Cleveland Clinic announced it will launch a center that focuses on how lifestyle factors contribute to chronic disease.
The new Center for Functional Medicine, which the Cleveland Clinic said is the first of its kind at an academic medical center, will open Sept. 23 and will be led by Dr. Mark Hyman, a prominent wellness expert, best-selling author and founder of the UltraWellness Center in Lenox, Mass.
Functional medicine, according to a Clinic news release, is based on the evidence that lifestyle factors, such as nutrition, sleep, exercise, stress, relationships and genetics, contribute to disease. The new center's staff will work with Clinic specialists to study the impact functional medicine has on certain chronic diseases. Plans for the center include four clinical trials focusing on the treatment of asthma, inflammatory bowel disease, type 2 diabetes and migraines.
“Functional Medicine looks at the underlying causes of disease, while focusing on the whole person rather than an isolated set of symptoms,” Hyman said in the news release. “We look at a patient's history and the personalized interactions among genetic, environmental, and lifestyle factors that can influence long-term health and complex, chronic disease.”
The new center is a collaboration with The Institute for Functional Medicine, an organization also led by Hyman.
Hyman will be joined by Dr. Patrick Hanaway, who will serve as the center's medical director. Hanaway is the institute's chief medical education director, past president of the American Board of Integrative Holistic Medicine and co-founder of Family to Family: Your Home for Whole Family Health, a medical practice in Asheville, N.C.
In the release, Clinic CEO Dr. Toby Cosgrove said the new center is “not a departure for Cleveland Clinic, but a continuation of the innovative, holistic approach that we have embraced.” Cosgrove cited the Clinic's wellness institute, Center for Integrative Medicine, its Chinese herbal therapy clinic and the Center for Personalized Healthcare.
The Clinic said it will introduce the new center to the community at four upcoming events, which will include a showing of “Fed Up,” a documentary about the role the food industry played in the child obesity epidemic. The movie will be shown from 5 to 7 p.m. Sept. 23 at the Bunts Auditorium on the Clinic's main campus; from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Richard E. Jacobs Health Center in Avon; from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Oct. 23 at the Clinic's Lyndhurst campus; and from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Nov. 10 at the Twinsburg Family Health & Surgery Center.
"Cleveland Clinic to launch Center for Functional Medicine" originally appeared in Crain's Cleveland Businss.
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