Optimal Pathology Diagnosis

Functional medicine: what you need to know

Anyone who has ever ordered or had a blood test knows that the results are typically a battery of individual markers, measurements, and statistical ranges that offer very little insight into your actual or ‘functional’ health. Blood tests, at face value — are only useful for diagnosing patients already presenting with severe illness.

I believe we need to think of blood chemistry analysis a little differently.

My Optimal Diagnosis Pathology Reports can provide much-needed context to a blood test that is sorely missing. There are three major features of the Functional Medicine approach to blood tests that I use to provide this context.

1.    Functional Medicine is patient-focused, not disease-focused

Under the allopathic approach, the medical professional attempts to diagnose their patient with a specific disease so that they can begin treatment. Under the Functional Medicine approach, we want to build a comprehensive picture of our patients, their state of health and — most importantly — how that health is trending.

In this way, we can help reduce the likelihood that they will become ill, reduce dysfunction and improve their quality of life.

Thus, the functional approach to blood chemistry analysis requires a more nuanced assessment of blood panel results, which brings us to our second major feature of Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis (FBCA).

2.    “Normal” isn’t (necessarily) healthy

In a blood panel, a given biomarker’s level can vary wildly and still be considered within a normal range. Although extremely high or low levels of a biomarker can be used to support a diagnosis, the allopathic perspective doesn’t infer much from variations in biomarker levels within the “normal” range.

There are a few issues with this. The first is that regularly assessing these levels can show trends that help medical professionals treat dysfunction before it becomes disease. The second is that “normal” is a statistical construct — just because someone has the average levels of a biomarker for someone of their sex and age doesn’t mean that their levels are optimal, or even healthy.

What’s more, a biomarker’s levels — even if they are within a normal range — can have greater implications for a patient’s health in the context of other biomarkers’ levels. By taking a more holistic and nuanced perspective, we can examine the interrelationships between biomarkers so we can assess imbalances in our patients’ physiology, deliver real value to our patients and improve their quality of life.

3.    What can you do nutritionally, or naturally to manage your health?

With a formal education in pathology, pharmacology, nutritional biochemistry, pharmacognosy of herbal medicine and phytochemistry, I can provide a treatment plan that utilises the pathophysiology of the human body to correct nutrient deficiencies, modulate function of systems and even provide a justification for further investigations.

How Conventional and Functional Medicine Practitioners Use Blood Chemistry Analysis Differently

Under the ‘allopathic’ or conventional approach to blood chemistry analysis, a patient visits their doctor for a specific complaint, and if suspecting a certain illness or condition is at play, orders a blood test. When the test comes back, the medical practitioner assesses a number of possibly relevant blood markers and their levels, noting those that fall under a minimum level or exceed maximum levels. If these deviations match their suspicion based on the patient’s symptoms, they’ll make a diagnosis and begin treatment. And if I have a disease or condition – trust me – I want this type of assessment made!

As a Functional Medicine practitioner, my job is to minimise the likelihood that my patients will get sick enough that they require medical (pharmaceutical) treatment – or surgery as a last resort. As a result, we need to think of blood chemistry analysis a little differently. Functional Medicine can provide much-needed context to a blood test that is sorely missing.

I believe that from a public health perspective, every teenager and adult should test basic bloods and seek an Optimal Diagnosis pathology report to prevent chronic disease. Standard blood tests are not a burden on the national health budget – chronic disease is.

Can you see the value in this for your health?

I input your numbers and my Optimal Diagnosis software outputs beautiful graphs with detailed explanations of what each marker means. So that we can further direct and tailor treatment plans and priorities. You and I keep your report and each future blood test assessment can again be input to provide trends in your health markers.

The software uses biological or ‘optimal’ levels rather than reference ranges – which are formulated on averages of people who got that test i.e. unwell people. Sometimes trends or ‘sub-clinical’ results can be missed in the conventional medical model.

As a naturopath, I take time to process information and look for patterns to find the best possible outcomes for your health.

If this sounds like something you would like to investigate for your own health concerns, I am more than happy to have a free phone chat about how to get started.  Email me via: [email protected] to organise a call back.

Or book in for an initial consultation here: