Functional medicine involves testing for the root causes of disease and designing a treatment plan to address the root cause of the disorder, not just the symptoms.  Functional medicine doctors view and treat the body as a whole system.

The use of the word “functional” is key to understanding the functional and integrative medical approach.  Functional lab tests help determine how the body or organ is really working, or functioning, as opposed to other medical tests which measure pathological breakdown and disease.

So, a sub-optimal functional test may indicate the need for correction even though traditional testing may show everything is within the normal range. This is a subtle but important difference as many sub-optimal health conditions will cause symptoms that get us to the doctor, but then no reason can be found for what is causing our health problem.

Functional Medicine Doctors Find And Treat The Root Cause Of Illness

Functional medicine searches for the underlying imbalance, or root cause, which can contribute to illness or chronic disease. If you have an imbalance, it can affect your body in many ways. Functional changes may occur long before disease is manifested, so functional testing becomes an early warning sign for disease or a barrier to good health. Therefore, functional testing is ideal for prevention-oriented physicians and patients concerned about finding the root cause of their problem.

Functional medicine relies on advanced laboratory diagnostic testing to determine the unique nutritional, toxicological, metabolic, immune, allergic, hormonal, neurotransmitter, infectious and genetic status of each patient, which allows the physician to select appropriate  therapies for the individual. How is the body or organ currently functioning, as compared with normal, healthy optimal functioning? These lab tests are often covered by insurance and help to identify and correct imbalances in the brain and body chemistry. Additional factors such as your genetic risks, obtained through genetic testing, can help provide accurate, individual information, and therefore more personalized medicine.

Most importantly, our physicians have years of experience in the interpretation of these advanced lab tests. Based on the findings, a customized treatment plan is created for each patient to correct imbalances and restore fundamental health.

Functional Medicine Tests

Functional Medicine Specialty Lab Testing and Genetic Testing may uncover factors which contribute to illness from:

• Nutritional Deficiencies
• Hormonal Imbalances
• Detoxification and Bio-transformational imbalances
• Immune imbalances
• Inflammatory imbalances
• Digestive,absorptive, and microbiological imbalances
• Structural imbalances
• Methylation issues
• Genetic mutations, MTHFR and COMT genes
• Toxicities such  as mercury, pesticides, mold, etc.

Consider a Functional Medicine Evaluation for the Following Conditions

• ADD/ADHD autism and childhood spectrum disorders
• Addiction and Substance Use Disorders; to illicit drugs, prescribed drugs, alcohol or nicotine
• Chronic pain syndromes
• Anti-aging preventative medicine
• Asthma, dermatitis and  allergy disorders
• Brain health and memory issues
• Cancer prevention and co-management
• Cardiovascular diseases, stroke, co-management of risk factors
• Chronic fatigue syndrome, Fibromyalgia and related disorders
• Depression, anxiety and psychiatric disorders
• Detoxification from heavy metals, petrochemicals, and toxicities
• Genetic variabilities
• GI disorders, GERD, irritable bowel disease, Celiac, Crohn’s disease
• Hormonal imbalances, men or women, any phase of life
• Immune and autoimmune disorders
• Lyme Disease, Candida, and bacterial, viral, fungal, parasitic co-infections
• Metabolic disorders, diabetes, dysglycemias, weight loss
• Parkinson’s disease, neurological disorders
• Stress management

Finding and correcting the root molecular cause of your illness or imbalance will only improve your outcome.