Functional Medicine Tests for IBS (and more)

[RetMD21]

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I typed in "vitamin D improves cognitive decline" in Google and got 22 million results. It is a $29 test, a very common deficiency in the U.S., especially among the elderly. "Epidemiologic evidence indicates an association between low levels of vitamin D and diseases associated with aging such as cognitive decline, depression, osteoporosis, cardiovascular disease, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and cancer.

I failed to do an adequate job of explaining the difference between an association and an effective intervention.

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It is sad that many doctors in the U.S. are resistant to basic nutritional testing. Some very inexpensive and simple tests could do so much to improve the health of the elderly.

You can find a few here and there that will do tests of no known benefit and recommend and likely sell supplements. What you will find is that they have no actual specialized training in neurology. Bredesen isn't taken seriously by his peers. The same applies to his followers.

Here is a link to the 2020 Lancet article on dementia prevention intervention and care.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7392084/
Anyone interested can click through to the full article.

It is good for people to have hope but not if this entails chasing futile interventions and enriching scammers. I am done.

[daylatedollarshort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RetMD21 I failed to do an adequate job of explaining the difference between an association and an effective intervention. You can find a few here and there that will do tests of no known benefit and recommend and likely sell supplements. What you will find is that they have no actual specialized training in neurology. Bredesen isn't taken seriously by his peers. The same applies to his followers. Here is a link to the 2020 Lancet article on dementia prevention intervention and care. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7392084/ Anyone interested can click through to the full article. It is good for people to have hope but not if this entails chasing futile interventions and enriching scammers. I am done.

This extensive gut, nutrition, and organic acids testing is the approach used by most functional medicine doctors. The benefits to correcting nutritional deficiencies, out of range amino acids, and eradicating conditions like H pylori and e-coli are all positive. The costs for all the tests are minimal and the potential benefits huge for good health, whether or not they treat cognitive decline, even though most evidence suggest they might be factors. Surely you are not advocating not treating a vitamin D deficiency or not treating a fungal infection merely because it might not help Alzheimer's? These are all conditions that should be treated anyway, the benefits of identifying and treating are all positive and the costs to test and treat are all minimal.

We can do all of these tests in my initial posts in my family for around $1.6K a person. So far we've found 3 vitamin D deficiencies, out of range mast cell activation indicators, multiple high toxic metal issues, a likely glyphosate overload, one case of anemia, and many, many other correctable issues the regular doctors missed simply because they don't test enough with very, very simple and inexpensive tests compared to most prescription drugs, much more invasive tests and surgical options.

These are all mainstream medical tests that identify correctable issues if you know you have them, but you have to run much more extensive testing than the average doctors does, in order to find that out.

I asked my doctor for a B6 test because a deficiency of B6 is linked in the research to a genetic disorder that I and others in my family have. She did not only not suggest the test herself, even when I asked for it, she was resistant. She said she would have to research it herself first before she could recommend the test. That is crazy. Those tests alone cost like $50, even less in a panel, which is a lot less than her time. I did a nutrition panel myself with over 100 markers for $400, so the B6 part cost was around $4. And yes, I was deficient in it, along with several other easily correctable issues identified by the test.

[daylatedollarshort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by RetMD21;2808091Here is a link to the 2020 Lancet article on dementia prevention intervention and care. [URL https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7392084/[/URL] Anyone interested can click through to the full article.

This article mentions association with other disorders, also linked to nutritional deficiencies -

Association of nutritional factors with hearing loss - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6412883/

Potential micronutrient deficiency lacks recognition in diabetes - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2032692/

Understanding nutrition, depression and mental health - https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2738337/

“In individuals at high risk of diabetes or with newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes, vitamin D supplementation for 6 months significantly increased peripheral insulin sensitivity and ß-cell function, suggesting that it may slow metabolic deterioration in this population,” explained the recent report." - https://www.healthline.com/health-ne...sh-risk-of-t2d

Vitamin D deficiency--a new cause of cochlear deafness - https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6602194/

To name just a few of the thousands upon thousands of studies like these on Pubmed.

[tmm99]

I think it's good to do different diagnostic tests, but what if you find out you have H pylori, d-diff, high levels of heavy metal, etc? Tons of antibiotics and chelation therapy? I think courses of treatments are warranted if you're experiencing severe symptoms, but if the results are positive for those diseases and if you're experiencing very very mild symptoms, I am not sure if you'd want to go through with some of the established drugs/procedures... I'm curious to know how you're dealing with this.

[daylatedollarshort]

Quote:

Originally Posted by tmm99 I think it's good to do different diagnostic tests, but what if you find out you have H pylori, d-diff, high levels of heavy metal, etc? Tons of antibiotics and chelation therapy? I think courses of treatments are warranted if you're experiencing severe symptoms, but if the results are positive for those diseases and if you're experiencing very very mild symptoms, I am not sure if you'd want to go through with some of the established drugs/procedures... I'm curious to know how you're dealing with this.

Most of the tests we've done have interpretive guides and videos with natural treatment suggestions. We aren't doing any prescription drugs or chelation therapies. It turns out many vitamins and minerals have antibiotic and antifungal properties, so we are starting with just getting all our vitamins and minerals in the optimal ranges with supplements like vitamin D and diet changes. One person had a gluten sensitivity, so that's an obvious fix. Another mast cell issues, so there are diets and herbs to help with that. Another had anemia so they went to their regular doctor for further testing. One person has had their IBS improve with diet changes suggest by the tests (gluten free, low FODMAP).

We've seem a lot of improvements so far. It has been working out great. Since every individual biomarker that has been off so far has known, natural treatment fixes, I'm excited to see if we can get all of everybody's test scores in the optimal zones on all the tests.


ETA - A person with a tremor had a B1 deficiency, which can cause tremors. The list of easy improvements just goes on and on - too much to put in one forum post.