Term papers!

We’re all familiar with the saying, “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”   However, if you tried this approach today, it is pretty much guaranteed that your every health issue would not be resolved.

Image by Monkeyc.net

With so many dietary options these days, that apple alone will not do us complete justice. Our biochemistry is unique and requires a complex assortment of nutrients in order to function optimally.   Sure, an apple is full of fiber and vitamin C but, sometimes, that just does not cut it! So….what’s YOUR unique biochemistry?   Besides the apple, what else does your body need in order to be at 100%?

To see what’s lacking, let’s look at your diet and lifestyle…

This is one approach.   By keeping a food journal that includes everything eaten at breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks you can get a fairly good snapshot.   We know that certain foods like refined bread products will deplete your B vitamins.   Making adjustments to your diet will certainly up your nutrition and help you to feel better.   What this food journal won’t do though is tell you:

• Which pathways in your body are being blocked due to a deficiency.
• What nutrients are in excess – too much of a good thing can be toxic!
• Which foods carry sensitivities for you – perhaps you are eating a food that is causing excess inflammation in your body?
• How your body is detoxifying the junk from the environment and your own body.
• So much more…

That’s where functional testing comes into play.

Have you ever heard your doctor say, “Your lab tests came back normal” but you still don’t feel “right.”   While these types of tests measure important risk factors and many people do benefit, often we must go beyond the cholesterol numbers, the blood cell counts, the blood pressure screening and anything else that they have sent you off to the lab for.   Settling for less than 100% is no way to live.

Perhaps you’re tired all the time, have monthly PMS, are functioning on little sleep due to insomnia, are depressed, feeling dips in blood sugar and energy and overall just feel zapped.   Answers to these and many other complaints are where the functional testing comes into play – it’s where you win because there is finally a way out of your misery.

Most likely your doctor has used traditional blood tests to assess pathology or in other words, disease.   This is great for diagnosing illness but does not necessarily tell us how your body is truly functioning today. Functional testing can actually tell us about your imbalances long before your health is entirely compromised.   It is preventative in nature and often gets to the root of the problem.   Let’s improve the quality of your life!

You have options! These options will lead you to solutions!

There are many different functional tests available and laboratories performing these tests.   In general they all look at biochemical markers and patterns. I have selected the tests that I feel are foundational for all of us.   They let us know things like:

• nutrient deficiencies
• energy production (or lack there of)
• detoxification ability
• foods we are sensitive to (which is different than a ‘food allergy’)
• how we metabolize carbohydrates and fatty acids
• if we’ve got leaky gut or other digestive issues
• our candida status
• essential fatty acid balance
• inflammatory potential
• neurotransmitter and catecholamine balance
• vitamin D levels
• and more.

Most likely your family doctor does not offer these types of tests.   They are however typically offered by your integrative medicine specialists and alternative healthcare practitioners.   In my “Nutritional Jump Start…Testing & Analysis” program I’ve included this option.   However, no matter what program you select, it’s always good to consider testing.   There are different entry points in terms of price making it doable for most individuals.

Getting Results.

Every laboratory has a team of experts looking at your results.   These are then shared with me so that I can create a specific action plan for you.   Often there are high quality supplements recommended so that we can fuel you back up!   But, supplements are not the answer to everything.   If stress is an issue, we’ll work together to come up with ways to improve your quality of life through stress reduction techniques and therapeutic foods that help you achieve a more relaxed state. Dietary changes will be recommended depending on what comes up in terms of food sensitivities or fatty acid balance and so on.Feeding our body optimally is not as easy as the headlines make us think.   You’re complex and we’ll need to find the puzzle pieces in order to put you into that state of joy and ease that you desire.   Functional testing helps solve a big part of the mystery that sometimes is being overlooked by your traditional medical doctor.

The perfect candidate for functional testing.

It may seem crazy to say, but I believe everyone deserves and needs functional testing in their lives.   Many times we can run on empty for a very long time.   We become so used to this feeling that we think it to be the only option.   That’s NOT true.

Athletes will perform better once they clean up their biochemical imbalances, children will be more focused and attentive in the classroom, the cloud of depression will be lifted once those neurotransmitters of yours function well again, the bloating and distension will disappear after your gut flora is in balance, the pain and inflammation will go down once your fatty acids are in the right ratios……you name it, there’s a way out.   I see the sunlight even on rainy days, do you?

Have you ever had functional testing?   if so, I’d love to hear your results!   Remember, you can feel 100% all of the time!   Do you feel 100% today?

This entry was posted on Sunday, October 4th, 2009 at 5:57 pm and is filed under Food, Nutrition. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.