COMPENDIUM ON FUNCTIONAL MEDICINE - Flipbook - Page 76
provided a structured platform to educate practitioners and
establish credibility within clinical communities [1][2][3].
Dr. Bland's teachings emphasized nutritional biochemistry,
detoxification, and systems biology4concepts that remain central
today [1][4]. But how did Bland become the one to define and
popularize the term "functional medicine"?
His background was primarily in biochemistry and nutritional
science4not clinical medicine. After earning his PhD in organic
chemistry from the University of Oregon in the 1970s, he began his
career in academia before joining the Linus Pauling Institute [5][2].
His early career included serving as a professor of chemistry and
Director of the Nutritional Supplement Analysis Laboratory at the
University of Puget Sound [3].
It was there, in collaboration with Pauling and through his
exposure to orthomolecular and individualized approaches to
health, that he began forming the philosophical groundwork for
functional medicine [5][3]. He later became the Director of
Nutritional Research at Metagenics during the 1980s, where he
developed a strong interest in systems-based,
non-pharmaceutical approaches to chronic disease [6][2].
His decades of publishing, speaking, and supplement industry
leadership helped him build a loyal audience of clinicians and
nutrition-focused practitioners who were looking for a new model
[1][6][3]. Throughout the 1980s, Bland published extensively on
nutritional biochemistry and alternative medicine approaches,
laying the scientific foundation for what would later become
functional medicine [2][3].
By the time IFM was founded, Bland had already been using the
term "functional medicine" in his lectures and writings [1][2]. The
term caught on, offering a framework for understanding
root-cause mechanisms in chronic illness that resonated with
professionals across multiple disciplines [2][3]. In 2012, he founded
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