What Would I Ask My Functional Medicine Doctor If I Had Cancer?

If I were to get cancer now and need conventional oncology treatments, I would not have local access to an integrative oncologist. So what I would do is let the very competent local oncology center take care of the conventional side of treatment and pull in others to be part of my team. I am very fortunate to have a functional medicine-trained primary care doctor. Over my twenty-plus years with her, she has helped get to the root of some complex medical problems and helped me resolve or at least control them. This has led to me having an extraordinary level of health and quality of life.  

Should I ever have cancer, I would ask her to help me figure out if I had imbalances that could drive cancer processes and see how we bring them back into balance. In functional medicine, they call these the “core clinical imbalances.” These core imbalances are very similar to what Dr. Keith Block and other integrative oncology practitioners call terrain imbalances, such as immunity, inflammation, hormones, and others. I know she would want to look at “antecedents”—that is, triggering events and mediators which may have played a role in causing, triggering, or perpetuating my imbalances. Was I exposed to toxics in my environment growing up? Have I had significant stressors at vulnerable times? She would want to know my whole story—physical, mental, spiritual—not just about pieces and parts of my body. 

She once told me that for her patients with cancer who wish to include complementary therapies in their treatment, she suggests they buy The Moss Report › for their specific cancer. I appreciate her familiarity with this evidence-based resource and know we’re on the same wavelength. 

Once I would complete conventional treatments, I’d ask my functional medicine doctor to help me regain balance as I recover from treatment. Finally, we would work for long-term health and remission maintenance, knowing that restoring balance in my body functions will likely prevent or at least stave off recurrence. Her functional medicine approach would fit right in with my idea of wholistic integrative care: “Using the most natural means possible, including, but not limited to, diet (using a functional nutrition approach), nutritional supplements, botanicals, lifestyle changes, and if necessary, in specific cases, the limited use of pharmaceutical medications. In functional medicine, the whole person is addressed, not just a collection of symptoms.”¹Cantor-Adkins Functional Medicine. What is functional medicine?. Viewed March 15, 2022.

This functional medicine approach is something I could live with and it would give me something to live for.

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