Your first appointment with a functional medicine doctor commonly involves a deep dive into your history. This includes information from your birth up until current day issues. With this collection of data, a functional medicine doctor can narrow down the appropriate testing specific to your needs. Testing can involve anything from blood samples to stool or urine samples. Within our office, common blood panels include thyroid panels, complete blood counts (CBC) as well as complete metabolic panel (CMP). Hormone testing includes your sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone, etc.) as well as stress hormones (cortisol). Another urine test commonly requested is organic acids which look at many markers that involve one's daily cellular and metabolic processes as well as other nutritional markers. Stool testing can look at good and bad bacteria in the gut as well as yeast, viruses, parasites, and inflammatory markers.
Seeing is believing. Testing is important in most cases as it helps to narrow down the root cause of the issue at hand. Seeing the results on a lab test can be eye opening for some patients as they may not believe or they don’t ‘feel sick’. The numbers on a lab test can help motivate patients to make the changes necessary to feel better and slow the disease process. Testing can help pinpoint the root cause of dysfunction and motivate the patient to take their health into their own hands through supplementation, dietary changes as well as lifestyle changes!
Test, don't guess. The cost of some testing can sometimes come as a shock but it pays off. Testing right away can help find answers and point the functional medicine practitioner in the right direction of care, quicker than not testing at all. It also helps the practitioner curate an appropriate plan of care with the right supplements, dietary and lifestyle recommendations specific to the patient. Without testing, we are guessing. It can be cheaper in the long run to test, get the results and supplement appropriately than skip the testing and ‘try’ different supplements until finding something that works.
Quicker results. As mentioned above, testing can point us in the right direction of appropriate recommendations. This has the potential of leading us to a quicker outcome. Taking an alternative route to modern medicine and prescription drugs with natural supplementation and dietary support can take time to see changes. Without testing, it can take months to determine if a supplement or dietary change is making a difference for a patient and thus extending the time it takes to get the patient back to feeling their best. Testing right off the bat can point us in the right direction of appropriate recommendations and can lead to the patient feeling better quicker.
Ultimately, testing is the most cost and time effective option! If you believe a functional medicine approach to your health is the best for you, do not hesitate in reaching out to us. We are happy to set up a short consultation to see if our office is the right space for you!