"Functional" lab tests may use saliva, blood, hair, or fecal matter to determine how well the systems and organs of your body are functioning, rather than whether they are diseased, which is the realm of traditional medical lab testing.

For example, many patients arrive in our offices at Hearthstone with stacks of traditional lab results that are considered to be "normal," meaning that no organ disease was found, however they are still experiencing a host of symptoms. In traditional lab testing, the range of results that are considered "normal," meaning "non-diseased," is extremely broad. People with "normal" lab results are, many times, still not functioning at their optimal levels of health, and, therefore, are still experiencing many unpleasant symptoms -- fatigue, unexplained weight loss or gain, irritable bowel symptoms, chronic back pain, sleep problems, digestive problems, etc. In those cases, it is common to find, through Functional lab tests, organ systems that are underperforming and out of balance with all of the other systems of the body. Functional lab tests seek to determine the underlying causes behind your symptoms so that underperforming systems of the body can be supported nutritionally until they are able to function optimally.