_edited_edite.png)
We do extensive functional medicine testing to get a clearer picture of what is going on in your body’s ecosystem. This helps us identify and correct imbalances to make your tapering journey easier.
Below are the comprehensive functional medicine testing you can expect to have with us.
1. Gut Health Test
Gut health is essential to our overall well-being. Imbalances in our gut biome can lead to multiple symptoms. This testing provides a comprehensive assessment of complete gut health, assessing the root cause of most GI complaints. It is a stool test that uses a combination of PCR, culture, and microscopic methods to ensure any relevant organisms are identified. It recovers live organisms (yeast and bacteria) for susceptibility testing and improved treatment options and measures metabolomics and can assess the interaction between the microbiome and its host. Also included tests for digestion and testing for stool inflammatory markers such as calprotectin, and sIgA.
2. Nutritional Comprehensive Test
Nutritional deficiencies can lead to a variety of health conditions. This test helps determine the basis for these health conditions as it provides a comprehensive test for identifying functional nutritional deficiencies and insufficiencies. It is both a blood and urine test that evaluates over 125 biomarkers and assesses the body's functional need for 40 antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, essential fatty acids, amino acids, digestive support, and other select nutrients. Personalized recommendations for nutrients are determined using an algorithm based on the patient's test findings.
3. Hormone test
Hormones play a huge part in our health. This test will provide a comprehensive assessment of sex and adrenal hormones and their metabolites, as well as the patterns and distributions of each, giving us a visual result of the hormone pathways in a person’s body. It may also include the daily, free cortisol pattern, organic acids, melatonin (6-OHMS), and 8-OHG.
4. Hair Mineral Analysis Test
This is a reliable tool to screen the dynamics of minerals and toxic mineral accumulation in the body. It examines the levels of mineral elements incorporated in hair and uses statistical methods to analyze them. This is a precise nutritional therapeutic approach based on the recognition of eight (8) individual biochemical types using elemental analysis of hair. This test requires the patient to cut a small amount of hair located near the roots.
5. Epigenetic aging Test
Epigenetics play a role throughout life, from embryo development to aging, and they are influenced by the environment and lifestyle. This test is an aging algorithm that gives a more comprehensive picture of biological aging. It measures specific epigenetic patterns that are linked to aging and disease and compares that result against what would normally be expected for someone of your age. It is a blood spot collection card that makes taking a sample as easy as letting a few drops fall onto the paper.
6. Food sensitivity Test
Managing a food allergy can be difficult but it can aggravate when you are limited by your knowledge of the precise triggers. This test measures IgG antibodies which are associated with delayed food reactions. This helps people discover the foods to avoid because it can reveal food allergies that you may not know about. After all, the reaction does not happen immediately after you eat the food, making it difficult to attribute your reaction to the allergen. It evaluates 22 of the most common food sensitivities. The test is run using a blood sample obtained from a finger prick. It requires one blood spot at a minimum, but more can be beneficial.
All these tests are our personalized approaches to a patient's symptoms. They act as a window into a patient's overall health and help the Benzo Taper team guide him/her to taper easier.