The Importance of Accurate Clinical Testing

The Importance of Accurate Clinical Testing A Better Picture of Health through Labs and Tests When it comes to preventive and functional medicine practiced by me and other physicians in the BodyLogicMD network, labs and testing are extremely important. Doctors can easily miss the target if they treat patients according to their symptoms alone. We need the lab results to truly understand what’s going on in your body.

However, that doesn’t mean we just treat the lab values. We don’t treat pieces of paper — we treat human beings. When we evaluate your symptoms within the context of accurate test results, we get a much better idea of your overall health and you get a much more appropriate and effective treatment plan.

Follow-up Labs

Michelle Schultz, MD Physician

Finding the Full Picture with In-Depth Labs The physicians affiliated with BodyLogicMD use an extensive, customized testing profile for health and hormone evaluation. It gives us a tremendous amount of information and many different avenues from which to work so that we can avoid giving inaccurate or incomplete treatment recommendations. For example, I may see a patient with low testosterone and low cholesterol, both of which may be traced back to a single underlying problem. To treat this patient’s testosterone alone might be an error when I could correct the underlying problem that is depleting both his testosterone and cholesterol.

The initial testing profile tells your doctor all about the status of your current health. It’s an in-depth profile that has been put together with plenty of thought and study, and we periodically re-evaluate it to ensure that patients to get the best, up to date labs. This provides us with all information we may need. Some of the information that these labs provide includes: u Complete and in-depth hormone profiles, including thyroid and adrenal glands u Kidney and liver function u Complete blood sugar profiles, including fasting blood sugar and three-month average blood sugar u Cholesterol levels

Follow-up labs are customized to each patient. In most cases, your initial testing profile will give us all of the information we need to get you started on the optimal therapy for you. You will need follow-up testing after a few months to monitor how well your treatment is working. This gives us the opportunity to make adjustments as your body responds to your treatment. Health can be very complex, so we may need a few more targeted tests to clarify the information revealed by your initial testing profile. As we get a better picture of what’s going on with your current health, we can tailor a much more effective treatment to help you reach your optimal overall health.

Partnering with the Best in the Industry

The laboratories and compounding pharmacies used by the physicians at BodyLogicMD are among the best in the industry. BodyLogicMD has looked through the credentials, evaluated and selected many cutting-edge laboratories to ensure that the results we receive from your testing are accurate and detailed. Some of the testing laboratories that we frequently work with include: detailed. Some of the testing laboratories that we frequently work with include: u ZRT Laboratory. We use ZRT for saliva testing and blood spot testing. Founded in 1998 by biochemist and breast cancer researcher Dr. David Zava, Ph.D., ZRT laboratory is a leader in the field of saliva testing. Their cutting-edge technology helps us to monitor your hormonal balance as well as other innovative testing that they are doing. u Quest Diagnostics. With a long history of laboratory excellence and centers located throughout the country, the reputation of Quest Diagnostics precedes them. We use this company for blood testing. They provide very quick and consistent results. u Metametrix Clinical Laboratories. Tests performed by Metametrix Clinical Laboratories provide us with a wealth of information about your general and gastrointestinal health.

These tests help us to assess nutritional deficiencies, toxicities, parasite infections, metabolic function, oxidative stress indicators and health risk profiles.

u SpectraCell Laboratories. When we need a very clear and

in-depth picture of your cholesterol status and nutritional health we use SpectraCell Laboratories. One test provided by this company evaluates your intracellular function of crucial micronutrients revealing nutritional deficiencies that you might have. Another test, the LipoProtein Particle Test – LPP for short — provides the most comprehensive cholesterol profile available today. u ALCAT Worldwide. The laboratories at ALCAT Worldwide provide an extremely sensitive and in-depth test for food allergies and sensitivities. Since many people may have sensitivities to a wide variety of different foods, this test helps us to tailor your nutrition plan so that you experience the highest degree of overall wellness. u Pharmasan (formerly NeuroScience). The tests provided

by Pharmasan allow us to capture a clearer picture of the chemicals in your brain called neurotransmitters. In many cases, we can use this information to provide treatment plans that rely on supplementation rather than medication.

For example, if these tests reveal that you have low levels of serotonin, we can recommend the nutritional precursors for this neurotransmitter so that your body can build it without the assistance of prescription drugs.

Don’t Sacrifice Your Health Some people may resist testing due to the expense, but know that you cannot put a price tag on your health. Testing is an absolutely critical aspect of patient evaluation. If you want to improve your health and overall feeling of wellness and efficiently make progress towards your optimal wellbeing, it’s important that your physician have access to accurate test results. This is absolutely crucial in order to ensure that every patient is on the most appropriate and effective treatment plan possible.

We don’t treat pieces of paper — we treat human beings. We get a much better idea of your overall health and you get a much more appropriate and effective treatment plan when we evaluate your symptoms within the context of accurate test results.

Accurate test results are absolutely crucial in order to ensure that every patient is always on the most appropriate and effective treatment plan possible.

All the Right Labs The BodyLogicMD physician network works with several of the best labs in the industry, including:

ZRT for saliva and blood spot testing

Quest for serum and blood draw testing

Metametrix for gastrointestinal testing

To learn more about the laboratory testing recommended the physicians within the BodyLogicMD network, visit www.bodylogicmd.com or call my office at (888) 792-3141.