Functional medicine is a care model that offers an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach to manage chronic diseases and promote optimal wellness. It focuses on addressing the root cause of the disease, rather than an isolated set of symptoms. It is believed that body function can be restored by clearing up disease processes. Functional medicine incorporates the latest in genetic science, systems biology, and understanding of how environmental and lifestyle factors influence the emergence and progression of disease. Functional Medicine is said to support the unique expression of health and vitality for each individual. It looks at a patient’s lifetime of influences such as toxin exposures, emotional traumas, medication use, historical nutrition status. The 6 Core Principles of Functional Medicine are: Enhance the Health Span (Promotion of organ reserve); Patient Centered Approach (evidence that supports a patient-centered rather than a disease-centered approach to treatment); Dynamic Balance (internal and external body, mind, and spirit); Positive Vitality (emphasizing factors that encourage the enhancement of a vigorous physiology); Biochemical Individuality (understanding of the biochemical individuality of each individual based on the concepts of genetic and environmental uniqueness); Interconnections (of internal physiological factors). Functional medicine approaches health from a holistic perspective in that it considers mind, body, and spirit, and is cost-effective long term.