The Most Overlooked Factor in Your Health: The Patient–Provider Relationship
When we think about improving our health, we often focus on what to do: eating better, taking supplements, exercising more. But one of the most powerful, and often overlooked, influences on your long-term health is the relationship you have with your provider.
Why the Patient–Provider Relationship Matters
Your provider isn’t just someone who orders labs or manages medications. They’re the person helping you understand your body’s story, past, present, and future.
A strong patient–provider relationship builds trust, consistency, and communication: three pillars that directly impact your ability to prevent disease and sustain long-term wellness. When you trust your provider, you’re more likely to share what’s really happening in your life, follow through on care plans, and feel empowered in your own health decisions.
Research has shown that this relationship directly influences outcomes:
A 2017 review in PLOS One found that patients who experienced greater empathy and communication from their clinicians reported better symptom improvement and higher quality-of-life scores across a range of chronic conditions.
Similarly, research published in JAMA Internal Medicine found that patients who trusted their providers demonstrated better blood pressure control, improved diabetes outcomes, and greater adherence to treatment plans.
In other words, the relationship itself has measurable effects on physical health.
In many traditional care models, time is limited and visits are brief. That means this critical relationship often never has the chance to form. But when you have space to be heard, to ask questions, and to feel understood the quality of your care changes entirely.
How Functional Primary Care Restores That Connection
At FunctNP, functional primary care is designed to bring the relationship back to the center of medicine.
It’s healthcare that slows down, allowing time to explore your family history, patterns, and underlying causes, not just symptoms.
Functional primary care connects the dots between systems, giving context to your labs and insight into how your environment, nutrition, hormones, and stress all play a role. Most importantly, it gives space for the provider–patient relationship to thrive.
Because when we have time to listen, we can do more than react to problems, we can prevent them.
The Relationship Is the Medicine
True healing begins in partnership. It happens when your provider knows your story and walks alongside you: guiding, educating, and adjusting your care as life evolves.
At FunctNP, we believe that connection is what creates sustainable health outcomes and lasting change.
It’s not just functional medicine. It’s functional primary care, a model built on trust, prevention, and collaboration.
If You’re Ready for Care That Feels Different
Schedule your visit here to experience a new kind of primary care , one where the relationship is the foundation of your health.
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References:
Howick J, et al. “Effects of Empathic and Positive Communication in Healthcare Consultations: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis.” PLOS One, 2017;12(10):e0186441.
Birkhäuer J, et al. “Trust in the Health Care Professional and Health Outcome: A Meta-Analysis.” JAMA Internal Medicine, 2017;177(5):727–735.
Functional Medicine + Primary Care: How an Insurance-Based Model Can Shape the Future of Healthcare.
It all begins with an idea.
Primary care is often considered entry level healthcare and centers around preventive health screenings, management and prevention of acute & chronic diseases. Primary care as a concept is the foundation of health for the general population. An efficient primary care model would yield optimal health outcomes and lower prevalence of disease for the population in which it serves.
Except it hasn’t.
In fact, preventable death is on the rise in America and until we address our primary care model, the trend will only continue.
There are several theories as to why this downward health trend is becoming a mainstay in America’s health culture: Increased sedentary lifestyles, diet, stress, fragmented patient-provider relationships, medical mistrust, and the influence of “big pharma”, the list goes on…
As health trends continue to decline, public interest in “alternative medicine” has surged.
Alongside this, the field of functional medicine has grown in response.
More functional providers are offering root-cause treatments for ailments that traditional providers may have “missed” or quite honestly, lacked the time to address.
Functional medicine offers deeper insight into health through advanced lab testing, supplements over prescription medication, and, perhaps most importantly, time. Time to listen to your health story and time to put all of the clues together.
But what if functional medicine didn’t have to exist outside of the system to do that kind of work?
Because if we’re being honest,
Functional Medicine can actually certainly exist inside a primary care model.
Functional primary care combines the depth and lens of a functional medicine approach with the foundation of primary care. Because changing a flawed healthcare model to improve outcomes means working within to identify and address its gaps.
It reminds me of the saying “nothing changes unless you do” .
To truly move healthcare forward, we must be willing to question insurance “norms,” patient expectations, and traditional healthcare.
By doing so, we influence positive change to a healthcare model that no longer meets the needs of our health.
Ready to experience functional primary care? Book a visit.