Any Success stories in favour of Functional Medicine to improve symptoms?

Yaro said:

I have been looking into Functional Medicine - basically a  holistic approach to treat chronic disease, with a focus on nutrition.

Can you expand on the chronic disease part please? This will have a bearing on advice we can offer.

With this medicine being in its early stages I would be very wary of any not affliliated with mainstream medical partners  simply because the emerging fields are often full of charlatans trying to make money off "pseudo science". That is to say they make up their own colclusions without medical rigour and peddle it for lots of money.

I understand the field of medicine you refer to and it has promising applications, but have you considered trying to create your own balanced diet, free from additives, for your son? It would seem a very sensible approach to start with as it eliminates most of the ingredients that are considered to be a problem.

I'm interested to hear if anyone has first hand experience of this over a sustained period of time.

Hi Ian,

Thanks for your reply. 

By chronic disease I mean that the field has shown great promise in treating type 2 diabetes, auto immune conditions, heart disease and others. And as of recently claims to massively improve Autism symptoms. I have seen testimonials of non verbal kids just having a swich flicked and becoming significantly more high functioning. 

On your second point, I get it. The moment I research such a clinic and I see them use the word "cure" in regards to Autism I just stop reading :). And there are several in the UK. But I owe it to my son as his father to dig under every rock for that gold nugget that would improve their quality of life. But at the same time that has to be done with eyes wide open. 

We are trying to work as much as we can towards introducing a healthy diet with my son but he is an extremely picky eater so we use general supplements like Vitamin D, Fish Oil but I would rather not stuff him up with any more until I am aware of his particular circumstances and deficiencies. The field promises tests that would narrow down those deficiencies and address them is a holistic way (and by holistic I don't mean crystals and energy plates :) )  As I know there is no one solution fits all, the prospect of that insight is what sparks my interest in the field. 

I've got to be honest with you and say that I think these potential "cures" are a load of rubbish, I say that as someone who's autistic, had long experience of alternative medicine and have worked in the wholefoods business. I've seen many articles discussing Autism, using language that if you exchanged the word Autism, for black, gay or Jew would be regarded as hate speach.

Whilst there is some evidence that nuerodiverse people can need higher amounts of omega's, they don't cure and can't cure the arrangement of the brain and how it's hard wired as opposed to soft wired.

I understand why you need to dig under every rock, I would if it were my children, but be very very careful, their are a lot of charletans selling snake oil. They will manipulate you into feeling subtely guilty if their "cures" don't work and of course that means buying ever more expensive remedies and treatments. You could end up seriously out of pocket, out of patience and jaded.

Maybe when you're looking at treatment options think about the way they're worded and replace the term autistic with black, gay or Jew and see if the claims would still be acceptable? It's a journey with autism and it's many relations, but look at all the wonderful people here and take heart.

Good luck

I've got to be honest with you and say that I think these potential "cures" are a load of rubbish, I say that as someone who's autistic, had long experience of alternative medicine and have worked in the wholefoods business. I've seen many articles discussing Autism, using language that if you exchanged the word Autism, for black, gay or Jew would be regarded as hate speach.

Whilst there is some evidence that nuerodiverse people can need higher amounts of omega's, they don't cure and can't cure the arrangement of the brain and how it's hard wired as opposed to soft wired.

I understand why you need to dig under every rock, I would if it were my children, but be very very careful, their are a lot of charletans selling snake oil. They will manipulate you into feeling subtely guilty if their "cures" don't work and of course that means buying ever more expensive remedies and treatments. You could end up seriously out of pocket, out of patience and jaded.

Maybe when you're looking at treatment options think about the way they're worded and replace the term autistic with black, gay or Jew and see if the claims would still be acceptable? It's a journey with autism and it's many relations, but look at all the wonderful people here and take heart.

Good luck