Functional Blood Chemistry
While on most occasions, Whole System Health Scans and our other computerized analyses provide all the information necessary to determine the underlying cause of your condition, performing certain lab tests may sometimes be necessary. In fact, Dr. Ambrosio recommends all new patients at least get simple blood testing done (see below) to “cover our bases” and make sure we don’t miss anything. After all, such tests do provide certain types of information that can only be obtained through these means.
Advanced Blood Chemistry Analysis
While the standard blood chemistry analysis being performed by the majority of doctors out there is certainly relevant and important, it is only being used to rule in or out the possibility of disease. However, as many people out there are well aware, you don’t have to have a diagnosable disease to feel sick.
This is where Advanced Blood Chemistry Analysis comes in. This approach allows Dr. Ambrosio to screen for signs of both true disease pathology, as well as a number of different functional health conditions. Functional health conditions are those in which a person does not feel well, but does not show any pathological signs of disease. A classic example of this would be fibromyalgia. While it is certainly an accepted medical diagnosis, there are no blood tests that can be used to diagnose it. In other words, a person with nearly crippling fibromyalgia could very well have a blood test in which NO NUMBERS fall outside of the reference range! Does this mean nothing’s wrong? Of course not! The analysis Dr. Ambrosio will do first looks at what numbers fall outside the laboratory range. However, these results are then plugged into a tighter range of numbers known as the functional range. Numbers that fall outside of this range are not used to diagnose disease, but can indicate the presence of a number of different potential imbalances in the normal function of your body.
Dr. Ambrosio considers this approach to blood test analysis as one of the most valuable methods of health evaluation that he uses in his practice. While other testing is often times necessary for certain people, this set of tests gives a great amount of information at one time. Depending on your health history and symptoms, different testing modalities will be recommended.
Dr. Ambrosio’s use of diagnostic analysis does not stop with blood chemistry evaluations. While he will refer his clinical patients out for standard tests like x-rays and MRIs when necessary, he also frequently uses a number of other tests which collectively fall under the category Funtional Lab Tests. These tests are typically done at specialized labs who focus only on one of these sorts of tests.
Functional lab tests are a great way to gain extra information about your health condition, that standard tests, even including blood tests, might not reveal. Dr. Ambrosio’s goal with every case he evaluates is to get as much information about his patient that he can, before developing a plan. The less stones that remain unturned, the better.
Some examples of the Functional Lab Tests that may be suggested are:
- Thyroid Panels
- Salivary Hormone Testing
- Comprehensive Stool Analysis
- Advanced Urine Analysis
- Heavy Metal Testing