Conventional Lab testing is used routinely to identify levels of hormones, lipids, iron, etc in a blood sample, most of which is coverd by the Medicare system. 

Conventional testing is considered the Gold Standard as it is recommended to identify essential blood parameters. There are however, some limitations as functional pathology introduces a new paradigm.

Functional pathology measures metabolic and biochemical blocks in physiology of the body, genetic variants, analytes not measured in conventional testing, metabolites of hormones and neurotransmitters. 

State of the art technology is used to validate testing and provide clinically relevant information on your biochemical parameters.

Samples used to test may include, blood, blood spot, urine, saliva, stool, buccal swab or hair.

Can’t handle a blood draw? Not to worry, some tests are now performed in a finger prick blood spot sample.

Hormones are conventionally measured in a blood sample. Progesterone, for example,  can be measured using functional pathology in a blood, blood spot, urine, dried urine or saliva sample. This allows the health practitioner to differentiate between Progesterone that is protein bound or Progesterone that is free and bio-available.

Mental health conditions are typically diagnosed with the assistance of a Diagnostic and Statistical manual (DSM) questionnaire system. Integrative practioners can assess the levels of excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters in a simple urine sample and additionally, measure drivers of mental health conditions like zinc and copper levels, pyrroles, hormones, MTHFR genes, etc.