Routine blood tests are essential for preventive care, as they can detect problems early and offer insight into your general health status. Functional blood tests, however, offer more precise insight into how your body systems function and interact with one another paving the way to more personalized, effective treatment.
Are you in need of lab blood testing, but feel unsure about the best approach? Here’s more about the benefits of a functional medicine blood test, and how a functional medicine doctor can help.
What Is a Functional Blood Test?
A functional medicine blood test is basically a comprehensive blood chemistry panel. It can be used to evaluate biomarkers implicated in a wide range of bodily processes, such as your liver and kidney function, blood glucose levels, immune system health, electrolyte balances, and more. But instead of showing only whether your biomarkers are in a normal range (like with conventional blood tests), functional blood testing provides their exact levels often interpreted with the help of functional medicine blood test ranges.
Like general physicians, functional medicine doctors also use blood tests to spot diseases and identify imbalances contributing to health problems. But they can also see how different systems (such as your gut microbiome and endocrine) are working together, and decide whether intervention is needed to enhance your general wellness.
Functional medicine lab testing works much like any other standard blood test. You may be required to fast for several hours beforehand to achieve the most accurate results. When your results are in, your functional medicine doctor will meet with you to discuss them at length and recommend the best treatment approach.
Benefits of a Functional Blood Test
In order to understand the true benefits of a functional medicine blood test, it helps to gain a general overview of how functional medicine works.
Functional medicine doctors provide holistic, whole-person healthcare that aims to enhance every aspect of your overall health. Its treatment approach focuses on identifying the root causes of your health issues, rather than only the symptoms. It also focuses on prevention and on being proactive with your health, instead of acting only when symptoms appear.
With this in mind, here are a few top benefits of a functional medicine blood test:
Learn whether your biomarkers are within optimal vs normal ranges
Functional medicine doctors can spot subtle imbalances in biomarkers that may be missed by doctors who do not evaluate results that fall into “normal” ranges. Normal ranges typically represent averages among the general population.
Receive a targeted, personalized treatment plan
A functional blood test gives your doctor better insight into which interventions can be used to improve your biomarkers.
Improve chronic conditions
Functional medicine doctors can identify problems and imbalances that may be contributing to chronic conditions. For instance, a functional blood test can reveal exactly where your blood glucose levels are, so you can modify behaviors that may be driving diabetes.
Who Provides Functional Blood Testing?
Functional medicine labs are available only through a functional medicine doctor. Many lab companies and services also offer blood testing including at-home testing but these panels simply show results without providing in-depth, personalized information and recommendations about your health. Functional medicine doctors, on the other hand, take your entire person into account and develop customized treatment plans for you based on your medical history and health status. Another major benefit to seeing a functional medicine doctor is gaining access to other comprehensive, in-depth panels. Endocrine (hormone) panels, gut microbiome analysis, vitamin screenings, and allergy tests are examples of other lab tests your doctor may order as part of the diagnostic process or as part of routine, preventive care.
Blood Testing With South Park Functional Medicine
Do you need a comprehensive blood panel? Dr. Mahtani, our holistic functional medicine doctor in Charlotte, NC, offers blood tests and other panels that can reveal more about your health status. Contact South Park Functional Medicine at 980-414-4600 or email us at reception@southparkfm.com to request a consultation.
