Here at Advanced Chiropractic Center, we believe in giving you all the information you need to make the best decisions for your health. One area in which we find ourselves having to do more education is the topic of functional neurology. This approach is gathering a growing number of supporters in a wide variety of different disciplines, so you may have encountered the term before but not be sure what it means. In this article, we’ll provide a brief overview of functional neurology and some key things you need to know about it.
- Functional Neurology is Patient-Centered- The first thing you need to know about functional neurology is that it is a fundamentally patient-centered approach to care. Rather than focus on diseases or specific symptoms, health care providers who take a functional neurological approach consider their patients in a more holistic way, taking into account genetic and lifestyle factors, as well as their personal history. This allows professionals like our team members at Advanced Chiropractic to form a more robust clinical picture from which to draw conclusions.
- Functional Neurology is Interdisciplinary- Functional neurology is not something that’s unique to chiropractors, either. Rather, it is an approach to care that more and more professionals from a variety of specializations are adopting. Functional neurologists can be neurosurgeons, primary care providers, internists, chiropractors or any other type of specialist, and they frequently work with specialists outside their own discipline to provide a more comprehensive array of treatments.
- Functional Neurology Takes a Long-Term Approach- Another thing to know about functional neurology is that it takes a more long-term view of symptoms, treatment, and management. While the primary mode of acute treatment is effective for providing immediate care, for more complex injuries or chronic conditions, a different focus is required. People like us at Advanced Chiropractic help support a robust treatment team and provide optimal ways to alleviate and manage chronic symptoms.