The first of its kind Indian Association of Functional Medicine organized a virtual conference today to promote and spread awareness on the Functional Medicines in India. The Indian Association of Functional Medicine in India, an independent body launched its first conference with the objective of promoting the usage of Functional medicines in our day to day lives and reduce the dependency of other medicines that act on the symptom and subside the overall problem in a person’s body than acting on the actual underlying problem that needs to be fixed.

Founded by Dr Priti Nanda Sibal, CEO & Founder, Mediskool Health Services, Dr Anish Musa, Founder, Ultrawellness, Dr Ashwini Garg, Co- Founder, Functional Medicine Clinic & Dr Ruhi Agarwal, Co-Founder, Functional Medicine Clinic are the pillars for Indian Association of Functional Medicine in India

The conference showcased leading doctors & spokesperson across the functional medicinal fraternity that spoke about Gut Disorders and autoimmunity, Hashimoto Thyroiditis, Ozone Therapy, Metabolic Health, Lifestyle choices, Mental Health and Hypothyroidism that gave the audience of over 400 people a deep insight into the world and functionalities of  Functional Medicines.

The first session of the day talked about Gut Disorder and how functional medicines can directly help with the autoimmune diseases. The panel discussion had prominent speakers like Mr Mahesh Jayaraman, Founder, Sepalika; Mr Suyash Bhandari, Head of Suppliments Vertical, iTHRIVE.  The discussion revolved around autoimmune diseases and the solutions to heal autoimmune diseases through functional medicines.

Mrs Mili Shah, Expert on Ozone Therapy, “Hidden Chronic disease are the major reason behind rising autoimmune disease. In functional medicine we do thorough assessments to get to the root cause. Detailed investigation in complex clinical presentation most of the time reveals chronic infections at the root of the disease. In Functional medicine, we use different tools to tackle the disease. Ozone therapy is one such tool which has varied functions such as detoxification/ Antiviral / antibacterial / Antifungal etc. ”

The first session was followed by an indepth discussion on lifelong problems that could be reversed, lifeline diagnostics and metabolic syndrome. The panel showcased some renowned and leading names in the world of functional Medicine like Dr Alok Chopra, Founder, Daivam Wellness, Dr Paramesh S, Medical Director at Twin Health & Dr Neelesh Kapoor, Founding member & Head of Medical affairs, Ekacare.

Dr Lenny Da Cost, Director & Chief Consultant at Rafael Medicare said, “One of the reason for increase in the Cardiac issues is because of the toxin load impacting the mitochondria health. Either number of mitochondria or the function of mitochondria gets compromised leading to manifestation of the disease. Poor Mitochondria is associated with most of the chronic health diseases that our society is going through. Detoxification is the way forward to improving mitochondria health thereby reversing chronic illness.”

The final session of the day spoke about interesting facts and figures about Depression, Anxiety, Autism and ADHD. The final panel accompanied by Dr Thomas Lodhi, Founder, An Oasis of Healing, Mr Janardhan Reddy, Healer, Therapist & Life coach; Mr Marcin Maciag, Founder & CEO Lifeline Diagnostics and Deepa Khana, Founder, Pythothrive sat together and spoke about Mental Health and the growing cases of mental health, the importance and triggers to understand mental health of individuals. The discussion highlighted the impact of mental health on an individual’s physical health.

Dr Ashwini Garg, Co-founder, Functional Medicine Clinic said, “For Conventional medicine, Type 2 diabetes is still a mystery and still the efforts are to somehow manage the disease. Offcoursethe patients end up with loads of side effects of disease plus medication. Without knowing what is causing the high blood sugars, it will not be easy to reverse the disease. High blood sugar in Type 2 DM can be because of various reasons i.e. insulin resistance, chronic infection etc.

Functional medicine is a new age medicine which equips clinician to evaluate what could be the possible reasons for high blood sugars and prepare personalized treatment plans” added Dr Ashwini Garg, Co-founder, Functional Medicine Clinic

Mr Piyush Kumar Vishwakarma, Co-Founder, Jeevam Health on the launch of the first conference by IAFM said “Unfortunately, many people think that once we are diagnosed with Thyroid issue, we will have medication for lifetime. We will not be able to loose weight. This is not the reality.

In Jeevam health, we are seeing many cases where autoimmunity is getting better, symptoms are subsiding, thyroid medication doses are also reducing. It’s very much possible if we identify the underlying cause. The traditional symptomatic approach will always lead to varied symptoms. People are taking medication & still having persistent symptoms”

The Indian Institute of Functional Medicine plans to further expand operations in India. Promote and further intensify functional medicines in India by spreading more and more awareness.