What is functional medicine testing and what does it include?
When it comes to lab testing, naturopathic and functional medicine doctors have many options. Lab work can be very helpful when working with patients who are searching for answers for their health concerns. Sometimes patients have been told that all testing is normal, but they still don’t feel well and intuitively know that something is unbalanced. This is when functional medicine testing can be useful. It’s a unique approach and many different types of tests are available. We can order cortisol testing, hormone testing, food sensitivity testing, digestive testing, and others but I usually like to start with comprehensive blood work.
There are a few reasons why I prefer to start with comprehensive blood work instead of the other tests. This is primarily because it helps to prioritize and direct us towards other labs that could also be useful. When determining what other functional medicine labs to run, I also use information from a patient’s history. This is everything that a patient has experienced with their health. It’s also important to look at physical exam findings and any other lab work we have up until that point.
Although there are many functional medicine tests available, today we are focusing on comprehensive blood work. In order to interpret this blood work, I like to use specific functional medicine lab ranges.
How are functional medicine lab ranges different on blood work?
Once we get the comprehensive blood work results back, I always look at this with my patients and we review it together. I believe that it’s empowering to be able to understand your results. I like explaining what the markers indicate on blood work and we can also compare it to previous labs. When we look at the results through functional medicine ranges, sometimes it can tell a completely different story. Even if everything is “normal” on prior lab work, these new results from comprehensive blood testing can tell us important information that might otherwise be hidden.
Let’s talk about functional medicine ranges a little more. This means that when I look at the blood work results, I’m not only looking at the ranges that are given to me by the lab. For many of the markers on blood work, there are different ranges that I use. These ranges are narrower in scope and reflect optimal levels. This is helpful because we can catch changes early on and shift our focus as needed.
For example, here’s one way that you can think about functional medicine ranges: It’s just like if you’re driving in a car and if you get too close to the edge of the lane. Maybe the steering wheel will tighten up or your car may give you a beeping alert. It’s a similar concept when looking at blood work within functional medicine ranges. We are looking to be proactive and responsive in order to redirect our actions before the car goes outside of the lane.
How is testing helpful for understanding thyroid labs?
Blood work is very helpful for looking at thyroid labs and this is covered in depth in another blog post. With comprehensive blood testing, we are typically ordering more labs than those that are traditionally ordered. This particularly applies to the thyroid panel. We don’t only want to check to see how the brain is communicating with the thyroid. It’s helpful to also look to see if there’s autoimmunity or if there is proper conversion to the active form of thyroid hormone and if there are other things, like inflammation, that might be getting in the way of thyroid conversion. Functional blood testing is very useful when we are considering thyroid health, but it’s also helpful for looking at the body as a whole.
What other labs are included in comprehensive blood testing?
A typical panel that I like to run is usually about five pages. On this panel, we are looking at a number of tests to evaluate blood sugar, kidney health, protein levels, liver health, an iron panel, a lipid (cholesterol) panel, inflammatory markers, a full thyroid panel, vitamin D, white blood cells, red blood cells, a urine panel, and B vitamins. When we put all this information together and talk about it in the context of a patient’s health history and health goals, we are able to make informed decisions and begin to talk about a plan. This plan may include research-based nutritional products, dietary recommendations, lifestyle advice, or other functional medicine lab work. The goal is for you to feel empowered and to make informed decisions to optimize health. When we put all the information together from comprehensive blood testing, this enables us to have a holistic and comprehensive approach to health based on naturopathic and functional medicine principles.
Photo Credit: ID 94584748 © Lochpalm Dreamstime.com
