The Method
What Is Functional Medicine?
A systems-biology approach to chronic disease. The same evidence base as conventional medicine, applied differently — to the patient as a system, not the symptom in isolation.
Functional medicine is a clinical approach that asks why a patient is sick, not just what their diagnosis is. It treats the body as an interconnected system and looks upstream — at lifestyle, environment, genetics, hormones, gut, mitochondria, and how all of these interact — rather than naming a symptom and prescribing the medication that suppresses it.
Conventional primary care is built around brief visits and acute disease. Functional medicine is built around longer visits, deeper history-taking, broader bloodwork, and chronic conditions — the kind that take months to develop and months to reverse. The two are complementary. Most of our patients have a family doctor and use Manus Solis for what fifteen-minute visits can't accommodate.
The framework was formalized by the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM). Dr. Handsun Xiao completed IFM's Applying Functional Medicine in Clinical Practice (AFMCP) program — the foundational training that informs how we work.
Operating Principles
How We Practise
I
Patient-Centred, Not Disease-Centred
We start with your symptoms, your history, and your goals. The diagnosis matters; the person carrying it matters more. Two patients with the same lab pattern often need different protocols.
II
Systems Biology
Hormones don't move in isolation. Insulin resistance affects testosterone. Cortisol affects thyroid. Gut inflammation affects estrogen metabolism. We map these connections rather than treat each axis as a silo.
III
Upstream, Not Downstream
Why is the inflammation there? Why are these labs drifting? We treat root causes when they can be identified — diet, sleep, stress, environmental exposure, micronutrient status — alongside hormonal optimization, not as a substitute for it.
IV
Evidence-Based, Titrated to Response
Every protocol has a literature base and a measurable outcome. We adjust based on how you feel, what your blood reveals, and what your body can do — not on a fixed dosing schedule.
In Practice
What Functional Medicine Treats Well
Functional medicine is most useful for chronic, multi-system, slow-moving conditions where conventional care has stalled or feels incomplete:
- — Perimenopause and menopause
- — Andropause and low testosterone
- — Thyroid dysfunction (Hashimoto, sub-clinical)
- — Adrenal / HPA axis dysregulation
- — Insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome
- — PCOS
- — Gut-hormone axis disruption
- — Persistent fatigue, brain fog, sleep disruption
- — Erectile dysfunction (when hormonal in origin)
- — Longevity-focused preventive care
It is not the right approach for acute conditions, surgical pathology, or psychiatric emergencies. We refer patients to the appropriate specialty when that is what the situation calls for.
Comparison
Functional vs. Conventional Care
Visit length
15 min in primary care vs. 60 min initial here, 30 min follow-up.
Bloodwork breadth
CBC + lipids + TSH vs. comprehensive hormone, metabolic, inflammatory, and nutrient panel.
Hormone reference ranges
"Normal" vs. optimal for the individual.
Treatment philosophy
Standard dose, standard duration vs. titrated to your symptoms and bloodwork.
Hormone preparations
Off-the-shelf synthetics vs. bioidentical, individually compounded.
Funding model
OHIP-billed (system-paced) vs. private (visit-paced). Lab work still OHIP-covered where applicable.
Our Clinical Lens
The Vis Viva Method
Inside the functional-medicine framework, we operationalize progress through the Vis Viva Method — three measurement domains we track at every visit. Sensus captures how you feel. Pulsus captures what your blood reveals. Virtus captures what your body can do.
It's not a separate methodology — it's our way of making functional medicine measurable. The framework is described in detail on our methodology page.
Read the MethodThe functional-medicine framework on this page draws on the educational materials of the Institute for Functional Medicine (IFM), where Dr. Xiao completed AFMCP training. Manus Solis is independent of IFM; we cite their work as a source rather than as an affiliation.
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Is Functional Medicine Right for You?
A free 15-minute discovery call with Dr. Xiao will tell you. No paperwork, no obligation.