This optional evening lecture is designed to familiarise participants with the underlying concepts and principles of functional medicine. The focus will be on patient-centred diagnosis and assessment of antecedents, triggers, and mediators, as well as how they are woven into a workup using the Functional Medicine Matrix Model.

Gastrointestinal dysfunction is a core component of a variety of chronic disease processes. Comprehending the connections and interactions that take place in and around the gastrointestinal tract is of central importance to understanding gastrointestinal dysfunction, which is an essential part of any integrative approach to your patient’s health. Equally important is developing practical skills to assess and treat these dysfunctions. Dr. Hanaway will first review and clarify these relationships as he pulls on various threads of the Functional Medicine Matrix to show us the key antecedents, triggers, and mediators that will frame the core of the seminar. He will then introduce the central skills and rules of thumb that will be highlighted throughout the course.

Dr. Lipski will demonstrate how to incorporate food as medicine not only into our practice with patients, but into our own personal lives as well. Join her for a short demonstration of nutritious, delicious, and simple techniques in food preparation and cooking that help to bring balance to the gastrointestinal tract.

Each faculty member will take 30 minutes to present a case and demonstrate how to practically use the matrix as they work through the case. The object is to provide a tour through the thought processes of these three experienced functional medicine practitioners. What kind of questions would you ask? What kinds of tests would you order? How would you begin to approach the case therapeutically? Why would you follow this course of action? These clinical cases on constipation, IBS/GERD and autoimmune disease will form a framework for how to dissect and analyse clinical cases as we proceed through the weekend.

What are the critical factors for proper digestion and absorption? What goes wrong in maldigestion vs. malabsorption? What tools are available to evaluate digestive dysfunction and insufficiencies? What is the prevalence of food allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances in the general population? What are the underlying mechanisms? How do we discriminate these food reactions? What are the best laboratory and empirical ways to accurately assess these? In this lecture, Dr. Mullin and Dr. Lipski will catalogue and clarify the underlying causes of digestive impairments and techniques for accurately assessing them. They will focus on clarifying food allergies, sensitivities, and intolerances and the practical aspects of diagnosing these conditions.

The Elimination/ Challenge Diet is an important diagnostic and therapeutic tool in the functional medicine tool box. Drs. Hanaway and Lipski will begin describing this process and then move more deeply into the treatment of digestive dysfunction. How do you know when to utilise pancreatic enzymes, bile salts, or hydrochloric acid in treatment? What are the best foods, botanicals, and nutraceuticals that can be used to stimulate bile, increase mucous secretion, and soothe an irritated or inflamed gastrointestinal tract? How do you differentiate between enzyme products, sialagogues, cholagogues, and choleretics? Dr. Hanaway and Dr. Lipski will delve into the treatment strategies involved in replacing, replenishing, and potentially restoring impaired digestive secretions.

Dysbiosis results when there is an imbalance between the protective natural flora of the gut and pathogenic and pathobiontic microbiota. There are myriad consequences of dysbiosis that are beginning to be validated in the medical literature. Dr. Mullin will describe how to recognise the signs and symptoms of dysbiosis, and how to evaluate dysbiosis using conventional and special laboratory testing. They will also focus on how to evaluate patients for suspected bacterial, fungal, and parasitic infections, which are a common underlying cause of dysbiosis. They will review laboratory reports including stool analysis, organic acids, and small bowel bacterial overgrowth.

Dr. Lipski and Dr. Hanaway will demonstrate how to incorporate food as medicine not only into our practice with patients, but into our own personal lives as well. Join them for a short demonstration of nutritious, delicious, and simple techniques in food preparation and cooking that help to bring balance to the gastrointestinal tract.

A common misconception is that treating a bacterial, fungal, or protozoal infection alone will result in a complete cure of gastrointestinal dysbiosis. Often, a multifactorial response including lifestyle, dietary, and nutritional modifications, along with botanical/ pharmaceutical interventions, are necessary for long-term remediation. Dr. Hanaway will discuss an array of dietary, nutraceutical, botanical, and pharmaceutical treatments for these conditions.

Inflammation and free radical damage are hallmarks of a variety of gastrointestinal problems. Assessing for these gastrointestinal mediators can be an important and critical step in modifying gastrointestinal dysfunctions of all sorts. Dr. Hanaway will describe evaluation tools that can help reveal and track inflammation and oxidative stress in the gastrointestinal tract.

Inflammation and free radical damage are hallmarks of a variety of gastrointestinal problems. Assessing for these gastrointestinal mediators can be an important and critical step in modifying gastrointestinal dysfunctions of all sorts. Dr. Hanaway will describe evaluation tools that can help reveal and track inflammation and oxidative stress in the gastrointestinal tract.

Understanding how to adequately address the various mediators of inflammation and free radical damage is a key strategy in treating gastrointestinal problems. Dr. Mullin will describe important dietary, nutraceutical, and botanical treatment options to help “cool” inflammatory and oxidative stress mediators.

Dr. Lipski will begin the day with a discussion on the work up, treatment and management of autoimmune diseases from a functional medicine perspective.

Dr. Mullin will build on earlier presentations to discuss the pathophysiologic mechanisms associated with gastrointestinal reflux. He will discuss in detail the conflicting data on various ways to assess and treat this common problem.

Dr Hanaway will finish off the morning with a discussion and case study presentation revolving around the many underlying etiologies of IBS. Included in that discussion will be the advantages and disadvantages of testing options, and then the specific interventions to consider.

The focus of this Advanced Practice Module is to prepare the participant to accurately and confidently evaluate and treat a variety of conditions that are likely intimately connected to impaired gastrointestinal dysfunction. Dr. Hanaway will close the on-site portion of the module with a reminder of the ‘take-home’ messages and clinical applications that you should be comfortable using come Monday morning.