Optimal - The Blog

June 27, 2022

Tracking Trends Over Time Is Essential to Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis

In the hands of a trained practitioner, Blood testing becomes one of the most important assessment tools for the identification of clinical conditions, dysfunctions. And, most importantly, health trends.

Human blood is a walking library of information about the state of our patient’s functional health and well being. Past, present and future.

Using a functional analysis of regular targeted blood testing helps detect early stages of dysfunction and the early detection of chronic conditions related to almost every functional system in the body.

The main focus of Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis (FBCA) is to give you, the practitioner, a tool to assess the underlying cause of the many chronic diseases that your patients suffer from. It is NOT about diagnosis but rather a way to analyze your patient’s functional state of health and assess trends towards ill health or trends towards health. With that information, and information from your other functional diagnostic assessments, you can better prepare and implement an individualized treatment protocol for your patient.

FBCA is patient focused and not disease focused.

For instance you are not just assessing whether or not your patient has gallstones. You are also assessing for the weaknesses and imbalances in the patients physiology to try and understand why the patient has a trend towards the development of biliary stasis, which may end up causing them to develop gallstones. You are discovering and correcting the underlying trends towards a particular disease process or dysfunction so the body can in turn return to a state of health and wellness.

Trend Analysis and Tracking Change

When using FBCA, you can't just rely on one test to tell you everything. In Functional Medicine we are looking for change and in order to determine change we need reference points to see whether change has been made. 

Repeat blood testing allows you to do that. Here's how:

  1. You run a comprehensive blood test
  2. Add the results into the ODX platform
  3. Generate a comprehensive Functional Health Report
  4. Create a Health Concern specific treatment plan for your patient
  5. You generate a Health Improvement Plan that showcases your prescription to your patient and gives them that much needed "Reason Why" to take the supplements
  6. The patient goes away and follows your directions

At some point you'll want to make sure you're on the right track so you order another blood test. Here's why using ODX's analytical software helps. We generate a couple of Trend Analysis Reports to help you see if there's been healthy change:

Our "Comparative Report"

comparative_report_graphic

See change between a previous test result and the current blood test. Thumbs up and Thumbs Down icons give you a clear indication of whtehr or not there has been improvement in that biomarker.

Take it even further with our History Report:

Our "Blood Test History" Report

blood_test_history_report_graphic

The "spark chart" gives you a clear indication of how the blood biomarker results have moved over time with the green bar indicating the optimal range.

Summary

These are just a couple of ways to monitor change over time and give you a sense of trend analysis.

Expand Your Knowledge of Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis

For many medical practitioners, taking a functional approach to blood chemistry analysis is a novel technique. It could be that your discipline doesn’t traditionally focus on blood chemistry analysis, such as naturopathy or osteopathy. Or, it could be that you’re familiar with blood chemistry analysis, but focusing on functional ranges is new to you. 

Medical practitioners that want to learn more about the fundamentals of functional blood chemistry analysis and how to implement it in their practice could benefit from our Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis (FBCA) Mastery Training. Registrants will:

  • Learn how to analyze biomarker profiles and their dysfunctions for the major functional body systems over the course of 12 weeks
  • Earn 35 hours of continuing education credit, as certified by the Oregon Board of Naturopathic Examiners and the California Acupuncture Board
  • Get a Free 3-Month ODX Membership and Blood Chemistry (Unlimited) Add-On ($651 value)

Learning about blood biomarkers and how they can expedite your diagnostic process is an incredible opportunity to enhance your practice. Sign up for the FBCA Mastery Training today and begin learning how to drastically improve your patients’ outcomes.

If you’re still curious about how FBCA works, check out our page, About Blood Chemistry. After all, as medical practitioners, knowledge is the best tool in our toolkit to fight against disease and dysfunction.

Tag(s): Insights

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