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Expand Your Search For Answers with Functional Medicine
Laboratory testing is an important part of health assessment. The last issue of Nutritious Bytes focused on interpretation of lab tests. Oftentimes, important information is missed in the results of tests that are ordered. The other major issue with lab tests is not ordering the "right" tests in the first place.
I have had quite a few patients tell me, "My doctor tested me for everything." That is not close to being accurate. I think a lot of people believe that they give a blood specimen and "everything" is going to be tested. Believe me, the price tag for "everything" would be prohibitive and, with current technology, you don't have nearly enough blood in your body to run tests for "everything". Actually, the way it works is that the doctor checks off tests for the laboratory to run on the given specimen. If your doctor does not request a test for Lyme's disease you won't find out if you have Lyme's disease. If your doctor does not request a test of your blood sugar you won't discover that you're diabetic. That is how it works. Only tests that are ordered are performed. A routine evaluation commonly includes a complete blood count, chemistries, and a lipid profile - a few dozen biochemicals at best. In other words, the typical work-up is very limited in what it can possibly reveal; it asks only a few questions.
Some of the important contributors to many chronic symptoms, conditions, and diseases are not adequately evaluated by conventional medicine. In fact, they are not even on the radar screen. Conventional medicine frequently doesn't even look for causes. Conventional medicine looks for pathology or the end-stage of deterioration. Amazing as it may sound, conventional medicine training skips some of the most important influences on health and disease.
Some of the major contributors to chronic unwellness are illustrated below:  | | Your symptoms are just the tip of the iceberg. What's below the surface? |
You don't get answers to questions that are not asked. One important influence on health is toxicity. If you're not looking for toxicity, you won't find it. There are many different sources of toxicity. One common source of toxicity that conventional medicine sometimes picks up on is medication-induced toxicity. For example, if you suddenly develop liver failure, your doctor might make the connection with the Tylenol you're taking. With more than 100,000 annual deaths attributed to "properly" prescribed medications in hospital settings alone, allopathic medicine could be doing a better job in identifying drug-induced toxicity. However, what about all the other sources of toxicity? These include waste products from intestinal bacteria, mercury from dental fillings, and more than 80,000 man-made chemicals permeating our air, food, and water. There are a multitude of surprising chemical sources we encounter before even leaving our homes in the morning! (Click here for an interactive website: "Toxic Effects Everyday Exposures") The health significance of toxicity is unappreciated by conventional medicine. The truth is that toxicity is a contributor, often a major contributor, to chronic health complaints. Mercury toxicity, for example, may contribute to ADHD, Alzheimer's disease, anxiety, atherosclerosis, autism, and autoimmune diseases. And that's just the "As"! Toxicity can contribute to just about any symptom and health condition you can think of. (Click here for a toxin-disease database.) Functional medicine tests allow us to ask the important question: "Could it be toxicity?" There are tests that measure the presence of toxic substances. There are tests that measure damage from toxic chemicals. Then there are tests that evaluate the body's functional detoxification status. I get a variety of this type of information from my favorite lab test: the Individualized Optimal Nutrition (ION) profile. This is the premier nutritional and metabolic test. Relative to toxicity, this profile measures blood levels of aluminum, arsenic, cadmium, lead, and mercury. It measures waste products from intestinal bacteria. It can identify ammonia toxicity (either produced from intestinal bacteria or "auto-toxicity" - the body's own biochemicals can reach toxic levels) and identifies xylene (a solvent) exposure. Toxicity may cause free radical damage to DNA and lipids - this too is analyzed with the ION profile. The ION profile also evaluates the reserves of some of the detoxification mechanisms used to protect the body. One of these is glutathione - a critical detoxifiying substance and the most important antioxidant. One study correlated longevity with levels of glutathione. Your body latches glutathione onto toxic chemicals to make them water-soluble so that they can be excreted from the body. It is not a good thing to be low in glutathione. One reason people become glutathione-depleted is lack of building blocks, which are nutrients obtained from the diet. These are also evaluated with the ION profile. For more on toxicity, see my newsletter, "Do You Need to Detoxify?" If you're health is not optimal, consider that asking new questions may give the answers you're looking for. To learn more about functional medicine testing click here. Please call my office if you would like to inquire about setting up an appointment. | 
