Medicine:Functional medicine
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Functional medicine (FM) is a form of alternative medicine that encompasses many unproven and disproven methods and treatments.[1][2][3] At its essence, it is a rebranding of complementary and alternative medicine (CAM),[4] and as such is pseudoscientific,[5] and has been described as a form of quackery.[6][7][8][9][4]
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.[10][11]
Functional medicine was created by Jeffrey Bland,[12] who founded The Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), which is based in the U.S. state of Washington, in the early 1990s as part of one of his companies, HealthComm.[13] IFM, which promotes functional medicine, became a registered non-profit in 2001.[14] Mark Hyman became an IFM board member and prominent promoter.[12][14]
Description
David Gorski has written that FM is not well-defined and performs "expensive and generally unnecessary tests".[15] Gorski says FM's vagueness is a deliberate tactic that makes functional medicine difficult to challenge.[16]
In an analysis for the McGill Office for Science and Society, Jonathan Jarry writes "Test enough people and you get a lot of false positives, which generate anxiety, more invasive tests, and sometimes unnecessary treatments."[17]
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.[18]
Treatments, practices, and concepts are generally not supported by medical evidence.[1] Patients of functional medicine practitioners may also be told to undertake unnecessary diets that can limit food choices.[17] Jonathan Stea writes that functional medicine, integrative medicine, and CAM "are marketing terms designed to confuse patients, promote pseudoscience, and sow distrust in mainstream medicine."[19]
Reception
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.[20][21] 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.[10] Many scientists state that such detox supplements are a waste of time and money.[22] Detox has been also called "mass delusion".[23]
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".[10] In 2018, it partly lifted the ban, but only to allow overview classes, not to teach its practice.[11]
The opening of centers for functional medicine at the Cleveland Clinic and George Washington University was described by David Gorski as an "unfortunate" example of quackery infiltrating academic medical centers.[4]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sampson, Wallace (October 30, 2008). "Functional Medicine – New Kid on the Block". Science-Based Medicine. http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/?p=271.
- ↑ Sampson, Wallace (July 9, 2009). "Functional Medicine (FM) What Is It?". Science Based Medicine. http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/fuctional-medicine-fm-what-is-it/.
- ↑ Pal, SK (March 2002). "Complementary and alternative medicine: An overview". Current Science 82 (5): 518–24.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 Gorski, David (September 29, 2014). "Quackademia update: The Cleveland Clinic, George Washington University, and the continued infiltration of quackery into medical academia". http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/quackademia-update-2014/.
- ↑ Hall, Harriet (2017). "Functional Medicine: Pseudoscientific Silliness". Skeptic 22 (1): 4–5. https://www.skeptic.com/reading_room/why-functional-medicine-is-bogus/.
- ↑ Li, Ben; Forbes, Thomas L.; Byrne, John (October 2018). "Integrative medicine or infiltrative pseudoscience?". The Surgeon: Journal of the Royal Colleges of Surgeons of Edinburgh and Ireland 16 (5): 271–277. doi:10.1016/j.surge.2017.12.002. ISSN 1479-666X. PMID 29305045.
- ↑ Trethewey, Samuel P.; Reynolds, Ella K. M.; Trethewey, Christopher S. (2025-05-07). "Distinguishing 'lifestyle medicine' from pseudoscience" (in en). BJGP. https://bjgp.org/content/distinguishing-%E2%80%98lifestyle-medicine%E2%80%99-pseudoscience.
- ↑ Ernst, Edzard (2011-06-01). "Fatalities after CAM: an overview" (in en). British Journal of General Practice 61 (587): 404–405. doi:10.3399/bjgp11X578070. ISSN 0960-1643. PMID 21801529. PMC 3103684. https://bjgp.org/content/61/587/404.
- ↑ Orac (2016-04-18). "Making it up as you go along: So-called "functional medicine" is pure quackery" (in en-US). https://www.respectfulinsolence.com/2016/04/18/the-quackery-of-so-called-functional-medicine-making-it-up-as-you-go-along/.
- ↑ 10.0 10.1 10.2 Bellamy J (26 October 2017). "AAFP: Functional Medicine lacks supporting evidence; includes 'harmful' and 'dangerous' treatments". Science-Based Medicine. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/aafp-functional-medicine-lacks-supporting-evidence-includes-harmful-and-dangerous-treatments/.
- ↑ 11.0 11.1 Bellamy J (27 October 2018). "AAFP should publish research behind finding that functional medicine lacks evidence, contains harmful and dangerous practices". Science-Based-Medicine. https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/aafp-confirms-finding-that-functional-medicine-lacks-evidence-and-may-be-dangerous-we-need-to-know-why//.
- ↑ 12.0 12.1 "Functional medicine: Is it the future of healthcare or just another wellness trend?" (in en). 23 October 2018. https://www.independent.ie/life/health-wellbeing/functional-medicine-is-it-the-future-of-healthcare-or-just-another-wellness-trend-37437566.html.
- ↑ Barrett, Stephen (11 September 2013). "Some Notes on Jeffrey Bland and Metagenics". https://quackwatch.org/consumer-education/bland/.
- ↑ 14.0 14.1 "Institute for Functional Medicine 2001 tax forms" (in en). 9 May 2013. https://projects.propublica.org/nonprofits/display_990/912107518/2002_12_EO%2F91-2107518_990_200112.
- ↑ "Chapter 14: 'Integrative' Medicine: Integrating Quackery with Science-Based Medicine". Pseudoscience: The Conspiracy Against Science. MIT Press. 2018. pp. 309–330. doi:10.7551/mitpress/9780262037426.003.0014. ISBN 978-0-262-03742-6.
- ↑ Gorski, David (11 April 2016). "Functional medicine: The ultimate misnomer in the world of integrative medicine". https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/functional-medicine-the-ultimate-misnomer-in-the-world-of-integrative-medicine/.
- ↑ 17.0 17.1 Jarry, Jonathan (12 Jun 2025). "Functional Medicine Is a Pipeline to Alt Med" (in en). Office for Science and Society. https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/medical-critical-thinking-pseudoscience/functional-medicine-pipeline-alt-med.
- ↑ Knott L (6 February 2015). "Therapies and Theories Outside Traditional Medicine". Patient. http://patient.info/doctor/therapies-and-theories-outside-traditional-medicine. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ↑ Stea, Jonathan N. (2024). Mind the science: saving your mental health from the wellness industry. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p. 83. ISBN 978-0197748817. https://academic.oup.com/book/58044.
- ↑ Gorski, David (December 17, 2018). "Functional medicine: Reams of useless tests in one hand, a huge invoice in the other". https://sciencebasedmedicine.org/functional-medicine-reams-of-useless-tests-in-one-hand-a-huge-invoice-in-the-other/.
- ↑ "Adrenal Fatigue | Hormone Health Network". https://www.hormone.org/diseases-and-conditions/adrenal-fatigue.
- ↑ "Scientists dismiss detox schemes". 3 January 2006. https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/4576574.stm.
- ↑ Dixon, Bernard (2005). ""Detox", a mass delusion". The Lancet Infectious Diseases (Elsevier BV) 5 (5): 261. doi:10.1016/s1473-3099(05)70094-3. ISSN 1473-3099. PMID 15854880.
Further reading
- Gorski, David (14 April 2014). "Bill and Hillary Clinton go woo with Dr. Mark Hyman and 'functional medicine'". Science-Based Medicine. http://www.sciencebasedmedicine.org/bill-and-hillary-clinton-go-woo-with-mark-hyman-and-functional-medicine/.
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