Our approach to restoring your body function starts with understanding that each person is unique and that not all supplements or eating programs are the same. This personalized approach allows us to handle more complex and resistant conditions — many conditions that fall through the cracks of conventional care. This is called Functional Medicine.
Many of our patients have tried many approaches and have often seen specialists from UCLA, Sansum, or Stanford. Those facilities are truly excellent at diagnosing and managing diseases and surgical conditions. They do not focus on wellness or dysfunction. So, when you compare the testing they do (pathological) to what we do (functional), you can start to see that one is not wrong without the other, just incomplete.
This is where the CFMP letters after Dr. Hobbs’ name come from, “Certified Functional Medicine Practitioner.”
There are Pathological lab tests and Functional lab tests
Pathological lab tests check for diseases that have already begun to overwhelm the body. We need to know that, but
what if you body is only beginning to dysfunction — it is still holding on, not giving
in nor being overwhelmed…yet.
Functional lab tests check for dysfunction in the body that shows up before the disease has taken a strong hold. Some
of the more common ones that we use include:
These are the laboratories and tests we use most often. — going beyond the basic.
- Genova Diagnostics
- Metabolomix (brief patient brochure)- a urine test to determine :
- if you are absorbing and utilizing enough nutrients for your body’s function
- if excess bacteria or yeast overgrowth are releasing chemicals from your gut to your bloodstream
- if you are absorbing ad utilizing amino acids (building blocks of muscles and body chemicals)
- Essential Fatty Acids – to determine if you are digesting and absorbing the building blocks of brain, joints, nerves, and cell membranes
- Genetic polymorphisms (SNPs) – to determine if you are able to convert common nutrients to the form used by the body
- GI Effects Stool Analysis –
- Metabolomix (brief patient brochure)- a urine test to determine :
- Cyrex – Gluten and Wheat sensitivity testing to determine if your body is reacting in an inflammatory and autoimmune (attacking your own body) way.
- ELISA ACT Biotechnologies – A blood test that tests 200-300 foods and chemicals to determine if your body is producing an irritating and harmful inflammatory reaction that is preventing normal function or recovery of your body. If you want to know how this test compares (and surpasses) other sensitivity (IgG) testing, watch this short video by the developer of this technology. (Warning: he’s a bit like Einstein.)
Most local labs are unfamiliar with how to perform or interpret these types of test. Also, most doctors are also unfamiliar with them, because they are not pathological(disease-finding); they are functional (dysfunction finding).
How do we perfomr/draw/collect these tests?
We have provided instructional videos to make it easier for you. Here is the video series: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLN6RC_nDPaa4sJXnkog0XifM57C9VfEin .