12/24/2013    Marc Katz, DPM

RE: Functional Medicine (Ron Raducanu, DPM)

It is my experience that many doctors live in a
box and they are either scared to get out of the
box or they just don't know how.

One box is EBM. Everything we do each in real
practice does not revolve around EBM. Let's be
real. EBM is about as flawed as the USPS. Does it
have its place? Absolutely. Do I rely on it?
Sometimes. But there is much more to treating a
patient than what we learned in school and
studies.

Another box is treating patients for disease and
illness only after they have become sick. That
paradigm is changing rapidly. In case you haven't
noticed some of the most respected medical schools
are keeping up with the times. Duke has an
integrative medicine program, UNC, U. Kansas,
Georgetown and the list grows. MD Anderson has a
program also, are they crazy? Are they misguided?
They are practicing integrative medicine. That is
the opened-mind approach to combining traditional
medicine, alternative medicine and functional
medicine.

Don't just read an article and think you have the
answer. Go get an education. Then you will have
your answers and studies.

So Functional Medicine is very complex. Before
making any comments about it, do what I did. Sign
up for a program. I completed Functional Medicine
University online. It is a very difficult time-
consuming program because you really have to
understand the WHOLE body in great detail, every
chemical pathway, every organ system etc. Each
system has a complex relationship to other systems
and that relates to foot and ankle pathology.
Pathology of the foot is far from just
biomechanics.

This has nothing to do with where you practice or
the types of patients you attract. It has to do
with the future of medicine that is being embraced
by all specialties but not so much by podiatrists.

On one hand we want to be like all other doctors
but then we don't embrace the future of medicine.
We prefer running after the quick fix money
makers, abusing them and then having them taken
away. We prefer pills. We prefer to hear the same
lecture over and over on the newest advanced in
gout! There are no new advances! It's the same
story as my first lecture in podiatry school.
There are some new medications to treat a patient
after they become sick but did anyone care to
figure why people keep getting gout? Well
functional medicine did care to figure it out. And
the hard part is that it may be different for each
patient, so you must become educated.

I prefer to become more educated and move with the
times. How about you? Smash your box!

Marc Katz, DPM, Tampa, FL, dr_mkatz@yahoo.com

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