Staying healthy in Southern California is largely contingent upon preventing illness from taking root in the first place. In that regard, there's truth to the cliché that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. Though Functional Medicine and Integrative Wellness are not the same, both focus on a comprehensive approach to wellness, through focusing on treating the whole person, as opposed to treating the symptoms of illness or a disease state that takes hold.

Integrative Wellness practiced by Board Certified Dr. Allan Kurtz, Founder of the California Center for Longevity & Functional Medicine in Los Angeles is based on a health and wellness model, as opposed to a model of disease. Integrative Wellness makes the most of utilizing conventional "western medicine" best practices, but also combines preventative and holistic therapies. When possible, Integrative Wellness M applies low-cost, and low-tech interventions to prevent disease, or progression of disease. As such, Integrative Wellness emphasizes healthy habits, healthy lifestyle choices, and maintaining good health through prevention.

Moreover, Integrative Wellness seeks to identify underlying causes for chronic illness, including environmental exposures, gene susceptibility and unhealthy lifestyle choices. Through focusing on these triggers for illness, a wellness plan, incorporating dietary changes, possibly the addition of nutritional supplements, and a plan for correcting unhealthy lifestyle choices can be designed to mitigate the risk of illness.

Functional Medicine works well in conjunction with Integrative Wellness, by helping to organize a physician's findings so that any fundamental, clinical imbalances may be illuminated. In a sense, it serves to help physicians to put together the proverbial pieces of a puzzle, so that the internal, root causes of illness can be understood and treated.

Indeed, Functional Medicine is a scientifically-based practice that takes treatment to a personal level, by zeroing in on the underlying causes of diseases and chronic conditions. Technically speaking, a main goal of Functional Medicine is to identify the fundamental, clinical imbalances, by deciphering what's happening on an internal basis that may be contributing to an illness or disease.

The reason that Functional Medicine and Integrative Wellness Medicine can be the key to helping Southern California men and women to stay healthy, lies in their complementary designs of practice. Though unique practices and approaches, both emphasize a "whole-person" approach to staying healthy for years to come.

Dr. Allan Kurtz specializes in creating ideal health and longevity plans for patients of all ages. Fellowship trained in Integrative and Functional Medicine, Dr. Kurtz is also a member of the American Academy of Anti-Aging Medicine and The Institute for Functional Medicine. The California Center of Longevity & Functional Medicine and the Heart Attack and Stroke Prevention Center of Southern California was founded in Woodland Hills, CA to aid patients throughout the greater Los Angeles area in restoring and maintaining optimal health for the long term.