Normal Labs But Feeling Off? A Functional Medicine Approach to Diagnosis

Functional Medicine Diagnosis Approach - Optimizing Health Beyond Normal Lab Results Symptoms
Video Transcript
Hi. So today I want to just talk a little bit about functional lab chemistry and how we can balance blood chemistry to improve overall patient health. That's one of the most common questions we get when a potential patient calls is they'll tell us that they were told my labs are normal. But they still suffer from whatever particular condition they're suffering from, whether it's brain fog, or headaches, or back pain, or numbness, or tingling, there's a whole bunch of things that can be happening.

But the difference between traditional blood chemistry and functional blood chemistry is that on the outside of the ranges here, this would be where the normal lab values would rest within that. That's where the functional ranges and that's what you can see here is green. So this is where your body is gonna be functioning optimally and where a lot of things get missed is in this area here that you can see it's gray and that's called the subclinical zone.

There's on a lab test, nothing technically wrong with you, but it's also where your body is starting to feel sick, sort of like your body's giving you a warning sign, but it hasn't actually shown up yet. Now the difference with functional blood chemistry is that we still use those same lab values, but within that range we get a report back that tells us for all of the tests that we run what the functional range is.

So the beauty of functional medicine is that a lot of times we're not treating disease, we're not diagnosing diseases, but what we're looking at is how the body's functioning, what the symptoms are for the patient. And then we simply go about utilizing nutritional Supplementation, diet, lifestyle recommendations, different things like that to improve the overall health and quality of the patient.

So if you're suffering from a condition that you maybe feel isn't being properly addressed by traditional methods, or maybe you're, you're being told you need to go on a certain medication but you don't want to go on that medication, or you want to know if there's an, there's an alternative or maybe a natural approach, then that's what we can help you with, with Functional medicine.

That's what the program is called in our office on. We'd love to sit down and talk with you about that and see if there's something we could help you with. Thank you.

Hi, this is Dr. Bell, and in this video series, we're going to talk today about solutions to back pain and disc-related arthritis conditions.

Diagnostic testing has a huge role in both traditional and functional medicine. However, some individuals can be tested in a traditional lab and get normal results – even if they’re still feeling symptoms. This can leave people incredibly frustrated and at a loss for where to go next. Functional medicine takes a different approach to diagnostic testing by broadening the scope of results. Simply put – just because your body is operating “normally” does not mean it’s operating optimally.

Traditional vs. Functional Medicine Blood Chemistry

In functional medicine, we dig into how we can balance blood chemistry to improve overall patient health. Many of our potential patients are told their labs were normal in a traditional blood chemistry panel – but they’re still suffering from a condition. These symptoms can range anywhere from brain fog and headaches to back pain, numbness, tingling, etc.

A traditional blood chemistry has one range. If your results are inside of the “normal” range, you’re healthy. If your results are outside of the “normal” range, then you are sick – regardless of what you are really feeling.

In functional blood chemistry, we use those same lab values – but we also get a report back that tells us what the patient’s functional range is. This “functional range” is the key difference between functional and traditional medicine because everyone’s functional range is different.

The beauty of functional medicine is that we’re often not treating or diagnosing diseases – but instead looking at how the body is functioning and the symptoms of the patient. Then we utilize nutritional supplementation, diet and lifestyle recommendations, and other holistic tools to improve the overall health and quality of life for the patient.

If this is you – come see us!

If you’re suffering from a condition that you feel isn’t being properly addressed by traditional methods or perhaps being told that you need to go on a certain medication – that you’d rather not go on – there may be an alternative or natural approach for you to take. That’s where we come in! We’d love to sit down and talk with you to see if we can do anything to help you live your best – and most functional – life.

Additional Links & Resources

Learn more about how functional medicine can address persistent symptoms despite 'normal' lab results and optimize your health:

Functional Medicine Diagnosis

    • Explore the principles of functional medicine diagnosis with resources from the Institute for Functional Medicine, a leading authority on functional medicine education and practice.

Normal Lab Results Symptoms

    • For insights into interpreting lab results and understanding why you might still feel unwell, visit Lab Tests Online, a public resource on clinical lab testing from the laboratory professionals who do the testing.

Optimizing Health Beyond Labs

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