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Functional Medicine

Functional medicine proposes a systems model of chronic illness centred on upstream causes rather than diagnosis-by-symptom. These profiles cover its founders, institutes and clinical protocols, with sources for both the supporting research and the methodological objections.

9 indexed lives · 0 Nobel laureates · 2 countries

Where to start

Roger J. Williams

1893 – 1988

Discovered pantothenic acid and argued for biochemical individuality — the idea beneath functional medicine.

United States·Nutrition · Chemistry · Functional Medicine

Abram Hoffer

1917 – 2009

Ran the first double-blind trials in psychiatry and founded orthomolecular medicine with high-dose niacin.

Canada·Functional Medicine · Psychology · Medicine

Vincent Felitti

b. 1935

Co-led the Adverse Childhood Experiences study linking childhood trauma to lifelong disease.

United States·Public Health · Functional Medicine

Functional Medicine across the centuries

19th century · 1

  • Roger J. Williams1893 – 1988

20th century · 8

  • Abram Hoffer1917 – 2009
  • Vincent Felittib. 1935
  • Sidney MacDonald Bakerb. 1936
  • Jeffrey Blandb. 1946
  • Joseph Pizzornob. 1948
  • David Perlmutterb. 1954
  • Terry Wahlsb. 1955
  • Mark Hymanb. 1959
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Related disciplines

MedicinePublic HealthNutritionPsychologyIntegrative MedicineTraditional Chinese MedicineAyurveda

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Curated entries are hand-researched; the research desk drafts new profiles on demand and flags what is uncertain rather than inventing it.

Method

Dates and lineages follow mainstream scholarship. Where a family line is undocumented, we say so — and cite what stands behind every claim.