What is Functional Medicine?

We’re so glad you asked!

As The Maas Clinic’s founder and lead clinician Laurens Maas shares:

“Functional Medicine is the ability to appreciate that everyone is an individual on a biochemical level. Functional Medicine is a deep scientific dive into the person’s individual biochemistry and biophysics, to improve their biology."

Functional Medicine is 100% personalised to you.

Unlike conventional medicine, a functional approach is a deep dive into you as an individual.

There is no one-size-fits-all approach when it comes to Functional Medicine. We appreciate that you are unique, and as such your biochemistry is too.

Through a wide variety of tests and a close look at your lifestyle (more on that below) we develop an overview of your life as it stands now, including any issues you are having. This helps us to develop a personalised approach to your healing programme.

We use nutrition, supplements and lifestyle shifts to help you to achieve optimal vitality. Our approach is holistic, natural and unwaveringly thorough.

What is Integrated Medicine?

Working hand in hand with the functional aspect of our practice, is Integrated Medicine.

The integrated element is all about your lifestyle: nutrition, fitness, sleep and behaviour.

We are borderline forensic when it comes to unpicking the various aspects of your lifestyle and how it impacts your health. In fact, Laurens enjoys the investigative side of medicine so much that he often tells us he’d be a detective in another life!

Do Functional and Integrated Medicine go hand in hand?

Here at The Maas Clinic we believe it’s essential to work on both a functional and integrated level. Whilst we can test for toxins, enzyme defects, hormone deficiencies and more on a functional level, we need to understand the lifestyle you are leading too.

Functional & Integrated Medicine Vs Conventional medicine:
What’s the difference?

  • Functional and Integrated Medicine differs from conventional medicine in many ways.
  • We look at the root cause of your issue or ailment, not just the symptoms you are currently experiencing.
  • We are uncompromising in our search for the truth when it comes to your health.
  • On a chronological level, we have time to spend with you. Your initial consultation is at least 75 minutes.
  • Once you’re working with us, we will guide you the whole way through your treatment programme.
  • You will see Laurens every 2-3 months on average, and our in-house nutritionists will check in with you every week. We take excellent care of you at each and every stage.

We know that we give an amazing service, with amazing results.

“It’s about using every single natural tool possible, diagnostically and therapeutically, to try and usher and push your bio-chemistry to the optimal zone. A combination approach, we believe, works most effectively." Laurens Maas

What are some of the most common ailments treated by Functional and Integrated medicine? 

  • Adrenal burnout
  • Chronic gut issues
  • Insomnia
  • Brain fog
    Spoiler: they’re often all linked!

Are pharmaceuticals a part of Functional and Integrated Medicine? 

At The Maas Clinic we focus on as natural a treatment plan as possible. Any specific vitamins, minerals, herbs, natural plant-based supplements we recommend are the highest quality products available on the market and contain only the purest pharmaceutical grade nutrients. We source them from nutrition companies that only sell their products to physicians and the potency of each product is guaranteed.

Having said that, pharmaceuticals are a good tool to have in the tool box, and there are rare occasions when Laurens as a trained integrative medical doctor is able to identify pharmaceuticals which may be helpful for a client.

 We take the best of both worlds, and marry them together if necessary. 

What experience do you need to become an Integrated and Functional Health Practitioner? 

In order to become a Functional medicine practitioner, you need a diagnostic degree of some sort.  

You can train in traditional Chinese medicine which is diagnostic, or in osteopathy which is also diagnostic. You could also study chiropody or naturopathy.

Indeed, Laurens trained initially as an osteopath, going on to complete a homeopathy degree, a nutrition and herbology degree, and finally a six year doctorate in integrative medicine. He attributes the most recent chapter in his studies, the integrative medicine doctorate, to up-levelling his ambitions. 

As Laurens puts it, he’s now working at a clinical level akin to Formula 1. Did we mention that he is a Formula 1 super fan?!

What does the future look like?

Technology is being developed right now, to empower people with the knowledge they need to self manage their treatment from home or from work.

Our resident futurist Laurens believes that this technology will help patients to become their own doctors, of sorts.

Self-empowerment, and self-knowledge will lead to a change in roles.

Functional Medicine in 6 words, according to Laurens.

  • Logical
  • Practical
  • Deliverable
  • Provable
  • Liveable
  • Reliable

Sounds good, right?!

Interested in learning more about how it can help you?

We hope that this has been an informative introduction to Functional and Integrated Medicine.

As you may have guessed, we are passionate about unpicking our clients’ health concerns here at The Maas Clinic, and it is our number one focus to help them to achieve their optimal health.

If you are interested in coming to see us at our clinic here in Petersfield, you can contact us today, or call us on 01730 825 457. We would love to help you.

Still looking for more information? Take a look at these great resources!

The Institute of Functional Medicine

Clinical Education

Dr Mark Hyman