Functional Healthcare

Functional Medicine Specialist in Irvine, CA

Shawn Hamilton, MD, an internal medicine specialist in Irvine, California, works diligently to understand your symptoms, as well as your medical and family history, in order to get to the root of your health concerns. Dr. Hamilton’s focus is on disease prevention and lifestyle modification with a goal of empowering and supporting you with the medical care and resources you need to break free from anything that is keeping you from achieving true wellness. Call the office or schedule an appointment online for more information.

Functional Medicine Doctor in California

We take a personalized and integrative approach to your healthcare which involves understanding the prevention, management, and root causes of complex chronic disease. Our ultimate goal is to heal disease and promote a healthy life. A healthy life is not defined as simply an absence of disease, but rather a positive vitality filled with energy, joy, gratitude, and balance.

Functional Medicine Q & A

What is Functional Medicine?

Functional Medicine is a practical approach to health care that conceptualizes wellness and illness as part of a continuum in which all elements of the human biological system communicate dynamically with the environment, producing patterns and outcomes that change over time. Functional Medicine helps in the identification and elimination of dysfunctions in the physiology and biochemistry of the human body as a primary method of improving patient health.The declining body function in the body’s system leads to chronic diseases. Rebuilding health entails reversing the dysfunctions that have contributed to the disorder. Each patient describes a unique, complex, and mixed set of environmental and lifestyle impacts on intrinsic functionality (their genetic vulnerabilities) that have set the stage for the addition of disease or the maintenance of health.
To manage the complexity inherent in this approach, IFM has created practical models for obtaining and evaluating clinical information that leads to individualized, patient-centered therapies. The concepts, practices, and tools of the functional medicine industry have evolved considerably over thirty years. The emerging sciences of genomics, proteomics, and metabolomics show the effects of environmental degradation (air, water, soil) on health.

Footprints of Functional Medicine are formed by seven core principles

Recognizing the biochemical distinction of each human being, based on the hereditary and environmental uniqueness.
Including a patient-centric approach rather than a disease-centric.
Investigating a dynamic balance among the various internal and external factors in the body, mind, and spirit of the patient.
Directing the web-like interconnections of inherent physiological factors.
Distinguishing health as a positive vitality—not just the lack of disease—and maintaining those factors that encourage vigorous physiology.
Elevating organ reserve as a mechanism of enhancing the health span of each patient.
Functional Medicine is a science-using profession

To support clinicians in understanding the application of Functional Medicine, IFM has designed an extremely innovative way of interpreting the patient’s signs, symptoms, and common pathways of disease. Adapting, planning, and integrating into the Functional Medicine Matrix the seven biological systems in which core clinical imbalances are found forms an intellectual bridge connecting the rich science literature concerning physiological mechanisms of disease (first two years of medical training) and the clinical studies, experience, and diagnoses of the next two years of medical training. These core clinical irregularities serve to unite the mechanisms of disease with the exhibitions and diagnosis of disease.

Assimilation: digestion, absorption, microbiota/GI, respiration
Defense and repair: immune, inflammation, infection/microbiota
Energy: energy regulation, mitochondrial function
Biotransformation and elimination: toxicity, detoxification
Transport: cardiovascular and lymphatic systems
Communication: endocrine, neurotransmitters, immune messengers
Structural integrity: subcellular membranes to musculoskeletal integrity

With this approach, it is possible to see multiple causes for one disease, just as one significant inequality may be at the root of many seemingly different conditions.

What our Patients are saying

Dr. Hamilton always listens to my concerns and takes very good care of me. I recommend her to all my friends.

– Charlene B.

After informing the reception of having an appointment with Dr. Hamilton & waiting for over half an hour, I only come to learn that I will be seen by a different doctor.

– Tala D.

Dr. Bloom was great! He listened to my issues and took care of them quickly and was very informative.

– Jennifer N.

What is actually Functional medicine?

Functional Medicine treats the whole person by addressing the underlying causes of disease. Functional Medicine is an evidence-based, systems-based approach to patient care. By focusing on the root causes of chronic illness and sustainable lifestyle change, Functional Medicine expands the diagnostic and treatment options of providers

What does the doctor do in functional medicine?

Functional medicine providers spend a lot of time listening to you and gathering your medical history. Then the information is used to identify the root causes of the illness, including poor nutrition , stress, genetics, toxins, allergens and your microbiome.

What is the cost for functional medicine?

Functional medicine is typically not covered by insurance which results in making it expensive. This is why patients usually find it difficult to opt for functional medicine and the main reason typically to wait so long to seek out an integrative approach.