Ayurveda and Functional Medicine

If 2020 has taught us anything, hopefully it’s to appreciate simplicity and look to more holistic and sustainable methods of staying healthy. Once the dust settled a bit this past summer and I recommitted to my goal of clean eating and consistent yoga, I decided to enhance my routine by seeing a functional medicine doctor to get a baseline for my current health and know exactly where I’m deficient or have sensitivities.

As I filled out the extremely detailed questionnaires and personal and family medical history forms, I was asked, “When was the last time you felt well?” And they meant really, actually well. Not just existing with an absence of symptoms. My answer? When I did my last Ayurvedic cleanse.

While I pondered this, it stuck me that an Ayurvedic diet and lifestyle — created over 3000 years ago, based on the belief that true health requires a delicate balance between the mind, body, and spirit/soul — is exactly where functional medicine’s roots are buried.

Rather than treat symptoms based mostly on patient testimony (which is always biased), a functional medicine practitioner collects detailed information about your past and present health, and spends at least an hour with you during your first visit. Blood will be drawn for hormone level, allergy, and cholesterol information, and you may be asked to do an elimination diet to…