Functional Lab Testing

heal your gut, emerge well

Gut Health & Functional Lab Testing

The body is designed to function perfectly. Cells do not need to be told what to do. Cells, tissues, organs and systems are constantly seeking a state of ease and function. Symptoms are the signal that your body is sending telling you that something is not functioning well, something is wrong.

Functional medicine lab testing, like those outlined below, are not just another series of tests. These are tests seek at the deepest level possible the underlying causes: the imbalances, deficiencies or overburdened, exposing additional hidden triggers that are known to be contributing factors to unpleasant, unwanted and even debilitating symptoms.

The reason we use functional lab testing when appropriate is to help get an overall clearer picture of what’s going on inside your body that’s contributing to your specific imbalances.

  • Functional lab testing gives us a starting place to work from that removes the guesswork.
  • Diagnostic screening such as these listed below saves time by allowing us to put into place sooner, highly individualized, time-honored protocols and self-care treatments proven to work for you.
  • Saving time means that much less time you spend feeling the ill effects of dis-ease and discomfort and getting root cause resolution of your symptoms sooner.

See below for a list of the five most common lab tests we use to get a look at the WHOLE picture then clinically correlate the lab results with the individual client’s history, main health concerns, symptoms, lifestyle and genetics to create a restorative, re-building program.

Types of Lab Tests & Diagnostics

HPA Axis & Adrenal Stress Testing

Why run the Adrenal/Stress/Sex Hormone Panel?

Are you wondering why you are always tired? Perhaps feeling wired and tired, low energy, low mood, maybe even ‘burnt out’. Modern day stress and fatigue have many causes – work, money, relationships, injury, chronic illness, the list goes on.

Cortisol is the main marker for adrenal health. Increasing cortisol production is the body’s normal response to stress and some stress is even helpful. For example, it’s normal for cortisol levels to spike in the morning to help you get up. But, problems occur when the adrenal glands which are regulated by a number of complex feedback mechanisms known as the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis for short) is stimulated too much and too frequently. This depletes your physiological and metabolic reserves that can lead to an imbalance in hormones. Unbalanced hormones, left unattended contribute to a cascade of other health issues.

How do you know when your body’s stress response is negatively impacting your ability to function well and putting your health a higher risk? The only way to identify which phase of HPA-axis dysfunction you maybe experiencing is to test it.

Metabolic Assessment Profile

Why run a Metabolic Assessment Profile?

This is a functional metabolic profile done through one morning urine collection that evaluates some of the body’s most important systems: digestion, detoxification and antioxidant capacity. (Not available for NY residents)

This tests measures these three values:

  • Urinary Indican checks our ability or inability to breakdown protein.
  • Urinary Lipid Peroxides measures the amount of oxidative stress (oxidative stress or cellular stress being the same stress that turns an apple brown).
  • Urinary Bile Acids determine if there is liver congestion or detoxification dysfunction.

These values help identify any issue with:

  • poor protein digestion, assimilation and absorption
  • intestinal toxemia, overgrowth of anaerobic bacteria
  • dysbiosis, SIBO, leaky gut, and pancreatic insufficiency
  • excessive oxidative stress, free radical damage
  • accelerated aging and breakdown
  • congested liver and detoxification issues
  • biliary stasis and poor fat metabolism
  • poor enterohepatic circulation
  • excessive antigen or immune complex load
  • presence of infection or infestation – serious liver disease

Intestinal Permeability (IP) Assessment

Why run the Intestinal Permeability Assessment?

Hypocrates was the first to tell us, “The gut is the seed of health”.

The gastrointestinal tract is the internal interface between us and the outside world. Anything that compromises the integrity of its barriers and its healthy function exposes us to potential inflammation, microbial imbalance and loss of digestitive ability that can present as many different disorders.

The Intestinal Permeability (IP) asses the function of the small intestine to do it’s job and provide a sound, selective barrier to toxins and large molecules, such as incompletely digested food particles. This test directly measures the ability of two nonmetabolixed sugar molecules – mannitola and lactulose – to permeate the intestinal mucosa and checks for an increase in intestinal permeability, which can indicate compromised mucosal barrier function of the small intestine, also known as dysbiosis, “leaky gut”and malabsorption. It also provides deeper insight into immunity and possible infections, villous atrophy and Crypt Hyperplasia.

Gastrointestinal (GI) Pathogen Screen

Why run a GI Screen?

Screening for pathogens is the first logical step in determining the source of GI problems. Infectious pathogens whether they are bacterial, fungal or parasitic in origin, need to be eradicated before the gut has a chance to heal and function properly. Many GI tests assess function before looking for pathogens, and while function is important, the dysfunction of the gut may be due to the presence of an infection. Once the infection is treated appropriately, function may return to normal. However, if a pathogen is being harbored and function is compromised, addressing function alone will rarely correct the problem.

The Gastrointestinal (GI) Pathogen Screen is a 3-day stool test and fecal examination used to simultaneously test for the presence of disease promoting microorganisms (pathogenic) parasites, worms, bacteria, fungus and help uncover any infection of the digestive system (GI tract), as well as rule out occult blood.

IgG and Mediator Release Test (MRT)

Why run the MRT?

We all agree that food is fuel. However, what have you ever stopped to considered that food is information. Food is informing the cells of your body and telling them how to react everytime you eat and despite all of the clinical and immunologic complexities associated with food sensativities, the single common component of all diet-induced inflammatory reactions is proinflammatory and proalegisic mediator release from white blood cells. The short of it is that mediator release is the key event that leads to evey negative effect people suffer.

What matters most is that mediator release, and thus an inflammatory response has occurred in your body – not that a potential mechanism is elevated. The Patented Mediator Release Test (MRT) is the most complete blood test for measuring diet-induced sensitivity pathways and quaintifying your inflammatory response to food and food chemicals.

The MRT gives you visibility of your food sensativities, even those labled “healthy” and thay may have never have caused you to feel sick after eating them. The best part is that is identifies the best foods for your body and forms the foundation of fully addressing food sensativies, gut health, hormonal imbalances and achieving the maximum outcomes in the shortest period of time..

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Are you ready to heal, be happy and live your richest life? Schedule a 1:1 Clarity Call with Sheila to discuss your personal situation and how to take your first steps toward healing.

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