Let’s start the conversation about San Antonio functional medicine and it’s benefits by looking at the cold hard facts. So here are some good, bad, and ugly San Antonio health stats, straight from the Centers for Disease Control (CDC, numbers are from 2010-2013):
Adult obesity rates in San Antonio are actually dropping. Seriously, in 2010, the obesity rate in San Antonio was 35.1%, which, by the way, is really close to the national average according the CDC website. Now, by 2012, it had dropped to 28.5%. That’s the good news. Seriously, the national average for 2013 was 35.7%, so well done San Antonio.
But…the bad news is perplexing. For children and senior citizens, the numbers should serve as a wake up call, because 30% of high school students in San Antonio are considered obese, where the national average is 17%. And for seniors, 31.1% were considered obese in 2012, by 2012, the number jumped to 34.7%. How does the CDC determine who is obese?
Well, the body mass index (BMI) is used. The BMI does factor in height, and is there are slight differences in factoring a BMI for children and seniors. But for the purpose of this article, the average BMI (what we should be shooting for) is around 20. Anything over 30, is considered obese.
San Antonio: The Tale of Two Cities
So, the data about obesity rates in San Antonio tells us a story of two different cities. One is a place where the average adult is getting thinner, while the other spins a tale of a town where our future and our past is getting bigger.
So, what gives? While the average adult is taking advantage of San Antonio’s wonderful weather which encourages an active lifestyle, our children aren’t following our lead, and our parents are staying inside instead of taking advantage of San Antonio’s world-class parks and splendid Riverwalk.
San Antonio Functional Medicine, the Answer to the Dilemma
Now that we know what the problem is, let’s focus on how to fix it. Our reliance on the practices of traditional medicine, which includes its outlook on weight loss, has to be considered a part of the problem, not the solution.
Now, functional medicine (or holistic medicine) is quickly gaining confidence with many Americans, especially in San Antonio, where functional medicine has a stronghold.
Think of it this way, practitioners of functional medicine believe that you treat the individual, in terms attempting to help the body (and its organs and functions) work as efficiently as it was designed to do.
To do so, San Antonio functional medicine physicians will use holistic (or alternative) medicine, as well as total mind and body therapies that are counter to the traditional medical philosophy of prescribing a pill for anything that ails you.
With San Antonio functional medicine centers, their professionals will use programs which focus on lifestyle healing, helping not just for what ails the body, but the mind, using techniques that will use homeopathic, natural methods and medicines to heal, not harm.
And when you look to natural remedies for healing, on top of eating healthy and an active lifestyle, that earlier data that grabbed your attention will begin to look good all the way around.
