State-Of-The-Art Health Care

An exciting new concept in patient-centred health care was unveiled in Coquitlam, BC in 2003 with the opening of the Canadian Center for Functional Medicine (CCFM).

The "functional medicine" practised at the CCFM, explains Dr. Lyon, Medical and Research Director, means health care that is science-based and oriented to the individual patient rather than to a disease profile.

Combining the best of preventive, nutritional, and conventional medicine, the CCFM houses a clinic as well as a research and education centre.

A medical doctor, researcher, and author, Dr. Lyon is part of a team that includes Dr. Christine Laurell, PhD, and Vincent Ziccarelli, MSc, RDN. Dr. Laurell, the Program Director, is a specialist in environmental health education, a psycholinguist, and an educator. Vincent Ziccarrelli, a Registered Dietitian, is a nutrition consultant and functional food researcher.

Committed to providing research into natural health, the centre has entered into partnerships with the University of Toronto Risk Factor Modification Centre at St. Michael's Hospital to investigate issues such as weight loss, diabetes, cardiac risk factor modifi-cation, and to analyze functional food and nutraceutical discoveries.

Clinic programs at the CCFM focus on the holistic treatment of a number of specific conditions.

Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The team at CCFM has been at the forefront of research on ADHD, which affects an estimated two to five per cent of children.

Children, and their parents, can attend a program at the Centre that provides the latest information on learning, psychological, and neurological abnormalities associated with ADHD and related conditions. A nutrition program is also available that promotes the
crucial role of food in maintaining health, and explores how healing foods and individualized supplementation can impact ADHD and other childhood developmental disorders.

Weight Loss

The centre's programs for weight loss and risk factor modification in people who are overweight incorp-orate laboratory, medical, and body composition evaluations, as well as
individualized diet and exercise assessment and counselling.

In addition, the CCFM has joined with the University of Toronto's Risk Factor Modification Centre to provide innovative and formal weight-loss programs for adults and children. The breakthroughsin appetite control at St. Michael's are included in the weight loss programs at the CCFM clinic.

Multi-Symptomatic Illnesses

For patients suffering from such illnesses as chronic fatigue syndrome, myofascial pain syndrome, and fibromyalgia, the CCFM offers individualized assessments that look into the environmental, nutritional, neurological, and immunological factors that accompany these disorders.

The CCFM is an educational facility for the public, educators, and health care professionals and offers seminars, courses, school-based nutrition programs, literature, video programs, and online information.

Dr. Lyon, who has championed natural health since the early 1970s, says that he would like to see Canada lead the way in natural health and functional medicine. With the innovative programs and research initiatives taking place at the CCFM, it is apparent that the Centre has taken up the challenge.