Episode 4: Where Did Functional Medicine Go? Influencers, Supplement Hype and the Quick-Fix Trap

Morning stacks, gadgets, pendants and the next “must-have” protocol. Is any of it really functional medicine? In this episode of What Is Health, Oliver Barnett is joined by two experienced functional medicine practitioners, Steve Grant and Paul Burgess, to ask where functional medicine is today and how it has drifted from what it was meant to be. With decades of clinical experience between them, they talk candidly about what they see in practice. In this episode: 1. What functional medicine originally was: a process for working with a person, not a qualification or a product 2. Why so much of what’s marketed as functional medicine online is a watered-down version 3. How social media and influencers spread advice that has been repeated from person to person, often far from the original research 4. What to look for in a supplement: ingredients, doses and whether the evidence is for the product or just the individual nutrients 5. Why people look for “the pill for the ill” and keep moving to the next protocol when the last one didn’t work 6. Why health is rarely down to one factor, and how physical, emotional and social influences all play a part 7. How practitioners build trust with people who have already seen many others without results 8. The pros and pitfalls of using AI for health advice, including why the quality of what you put in matters, and why they believe it works best as a tool for professionals 9. Why they feel the conventional healthcare system wasn’t designed around keeping people well 10. The views shared are those of the speakers, based on their clinical experience, and are not a substitute for medical advice. The London Clinic of Nutrition has supported thousands of people to get to the root cause of their health concerns. If you’re in need of support, find the team at londonclinicofnutrition.co.uk. Subscribe so you don’t miss the next episode.