insights

Remove, Replace, Reinoculate, Repair, and Rebalance, a program that goes by the simple acronym of the “5Rs,” has been an important pillar of functional medicine for many years. As I imagine you do, I often use the concepts embedded in this acronym in practical terms with many patients. What I don’t do quite as often is describe the framework to a patient. I found myself doing that the other day, and I ‘re-remembered’ that we had a nice summation of the 5Rs in our toolkit. I find it’s useful to follow up with some written material to hopefully help that patient re-remember what we had just gone over and why. I also like to clarify that we are personalizing the 5Rs. In my experience, I don’t always need to do something with each R for each patient. Patients should understand that the 5R approach is a comprehensive and personalized strategy aimed at addressing the root causes of their individual health issues but is not a one size fits all. Perhaps this reminder will help you, as it did me, to pull this document out a little more often.