Functional Wellness

I prefer to call it Functional Wellness. Why ? Because what most patients experience with Functional Medicine practitioners is a lot of unnecessary and expensive testing, along with an exhausting regimen of synthetic vitamins and vitamin drips. The only verifiable whole food derived line of supplements is Standard Process. Go to Standard Process page to learn more.

Functional wellness practice views the body as one whole integrated organism as the classical Taoist roots of Chinese Medicine does. They both serve as a patient centered approach to prevent and treat illness. When necessary and after a thorough intake and history, we may need to go further and focus on the bio-chemical aspects using serum lab and saliva testing. With this we are able to more efficiently tailor an individual treatment plan to restore and support your greatest asset: optimal heath and wellness.

This is also a practical method to evaluate suboptimal fertility before resorting to costly infertility treatments, and for those patients who are neither sick, as defined by a pathology (no tissue changes, or findings on diagnostic testing) but do not feel well.

Conventional Medicine = Intervention Medicine

With our current conventional healthcare model, patients are not being evaluated thoroughly, using limited blood panels in a very minimalistic approach. Conventional lab reference ranges measure results as normal or abnormal. They’re designed to identify disease states. If you fall within the reference range you’re considered healthy and normal, even when you don’t feel healthy and normal. Nutritional & lifestyle management strategies are rarely emphasized or implemented. Drug intervention is the first line therapy.

Conventional Laboratory Reference Ranges

Are mostly based on a bell curve analysis using average patient population lab results for your particular region. From 2017 – 2020 , the Centers For Disease Control reported 41.9% of American adults as obese. In 1962, the obesity rate for American adults was 13%. The obesity rates today and how they translate through blood chemistry, are averaged into these bell curve analyses. Therefore, falling within these lab ranges with the current rate of obesity is not necessarily an indicator of good health.

Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis

• Views health status from a preventive view, before the onset or further progression of disease rather than a pathological view, which serves to intervene to control symptoms after the onset of disease.

Functional Lab Reference Ranges

• Are more narrow & designed to more critically identify metabolic changes & early signs of imbalance, before they cross the line to a disease state. Using functional ranges, we can better determine nutritional needs, lifestyle modifications, along with more targeted supplemental support, rather than relying on a vitamin of the month approach that does not adequately address your individual needs.

Hormone Balance

Saliva Hormone Testing is a powerful, non-invasive tool for evaluating the effects of stress on your physical, emotional and mental health. When navigating daily life with low immunity, chronic stress, inflammation, unexplained fatigue, impaired glucose metabolism, insomnia, hormone related symptoms and more, saliva tests give us valuable information on how to most efficiently correct hormone imbalances and restore quality of life.

Hormones are more accurately measured in saliva because they assess “unbound or free fraction hormone levels” or what’s actually bio-available to exert specific effects on the body. Saliva is formed from the same tissue fluid which contain the “ free ”  hormones. This also correlates to ancient Chinese Medical texts which state: “All the body’s essences are found in the saliva.”

Serum Testing measures two forms of  hormone present in the blood; the first is “ protein bound ”, the 2nd is “free,” that which is available to “ pass ” from the capillaries into the tissue fluid.  Serum does not measure hormones that are biologically “active“ in the tissue. This may result in no treatment at all, or medications to address symptoms rather than the underlying cause of imbalance. Bio-identical hormone replacement should be reserved as a last resort and be continually monitored for other problems down the road.

Another Important Distinction between serum and saliva
Hormones wax and wane at certain times of the month , most notably for cycling females, therefore one serum hormone sample reveals little about what is occurring any other day than  the day of blood draw. When measuring cortisol with the Adrenal Stress Index, the cortisol output varies though out the day, hence, four samples are required for an accurate and useful reading for overall cortisol status.

What Do We Do With The Results? Hormone imbalances can most often be managed and naturally restored using nutritional intervention with supplemental support, herbal medicine,acupuncture, and appropriate lifestyle changes. Bio-identical hormones are advisable only as a last resort and must be monitored for other side affects or problems arising from overdosing. 

Hormone Test Panels

Adrenal Stress Index measures:
Cortisol, DHEA, Insulin, SigA, Gliaden Antibody
Cortisol patterns can reveal: unexplained fatigue, insomnia and anxiety, blood sugar imbalances, sex hormone imbalances, HPA axis ( hypothalamus, pituitary, adrenal) dysfunction, acid reflux patterns.

Cycling Female Hormone Panel measures:
monthly estrogen / progesterone patterns, testosterone, pituitary hormone secretions
Which can reveal causes of: irregular painful menses, migraine headache patterns suboptimal fertility, PCOS ( polycystic ovarian syndrome) and more.

Peri and Post Menopause Hormone Panel
Peri to post menopause can last up to 10 years. The right balance of hormones during and after this transition is important to long term emotional, mental and physical health.

Male Hormone Panel measures:
DHEA, Testosterone, androgens, DHT, Progesterone, & Estrogens
Andropause symptoms: decreased muscle mass & strength, low energy, decreased libido, insomnia, hair loss and more.
Bone Health Panel assesses:
Hormones and cortisol through saliva, bone breakdown through urine, without exposure to radioactive or x-ray sources

Diagnos-Techs, Clinical and Research Laboratory, founded in 1987, has been a pioneer and leader in the science of saliva testing, with a commitment to assisting healthcare professionals in restoring patient health and wellness, with over 1.2 million specimens tested per year.
For more information on the tests follow the link to the Diagnos-Techs website.