By Lauren Castle, PharmD, MS – Founder & CEO, FMPhA.org
In the fields of anti-aging, integrative, and functional medicine, pharmacists have long been sought after as members of the patient care team, particularly for their unique scope of practice to compound customized medications for patients. But in recent years, the role of the pharmacist on functional medicine care teams has expanded well beyond the compounding counter.
Systemic inflammation, often called chronic low-grade inflammation, can persist for long periods without apparent symptoms making it difficult to identify and manage. Common signs of inflammation, such as fatigue, gastrointestinal disorders, skin changes, and cognitive issues, may often be mistaken for other conditions leaving many patients without a precise diagnosis and appropriate treatment.
Chronic systemic inflammation contributes to the vast majority of chronic health conditions, including autoimmune diseases, type 2 diabetes, hormone imbalances, and other serious health issues. As awareness of its role in disease pathogenesis grows, an expanding body of research furthers our understanding of the numerous and intricate connections between inflammation and aspects of health.
By: Andrew Heyman, MD, MHSA
It is difficult, if not dangerous, to predict the future. But trends and good data can point the way toward possibilities and probabilities. There is momentum building in our understanding of Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS), and the science has grown exponentially in the past 18 months thanks to transcriptomics. This new knowledge is sweeping our efforts forward in a more defined direction while we hone our understanding of the disease. The future is coming into focus.
There are also larger moving parts within the general CIRS practitioner community and even external social and market forces that seem to be creating a set of likely outcomes that are both exciting and important.
