Functional Medicine Doctor

amother

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 7:55 pm

Hi. I’m seeking a Functional Medicine Doctor for my child with behavioral issues. I’m in the NYC area. Do you have any recommendations??

Also can you help me understand the different approaches of a Neuropsychologist vs a functional medicine doctor, for a child who has behavioral issues, is socially inappropriate, and is very sensory.
Thank you

amother

Royalblue

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 8:06 pm

https://www.aimintegrativemedicine.com/

https://www.bockintegrative.com/

a neuropsychologist will probably run some neuropsych testing, may give you a diagnosis that will describe the symptoms you are seeing, and will probably recommend either medication or types of therapy to address the diagnoses or both.

a functional medical dr will run medical testing (blood, stool, urine, etc) to look for biological root causes for the symptoms, and address them medically (medication, supplements, diet etc)

amother

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 8:16 pm

Wow that was a very clear description. What about a developmental pediatrician, what are they looking at? I’m feeling overwhelmed right now and not sure which direction to take.

amother

Royalblue

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 8:19 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Wow that was a very clear description. What about a developmental pediatrician, what are they looking at? I’m feeling overwhelmed right now and not sure which direction to take.

Developmental pediatrician will be similar to a neuropsychologist, they look at behavioral issues from a purely developmental perspective, not biological.

Most people benefit from both. Because you need to approach from all angles. But if you have to choose one, personally, I think it makes sense to sort out biological-medical issues first, because therapies tend to stick much better once the brain is on the path to healing.

amother

White

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 8:20 pm

A friend who's a FM practitioner told me this a while ago.

"The A4M website has a directory of physicians doing functional medicine with links to their websites."

amother

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 9:02 pm

Whoever is recommending did you have personal experience with behavioral issues?
These doctors cost a fortune!!

amother

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 9:04 pm

Does a functional medicine doctor help with recommendations for different types of therapy or they do just offer meds and supplements?

Power1Mom

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 9:06 pm

I haven't. Have you ever checked with Dr. Schulman in Brooklyn for possible PANDAS?
I had a child with many behavioral issues. PA Beren in Lakewood(from Dr. Eilenberg's practice) suggested I take my son for allergy testing. He ended up being allergic to MANY environmental things.
After getting him on the right allergy meds, which took some time, we saw a huge improvement.

amother

Royalblue

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 9:36 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Does a functional medicine doctor help with recommendations for different types of therapy or they do just offer meds and supplements?

Sometimes they do recommend certain therapies as part of their healing protocols but it's not really within their scope. They are treating the medical end of things and therapies don't address underlying medical issues.

amother

Royalblue

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 9:39 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

He’s been like this ever since l, so I highly doubt it’s pandas...

Pandas can have a very very early onset so it seems like the kid was always like this. Also, whether it fits the strict diagnostic criteria for pandas or not, most kids with behavioral and developmental challenges have chronic infections as a piece of their puzzle, and treating those infections and the ensuing neuroinflammation is part of the healing process. Infections are a big piece of what functional medical doctors look at.

amother

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 11:54 pm

So would a functional medicine doctor test for pandas as part of their protocol, or do I need to do that separately?
Thank you so much for responding it’s super helpful!!!

amother

Thu, Feb 20 2020, 11:56 pm

Why do most people just head to the psychologist & neurologist? I’ve had yet to hear of anyone that went to a FMD, Yet know of many that took the other route.

Power1Mom

Fri, Feb 21 2020, 12:06 am

Functional medicine seems like a good idea, but the PANDAS thing is real. It may be worth emailing Dr. Schulman, and doing the bloodwork to check.
Also, the allergy thing.
If I remember correctly, functional medicine would be having doctors working from all sides of medicine? That sounds amazing! Would they take your insurance? Would scannnings and bloodwork be covered?
If a good allergist, and Dr. Schulman would take your insurance, it may be worth a shot.

ectomorph

Fri, Feb 21 2020, 7:31 am

Functional medicine is most helpful when there are unexplained physical symptoms, like diarrhea or frequent infections or uncontrollable weight gain or loss. It is less helpful when the issues are truly behavioral, or simply due to differences in brain structure.

amother

Royalblue

Fri, Feb 21 2020, 8:56 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

So would a functional medicine doctor test for pandas as part of their protocol, or do I need to do that separately?
Thank you so much for responding it’s super helpful!!!

The ones I linked in the my first post definitely would. I can't speak for every single one, but I would think that most that work with the pediatric population are going to look for infections as part of their workup.

amother

Royalblue

Fri, Feb 21 2020, 9:00 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Why do most people just head to the psychologist & neurologist? I’ve had yet to hear of anyone that went to a FMD, Yet know of many that took the other route.

We have been programmed to think that behavioral issues are either emotional, or when they're not, they're "just" neurological, and localized to the brain. The truth is that the body is one interconnected whole, and imbalances in the brain most often start elsewhere in the body, and can be fixed not just by artificially messing with neurotransmitters but by addressing root causes elsewhere in the body. Like I said, therapies (and even to a lesser extent, psychotropic medication) often have a place in a functional protocol, but they come secondary to root cause healing.

amother

Royalblue

Fri, Feb 21 2020, 9:03 am

ectomorph wrote:

What kinds of behavioral issues are due to differences in brain structure? How many neuropsychologists do you know that order brain scans when kids come in with symptoms of adhd/asd/odd etc etc? And how would you ever know if something was "truly behavioral" if no one bothered ruling out medical causes? And no, your pedi running a b12 and iron and thyroid panel is NOT considered ruling stuff out.