Alternative medicine and pseudoscience
Functional medicine
(FM) is a form of
alternative medicine
that encompasses a number of unproven and disproven methods and treatments.
[1]
[2]
[3]
It has been described as pseudoscience,
[4]
quackery
,
[5]
and at its essence a rebranding of complementary and alternative medicine.
[5]
In the United States, FM practices have been ruled ineligible for
course credits
by the
American Academy of Family Physicians
because of concerns they may be harmful.
[6]
[7]
Functional medicine was created by Jeffrey Bland,
[8]
who founded The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) in the early 1990s as part of one of his companies, HealthComm.
[9]
IFM, which promotes functional medicine, became a registered non-profit in 2001.
[10]
Mark Hyman
became an IFM board member and prominent promoter.
[8]
[10]
Description
[
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]
David Gorski
has written that FM is not well-defined and performs "expensive and generally unnecessary tests".
[11]
Gorski says FM's vagueness is a deliberate tactic that makes functional medicine difficult to challenge.
[12]
Proponents of functional medicine oppose established medical knowledge and reject its models, instead adopting a model of disease based on the notion of "antecedents", "triggers", and "mediators". These are meant to correspond to the underlying causes of health issues, the immediate causes, and the particular characteristics of a person's illness. A functional medicine practitioner devises a "matrix" from these factors to serve as the basis for treatment.
[13]
Treatments, practices, and concepts are generally not supported by
medical evidence
.
[1]
Reception
[
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]
FM practitioners claim to diagnose and treat conditions that have been found by research studies not to exist, such as
adrenal fatigue
and numerous imbalances in body chemistry.
[14]
[15]
For instance, contrary to scientific evidence, Joe Pizzorno, a major figure in FM, claimed that 25% of people in the United States have heavy metal poisoning and need to undergo detoxification.
[6]
Many scientists state that such
detox
supplements are a waste of time and money.
[16]
Detox has been also called "mass delusion".
[17]
In 2014, the
American Academy of Family Physicians
withdrew
course credits
for functional medicine courses, having identified some of its treatments as "harmful and dangerous".
[6]
In 2018, it partly lifted the ban, but only to allow overview classes, not to teach its practice.
[7]
The opening of centers for functional medicine at the
Cleveland Clinic Foundation
and
George Washington University
was described by David Gorski as an "unfortunate" example of quackery infiltrating academic medical centers.
[5]
References
[
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]
- ^
a
b
Sampson, Wallace
(October 30, 2008).
"Functional Medicine ? New Kid on the Block"
.
Science-Based Medicine
.
Archived
from the original on May 22, 2011
. Retrieved
March 6,
2024
.
- ^
Sampson, Wallace
(July 9, 2009).
"Functional Medicine (FM) What Is It?"
.
Science Based Medicine
. Retrieved
May 20,
2014
.
- ^
Pal, SK (March 2002). "Complementary and alternative medicine: An overview".
Current Science
.
82
(5): 518?24.
JSTOR
24105958
.
- ^
Hall, Harriet (2017).
"Functional Medicine: Pseudoscientific Silliness"
.
Skeptic
. Vol. 22, no. 1. pp. 4?5.
- ^
a
b
c
Gorski, David
(September 29, 2014).
"Quackademia update: The Cleveland Clinic, George Washington University, and the continued infiltration of quackery into medical academia"
.
Science-Based Medicine
. Retrieved
December 2,
2016
.
- ^
a
b
c
Bellamy J (October 26, 2017).
"AAFP: Functional Medicine lacks supporting evidence; includes 'harmful' and 'dangerous' treatments"
.
6 March 2024
.
Science-Based Medicine
.
Archived
from the original on October 15, 2019
. Retrieved
October 15,
2019
.
- ^
a
b
Bellamy J (October 27, 2018).
"AAFP should publish research behind finding that functional medicine lacks evidence, contains harmful and dangerous practices"
. Science-Based-Medicine.
Archived
from the original on June 12, 2019
. Retrieved
October 15,
2019
.
- ^
a
b
"Functional medicine: Is it the future of healthcare or just another wellness trend?"
.
independent
. October 23, 2018
. Retrieved
February 7,
2023
.
- ^
Barrett, Stephen (September 11, 2013).
"Some Notes on Jeffrey Bland and Metagenics"
.
Quackwatch
. Retrieved
April 5,
2022
.
- ^
a
b
"Institute for Functional Medicine 2001 tax forms"
.
ProPublica
. May 9, 2013.
- ^
Gorski DH (2018). "Chapter 14: 'Integrative' Medicine: Integrating Quackery with Science-Based Medicine".
Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against Science
. MIT Press. pp. 309?330.
doi
:
10.7551/mitpress/9780262037426.003.0014
.
ISBN
978-0-262-03742-6
.
- ^
Gorski, David
(April 11, 2016).
"Functional medicine: The ultimate misnomer in the world of integrative medicine"
.
Science-Based Medicine
. Retrieved
March 6,
2024
.
- ^
Knott L (February 6, 2015).
"Therapies and Theories Outside Traditional Medicine"
.
Patient
. Retrieved
December 11,
2015
.
- ^
Gorski, David (December 17, 2018).
"Functional medicine: Reams of useless tests in one hand, a huge invoice in the other"
.
Science-Based Medicine
.
Archived
from the original on November 1, 2020
. Retrieved
October 30,
2020
.
- ^
"Adrenal Fatigue | Hormone Health Network"
.
www.hormone.org
.
Archived
from the original on October 20, 2020
. Retrieved
October 30,
2020
.
- ^
"Scientists dismiss detox schemes"
.
BBC
. January 3, 2006.
Archived
from the original on February 13, 2021
. Retrieved
March 6,
2024
.
- ^
Dixon, Bernard (2005). "
"Detox", a mass delusion".
The Lancet Infectious Diseases
.
5
(5). Elsevier BV: 261.
doi
:
10.1016/s1473-3099(05)70094-3
.
ISSN
1473-3099
.
PMID
15854880
.
Further reading
[
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