Wellness Images

What is functional health?

Let’s talk about functional health. What does it mean? How does it apply in your situation? What would it look like to dip your toe in the water … to move your own situation forward in the context of an organized functional health program?

Let’s start with a definition. According to Dr. Jeffrey Bland, “The word function is aligned with the evolving understanding that disease is an endpoint and function is a process. Function can move both forward and backward.”

Dr Bland continues, “The functional … model for health care is concerned less with what we call the dysfunction or disease, and more about the dynamic processes that resulted in the person’s dysfunction.”

Symptoms vs Stability

We can look at this using the metaphor of an iceberg. What’s going on under the surface? Here in my practice, we look at underlying functional areas such as microbiome balance & gut health, nutrient mineral balance, circulation, adaptive response to stress, current exposure to toxic elements such as chemicals or mold, and lifestyle factors such as eating style, regular movement, and timely restorative sleep. We prioritize for your individual situation and then weave everything together into an organized program.

Organizing your program. Step by step.

The starting point is you! People are at different stages of life. We have widely varying lifestyles, histories, and needs. So we start with a simple conversation to see if it seems like a good fit to work together. We can use Zoom or phone. I am currently working with residents of the US. There is no charge for this conversation. The best way to get in touch with me to set this up is send an email to wellnessimages@gmail.com .

Next Step: Your History

Once we’ve agreed to move forward together, then we take a deeper look at your history. We may do another call / Zoom to thoroughly review your history before coming to a decision about how to get started. A simple comment like, “My daughter had black mold in the back of her closet the whole time we lived there.” can clarify our priorities pretty quickly.

We’ll come to an agreement about how to proceed. Remember, we are more looking at the processes and ecology that contribute to our state of health than whatever label may have been assigned to your situation. “What is this symptom telling me?” “What processes are involved?” “How can we improve function?”

Functional health testing

In order to get a baseline and direct our approach, we usually start with functional health testing. We access objective data to guide our journey together. This allows us to focus our attention on the areas where we can make the greatest impact, saving time, effort, and yes — money!

Test selection is individualized, depending on the person and their situation. Typically, we’ll start with two or three of these areas: microbiome balance & gut health, nutrient mineral balance, and hormone patterns. Let’s look at a couple of samples so you can see what we’re talking about.

Microbiome balance

There’s hardly a symptom, condition, or body process unaffected by the ecology of our gut microbiome. The gut microbiome has a causative role in a wide range of situations that most of us would prefer to avoid if we can: cardiovascular health, metabolism and blood sugar regulation, mood regulation including depression and anxiety, musculoskeletal pain, neurological disorders including Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s, “focus” and learning issues in children, cognitive issues and “brain fog” in adults, frailty and accelerated aging, sleep quality and circadian rhythm, systemic inflammation, bone health, any condition related to the production and metabolism of sex hormones, immune regulation including autoimmune conditions. And, of course, conditions of the digestive tract itself.

Here’s some great news! The ecology of the microbiome is modifiable as part of a wellness practice — through attention to lifestyle, foods, and often some targeted supplements. We have the potential to impact the progression of any of the conditions just listed, including the preventative stage. And it’s accessible to nearly anyone regardless of their age. I can and do work with children as young as two (with the help of a parent or guardian) through seniors.

Attention to microbiome health is a very common starting point in our health-building journey, along with attention to nutrient minerals.

BiomeFx test

Functional microbiome testing enables us to understand what direction to take for your personal situation. We receive information about population characteristics (what bacteria types are most widely represented in your gut) and also function. Once we know “who’s there,” and “who’s not there,” we can evaluate function. Are you able to break down carbohydrates well? Is your gut pH in an optimal range? Are your microbes producing enough of the beneficial metabolites that keep your gut tissue healthy? Are there harmful metabolites present that could compromise your gut tissue? What about production of gut-derived vitamins (B Vitamins and Vitamin K2)? And more.

We aren’t only looking for what’s wrong. Sometimes we get great news! In any case, the information we learn helps us prioritize and target areas that most need our attention. Both of the clients whose data is represented in the graphic below had other areas in which we could make a meaningful impact.

Nutrient mineral testing

Here we have the test result of someone with depleted nutrient mineral status, along with sluggish detoxification of heavy metals. Minerals are responsible for initiating the many enzyme reactions that permit our body to transform food into energy, manage our thinking and moods, and release unneeded metabolic waste. This person was challenged in all these respects.

Recent blog post: Your Mineral Analysis Test and Stress

Other functional GI testing

This person had digestive symptoms. It turns out that part of their issue was a significant H. pylori overgrowth. This can cause problems down the road. Not just the well-known risk of developing ulcers or stomach cancer. Restoring function is also necessary for support of our long-term vitality and resilience.

Since H. Pylori overgrowth is located in the stomach, the affected person isn’t digesting their food well. That can lead to all kinds of secondary issues such as nutrient deficiencies, additional bacterial / parasitic infections, low mucosal immune function, mood issues, cognitive issues, difficulty maintaining a healthy weight, body discomfort, poor nitric oxide utilization resulting in circulatory problems, and more. This person experienced most of these outcomes.

Hormone testing (and more)

This is the test result from someone with a low (sometimes called “flat”) Cortisol Awakening Response (CAR) — an indicator that their body’s adaptation to stress is compromised. We might suspect a flat CAR is if the person feels like it’s really hard to wake up and get going in the morning. They keep hitting (or wanting to hit) “snooze.” Other indicators include generalized inflammation, mood or memory issues, an autoimmune diagnosis, or untreated Obstructive Sleep Apnea. It’s a condition partially rooted in low oxygen levels in the brain.

Flat CAR is really a “canary in the coal mine” situation. Lack of morning cortisol response reveals an underlying health vulnerability. It’s accompanied by increased risk of autoimmune disease and increased mortality risk for persons with metastatic breast or lung cancer. One of the mechanisms involved is that it decreases both numbers and function of the body’s Natural Killer (NK) cells, an aspect of the immune system that supports our defense against both viruses and tumors.

UPDATE: Here’s her Cortisol Awakening Response on retest. It’s now pretty close to normal! Saliva Cortisol Total is nicely mid-range, too. This client was able to modify a condition that could have contributed to serious illness. (If we were to look at the full test report, she actually modified several.)

Creating your program

After we review your personal history and health goals, we’ll prioritize testing. Most of the lab testing we use allows you to collect samples (hair, stool, urine, saliva) in the privacy of your own home and ship them directly to the lab for analysis. Some tests require a blood draw.

The lab test results generally come back to me. I review them and identify natural strategies — a combination of lifestyle suggestions and supplement options — that we can discuss together in the development of your initial program. My role here is that of an educator. I’ll do my best to explain the results we see and what they mean for your situation. Oftentimes there are different options for how to proceed. You are in the driver’s seat.

After that, I prefer to have you keep in touch via progress check calls and emails. On average, I recommend progress check calls about every two weeks at the beginning and once a month as you become more comfortable. For most people, this support and the resulting dialog is essential to their best progress. We will often tweak and optimize strategies as you go, and I may be able to support you in problem-solving certain challenges.

Maintaining your best health

Having invested a certain time and energy in a particular stage of your program, it is recommended to retest. From there, we can modify our strategy for you with the goal of reaching the state of resilience you desire and learning what’s necessary in order to maintain it.

Your next step: email me to set up an initial conversation: wellnessimages@gmail.com .

References:
Bland, Jeffrey. Defining Function in the Functional Medicine Model. Integr Med (Encinitas). 2017 Feb; 16(1): 22–25.
Sephton, SE. Diurnal cortisol rhythm as a predictor of breast cancer survival. J Natl Cancer Inst. 2000 Jun 21;92(12):994-1000.
Sephton, SE. Diurnal cortisol rhythm as a predictor of lung cancer survival. Brain Behav Immun.  2013 Mar;30 Suppl:S163-70.