NUTR-6100 FOUNDATIONS OF INTEGRATIVE & FUNCTIONAL NUTRITION
Students taking this course will expand upon their knowledge of basic nutrition science to gain a foundational understanding of the functional approach to nutrition. The course reviews the fundamental principles and perspectives of conventional, traditional, integrative, and functional medical models to identify best practices for nutrition care. In this course the fundamental concepts of functional medicine, including: genetics and disease risk, biochemical individuality, environmental factors, triggers and mediators of disease, and common clinical physical, mental, and emotional imbalances will be explored. The personalized, whole-person, integrated systems approach of functional medicine will be compared and contrasted to conventional approaches of health care. A foundational look at specialized clinical assessments, whole foods and supplementation, diagnostic functional tests and measures, and biomarkers of health and disease will be explored, along with common core therapeutic approaches used in many patients. This course is foundational for many courses that follow in this degree program and must be taken in the first term of the program.