Laboratory Evaluations For Integrative And Functional Medicine – Over the past 10 years, through my personal health journey and now as the Founder/CEO of Rupa Health, I have seen the power that effective and integrative medicine can have to significantly improve a person’s well-being. The key to this experience is working with a highly qualified physician who can order and interpret clinical laboratory tests—including stool tests, hormone tests, metabolic tests, and more.
Functional medicine is a unique causal medicine approach to health. These doctors consider factors such as diet, genetics, hormonal changes and other aspects of life as possible causes and treatments for patients’ ailments.
Laboratory Evaluations For Integrative And Functional Medicine
The prescription of effective medicines is much more detailed than the standard allopathic prescription. It includes detailed drainage and a series of laboratory techniques to get a complete picture of your body’s condition.
Functional Medicine Florida
Functional medicine practitioners focus on the absolute laboratory value, which is narrower than the standard laboratory values used in biomedicine. Anything outside of these core values can reveal patterns and markers that determine disease progression. By catching these markers in time, proactive doctors have the opportunity to reverse or completely stop the progression of the disease.
Functional Medicine Lab Tests Seeing as hundreds of physicians order functional medicine labs from over 20 labs through our lab portal, these are the most common lab tests we see ordered for patients. 1. GI Effects® or GI-MAPT: StoolPatient Price: $500 – $600 Companies: Genova (GI Effects®), Diagnostic Solutions (GI-MAP)
By far the most ordered test we see is a complete stool test, usually ordered after the first visit to the operator or integrator. The most popular stool tests we see from doctors are GI Effects® and GI-MAP. This test is popular among donors because the intestines play an important role in the functioning of the drug system.
Complaints of gastrointestinal symptoms. In the words of one provider, “I order this for each of my patients because it helps me understand what’s going on in the body from a root cause perspective—looking into the gut can provide unique insight into overall health. Stool testing has recently exploded with increasing research surrounding the gut microbiome and its increasingly understood role in overall health.
Applications Of Laboratory Findings In The Prevention, Diagnosis, Treatment, And Monitoring Of Covid 19
DUTCH Plus (Dried Urine Test for Total Hormones) is a comprehensive hormone panel from Precision Analytical, a hormone testing company. It’s important to note that almost every vendor we work with has a Precision Analytical account!
DUTCH Plus is for men and women. It looks at the production of sex hormones and their metabolites, as well as the levels and distribution of each, to give providers a visual picture of the hormone system in the human body. Precision Analytical offers a full range of hormone tests; however, HOLANDS Plus is the most complete. We are seeing providers switch from other hormone tests to this at an increasing rate. The appeal of DUTCH Plus comes from the expansion of Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) measurements, which carry biomarkers of an important part of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis (HPA axis).
Like the stool test, DUTCH Plus is on our list because instead of just looking for a “green flag” or “red flag” for a particular biomarker, it’s a complete picture of how a person’s hormones work together. These types of active lab drug tests help providers understand what’s going on in the body and paint a picture, rather than giving “good” or “bad” levels themselves.
The organic acid test, often called the OAT test, is the first practical drug test that is a “metabolic snapshot of a patient’s overall health.” It is often prescribed to many patients and is recommended as the first dose after the first appointment, especially if the patient is dealing with mental instability, fatigue, nutritional complaints or weight problems.
Pdf) Textbook Of Clinical Nutrition And Functional Medicine, Volume 1
The OAT looks for organic acids in the urine that are produced in the patient’s metabolism and often includes markers that check for yeast and gut bacteria. This test is offered by many different laboratories; the most popular at Rupa Health are the Organic Acid Test (OAT) from The Great Plains Laboratory and the Organix® Profile from Genova Diagnostics. In addition to the above markers, The Great Plains Laboratory’s OAT also includes markers for vitamin and mineral levels, oxidative stress, neurotransmitter levels, and is the only OAT to include markers for oxalates, which are closely related to many chronic diseases.
Many patients come to active medicine after 3+ years of seeking treatment and seeing 7+ providers (primary care, specialists, other alternative medicine providers, etc.) with no response. If the SIBO test is not already ordered by GPs, it is one of the first tests ordered when patients experience gastrointestinal symptoms that may be related to SIBO.
Small intestinal bacterial overgrowth (SIBO) occurs when bacteria invade and colonize the normally uninfected small intestine. It can cause a number of common foot symptoms. By measuring the release of hydrogen and methane in the breath, this test diagnoses the presence of SIBO.
5. IgG Food Sensitivity Panel Type: Blood Cost per patient: $200 – $900, depending on panel size Companies: Cyrex, Genova, Alive America
What Is Functional Medicine?
The validity of the IgG food sensitivity test is highly controversial; however, we see almost every operator ordering some type of this test. Unlike the other tests on this list, this functional medicine lab test is often ordered based on patient needs. The rise of direct-to-consumer food sensitivity testing from companies like Everlywell has opened patients’ eyes to IgG testing.
Almost every laboratory company offers some version of the IgG food sensitivity test. We have heard from lab companies that they need to offer this test “to compete” in the market. The procedure for performing these tests varies by laboratory, and the type of sample can vary from a home blood center to a full blood draw in the laboratory.
One of the most respected laboratories dedicated to this type of testing is Cyrex Laboratories. We see providers ordering different batches of Cyrex for their patients based on their food complaints. Gluten sensitivity is usually the first thing recommended.
Note: This is not a food allergy test. See more about the differences between food allergies and sensitivities
Functional Medicine Boulder Colorado
DUTCH Perfect™ is a precision analytical supplement for sex and adrenal hormones. It also provides a daily pattern assessment of free cortisol, organic acids, melatonin and 8-OHdG, all in one simple test. This test cannot be assigned to patients under 12 years of age.
The GI Effects® Fundamentals profile provides a rapid assessment of overall GI health, including information on food intake/absorption, inflammation/immune response, gut microbial metabolites, and potential dysbiotic or pathological organisms. This is the one-day version of the exam; also available as a 3-day trial.
DUTCH Plus™ provides a comprehensive analysis of sex and adrenal hormones and their metabolites. It also assesses the cortisol awakening response (CAR) and includes an insomnia cortisol sample. This test cannot be assigned to patients under 12 years of age.
This is a marker test to measure IgE antibodies to oats. Can be ordered as part of a custom panel.
Maresfield Gardens, Hampstead — Catherine Lee Architecture & Interiors
The Food Sensitivity Profile 1 measures the body’s IgA and IgG response to 96 commonly consumed food antigens by specific antibody-antigen recognition. This is the blood version of the test. Also available as a serum test. This test cannot be assigned to patients under 2 years of age.