Within the past five years, many nutritionally and holistically minded chiropractors have embraced "functional nutrition" treatment concepts in dealing with the management of many commonly encountered chronic illnesses, including fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome and rheumatoid arthritis.

The functional nutrition approach to the treatment of chronic disease is one that is based not on one pill, drug or modality as the "magic bullet" or "cure all." Unlike conventional medicine, functional medicine emphasizes the uniqueness of each patient. To paraphrase a famous literary quote, proponents of functional nutrition believe that each patient's bodily systems march to the beat of a different drummer. Thus, effective treatment should be custom-tailored specifically to meet each patient's unique needs.

The body is best examined and treated as an integrated whole, not simply an isolated set of parts. For accurate diagnosis and effective treatment, a clinician must consider ALL the possible long-reaching effects of various therapies/treatments on the entire body. Moreover, by assisting the body's natural mechanisms of healing, the physician works with the dynamic process of homeostasis, rather than against it. Simply put, the object of functional nutrition is to prescribe the right vitamin, mineral or herbal combinations which best fit you and your condition. This is not a "pill for your ill" approach, but holistically centered.

The functional nutrition philosophy and approach was initially developed for clinical use in chronic fatigue patients with excellent results, and because of the commonality observed in many chronic conditions, it has been used over the years in many other disorders with great success.