I have a long time interest in what many are now calling functional medicine. Many years before I started with Chinese Medicine I began studying Functional or naturopathic medicine. Now I incorporate many of the tools into my practice. Actually, functional medicine has a very similar map of the body as compared to Chinese medicine. Both systems look for underlying causes and mechanisms that are contributing to symptomatology. I find that Western diagnostic information, looked at through such a lens, can be extremely helpful in helping inform a wholistic treatment strategy, even when based on such a seemingly foreign system such as Chinese medicine.
I will use various mainstream and alternative diagnostic testing to help better assist with the overall picture. I like to always place such tests in the framework of Chinese Medicine allowing for a truly integrative approach. Examples of testing that I will use are:
1. Comprehensive Metabolic Profile
4. Comprehensive Metabolic Profile
1. Comprehensive Metabolic Profile:
This is a conglomeration of tests which evaluate the functions of the major systems in the body. This test helps specifically identify underlying imbalances in the body, giving a thorough and holistic perspective into a person’s condition.
I find that this test offers a great complement to Chinese medicine, because both models (both the functional medicine model and the Chinese medicine model) look at the relationships of major systems (i.e. the digestion or the liver) and how this impacts the overall picture of health and disease. This strategy is very useful for people who have not been able to get a definite diagnosis from Western medicine, or for those who are just not satisfied with Western medicine’s explanation / solution to their problem. Furthermore, when multiple systems are affected, this approach can give a guide to what area to target first.
The major systems tested are:
Detoxification – How well does your body perform this important function?
B-Vitamin Status – With stress, B vitamins get burned very quickly. These vitamins are essential for a multitude of normal functions of the body.
Food Allergies – Tests for IgG response to the 30 most common food allergens.
Neurotransmitter levels – How much dopamine, serotonin, etc. is your body producing?
Energy production – Mitochondrial energy production assessment via citric acid cycle components.
Gut dysbiosis – Tests for specific dysbiosis markers for bacterial and yeast overgrowth.
Fatty acid balance - Evaluates the amount of omega-3 and omega-6’s in the body, as well as the ratio to other inflammatory fatty acids (i.e. Arachidonic acid from meat). This latter ratio gives an indication of relative inflammation in the system which can contribute a plethora of problems.
Oxidative damage (oxidative stress, free radical damage, & ROS damage) and anti-oxidant sufficiency markers
These test can be done at home with a urine collection and two blood pricks. I have found this test extremely useful for people with difficult or complex conditions. This is a very comprehensive test that I offer at practitioner cost (as for all tests) for the convenience of our patients.
2. Hormone profiling
This approach is multifaceted and uses urine, saliva, and/ or serum to evaluate systems like the endocrine system (i.e. thyroid & adrenal glands) as well as fundamental organs like the liver. Testing for things like TSH, T3, T4, free T3, free T4, rT3, cortisol, DHEA, estrogen (2,4, & 16-OH), progesterone, androgens, pregnenolone, etc. can give a holistic picture geared for troubleshooting complicated cases or just preventative health.
Testing complete profiles (vs. isolated hormones) can give a broader picture and illuminate how various systems in the body are interacting helping achieve a treatment that involves correcting the root imbalance. Supplements are chosen to correct imbalances in known relationships instead of always just trying to supplement with a perceived deficient hormone. For example, many people are thought to have hypothyroidism when in fact they are producing too much cortisol (because of stress) inhibiting the proper conversion of T4 to T3. Supplementing the thyroid with something like synthroid will only aggravate the problem, and clearly will not take care of the root problem. Granted many people are just hormone deficient and need supplementation, but looking at the whole picture can eliminate unnecessary supplementation as well protect against potential harmful side-effects many times brought on by improper hormone replacement. I can help evaluate if you current regimen is beneficial or causing more harm than good, or help put together a supplementation program to correct such imbalances. Such decisions, as mentioned above, are always considered in the framework of Chinese Medicine.
3. Detoxification Profile
This profile will measure how our liver is detoxification function is working. Most substances, including our own hormones like estrogen, need to pass through the liver and become broken down into nontoxic substances that can be easily excreted. It is especially common, due to our lifestyle and diet, that our liver does not function properly and instead of producing harmless substances will produce dangerous ones (i.e. carcinogens) that are further then released into the bloodstream. These harmful substances can cause immediate problems or contribute to long term future disease. One can test how well your liver is handling its job and correct any issues if needed. This plays very nicely into the Chinese Medicine’s view on how the Liver functions as well as corresponds nicely many of the signs, symptoms, and diseases that typically occur when there is a Liver imbalance.
4. Food Allergy Testing
I use a couple of 3rd party lab’s to test potential food sensitives or food allergies. Read more here are my thoughts on food allergies and sensitivities.
5. Gastrointestinal testing -
This test is used to identify how much good and bad bacteria inhabits our gut, identify possible harmful microbials (such as yeast, fungus, parasites, etc.), and specific markers helping to determine gluten sensitivity, how much inflammation exists, as well as the overall health and vitality of the gut’s immune system. Furthermore it looks at how well one’s digestion, absorption, and pancreatic function is working. The testing I use utilizes breakthrough DNA technology enabling it to detect parasites at up to 1000 times more accurately than previous widespread testing from some of the biggest companies around. This very new technology has found parasites that many other tests have missed in the past, helping unravel some difficult gastrointestinal cases that have come my way.
6. Heavy metal testing -
I primarily use urine collection with a provocation agents to help identify possible heavy metal toxicity. However I will also on some occasions use hair analysis to follow the progress of our treatment.
7. Mainstream Western blood panels
Although not necessarily alternative, I find Western medical blood panels to be extremely helpful in understanding the complex relationships in the human body. I wait encourage patients to bring in all testing that they have gathered over the years, because many times there are small details that have been overlooked.
8. Preventative heart panels
There are a couple of expensive heart panels that I use helping to evaluating potential risk for heart disease. Although markers such as for inflammation are looked at, most important is the very detailed look at cholesterol which goes far beyond the overly simplistic total cholesterol, HDL, and LDL. As it is very clear now, one can have low cholesterol and be more of a risk for heart disease than someone who has high cholesterol. This kind of test looks at all the various particle sizes and risk factors that more correctly identify risk.
I use other tests as well. Please feel free to send me an e-mail with questions that you may have. Some of the companies that I prefer are: Metametrix, Doctors data, Genova (Great Smokies), Diagnostechs, Spectracell, and Berkeley Heart Labs.
B-Vitamin Status – With stress, B vitamins get burned very quickly. These vitamins are essential for a multitude of normal functions of the body.
Food Allergies – Tests for IgG response to the 30 most common food allergens.
Neurotransmitter levels – How much dopamine, serotonin, etc. is your body producing?
Energy production – Mitochondrial energy production assessment via citric acid cycle components.
Gut dysbiosis – Tests for specific dysbiosis markers for bacterial and yeast overgrowth.
Fatty acid balance – Evaluates the amount of omega-3 and omega-6’s in the body, as well as the ratio to other inflammatory fatty acids (i.e. Arachidonic acid from meat). This latter ratio gives an indication of relative inflammation in the system which can contribute a plethora of problems.
Oxidative damage (oxidative stress, free radical damage, & ROS damage) and anti-oxidant sufficiency markers
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