Functional Medicine
Take charge of your health with lifestyle interventions
Functional Medicine
The functional medicine model is an individualized, patient-centered, science-based approach to healthcare that empowers patients and practitioners to work together to address the underlying causes of disease and promote optimal wellness. It requires a detailed understanding of each patient’s genetic, biochemical, and lifestyle factors, and leverages that data to develop personalized treatment plans that lead to improved patient outcomes.
Dr. Emily will work to put together the pieces of your complex puzzle by seeking to identify the root cause rather than just masking symptoms. Oftentimes, she finds that one condition has multiple underlying causes, while one underlying cause may lead to multiple conditions. With this understanding, Dr. Emily targets the specific manifestations of disease in each individual patient.
Lab Testing
Functional medicine lab testing is very different from the testing methods used by your traditional allopathic doctor. Our strategy is to seek out imbalances in the body – such as nutrient deficiencies – rather than simply trying to diagnose a disease. The goal is to get to the root of the problem to restore the body to full health and prevent additional health conditions in the future.
At your first appointment at 3 Points Health & Wellness, we will assess your entire health history and conduct a non-invasive physical examination. Based on the findings during these evaluations, we will determine which lab tests, if any, are most appropriate for your unique needs. This will allow us to move into a more comprehensive evaluation of your health.
Some of the lab tests that we do at 3 Points Health & Wellness include blood, stool, urine, and hair analysis such as:
Blood Chemistry Panels
Comprehensive Thyroid Panels
Food Allergies and Sensitivities (Including Celiac and Gluten Intolerance, among others)
Gastro-Intestinal (Gut Profiles)
Hormone and Adrenal Testing
DNA Testing
Hair Mineral Analysis
Why Blood Testing?
Blood has lots of stories to tell us about your health. The blood chemistry and complete blood count (CBC) hematology tests are the most widely ordered medical lab test worldwide. These blood tests play an integral role in Western clinical medicine, and aid in the diagnostic decision-making process.
While most patients understand that blood testing is the norm in terms of health assessments, most begin feeling unwell long before traditional blood tests reach diagnostic levels. This means that many patients are told that their lab results are “normal”, and are sent away with more questions than answers.
"NORMAL" IS NOT OPTIMAL
Most patients who display symptoms and feel unwell will find that their blood test results come back “normal” – but NORMAL does not mean OPTIMAL. “Normal” just means that a patient’s results have not progressed enough to be considered a disease, and so most practitioners will dismiss them until an official diagnosis can be made. Until then, a patient is left in this dysfunctional state as their physiological systems no longer function properly, causing them to feel unwell for many years, sometimes even decades.
It is important to note that the blood tests are not at fault here, rather the ranges that are used to evaluate the results are to blame. The ranges used are based on statistics, not on whether or not the value represents good health or optimal physiological function. This means that the values are based on average blood test results, not the ranges that are required to maintain optimal health and vitality. In addition, most “normal” ranges are much too broad to adequately detect health issues before they become pathology, and are not useful for detecting the emergence of dysfunction.
THE FUNCTIONAL APPROACH
The functional approach to blood analysis prioritizes how you feel and function, and just diagnosing a disease. If your blood test results are considered “normal” and yet you are being burdened by symptoms, something is very clearly wrong. We use ranges that are based on optimal physiology, rather than the results from the “average” population. This strategy results in a tighter “functional physiological range”, which allows us to evaluate the area within the “normal” range that indicates that something is not quite right in the systems associated with this biomarker. This allows us to detect changes in how your body is functioning, and identify the factors that are obstructing you from reaching optimal physiological, biochemical, and metabolic functionality.
Another way that functional blood chemistry analysis differs from the traditional approach is that we are not looking at just one individual biomarker at a time in a linear report of the data. Rather, we use trend analysis between the individual biomarkers to establish your otherwise hidden trend towards or away from a functional health.
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