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Functional Medicine Lab Testing Explained

While a personalized nutritional plan, restorative sleep and supportive supplementation are three core foundations that go a long way to support our health, there is something even more powerful at your disposal: Functional Medicine Testing. This is a tool that gives you the deepest insight into your individual health data. Real-time, accurate information about what is going on inside your body holds the key to helping identify the underlying root cause behind any symptoms or health conditions you may be experiencing.

There is Always a Reason

When you experience any sign or symptom, it is not your body faltering, but rather a sign it needs additional support. Functional Medicine testing helps to identify nutritional deficiencies and accumulated toxicities in your body that are the reason you might not be feeling well. Once you understand these imbalances, you can then replenish any deficiencies and reduce toxicities through personalized diet and lifestyle adjustments to restore balance and embark on your path to wellness.

The Consideration With Most Laboratory Work

Anyone who has visited a doctor's office has probably been subject to lab tests at one time or another. Running your annual blood work is recommended, or other one-off tests may have been completed based on your current health concerns. But once the results were in, there's a good chance you didn't get to look at the raw data. Instead, your doctor probably gave you their interpretation of the data, with proposed treatment options – often in the form of pharmaceutical medication. There may not be anything inherently wrong with this, especially in the short term. Still, if you continue to experience symptoms after the prescribed recommendations, or where medication is often used to mask symptoms given to your diagnosis, you could be missing out on the invaluable piece you need on what the root cause of your symptoms are and how you can get well -- and that is possible through Functional Medicine lab testing.

Blood testing only looks at the blood at a specific time, and while there are certain blood markers that do hold valuable information about your health, and do form part of functional medicine testing – it is only one small part. Functional medicine testing also includes testing the urine, saliva, and hair samples that take your health data to a whole new level. Blood is a homeostatic fluid that always tries to maintain balance in the body and the range that may suggest "dis-ease" can be far off the optimal range you should try to maintain for your body to function at its best, so you feel your best.

The "Don't Guess, Test" Approach

Functional medicine testing enables you to take an in-depth look at any deficiencies in vitamins and minerals levels, hormone imbalances, gut and digestive function, how your body is coping (or not coping) with stress, overall metabolism and mood. It also identifies accumulated toxicities and when you have all of this information at your disposal, it can clearly outline the underlying reason why you may be suffering from brain fog and low mood, have difficulty losing weight, experience extreme tiredness, headaches, skin issues, digestive upset, reproductive imbalances like menstrual irregularity or low libido and any other health issue.

Take Control of Your Health

Disease is defined as a collection of symptoms and based on a diagnosis you are often given a treatment plan to mask the symptoms instead of identifying the root cause of why this has happened to begin with. At EquiLife, we have seen over and over again how quickly our clients' lives can turn around once they have completed the appropriate Functional Medicine lab testing. When you understand how your body has become imbalanced in the first place, you can then learn what you need to do to restore balance and get well. This is why Functional Medicine lab testing is one of the most popular and effective services we offer – right from the comfort of your own home.

Every test comes with a one-on-one coaching call with one of our certified health practitioners so that you can fully understand your lab results and armed with this data, begin to implement a comprehensive individualized wellness plan that best supports you. After following the recommendations, you have your initial base point and can do follow-up tests that assess your progress and any further adjustments that may be needed.

And if you aren't sure where to start, we have you covered and offer a Free Lab Selection call where you can explain your primary health issue and have the expertise of one of our certified coaches to guide you in the right direction. After your call, you will get the total value back as a credit toward the purchase of any lab or protocol recommended because our aim is for you to take back the control of your health, with the information you need to rebalance your body and live longer, stronger for life.

If you are ready to take your health to the next level – running the Big 5 lab tests will give you the most comprehensive look at your overall health and wellness. You can learn more about why using at-home lab tests to uncover your hidden health issues is so powerful from Dr. Cabral in this podcast. (Blog source)

Ready to learn more? Schedule a complimentary consultation here and we can discuss which lab is right for you!