The Functional Medicine Timeline

Practitioners in functional medicine often use the Functional Medicine Timeline tool with patients to learn about their life history, and how each life event brought them to where they are today.

Pre-Birth

When filling out a timeline, you might be asked to begin at pre-birth (and while in utero) and write about the health of your parents, and your family health history if you’re able to find out.

Birth

Whether you were born naturally or via c-section, and whether you were breast or formula-fed are important points to consider. This is because the amount of natural, good bacteria you’re exposed to during a vaginal birth and via breastfeeding is significant, relative to c-section and formula-fed babies. This stage of your life could dictate the quality of your gut bacteria and immune system long-term.

Childhood

Any big life events as a child, or even daily lifestyle habits during your formative years can have a big impact on your health today. On your timeline, if you are comfortable noting traumas (injuries, familial issues, stressful conflicts etc.), those can also be clues as to what may have triggered health issues down the line. Noting past medical history like if you had Lyme’s disease, mononucleosis or EBV (Epstein Barr virus) as a child, are all important pieces of information.

Adulthood

Life gets more complicated as we get older, and stressful events inevitably occur throughout. Your body may have been sending red flags that something wasn’t right, but they may have been ignored or not properly treated (for example, gut infections). Any medical issues in the past and notable life occurrences are all worth noting.

Key Areas of Focus

• Perpetuators of symptoms/health issues

• Triggering events

• Symptoms and diagnoses

• Antecedents (family history)

The Goal

The functional medicine timeline is an exercise for both you as the patient, and the practitioner to learn about your past and what brought you here today to seek out functional medicine.

This tool is a place to start to help us all not only make sense of what your body has been through, but also to dig for clues as to what might be driving your current symptoms.