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      • Is cognitive therapy effective for bipolar disorder?
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      • Munchausen Syndrome
      • How Does Social Media Affect Teenagers’ Mental Health?
      • Oppositional Defiant Disorder
      • Spotting Types of Depression in Children
      • Teen Suicide
      • Top Tips For Parents
      • Video Game Therapy for ADHD
      • What is a Residential Mental Health Facility for Teenagers Like
      • Why Is Mental Health on the Rise Amongst Teenagers?
    • Is Social Media Ruining Our Self-Esteem? 
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      • COVID Counseling to Battle Mental Health Issues
      • Guide to Anxiety Medication
      • Disruptive Mood Dysregulation Disorder
      • High Functioning Depression | Signs | Symptoms
      • How Can We Prevent Mental Illness in Youth?
      • How Do You Help Someone with Avoidant Personality?
      • How Does Online Counseling Work for Mental Health?
      • How Can a Mental Health Counselor Help
      • Mental Breakdown
      • Schizoid Personality Disorder
      • Postpartum Depression
      • Types of Mood Disorders
      • The Toll of Grief and How to Cope with It
      • What are The Major Affective Disorders?
      • What Cognitive Psychology Teaches Us About How We Think
      • What Is Clinical Mental Health Counseling
      • What are mental health symptoms you should never ignore?
      • What is Bipolar II Disorder? Symptoms and Treatment
      • What is the Difference Between Manic and Hypomanic?
      • What is schizoaffective disorder?
      • Is seasonal affective disorder (SAD) a mental illness?
      • What is substance induced mood disorder?
      • Is Depression a Permanent Mental Disorder?
      • What is the prognosis for Major Depressive Disorder?
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      • COVID Counseling to Battle Mental Health Issues
      • Work Stress Post-Pandemic
      • Shocking Growth of Anxiety During the Pandemic
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      • How does a toxic relationship affect your mental health?
      • What is gaslighting in a relationship?
      • What is the best way to help a partner who has trust issues?
      • What’s the best way to work out relationship problems?
      • 10 ways to improve communication in relationships
    • Spirituality in Addiction Treatment  
    • Therapy
      • Can I See a Psychiatrist Without a Referral?
      • DBT Therapy for Adolescents
      • DCBT- Digital Cognitive Behavioral Therapy
      • Deep Brain Stimulation to Treat OCD
      • Do I Need a Referral to See a Therapist?
      • Family Therapy: Definition, Types, Techniques, and Efficacy
      • How Can Interpersonal Psychotherapy (IPT) Help Mental Disorders?
      • EMDR Therapy for Mental Health Conditions
      • Psychiatrist vs. Psychologist
      • Is Therapy Covered by Health Insurance?
      • Psychodynamic Therapy vs CBT
      • Psychotherapy
      • SMART Recovery
      • What Can Psychologists Treat
      • What is Group Therapy
      • What is Internal Family Systems Therapy
      • What Is the Role of the Counselor in Family Therapy
      • What Is Psychoanalysis
    • Trauma Bonding With Intimate Partner Violence
    • Teen Mental Health
      • Can a Minor Go to Therapy Without Parents Permission?
      • Teen Co-Occurring Disorders
      • What are the signs of depression in adolescents?
      • warning signs of suicide in adolescents
      • Mental Health Benefits of Exercise in Teens
      • How is the pandemic affecting mental health in teenagers?
    • Types of Disorder
      • Anti-Social Personality Disorder
      • Autism Spectrum Disorder
      • Avoidant Personality Disorder
      • Bipolar Disorder Symptoms | Causes | Diagnosis
      • Diagnosing and Treating an Adjustment Disorder
      • Histrionic Personality Disorder
      • Intermittent Explosive Disorder
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      • Functional Medicine for Military
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      • Gambling addiction
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U.S. Armed Forces Adopt a Functional Medicine Approach for Soldiers and Veterans

Military health systems are now utilizing a functional medicine approach to better treat patients.

What Is Functional Medicine?

Function medicine is a patient-orientated form of treatment that focuses on the underlying causes of disease.1 It differs from conventional medicine in that it is holistic with a focus on health and prevention. Conventional medicine is doctor-led, focusing on treating the ailment rather than the patient.
Rather than focusing on treating the disease and its symptoms, functional medicine focuses on the root, such as lifestyle and family history, and is most beneficial for chronic conditions with no single effective cure.

The Five Principles of Functional Medicine

Functional medicine is defined by five basic principles that dictate how treatment and recovery are viewed.
1. The Individual Is Not a Disease but a Person

One of the most important principles for functional medicine is the individual’s personhood. Each patient is a unique individual with their own genetic makeup and history, and their treatment should be tailored to them as a person rather than focused solely on treating the disease.

2. Functional Medicine Is Science-Based
While functional medicine differs from conventional medicine in many ways, one thing they have in common is their base in science and evidence. Genetics, biochemistry, and other studied aspects of the human body are considered when prescribing holistic treatment.
3. The Human Body Is Self-Healing
Since functional medicine views the human body as dynamic and capable of self-regulation, it also focuses on the ability to heal. This means that in some cases, such as with type 2 diabetes, treatment is centered on creating an environment for healing through diet and lifestyle changes rather than tackling the issue with medication.2
4. Everyone Has Potential to Heal Diseases Associated With Aging
There are many diseases associated with older age, including arthritis and high blood pressure. Functional medicine believes that, with the proper steps, the body can treat and even prevent these conditions.
5. Health Is Not Just the Absence of Disease
As a holistic form of treatment and medicine, functional medicine views health through a lens that focuses on all aspects of the mind and body. This means that it works to prevent diseases and treat them, all while focusing on the individual’s overall condition.

Adoption of a Functional Medicine Approach by U.S. Armed Forces

Functional Medicine for Military - PacificBeachHealth
Recently, the U.S. Armed Forces have shifted the focus of their healthcare to adopt more aspects of functional medicine.3 This change has the potential to result in an abundance of benefits for soldiers and veterans and the way they utilize their access to healthcare and services.

The Need of a Functional Medicine Approach for Soldiers and Veterans

One of the main principles of functional medicine is that it views health as more than just the lack of physical disease. Its holistic healing plan accounts for treatment and preventatives, helping restore peace of mind in body health autonomy.
Deployment comes with a variety of risks, both for active military personnel and veterans.4 Functional medicine provides a method for high-quality care—necessary for adequate treatment and health—that is focused on the person rather than the ailment. This means that seemingly undiagnosable symptoms won’t go untreated, no matter their severity. Thus, healthcare like this provides great access to care for soldiers who otherwise may not benefit from other routes of medicine.

Barriers to High-Quality Healthcare

Despite the importance of quality healthcare, there are still several barriers that remain. These barriers to high-quality healthcare can make it difficult for veterans and active soldiers to receive the treatment they need, conventional or functional.
These barriers can include:
  • Personal negative beliefs or feelings towards mental healthcare
  • Lack of trust or confidence in treatment
  • Fear of pharmaceutical side effects
  • Socioeconomic status

Removing Barriers to Mental Health Services for Veterans

In order to ensure equal access to high-quality mental healthcare services, it is important to reduce these barriers through various steps and methods. While there are several ways this can be done, these three methods are the current focus.
Increase the Number of Highly Trained Mental Health Providers

To increase accessibility to healthcare for veterans, it is important to first increase the number of providers available. Ensuring that each professional is highly trained in mental health will also help alleviate some concerns with trust or confidence in mental health treatment that many veterans and active soldiers have.

Adopt and Enforce Appropriate and Consistent Quality Standards
An additional way to remove the lack of trust and confidence would be to ensure that appropriate and consistent quality standards were adopted into mental healthcare practices.
Improve Monitoring and Performance Measurement of VA Community Care Programs
In order to continue improving the quality of healthcare that veterans receive, it is important to monitor performance regularly. This helps identify areas with less than consistent standards or faulty programs to innovate these areas to meet the needs of veterans.

Complementary and Alternative Medicine in the Military Health System

Functional medicine
According to a 2017 study, as many as 83% of military treatment facilities (MTF) used some form of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM) to treat patients.5 These CAM services can come in a variety of forms, including:
  • Relaxation therapy
  • Acupuncture
  • Progressive muscle relaxation
  • Guided imagery

Increasing the availability of and accessibility to complementary and alternative medicine and a functional approach to healthcare provide a greater opportunity for holistic and personalized treatment for mental health disorders. With as many as five hundred thousand soldiers diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and similar disorders between 2003 and 2016, complementary and alternative medicine offers innovative ways outside conventional medicine and pharmaceutical treatment. However, such methods may also be helpful—especially when combined with CAM procedures and services.

Heal With Pacific Beach Health
If you are a member of the U.S. Armed Forces seeking help, reach out to our team at Pacific Beach Health. Our various treatment processes can guide you towards recovery and a life of fulfillment. Our dedicated team of professionals is ready to be by your side throughout the healing journey. Contact us today.
Resources :
  1. https://www.ifm.org/functional-medicine/
  2. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3977406/
  3. https://www.defensenews.com/pay-benefits/military-benefits/health-care/2021/03/30/this-is-the-future-of-health-care-for-troops/?utm_source=clavis
  4. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK225082/
  5. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_reports/RR1380.html#:~:text=Most%20MTFs%20(83%20percent)%20offer,chiropractic%20being%20the%20most%20common

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