I practice biofunctional naturopathic medicine testing. As a clinical naturopath (ANPA) I order laboratory testing all the time for patients. So, I’m going to explain to you what biofunctional testing is and why we test.
Also, as a practising clinical psychotherapist, hypnotherapist (AHA), and mental health professional (PACFA) I may order tests for mental health patients.
Today, if you take your car to a garage the mechanic is most likely to connect it to a computer to run a system check. They run a system check because cars are much more complex nowadays. Without doing that they wouldn’t catch the errors.
Now imagine your own body is a million times more complex. Well, it is, isn’t it?
When something goes wrong mentally and physically, we must test for biological errors. If we don’t, we’re just playing guessing games.
What do your family doctor and specialists test for?
General practitioners (GPs) are restricted in testing by what the government or health funds will pay for (1). They can’t test for more, unless you pay privately (and sometimes they still won’t do it).
They’re also often only trained in basic testing such as standard blood tests or x-rays and scans, and are limited by budgets.
What this means is that many diagnoses are often missed because the right tests aren’t carried out and biological errors are missed.
GPs are frequently discouraged from advanced testing by their universities and associations who are partly funded by drug companies. Those drug companies want to sell drugs, remember: they’re for-profit businesses, so the doctors can often prescribe drugs based on poor testing results.
Advanced scientific medical testing
Medical testing is moving very fast now and every few weeks another test comes onto the market. It’s fantastic because we can catch biological errors that we could never find before.
This means we can target treatment much more effectively and efficiently. So, your recovery becomes faster, stronger, and more sustainable.
I’m continually training in new lab tests we can run. That doesn’t mean I will order a lot of tests, just the ones that I believe are relevant to your case when I take your medical history.
The results will give more of an indication why you’re suffering from a physical or mental illness.
What blood tests do we do?
Blood, of course, tells us a great deal about your organ function. Basic blood panels, however, can be quite basic so we may have to order extra tests for special items (2).
Also, blood panels test what’s happening in the moment, when you have an attack and often don’t indicate some long-term problems.
Sometimes people arrive with a copy of their old blood tests which aren’t current, and we need to see what’s happening right at the present time. It may be useful to make comparisons but not to tell you your present physical state.
We can do live blood tests in the clinic which looks more at the state of your blood, how your organs are working, or indication of infection and inflammation.
Checking for infections
Whether it’s bacteria, viruses, helminths (worms), spirochetes or fungi, they can all cause physical problems, sometime life-threatening ones.
These are all involved in conditions like allergies, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia and even neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s and neuro-degenerative diseases.
What you might not generally know is that they’re also responsible for mental health problems such as anxiety, depression, and delusions. We now know that infection in the brain is a major cause of brain damage and psychological and psychiatric problems.
They’re rarely screened for by your doctors when you’re presenting with psychological problems. This is despite the huge amount of published research information showing that this is happening.
Microbiome profiles
We have a saying in naturopathy, “Everything begins in the gut”, which is very true for health and disease.
You have thousands of different bacteria in your gut, some we know a lot about and some we don’t yet. They’re both good bacteria or others that either work with the body or against it.
It’s important that we identify unwanted overgrowth of bacteria that causes disease and mental health problems.
This information can contribute towards your treatment plan so we can poison the unwanted bacteria and supplement the good ones to restore natural balance.
Genetic testing
There are tens of thousands of functions happening in your body that are initiated by your individual genetic make-up. When you’re ill or dysfunctional it may mean that you have faulty genes.
We all have faulty genes but most of the time they don’t cause us problems. When you have problems physically or mentally it may mean those faulty genes have been switched on.
Genetic profile tests can identify many common genetic variants that might cause problems, giving us information about what might be happening.
All this information is used to compensate for the genetic differences to help you get better.
Hair mineral analysis
You need minerals to help your body systems function. They are not optional, but essential. Without the correct balance you’re prone to infection, osteoporosis, depression, hallucinations, cancer, and a whole host of diseases.
There are also heavy metals that you don’t want in your body such as cadmium, lead, strontium, and others. They can cause illness and mental derangement.
Blood tests don’t generally pick up these levels because they only review a moment in time. Hair profile tells us about those deposits that have been left in the hair for months (3). No other test does this.
There are 118 elements in the periodic table and a clinician must know what level each one of them is so your body can be well.
Amino acid profile
You have many different proteins in your body that give it its structure and enable biological function to happen. Each protein is made up of a collection of amino acids.
If you’re not getting those amino acids, getting too much or are unable to process them, you become sick(4). There are people who, through genetic faults, are unable to process certain amino acids.
Too much of one amino acid or too little can kill you or cause permanent damage to your body and your brain.
When we know more about your amino acid profile, it allows us to make corrections by supplementing one or blocking it so it doesn’t cause harm.
Saliva and urine samples
If we suspect something like reproductive hormone irregularities, sometimes it’s easier to do a saliva test for the levels, rather than a full blood test. This can also be useful when retesting (5).
We may also be looking for digestive enzymes and immunological markers or the presence of certain minerals that tend to occur in the mouth when some particular diseases are present (6).
Urine samples can tell us a host of information such as the presence of certain bacteria or the status of glucose regulation.
They also tell us how your body is digesting and processing certain nutrients or not. Coordinated with genetic profiling, we then begin to understand major sources of biofunctional disturbances (7.)
Benefits of clinical testing
Remember what you see on the outside is possibly not what’s happening inside your body.
When a you as a patient present in clinic with problems it’s important to be as accurate as possible in diagnosing the problems. Guessing is not good medicine. Fully assessing the you leads to better, faster clinical outcomes.
Not everyone who comes to see me needs clinical tests, but when you do, I will recommend it to give a clear picture of what’s happening to you.
Book your appointment with Dr Tracie O’Keefe DCH, BHSc, ND for help with physical and mental problems 0403 398 808.
References
(1) RACGP. (2023, May 10). Overview of the Federal Budget 2023-24 (Health). https://www.racgp.org.au/FSDEDEV/media/documents/RACGP-2023-24-Budget-Overview-Health.pdf
(2) Watson, J., Whiting, P., Salisbury, C., Hamilton, W., & Banks, J. (2022). Blood tests in primary care: A qualitative study of communication and decision-making between doctors and patients. Wiley Online Library. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/hex.13564
(3) Shamberger, R.J. (2002). Validity of hair mineral testing. Biol Trace Elem Res, 87(1-3):1-28. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/12117220/
(4) Elango, R. (2023). Tolerable Upper Intake Level for Individual Amino Acids in Humans: A Narrative Review of Recent Clinical Studies. Advances in Nutrition, 14(4): 885-894. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2161831323002892
(5) Kells, J., & Dollbaum, C. (200). Saliva tests, part 1: clinical use, elements of testing, and guidelines for posttreatment interpretation. Int J Pharm Compd, 13(4):280-288. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/23966517/
(6) Ljungberg, K.R., Börjesson, E., Martinsson, K., Wetterö, J., Kastbom, A., & Svärd, A. (2020). Presence of salivary IgA anti-citrullinated protein antibodies associate with higher disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis. Arthritis Research & Therapy, 22(274). https://arthritis-research.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s13075-020-02363-0
(7) Kennedy, A., Miller, M., Beebe, K., Wulff, J., Evans, A., Miller, L., Reid, S., Sun, Q., Elsea, S. (2016, September 1). Genet Test Mol Biomarkers, 20(9): 485–495. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5314726/
