Functional Medicine

By integrating Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) diagnostics with functional medicine testing and Quantum Reflex Analysis (QRA) an incredibly accurate diagnostic synthesis is created.  We firstly utilize TCM tongue and pulse evaluation to reveal underlying organ and energetic imbalances.  Next an evaluation of functional medicine lab work is done to gain insight into possible biochemical imbalance and lastly QRA (aka: applied kinesiology protocol) is utilized to both prioritize which imbalance to address first and to obtain exact dosing requirements.

What is Functional Medicine?

Functional medicine is personalized care that deals with prevention and treating underlying causes, instead of just symptoms, for both illness prevention and serious chronic disease. It bridges the gap between conventional and alternative medicine. It is a science-based field of health care using blood, saliva, urine, hair & stool testing along with a comprehensive evaluation to determine the root of health issues. It focuses on supporting the body naturally with cutting edge nutraceuticals (not pharmaceuticals), diet and detoxification programs.  Most Western physicians are trained in the acute-care approach, which is not geared towards prevention of disease. Functional medicine is looking at the web-like complex interconnections of internal physiology to see what disease patterns may be trending. Once the needs of the patient are identified, we are able to promote function back to the body and organ systems.

Please take a look at an example of a functional medicine report: HERE to understand how it differs from a conventional western medicine blood test result.

How are our tests different from what your medical doctor would order?

Chances are that you have an insurance plan which dictates which tests are “medically necessary”. Because allopathic medicine and the insurance system are set up to look only for pathology, tests which assess general physiological function in absence of clear evidence of pathology are usually considered to be unnecessary. Allopathic (western) medicine also does not test for things that they do not have a medical treatment for. Sometimes, the tests your insurance company will authorize are simply not comprehensive enough to determine what is really going on. We order the tests we need to look for subclinical functional disorders, rather than ordering tests simply to confirm the presence of disease. This provides significantly more information which we can use to find the root of your complaints rather than providing a band-aid solution.

Pathological vs. Functional Ranges

While standard medical laboratories utilize pathological ranges to analyze the results of your blood work, we analyze the results comparing them against functional ranges which are typically narrower. This allows us to find “subclinical” functional imbalances which may be causing symptoms even though there is no “pathology”.

The primary difference between the functional and pathological ranges is the degree of deviation allowed within the normal ranges. Pathological ranges are broader, and it is likely that results outside this range ARE indicative of pathology. Pathological ranges are determined by taking the average results from all the people (who are mostly diseased and medicated) who are tested at a particular lab over a year. Thus, the normal range will be slightly different for every laboratory, and each year the “normal range” changes slightly, based on who was tested at the particular facility.

Functional ranges are generally narrower than pathological ranges, and it is common for there to be deviations from the functional range which are still within the “normal” pathological range. These deviations indicate functional imbalance, but are not indicative of existing pathology. The functional ranges were developed by the American Association of Clinical Chemists (AACC) and are based on a sample of healthy individuals. Utilizing functional ranges to analyze your blood test results allows us to find functional abnormalities before pathology results. Often, these “sub-clinical” abnormalities can be reversed through dietary changes, stress reduction, nutritional support and acupuncture to bring your body back into balance before you reach a pathological state.