|
|
|
    |
Achieve Your Optimal Health:
A Guide to Functional Medicine Assessments
In the world today, our country spends the most
money on healthcare but ranks 37th in quality. One
of the many reasons why this is true is that we
spend most of our money on prescription drugs that
provide symptom suppression, instead of treating the
cause of the problem. Pain is not caused by an
Aspirin deficiency, nor is depression due to a lack
of Prozac, Paxil or Zoloft. This type of symptom
suppression therapy can provide temporary relief.
However, it causes many side effects and does not
fix the underlying problem.
Finding the Cause
The human body is made of 100 trillion cells that
all communicate and work together as a unit. When
the communication between cells becomes disrupted,
symptoms manifest to let us know something has gone
wrong, much like the “check engine” light on your
car. However, the body can have one symptom that is
caused by many different things. For instance,
headaches can be caused by muscle tension, toxic
accumulation, food allergies, low blood sugar,
infection, anemia, etc. Therefore, it is important
not to suppress the symptom without finding the root
cause. Would you cover your “check engine” light
with duct tape without going to a mechanic to
determine the source of the problem? Instead of duct
taping your symptoms with pharmaceuticals you can
find underlying causes to your health problems with
a Functional Medicine Assessment (FMA).
Functional Medicine Assessment
A FMA is a comprehensive scientific assessment of
your internal body that allows your doctor to see
how efficiently your cells are functioning and
determine your overall state of health. This
in-depth assessment includes a personal and family
medical history, physical exam, medical symptoms
questionnaire, Solaris test, and bioimpedance
analysis.
Treatment
Your FMA will include an individualized treatment
plan customized by your doctor. The interpretation
of the data obtained from the Functional Medicine
Assessment is crucial for the development of your
individualized treatment plan. To optimize your
structural, chemical and emotional well-being, your
treatment may include therapeutic lifestyle changes
such as dietary habits, aerobic/anaerobic exercise,
nutrient supplementation and chiropractic care.
Achieving optimal health depends not only on your
doctor’s recommendations, but also on your
commitment to following those recommendations.
The Technology
Solaris
Solaris is one of the most accurate and
technologically advanced instruments for monitoring
your cellular health. Think of you body as a fish
tank. If the water in the tank becomes polluted, the
fish will slowly become sick and die. Now imagine
your cells and organs as the fish and your body as
the tank. Picture the importance of maintaining
healthy internal fluids that our cells "swim" in
daily. This is crucial to your quality of life. The
cleaner your tank, the healthier you are. Solaris
lets us know how healthy or polluted your tank is.
It is here in these fluids that deterioration and
sickness develops and grows.
Solaris measures six values in your urine and
saliva. Saliva is used because it is an
intracellular fluid that provides an overall picture
and serves to represent the current state of the
body’s internal cellular environment. Urine
represents what’s being filtered and excreted by the
body. By comparing what’s inside the cells, via
saliva, with what’s being excreted by the cells, via
urine, you can clearly see how nutrients and other
elements are moving throughout the body.
The six values assessed by Solaris are:
-
pH —
indicates the acid- alkaline balance in the
biological fluid
-
rH2 —
indicates the level of oxidation/reduction in
the biological fluid
-
Electrical conductivity (also known as
resistivity) —
provides information concerning the level of
electrically conductive ions in the biological
fluid
-
Ammonia —
indicates the amount of ammonia (a waste product
of metabolism) in your body fluid
-
Nitrate —
indicates the amount of nitrate (a waste product
of metabolism) in your body fluid
-
Brix —
indicates the level of simple as well as complex
carbohydrates in the urine
This valuable information provides your doctor with
information about your:
Bioimpedance Analysis
Bioimpedance analysis (BIA) is a simple,
noninvasive, in-office test that assesses body
composition. Body composition is determined by
measuring your body’s resistance (or impedance) to a
harmless electrical current as it travels through
water found in your muscle and fat. A BIA provides
your doctor with the following information about
your body:
-
Lean Body Mass —
Includes muscle and all non-fat tissue. The loss
of lean body tissue is related to chronic
illness.
-
Body Fat —
The amount of stored fat in the body. Excess
body fat is related to chronic illness and
increased risk to degenerative disease.
-
Intracellular Water —
The amount of water contained within the body's
cells. Generally, an increase in intracellular
water is associated with good nutrition in the
cell and good health.
-
Extracellular Water —
Associated with unwanted water retention and a
decline in health when in excess.
-
Phase Angle —
Associated with the health of body cells. The
higher the phase angle, the better. Phase angles
are generally low in critically ill patients and
have been closely associated with mortality. A
reduction in phase angle when measured serially
in a patient has been associated with states of
chronic or acute illness.
-
Capacitance —
Associated with the integrity of the cellular
membranes made up of phospholipids (Essential
fatty Acids).
These measurements allow your doctor to:
-
Monitor acute or chronic disease
-
Assess the potential health risks in obese
patients
-
Prescribe and track lifestyle changes
-
Monitor malnutrition relative to eating
disorders
-
Assess the effects of nutrition and training in
athletes and non-athletes
-
Monitor body composition during weight loss
(i.e. water loss, fat loss, muscle loss)
|
The
information contained in this website is for educational purposes
only. This information is not for the purpose of diagnosing,
treatment, prevention or cure of any disease. Our assessments
intend to evaluate an individual's metabolic status and indicate
beneficial lifestyle factors including those foods and supplemental
food factors that are either excessive or insufficient in his/her diet. |
|
 |
|
"I was
not having difficulty getting pregnant but
would have miscarriages after the seventh
week of the pregnancy. I was so afraid to
try again since I had been through it twice.
After going through the initial testing [I
was
told] I was very acidic and after going
through the diet, I found out I was allergic
to gluten and to lactose. When I was tested
for progesterone on one of the pregnancies,
it was low. After finishing approx 6mos of
medical food and functional medicine
assessments , my husband and I tried getting
pregnant again. I am now 6 weeks away from
delivering my third child. We are very
thankful... I
didn't know that functional medicine existed
and that it would help me greatly."
- Patricia Galvez |
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
"I had back problems, was very depressed, overweight and
had knee problems. I thought my age had something to do
with most of my problems... [I] started on the functional medicine.
Since starting... I feel great mentally
and physically. My back and knees no longer hurt. I am
walking up to 4 miles a day pain free. I have lost 20
pounds and I am no longer depressed. I have stopped
taking a lot of my medications because there is no
longer a need for them. I have already been recommending
people... I feel better now than I have in 30 years."
- Diana Webb, Retired
|
|
|
| |
|
