Frameworks
Most of my patients have heard me talk about two key frameworks that I use to guide my decision making: Functional Medicine and the Centenarian Decathlon.
First let’s start with my definitions of the two terms:
1) Healthspan: This term, in comparison to Lifespan, describes the length of your health rather than the length of your life. This concept plays into the Centenarian Decathlon outlined below. I want to help you add years to your life, but more importantly I want those years to be healthy and vital!
2) Functional Medicine: Your body is supposed to work correctly (ie: health). If it is not working correctly, (ie: illness) rather than trying to match that dysfunction with a medication, I want to explore the “root cause.”
An example of this distinction is hypertension. Most adults in the developed world have hypertension before they reach age 50. In most medical practices this is accepted as “idiopathic” or without a cause. At Valle Health, I attempt to uncover the “root cause” - diet? sleep? stress? This is important, because hypertension isn’t a disease in isolation, rather it is also a symptom of other dysfunction - the root cause of which is causing wider problems (ie: metabolic syndrome). If a medication makes the blood pressure reading lower, it doesn’t fix the other problems.
3) Centenarian Decathlon: What do you want to be able to do in your 80’s/90’s/100’s? Once we have those goals in mind, let’s talk about how to get there!
If you want to be able to live independently, travel, participate in the lives of your great grandkids I want to help you get there. This involves establishing an understanding of where your risks lie (ie: cardiovascular disease, stroke, cancer, frailty) alongside predictable physical declines in older age. A stroke in your 60’s could permanently impair your ability to function independently. At the same time, if you are not able to safely lift 30 lbs from the floor in your 60’s, without intervention your strength will be markedly diminished by your 80’s.
There are many caveats to those frameworks, and I’ll list a few in an effort to avoid misunderstandings:
Pharmacology (medications) is a valuable tool for treating almost every form of disease. I’m an allopathic-trained (MD) physician, and most of my training taught me how to treat disease with medications. Most of my patients take traditional pharmaceuticals (medications). They are rigorously tested and have reliable compositions, results and side effects. Unfortunately, the process of bringing pharmaceuticals to market is a result “medical reductionism” - focusing on a single facet of a disease (ie: lower blood pressure) rather than a holistic approach as a first-line option. Thus, I rarely look at a medication as “the answer” rather than as a second-line tool to help patients achieve their goals.
Functional medicine has a wide scope of practices and is not well-defined. There are multiple credentialing bodies who provide various certifications. I am taking classes toward certification with the Institute of Functional Medicine. In my investigation this is the most reputable of the different organizations. That being said, there are plenty of things I see differently.
Centenarian decathlon: This is pulled directly from Peter Attia. I believe he has the most impressive approach to the concept of longevity. I have never been a fanboy of anybody before, but I’m pretty close to it with Attia.
These frameworks form the foundation of Medicine 3.0. In brief, “Medicine 1.0” was essentially superstition. “Medicine 2.0” describes the what we traditionally view as medicine. Starting with the the scientific method and the gradual improvements that have come with it, medical care mage huge gains - with the biggest jumps associated with sanitation, vaccines and antibiotics. It was very effective at addressing those initial, glaring problems. Unfortunately over the last 40+ years we’ve made minimal gains in lifespan, and
At the end of the day my priority at Valle Health is your health. I have and continue to gather as much wisdom and knowledge and experience as possible, to have as many tools in my tool bag as I can fit, to help you achieve your goals, live better days and have a longer life.
