Functional Medicine Testing Options:
- Expanded functional medicine blood tests
- Food intolerance and food allergy
- Comprehensive stool analysis for gut flora and digestion health
- Saliva testing for adrenal gland cortisol balance
- Hormone testing
- Neurotransmitter tests for brain and digestion system health
- Comprehensive nutrient levels testing
- Detoxification capacity
- And more…
Functional medicine testing procedures provide vital information and facilitate the process of isolating where dysfunction is occurring in the body and how to correct it. This is an extremely different approach compared to traditional healthcare; where the focus is placed on diagnosing the disease and matching that disease to a drug. Little if any value is placed on the underlying cause of the disease or how to reverse it.
Functional medicine is deeply rooted in the process of collecting information about the function-status of your body and then initiating treatment based on these findings.
Functional medicine achieves its purpose by restoring functional integrity to the various systems of the body. These systems include the digestive, immune, hormonal (endocrine), neurological, etc.
The various systems of the body control the functions of the body. Functions include but are not limited to; detoxification, healing and tissue repair, defense, nutrient absorption, sleep, mood, energy production, metabolism, etc.
Supporting the health and vitality of the body’s systems improves the quality of the functions they are performing. Some systems of the body can be considered more fundamental when it comes to restoring health. Not because they are more important, it is because we can influence them more directly.
For example, the neurological system can be influenced and improved by supporting the digestive system. This is because the digestive system can be more easily “accessed” than the nervous system and healthy neurological function depends on good digestion. When the health of the digestive system is improved, many problems of the nervous system can be corrected. This leads to even higher levels of function because the improved neurological function leads to more efficient and effective digestion; initiating a snowball effect of improvement. Just as chronic disease starts with small levels of dysfunction that grow into significant levels of disorder; functional medicine creates a snowball effect of increased function and health. The systems of the body are intimately connected and influence each other. Increasing the health and vitality of any system will lead to improvement in other systems simultaneously.
This is the “magic” of functional medicine but the only reason this occurs is because we are working with and not against the natural laws of biology, physiology and health. Supporting and working in harmony with your body always leads to better long-term outcomes.
Functional medicine not only recognizes but embraces the fact that chronic illness can only be reversed by supporting the systems of the body so that natural function and health can be restored. Pharmaceutical-medicine still refuses to accept the laws of nature and health. It clings to the false assumption that it can do a better job than nature can. One only needs to look at the increase in chronic diseases to see that this system is outdated and ineffective. Diabetes, heart disease, dementia, cancer, autoimmune disease... all chronic diseases are on the rise today and are projected to rise in the future.
Functional medicine is the result of an evolving healthcare system. We had to take many steps forward in our thinking to recognize that we had to go back to the basics; work with the natural laws of the body and health; not against them.