Updated June 12, 2025
Functional Medicine Defined
Functional medicine searches for the underlying imbalance, or root cause, which can contribute to illness or chronic disease. Special lab diagnostic testing, called functional testing, help identify and correct imbalances in the body. Imbalances can affect your body and brain in many negative ways but this approach treats the source of disease or imbalance rather than treating just the symptoms.
Functional Medicine Testing for Optimal v. “Normal” Range
Functional changes occur long before disease is manifested, so functional testing becomes an early warning test for disease. A sub-optimal functional test may indicate a 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.
Our model of Functional Medicine involves special lab diagnostic testing, called Functional Testing. These lab tests are often covered by insurance and help to identify and correct imbalances in the brain and body chemistry. Imbalances such as these may be early symptoms of disease or barriers to good health. Additional factors such as genetic make-up through genetic testing helps to provide accurate, individual information that will change the future of healthcare to personalized medicine.
Functional Medicine Specialty Lab Testing and Genetic Testing may uncover factors which contribute to illness such as:
- Nutritional Deficiencies
- Hormonal Imbalances
- Detoxification and nutritional imbalances
- Immune imbalances
- Inflammatory imbalances
- Digestive,absorptive, and microbiological imbalances
- Structural imbalances
- Methylation issues
- Genetic mutations, such as MTHFR and COMT genes
Our physicians have years of experience in interpreting these complex tests. Based on findings, a customized functional medicine treatment plan is created for each patient to correct their imbalances
