What Types of Lab Tests are Commonly Used for Functional Medicine

What Types of Lab Tests are Commonly Used for Functional Medicine?

Functional Medicine is just that, it’s Functional. Functional Medicine takes a look at your whole body, not just one blood test, not just one symptom. Functional Medicine Doctors want to know everything that is going on in your body. That’s why, when you see us at The Healing Center Denver, you won’t just get one test, you could need several because our Functional Medicine Doctors look at everything. If you have ever said, “I still don’t feel good, but my lab tests look normal,” you NEED a functional medicine doctor!

Basic/General Labs: Blood draws can tell the Functional Medicine and Traditional doctors a lot about what’s going on in your body. That is why getting a Comprehensive lab test done once a year is encouraged to make sure that there aren’t any crazy things happening. At the Healing Center Denver, the doctors will do a

  • CBC/Differential, Metabolic panel,
  • Lipid Panel,
  • Vitamin-D,
  • plus a FULL Thyroid panel (this includes TPO antibodies and all the T’s: T3, reverse T3, T4, etc.)
  • among other things.

Full comprehensive blood panels can tell us so much about our bodies.

  • Is your thyroid low?
  • Is your metabolism broken?
  • Do you have an infection?
  • Is your body inflamed?
  • How are your kidneys doing?
  • And your liver?

There is a large range of possibilities and answers to these questions.

Food Antibody Testing: If you are tired of guessing what foods are causing you reactions and which ones are safe to eat, then this next test is for you. The food antibody tests will give you a clear picture of what you should absolutely NOT be eating so that your guessing game can be over. In Functional Medicine, doctors practice with nutrition in mind. What food you put into your body is just as important as what supplements you take. Symptoms of food reactions could be

  • skin irritations,
  • fatigue,
  • brain fog,
  • joint pain,
  • Gas
  • Bloating
  • Stool inconsistencies

Cortisol Testing: Blood is great, but there are things blood cannot tell us that other parts of our bodies can. For example, your cortisol levels. Cortisol can be tested with blood, but it’s a one time catch and you need to see your cortisol levels first thing in the morning all the way to bedtime. The best way to measure your cortisol levels is to do it throughout the day via saliva.
Getting your cortisol levels measured will give doctors a look at your adrenals. Are they fatigued? If you are experiencing chronic fatigue, your adrenals may be the culprit. Hormone issues can also come from fatigued adrenals. With menopause and perimenopause, your adrenals have to pick up the slack of your ovaries turning off. Are they able to?

Gut Panel: Another important test that blood cannot measure is your microbiome. Micro-what? MICROBIOME! Functional Medicine is big on healing the good bacteria in your gut microbiome. A good reason to get a gut panel done, would be gas, bloating, food reactions, GI discomfort, constipation/diarrhea. A gut panel can tell us if you have any infections, dysbiosis, and malabsorption. The best way our Functional Medicine doctors can get a good look at what is going on is through a stool sample done by Microbiome Labs.

Toxin Panel: Lastly, urine. While a urinalysis is helpful in catching infections, did you know that urine can also educate you on what toxins your body is overloaded on? The truth is that we are all exposed to toxins everyday. Toxins surround us in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and household products. If your detox pathways are not working properly or exhausted from overworking, you may want to see what toxins are burdening you the most. Through Vibrant America, our Functional Medicine Doctors will test for heavy metals, mycotoxins, and air pollutants that are burdening your body.

DUTCH Hormone Testing: In addition, urine samples can measure your hormones! Through multiple catches per day, you can get a map of what your hormones are doing throughout the day or month. Symptoms of hormonal imbalances could be fatigue, mood swings, heavy or irregular cycles, and low libido. Looking at your hormones can explain so many different things. Our Functional Medicine Doctors like to use Dutch Testing for the purposes of measuring hormones.

These are just a few of the labs we use to identify and fix what isn’t work in your body.

The goal of functional medicine is to live a functional life. At The Healing Center Denver, we strive to provide our patients with access to their full potential. Functional Medicine Doctors are looking at your whole body and sometimes they don’t do enough. Your symptoms are there to signal something is going on, and we will stop at nothing to get to the root cause of those symptoms. Here at The Healing Center Denver, we use a variety of Functional Medicine labs and tests to get the answers you deserve, helping hundreds of patients get back to feeling great…whether they just have a little fatigue or get sick easily, all the way to managing autoimmune conditions.