Are Most Functional Health Tests Snake Oil?

Are Most Functional Medicine Tests Snake Oil?

Scientific research tells us that treatment approaches in functional health are best decided by looking at the person and their symptoms rather than allowing lab results to dictate those decisions.

In this video series, I provide a short checklist to help educate people and clinicians about best practices.

Video 1 discusses why weeding out unnecessary tests reduces costs and improves health outcomes.

[samhennies]

Thank you for mentioning the labs shortcomings. My teenage son had IBS-like symptoms for years. He had stool samples and blow into a test tube tests. Three functional med docs promised he’d be cured. I’m in health care- a dentist, not a real doctor. We took tons of pre biopics, post biotics, semi- pre/post biotics. Colonoscopies, endoscopies, allergists, therapists, ketamine injections, etc. Functional med docs all promised results. I looked at the myriad of tests for a number of crazy things. I hate to vent. He had problems, but looking back the functional med promises were not realistic. He lost hope and killed himself. Functional medicine and its promises to be superior to so-called modern medicine were a hoax. I knew it from the get go, but was hoping it would work. Yes, I realize modern medicine didn’t help either. It’s not a cure all when all else fails. Thanks for listening to my rant. Tough day.

[whitneykhan]

This video is a couple years old now, it would be interesting to hear an update. Have you looked at Function Health? 499 for 100+ tests performed through Quest. High value and the results come back with diet related recommendations. Seems like it could very much support integrative approaches.

[crisea]

I agree that some tests are less useful as per the examples in the video. But I don't agree with certain tests like heavy metals, mthfr gene, ebv, and so on which are useful.

[kareemahmed]

I suffer from essential tremor, what do you advise me to use supplement