Right now, in the alternative health world, attempting to help people reclaim their health is really nothing more than a health guessing game. Typically, when someone meets with a practitioner, they fill out a health history, sharing their main health complaints, along with a list of symptoms that are causing them trouble and impacting their life.
The practitioner then typically works with the client, helping them to make important lifestyle changes, such as changing to a healthier way of eating, getting better sleep, exercising more and managing stress. They may also incorporate high quality supplements as well. And while these are all vital parts of helping the body to heal, often their clients stop progressing or continue to struggle with some of their original health complaints. Lifestyle changes are a necessary part of restoring health, but these health coaches, personal trainers, chiropractors or other practitioners still often struggle with getting their client the full relief and health results that they know should happen. It’s as if they hit a proverbial “brick wall” and don’t have the tools to break that wall down.
So, having exhausted their other options, many practitioners are left to comb the internet, looking for the latest, greatest supplement or natural tool that could possible help them finally get results with their client. But that model of restoring health is nothing more than a guessing game and can even do more harm than good. And as a result, a large percentage of people who are seeing practitioners to feel better, are not getting complete relief from their health complaints.
Many of the clients that come to work with certified FDN practitioners have often previously seen more than one practitioner to resolve their symptoms. And while they may have been helped some, the underlying issues have never fully been corrected. So, these people continue to suffer, are looking for answers and looking for relief, but not getting it!
The health guessing game isn’t working!
Playing the guessing game prevents practitioners from getting to the heart of dysfunction in the body and helping to support the body’s ability to correct it with the proper tools. It is like throwing a dart at a dartboard while blindfolded. You hope you hit your mark, but it will likely take many tries for you to hit the target.
That is why it is vital to begin looking at health problems from a more functional standpoint, and recognize the patterns of dysfunction that are presented throughout the body. These are important clues to areas in the body that need additional support. These patterns of dysfunction are at the heart of what is contributing to the symptoms that are occurring.
That is why using functional lab testing can be such an important addition to an alternative health business. For practitioners, adding functional labs gives the tools to uncover subtle patterns throughout different areas of the body where proper function isn’t occurring as it should. It takes off the blindfold and gives you clues to where you should focus on extra support for the body, and can also show you areas where things are happening that are preventing the body from utilizing its instinctive ability to heal itself.
Client example
For example, a new client comes to see a health coach. This client has been struggling with digestive complaints, such as gas, bloating, occasional diarrhea and acid reflux. There can be many reasons why these issues are occurring. Food sensitivities, intolerances and allergies, leaky gut, overgrowth of bacteria, and even parasites can all cause those complaints. And to make matters worse, it may not be just one issue, but multiple that are contributing to the complaint! The health coach could grab that dart and just guess at what lifestyle factors would be best to work on with the client.
But when you have the ability to utilize functional lab testing, it gives you a snapshot of a person’s overall function, throughout different areas of the body. For the example client above, the health coach can see if there are challenges to the functioning of the digestive system. And as a result, can order additional tests that can help them to hit the bullseye, pinpointing exactly what needs to be done to support that body’s ability to heal itself.
This stops the guessing game and gives all of the pieces of the health puzzle for the clients we serve….and it allows them to finally get the results that they have been longing for. If you are interested in learning more about how you can become certified as a FDN practitioner and add lab testing to your toolbox, visit us at www.functionaldiagnosticnutrition.com.
