We offer integrated Functional Medicine treatment or support for most adult conditions. We also offer highly effective preventive medicine with early diagnosis and treatment of subtle but definite biochemical, bioenergetic, physical and metabolic abnormalities.
In Functional Medicine, information is essential to detect correctable disruptions of function in your being. We use a very wide range of methods to gather information, and we select to appropriate methods (sometimes only one or two) for each individual.
Our main ways of gathering information include:
Root-cause analysis of your life history
Your life history often contains many meaningful key experiences that explain how you arrived at the present state of your health. We use a detailed life history to identify meaningful life events and their connections to changes in your health. The search for the root causes of illness begins here.
Mainstream medical tests
We carry out any relevant elements of standard medical testing that may not have been performed recently – such as tests for anaemia, liver and kidney function, inflammation, thyroid hormones, autoantibodies, as well as ECG and x-ray testing. These all contribute to forming a comprehensive picture of the functioning of your body.
Body Measurements
Your height, weight, hip and waist measurements contain valuable information about your body composition, how your body is functioning and how to address your health goals.
Bioelectrical impedance Analysis (BIA)
This is a simple, robust test of the health of your cell membranes as well as of the amount of water inside and outside your cells.
It measures the ratio of fat to muscle (an essential aspect of body composition), which is hugely important as an indicator of your metabolic function and as a way to monitor your response to treatment.
Autonomic Function Testing
The autonomic nervous system is the regulator and controller of all the functions of your body, and the source of the self-healing capacity that makes us – and all living things, different from objects and machines. Stress related to past, current, or even future experiences, the meaning we give them, and they way we cope with them, is probably the single most powerful factor that determines our long-term health and wellbeing. We measure the impact of this stress using a 24 Hour Heart Rate Variability measurement. The results of this test give us the information necessary to help you release the stresses and restore the self-regulating and self-healing capacity of the autonomic system.
Arterial Function Testing
Advanced computerized arterial stiffness testing is a sensitive way of assessing the health of the arterial system – even when there is no disease. It allows us to track changes and evaluate your progress in response to treatment.
Muscle Neurofeedback Testing
With many problems where there is no clear-cut disease or diagnosis (and in many where there is), the best sequence of interventions and treatments to resolve obstacles and activate the autonomic system is not easily detectable from the laboratory test results. Muscle Neurofeedback testing is a novel way of ordering the priority of treatments and tests for faster results in difficult situations. It takes the individualization of the patient further, where appropriate, and is a helpful way to understand symptoms.
Specialist Functional Medicine Laboratory tests
These tests are performed on blood, saliva, urine, sweat, hair or stool, and they are carried out by specialist laboratories that go beyond ‘establishment medicine’ in the things that they test for and the way they analyze the results. The tests can be used to assess hormone function, metal and chemical toxins in the body, levels of vitamins, minerals, fatty acids, amino acids, antioxidants, intestinal bacteria and the products of their metabolism, digestive enzymes, intestinal function, mitochondrial function, immune function, antibodies to foods, toxins, tissues and microbes, the presence of infections, genetic profiles/aging and many other factors.
Computerized Neurocognitive Testing
One of the major effects of many functional disorders is a reduction in the sharpness of thinking, brain fog, loss of memory. We use a computer-administered series of brain function tests (they take about 30 min to complete) to evaluate the speed and accuracy of your brain’s processing and its capacity to store and recall new information. This identifies problems before they become ‘diseases’ and makes it possible to track improvement as treatment progresses.
Bioelectric Frequency Balancing
Some people respond very well to bioelectric energetic testing (also called electrodermal screening), which addresses meridian energy imbalances– as used by acupuncturists for thousands of years – and relates them to modern terminology. This equipment does not produce diagnoses in the medical sense, but gives rise to information that can be very meaningful, and balancing drops that can assist with the restoration of good function.
If your disease has a label, these tests can reveal what is actually happening below the surface, they often identify the root cause of the problem.
When ‘all the tests are negative’ and mainstream medicine has said ‘It is all in your mind’, some of these tests may guide us to a solution.
The time of greatest opportunity to benefit from these tests is when you are well. They highlight imbalances that occur long before you become unwell – and make it possible to correct the dysfunction and avoid ever having the problem.