Lab testing includes many different tests. Some examples of testing used in functional medicine include:
If a food you eat regularly causes inflammation, this contributes to chronic health disorders.
Gut problems contribute to chronic health issues. Tests can screen for leaky gut, gut function, parasites, bacterial overgrowth, and autoimmune reactions.
This is an excellent starting point in functional medicine testing and includes the use of functional medicine ranges (versus lab ranges). Blood testing screens for some diseases and can catch a trend toward a disease while there’s still time to reverse it.
As with foods, an immune reaction to chemicals or metals can trigger chronic inflammatory health disorders.
Adrenal testing reveals the relationship between your health and stress handling. The most important test is the second one because it shows if your protocol is working. If not, you need to dig deeper.
Hormone imbalances profoundly affect health. Testing screens for excesses, deficiencies, feedback loops, and how well you metabolize hormones.
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These are just a few examples of the types of testing used in functional medicine. What type of testing you need depends on your symptoms and health history.
In conventional medicine, laboratories are primarily used for disease screening, meaning that by the time a condition is identified as a disease, such as diabetes or autoimmune disease, significant damage has already occurred. In contrast, functional medicine utilizes lab testing to identify health trends that indicate the progression toward disease, offering an opportunity to intervene and slow down, halt, or even reverse the process.
For example, elevated blood sugar, inflammation, and impaired liver function revealed by lab markers can serve as early warning signs, allowing for effective interventions to prevent the onset of diabetes. Similarly, in the case of autoimmunity, conventional medicine typically diagnoses the condition after considerable tissue damage has taken place. However, by testing for tissue antibodies, functional medicine can detect autoimmune progression at its early stages, enabling interventions to slow down or halt its advancement.
Although the first test is important for identifying health problems, subsequent testing is also crucial to let you know whether your protocol is working. If there is no improvement, it means you have not hit on the right protocol or discovered all the underlying causes.
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