Article Summary about Functional Therapy
The article was written by Ahl et al (2005). It presented a successful case of functional therapy that was applied among children who suffer from cerebral palsy or CP. Primarily, the research aimed to provide an evaluation about functional training with CP, which they expected to have an improvement on the participant’s motor function and daily performance on the participant’s daily activity. The functional therapy was applied using the ecological approach, which was described as a way to promote improvement of the functioning in the daily life setting that can be used as a useful framework for physical therapy (Ahl et al., 2005).
In the process, children with CP underwent the evaluation process prior the application of the therapy. Series of therapies were applied with the support of the teacher for patients with special needs. All of the children participants were given with therapy for the next five months in order to see the results of the functional therapy through ecological approach.
The application of this therapy was a success due to the recorded results. The physical training accompanied by functional therapy shows that out of 98 goals that were set, 46 were achieved completely and 25 of such were partially completed. These were achieved within three months of therapy and training, while all of the goals were completed in a period of 8 months. Therefore, there is a representation that the functional therapy being carried out in a daily life setting provided a positive effects on the participants’ motor capacity.
Trying Functional Medicine
Trying the functional medicine life style change for a week is a little bit different. The experience involved reduction of food consumption that contained chemicals, such as soda and other similar beverages. Juicing every day as a replacement to other solid foods felt a little bit strange at first. However, on the third day of the life style change, I felt healthier as I can feel that my body was being detoxified. Although there are times that my body feels a little bit weaker, may due to reduced carbohydrate, I knew that my body was able to adjust as I also consumed some food supplements. I also tried the green tea, but the taste was quite different from what I usually drink, but juicing was better in terms of taste. I tried juicing the vegetables and fruits and I find it good. In fact, I do not usually eat fruits, but juicing made me consumed the nutrition found on fruits.
I read some articles about it and I realized that such lifestyle change can be beneficial for me. Mercole (2014) said that juicing can help in absorbing all nutrients from fruits and vegetables. Thus, this type of functional medicine can improve people’s quality of life (individualizedwellness.net). Trying the functional medicine such as the lifestyle change made me think to have a new healthier habit due to the various benefits that I can get from it. Generally, it was a good experience trying a different way of achieving better and healthier life.
References
About Functional Medicine - Center for Holistic Health & Nutrition. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://individualizedwellness.net/about-2/functional-medicine/
Ahl, L. E., Johansson, E., Granat, T., & Carlberg, E. B. (2005). Functional therapy for children with cerebral palsy: an ecological approach. Developmental Medicine & Child Neurology, 47(9), 613-619. Retrieved from http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1469-8749.2005.tb01213.x/pdf
Mercola. (2014, April 19). Juicing: How Healthy Is It for Your Health? Retrieved from http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/04/19/juicing-benefits.aspx
