Dr. Daniel Rashid is an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner. Dr. Rashid founded Functional Medicine Center for the Carolinas to help pursue his passion for functional medicine. His journey towards functional medicine began after two personal events. The first was when his daughter developed neurologic ticks in 2nd grade and traditional western medicine could not provide any clear answers or treatments. The second was when his wife’s gastrointestinal problems worsened and all of her tests were “normal”, yet her symptoms became exacerbated. They struggled to find anyone who could help with their symptoms and in their search, they discovered functional medicine and nutrition. They were immediately drawn to it.
Dr. Rashid began his formal functional medicine education by attending the Institute for Functional Medicine’s flagship course Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice (AFMCP). It was an aha moment as I went through this week long introduction to functional medicine. I have since gone on to complete all 6 educational modules (Gastrointestinal, Energy, Cardio Metabolic, Immune, Detox, and Hormones) through the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM) and have completed a certification exam through the IFM to become an Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner (IFMCP).
As a practicing Emergency Medicine doctor for 16 years, he has come across countless patients who have chronic conditions that have not been helped with a traditional western medical approach to their problems. Western medicine is great at treating acute conditions like broken bones, heart attacks, strokes, acute life threatening infections, but struggles with chronic conditions and suffers from too much micromanagement by specialist. Very few look at the whole person and the whole body. Dr. Rashid believes that we are not just the accumulation of our organs systems, but a living breathing ecosystem affected by both internal and external stimuli.
Many patients he sees in the Emergency Department have had every possible test done and have been told that there is “nothing wrong” by their doctors. Despite this, they continue to have symptoms. Others have so many chronic conditions like diabetes, obesity, high blood pressure and high cholesterol who are treated with countless medications to suppress their conditions, but the underlying causes of their conditions are never addressed. They end up taking more and more medicines because of the side effects of the medicines they are taking, creating a difficult to break viscous cycle of chronic disease.
Dr. Rashid has come to believe that functional medicine’s approach to many conditions makes more sense. Trying to find the underlying cause of your conditions rather than throwing drugs and therapies at the symptoms which is clearly not working for many individuals. I started Functional Center of the Carolinas to help patients find the root cause of their symptoms and in a collaborative fashion find the best solution for each individual patient.
He holds a Bachelors of Arts in Psychology from the University of Cincinnati. He completed his Medical education at the Medical College of Ohio (currently named University of Toledo College of Medicine and Life Sciences) where he received an M.D. degree. He completed a residency in Emergency Medicine from Allegheny General Hospital in Pittsburgh, PA and is currently Board Certified in Emergency Medicine. Dr. Rashid completed his functional Medicine education though the IFM and is currently a Institute for Functional Medicine Certified Practitioner (IFMCP).
Functional Nutrition emphasizes the importance of high-quality foods and phytonutrient diversity to
Functional Medicine practitioners promote wellness by focusing on the fundamental underlying factors
Functional Medicine is an evolution in the practice of medicine that better addresses the healthcare
