Understanding Your Unique Physiology
 

Often in my Initial Visits + Comprehensive Health Assessments, I suggest completing lab work. I do this because it allows us to truly understand your unique physiological requirements and barriers to health, and ensures we are targeting treatment appropriately. Without understanding what is happening internally, there is no way we can target and customize treatment confidently.

What kinds of labs do you run?

Blood tests

These are the tests I run most frequently in my practice. We can test many different things from your blood including hormone levels, nutrient status, blood sugar, cholesterol levels, inflammation, and more. Blood tests are easy to collect, affordable, and accepted by all health professionals as standard. Typically I use blood tests as a first line method of testing in my practice.

When it comes to testing hormones, blood testing has some pitfalls. It can’t always differentiate between free and bound hormones – making it difficult to tell if a person truly has a functional hormonal imbalance. As well, it only provides a ‘snapshot’ in time, since hormones are released in a pulsatile manner. This poses a potential problem with monitoring treatment – it can make it falsely appear as though treatment is either not working or working better than it actually is.

salivary tests

Salivary testing is a form of specialized testing I offer in my practice. This test is not one that I routinely run, and reserve for more complicated cases of hormonal imbalance. It has some advantages: it’s not invasive, it allows for multiple check points which can show us abnormal hormone patterns over a period of time, and it measures the level of free hormones.

Salivary testing also has major disadvantages. It’s not used by all health care providers, you still can’t mitigate the pulsatile nature of hormones through this test, and the results can be skewed by things like brushing your teeth, drinking water, or chewing gum.

urine tests

Dried urine tests are another form of specialized testing I offer in my practice. Similar to salivary testing, I don’t use this test routinely and only reserve it for highly complex cases.

This test requires you to collect 4-5 dried urine samples over a 24-hour period. It is the most extensive hormone profile you can complete – it tests free sex hormones and their metabolites.

It has many advantages: it mitigates the pulsatile nature of hormones due to multiple check points, it tests free levels of hormones so we know what is functionally available to the body, and it tests hormone metabolites so we can see exactly where things might be going wrong.

Another advantage is that this test also provides us with a profile of organic acids. Organic acids show us biomarkers of certain nutrients such as B12 or B6, as well as neurotransmitter biomarkers such as dopamine.

Organic acids also show us levels of melatonin as well as the amount of oxidative stress in the body. This additional information helps us greatly when we are managing cases of hormonal imbalance since nutrient deficiencies and inflammation can play a large role in their development.

You can do this test in one day, or in more complicated cases – such as unexplained infertility – you may do it each day for an entire month. The biggest pitfall of this test is the cost.

stool tests

Last but not least, I sometimes will requisition stool tests for my patients. This is usually reserved for patients suffering from digestive disturbances, and allows us to see if there are any harmful pathogens present in the stool. This test is run through local labs, it’s affordable, and it’s accepted by all health professionals as a reliable and valid test. Depending on your concerns, this may or may not be suggested as a first line test.

Are these labs covered by OHIP, or in the cost of the visit?

Short answer - no. Since I am a Naturopathic Doctor working in the private health care sector, these tests are not covered by OHIP or in the cost of the visit. The price of the tests directly reflects the cost to the lab to run them.

Next Steps

If you want to learn more about Specialized Testing and my general approach to practice, I invite you to book a Complimentary Consult.

What’s a complimentary consult?

This is a 15 minute, complimentary call or in-person consult, where we get to know each other better. The Complimentary Consult ensures that I’m the right practitioner for you, and that you have an opportunity to ask all of your questions before moving forward with an Initial Naturopathic Visit.