Chronic Fatigue is on everyone’s mind. Why are we all so tired? It is this question that prompts people to search Google for information about fatigue more than almost any other chronic issue or symptom. From a functional medicine perspective, the causes of chronic or persistent fatigue can vary widely from food intolerances, traumatic emotional stress, viral infections, nutritional deficiencies, anemias, environmental toxin exposure, and more. Our approach is to use best investigational techniques and testing to discover the root cause of an individual’s symptoms of fatigue so we can come up with most effective treatment plan.
The first priority is listening to the patient’s story, because each individual will have unique histories, lifestyle factors, genetic factors, and environmental triggers that lead to their symptoms. But that is just the beginning. We also need to assess how the patient is functioning in real-time. That may require specific analysis and testing.
Stress Tests
Our comprehensive Stress Assessment focuses on identifying all the areas where an individual may be subjected to oxidative and toxic stress that can affect whole body function. We test for the 3T’s of all stress: Thoughts (emotional), Traumas (physical), Toxins (chemical) Stressors. Once we have identified where the main sources of stress are originating from, we can assess their effects on total body balance and function and come up with a detailed plan to eliminate or mitigate them.
How We Do labs
Our philosophy is to utilize lab testing mindfully with a focus on those labs that will give us the most amount of information with the least amount invasiveness or cost. We understand that patients put a lot of effort into dietary and lifestyle changes, and we want to know that our guidance matches up with their body’s needs. Personalizing treatment recommendations to your unique biochemical and genetic makeup is fundamental in functional medicine.
How we personalize your protocol involves hearing your story, assessing your nutrition and symptoms, listening to what you are able and ready to do with your current lifestyle, and then using valuable laboratory information to see where we can make changes that will have the greatest positive impact.
Labs We Offer:
Blood Tests
Blood testing has come a long way in the past decade. We are fortunate that now most advanced functional blood testing can be done with a simple finger prick test as opposed to a full blood draw. This makes testing easier and more comfortable for patients. Some of these type of blood tests we use include Food Sensitivity or Intolerance tests, Genetic Marker tests, Gluten Sensitivity and Celiac tests, and Leaky Gut tests. Understanding the results of these types of tests helps us make the most personalized and effective recommendations for your health recovery.
Urine and Saliva Tests:
Just like the advancements in blood testing, urine and saliva testing has made great leaps in the past decade as well. We can now assess everything from hormones imbalances and health to heavy metals, and inflammation factors with simple urine or saliva tests. These tests are easy to perform and minimally invasive for the patient. In addition, we can get a wealth of knowledge about the functioning of an individual from these types of tests.
Stool Tests
When we are trying to optimize how your body is functioning, we need to know how your body’s microbiome is functioning and whether it is properly protecting your gut lining or becoming problematic and causing inflammation and damaging or disrupting the gut lining. The microbiome is the collective genomes of the microbes including bacteria, bacteriophage, fungi, protozoa, and viruses that live inside and on the human body. Stool testing allows us to use the most state of the art functional tests on the market to analyze and evaluate the health of your specific microbiome.
We can check for a good diversity, and balance of bacteria. Too much of one kind of bacteria, or of bacteria known to create more inflammation is called dysbiosis. By knowing your balance, we can target diet and supplement recommendations.
The Personalized Approach:
Using personalized lab recommendations together with your story and clinical symptoms allows us to optimize your wellness plan. We take the time to explain and interpret the results of this advanced testing, using our functional medicine training, which simply is not available in traditional medical offices. We are so diligent because we believe everyone deserves the chance to get BACK TO BETTER.
