FUNCTIONAL LABORATORY TESTING

Our office offers a variety of Functional Laboratory Tests that are difficult to find anywhere else.  These tests can give us greater insight into your body's functional health. With them we can assess your current Nutritional Status, Toxicity Level, Food Allergies, Level of Inflammation, and Hormone Levels.  This information allows us to approach your health problems in new and unique ways.

Our office offers a variety of specialty lab panels that it may be difficult to find anywhere else.  These labs are useful in evaluating your total health.  From these labs we can better address any functional, nutritional, and lifestyle obstacles you face.

FIA™ NUTRITIONAL PANEL
The patented FIA™ Blood Panel measures levels of selected vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and other essential micronutrients.

Current standard serum micronutrient testing reflects a person’s diet over a relatively narrow window of time. These result s can be biased by many factors especially by foods eaten during the few days preceding the test, allowing potential long-term deficiencies to be missed.

Now after 18 years of research, the patented SprectraCell FIA™ uses your own cells resting lymphocytes to measure the biochemical intracellular function of these cells under SpectraCell’s patented conditions can reveal a person’s functional nutritional status over a much longer time than conventional serum testing.

 

GENOVA LABS TOXICITY PANEL
In our modern age people are exposed to chemicals on a nearly constant basis.  Chemicals can accumulate in our bodies and have the potential to cause health problems.  Chronic Toxicity can cause fatigue, muscle pain and weakness, memory problems, an inability to concentrate, anxiety, depression, and increase a person's chances of developing certain kinds of cancers.

Once we determine which toxins you have been exposed to we utilize the JDP (Johnson Detoxification Protocol), a method of detoxification that works with your liver and kidneys to remove toxins from your body.  We can help your body elevate it's levels of a detoxifcation enzyme called "Glutathione Peroxidase." Glutathione is a powerful antioxidant and detoxification enzyme.  Also the "Cytochrome p450 Enzymatic Pathway" is very capable of eliminating Environmental Contaminants from our bodies, if we have the right nutrients.

By supplying your body with specific nutrients that it needs to produce these detoxification enzymes and enabling the elimination mechanisms, we can optimize the rate at which your body clears toxins.  Many of our Fibromyalgia and Chronic Fatigue patients have responded well to our detoxifcation protocol.  For more information call us at (319) 266-7788

 

GENOVA LABS ESSENTIAL AND METABOLIC FATTY ACID ANALYSIS
Joint pain in rheumatoid arthritis can be directly triggered by the release of inflammatory mediators like leukotrienes, whose production is dependant upon the body's balance of essential and metabolic fatty acids. A recent report presented at the British Society for Immunology Annual Congress in Brighton thus emphasized the importance of certain dietary fatty acids for patients with rheumatoid arthritis, based on the ability of these fatty acids to reduce the immune system's inflammatory response.¹

By increasing the levels of omega-3 fatty acids in the body, several studies have noted an improvement in inflammary conditions associated with rheumatoid arthritis, without any serious side effects.^2,3 In addition, a large-scale research project that compared women with rheumatoid arthritis with thousands of healthy controls supported the proposition that omega-3 fatty acids may actually help prevent development of the disease.⁴

The Essential and Metabolic Fatty Acids Analysis uncovers fatty acid imbalances that may be aggravating inflammatory conditions associated with rheumatoid arthritis. It's also crucial for gauging the effectiveness of fatty acid supplementation, and can reveal inborn metabolic conversion errors that may be preventing a patient from achieving optimal levels, even with adequate dietary amounts.

References:

1 British Society for Immunology Annual Congress in Brighton (December 5, 1997).

2 Calder C. N-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids and cytokine production in health and disease. Ann Nutr Metab 1997;41(4):203-234.

3 Ernst E, Nielson GL, Schmidt EB. Fish oils and rheumatoid arthritis. Ugeskr Laeger 1994;156(23):3490-3495.

4 Shapiro JA, Koepsell TD, Voigt LF, Dugowson CE, Kestin M, Nelson JL. Diet and rheumatoid arthritis in women: a possible protective effect of fish consumption. Epidemiology 1996;7(3):256-263.

 

ADRENAL STRESS PROFILE (CORTISOL TESTING)
This test can help us determine if you have a problem with Stress and Cortisol.  Cortisol is a hormone released by a part of your adrenal glands in response to stress. Stress, a lack of sleep, and a pro-inflammatory diet can raise Cortisol Levels in the body.  Elevated Cortisol Levels play havoc with blood sugar levels and deactivate the immune system. These changes can cause weight gain (especially around the midsection), ian nability to lose weight, fatigue, an increased likelihood of developing Type II Diabetes, and make it easier for a person to get sick from a virus or bacterium.

Cortisol can be managed by making certain dietary and lifestyle changes.  For more information contact our office for a consultation.

These are the Functional Medicine Labs that we test for:

Genova Diagnostics
Spectracell Laboratories
Biohealth Diagnostics
Immuno Laboratories
Accu-chem Laboratories
Analytical Research Labs