We will not submit claims on your behalf. We are doctors, not administrators of your health insurance. However, if you have a Health savings account, you can typically use this to cover our services.
Will you be my primary care provider?
We provide consultative services only. You will need to maintain a primary care doctor for your health care maintenance issues like pap smears, physicals, acute injuries, colds, etc.
What we don’t do?
We do not prescribe narcotics, benzodiazepines or other controlled substances.
We do not take you off your prescription medications that your other doctors have prescribed. However, many times, prescriptions medications can be eliminated or weaned off as your health improves.