Functional Medicine Testing
What is Functional Medicine?
Functional medicine is a personalized, root-cause approach to healthcare that looks beyond symptoms to understand why you’re experiencing them. Instead of treating conditions in isolation, it considers how your genetics, lifestyle, nutrition, environment, and stress all interact to impact your health.
What is Functional Medicine Testing?
Functional Medicine testing explores the gap between health and disease, and strives to identify the root cause of the problems in functionality. Ordering functional medicine testing and applying the results is a skill set we at Helios have been refining over 3 decades.
Functional Medicine Testing at Helios
Functional medicine testing at Helios goes beyond standard labs to uncover the underlying drivers of your symptoms, including hormone imbalances, gut health issues, nutrient deficiencies, and metabolic function.
By using advanced, targeted diagnostics, we’re able to develop personalized treatment plans that address root causes and support long-term health.
Tests We Offer
We’ve carefully selected the following labs based on the quality, accuracy, and depth of their testing, as well as the reliability of their methodologies. Each has been proven to provide meaningful, clinically useful insights that help us better understand what’s going on beneath the surface.
Comprehensive Nutritional Testing
One of the most thorough nutrient panels available at a great price. 43 nutrients measured both inside and outside of the cell. Intracellular levels give you the status of the micro-nutrient reserve while the serum (extra-cellular) tells you about the recent nutrient status. This panel provides nutritional insights to any chronic health problem.
Lab: Vibrant America (Not covered by insurance)
Comprehensive Stool Testing
Helios offers two fine labs for comprehensive stool testing, GI Effects by Genova and GI Map by Diagnostic Solutions. Each lab offers measurements of dysbiosis, good and bad bacteria, parasites, and yeast detection by very sensitive methodologies. Also, each lab offers testing for maldigestion, malabsorption, and inflammation. Discuss with your Helios practitioner which is the most appropriate for you.
Lab: Genova or Diagnostic Solutions, Each costing $189 to $389 depending on insurance coverage. 100% covered by Medicare part B.
Hormone Testing
While Quest, Labcorp, and Vibrant America offer many ways to test adrenal, thyroid, and sex hormones, there are more sophisticated labs for testing the complexities of adrenal hormones.
Lab: Diagnostechs ASI, $200 (Not covered by insurance)
Diagnostechs offers a four sample saliva test that is great for looking at the flux of cortisol as you move through your day. Normally cortisol levels start high in the morning and drop throughout the day to rise again by the next morning. Looking at your cortisol curve tells a lot about the health of your cortisol stress response. The Adrenal Stress Index also includes precursor hormones in the cortisol pathway.
Diagnostechs ASI, $200 (Not covered by insurance)
Lab: Meridian Valley, Starting at $199 (Not covered by insurance)
Meridian Valley offers a comprehensive steroid pathway urine test that gives a wonderful view of both branches of the Adrenal Steroid Pathway: glucocorticoids and mineral corticoids. This testing helps to be sure that the steroid cascade is well observed in complex cases where patients are already taking adrenal support, either herbal or prescription steroids.
Meridian Valley, Starting at $199 (Not covered by insurance)
This is a superb evaluation of the validity of individual allergic response to wheat and gluten. Not only can it tell you weather you should avoid gluten, it can tell you just just how much auto immune reactions are related to the gluten immune response. It includes typical and atypical celiac autoimmune antibody levels. What is very valuable about this panel is the autoimmune antibody levels to intestinal protein structures. These allow us to detect the inflammation of leak gut associated with gluten immune response.
Lab: Vibrant America (Not covered by insurance)
Wheat Zoomer
Ready to get answers?
Schedule a consultation to explore functional medicine testing and uncover deeper insights into your health.