“Functional Medicine is the science and practice of Health Restoration and Disease Prevention. As opposed to only managing or alleviating symptoms, Functional Medicine investigates root causes of illness to attempt to reverse disease while restoring and optimizing health.”

This guide serves to assist new patients in making a decision regarding a potential FM provider. If you would like to schedule and appointment click here.

For females:

• If cycles are regular:
  • Kit to be completed between days 19-21 of cycle (day 1 is first day of period).
• If cycles are irregular:
  • Testing is to be completed 5 days post ovulation
  • To test for ovulation: use “Ovulation predictor kit”, found online or in stores
• If going through menopause, complete kit on any day.

For males:

• Kit may be completed on any day.
  • Please allow at least 4-5 weeks from the time you submit the kit until results will be received, processed and finalized.

Ages seen and insurances accepted vary by Clinician, please contact your clinician directly or view their profiles linked above.

• Where do I get labs done?
  • Quest Diagnostics is strongly preferredbut you may get them done anywhere your insurance will cover them (call insurance to find out).
  • Labs that are not completed at a Quest Diagnostics facility:
• If labs are done at any other facility, you must bring your own lab results to your appointment.
• The reason behind this is that lab results are often not faxed to our office after a patient gets them done. This is often due to the labs not being completely processed (most often, labs will not get faxed to the office unless they are “finalized” or requested to be faxed). This is a time consuming process as it is needed to be done for 90+% of our patients on a daily basis.
• Why do labs need to be completed 2 weeks prior to appointment?
  • MOST labs take 5-14 days to be completed as they are send-out labs.
  • RT3 specifically takes about 10-14 days to be completed.
  • Getting labs done at least 2 weeks prior to appointment will ensure that ALL of the lab results are finalized and will allow time for the patient to retrieve a copy of the results (whether it be through an online portal with ability to print the lab results, obtaining a hard copy, of calling the facility to have the results faxed to our office- patients must confirm that the lab results have been faxed).
  • Labs that are not completed in this manner may not be back by your appointment time (as the results will likely be “pending” and unable to view by patient).
• Did you forget to get labs done 2 weeks prior to appointment and now appointment is in a few days?
  • You have 3 options:
    • o Get labs done ASAP, call lab to make sure they fax the likely PARTIAL results to our office.
    • o Come to appointment without new labs, that is ok, assuming you have questions/updates to go over with your provider.
    • o You may reschedule your appointment, this is not suggested, as appointments may be booked out for some months.

*** Please keep in mind there is a 24-hour cancellation policy for all appointments.

• If you are taking thyroid medications:
  • You should be on a stable dose of thyroid meds for about 4 weeks for labs to show an actual change in the body’s system (any shorter, may not accurately reflect the amount of medication being taken).
• If you are taking supplements and getting labs done:
  • Look to see what specific labs are being tested.
  • If you are taking a supplement containing any of the nutrients being tested at this lab draw (ex: magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron, etc.), do not take those specific supplements ~2-5 days prior to lab draw (not preferred, but ok if labs are drawn on supplements if you symptomatically cannot be off- please inform provider at appointment which supplements you continued to ensure results are interpreted accurately).
  • If no nutrients are being tested, ok to continue all supplements, unless provider states otherwise.
• Thyroid labs include:
  • TSH, Free T4, Free T3, Reverse T3, Thyroid Antibodies: TPO and Tg; sometimes TSI if showing hyper symptoms or history of Grave’s disease
• We will review past labs at the initial appointment and then will discuss what new labs are needed.
• Self-pay lab options:
  • Walkinlabs.com
  • Lifeextension.com
  • Ultalabtests.com
• Will need to type in each lab test and order it yourself, often times these sites use facilities like Quest for their draw site.

• • Please call to schedule an appointment.

• Labs will not be reviewed over the phone, unless there is a phone consultation appointment scheduled, or your provider specifically tells you to call the office to review a lab (i.e., one lab may have been pending during your appointment, or you are pregnant and thyroid needs monitoring)

• • Specific brands recommended are either most pure or most efficacious.

• • We do not require patients to buy supplements in office, but give out recommendations

• • Start one new supplement at a time.

• • “Just get it in”

     

    • If you are struggling with timing of medications and supplements, for most supplements, it is better to “just get it in”- as Dr. Z would say, rather than focusing on taking it at a certain time.
    • Vitamins: A,D,E,K are fat soluble, best to take with fat containing meal or snack.
    • Digestive enzymes:
      • To be taken only with protein containing meals (not snacks), taken as provider recommends.
      • Do not take calcium, or iron supplementation near thyroid medications (at least 4 hours apart).

• If getting labs done:

   

  • Look to see what specific labs are being tested.
  • If you are taking a supplement containing any of the nutrients being tested at this lab draw (ex: magnesium, vitamin D, vitamin B12, iron, etc.), do not take those specific supplements ~2-5 days prior to lab draw (not preferred, but ok if labs are drawn on supplements if you symptomatically cannot be off- please inform provider at appointment which supplements you continued to ensure results are interpreted accurately).
  • If no nutrients are being tested, ok to continue all supplements, unless provider states otherwise.

If the script was written in office, patients are required to have the radiology readout report faxed to our office, and verify by the facility where it was completed that it was sent.

(subject to change based on individual circumstances), including but not limited to:

• ANA (antinuclear antibody: autoimmunity screen) w/ reflex titer
• CBC w/ diff
• CMP
• hsCRP
• Homocysteine
• A1c
• Insulin
• Magnesium, Red blood Cell
• TSH
• Free T4
• Free T3
• Reverse T3
• TPO antibody
• Tg antibody
• Iron and TIBC
• Ferritin, transferrin
• Vitamin B12 and folate
• methylmalonic Acid
• Vitamin D3

other individualized testing based on the person’s specific needs, ex: Other co-infection and immune system tests