Malibu Functional Medicine (MFM) is a telemedicine practice that offers convenient, accessible medical care in the state of California. You set the pace for your personalized plan: one visit a year or several. For individuals struggling with chronic disease, the objective is better quality of life using fewer conventional pharmaceuticals. For those prioritizing wellness, the goal is detection of asymptomatic problems thus decreasing the likelihood that disease will occur. And if you have a loved one with a chronic illness, Dr. Johnson has both personal experience and professional training in the Family Systems Approach to help support you.

Functional medicine is an approach towards health and wellness that was founded in 1990 by Dr. Jeffrey Bland, a US biochemist and researcher. His goal was to reshape conventional (Western) medicine to prevent and manage disease in a more holistic way. The word ‘functional’ relates to performance or whether something is working properly. Functional medicine philosophically draws from ancient traditions, such as traditional Chinese medicine and Ayurveda medicine, that emphasize the principal of balance, i.e., that most people are born ‘in balance' and disease occurs when body systems are no longer in equilibrium. As such, functional practitioners are trained to look for what is causing these shifts, what is also known as epigenetics.

Most people are familiar with the concept of genetics, DNA sequences that we inherit. Epigenetics is the study of how the environment and lifestyle can change the way that genes work. Unlike genetic alterations, epigenetic changes do not modify the DNA sequence—they vary how your body expresses it. An example of this is type 2 diabetes. Individuals are not born with this condition, nor do they wake up one day and suddenly ‘have’ diabetes. Instead, something has changed so that the body can no longer process insulin effectively. Functional medicine practitioners look for ways to restore this balance.

Integrative medicine is an approach that combines conventional Western therapies with a wide range of therapies that have not been considered standard, including acupuncture, chiropractic, massage therapy, traditional Chinese medicine, naturopathy and homeopathy. Functional medicine is a type of integrative medicine.

The fundamental difference is the time allotted to lifestyle, especially nutrition. Food and food choices are considered first-line therapy. Dr. Johnson is familiar with and employs the use of supplements, and naturopathic alternatives as well as conventional pharmaceutics. Also, patients often benefit from a team-based approach and Dr. Johnson is happy to work in conjunction with your primary care provider and other specialists.