Wellness and Additional Testing

Treating the Whole Body and Finding Underlying Causes

In our practice, our providers use a functional medicine approach in treating our patients. We believe in the power of the human body and because of this, we also believe that there is a big difference between going through life not feeling good versus living your ideal life. Our mission is to be proactive and assist both women and men to improve their quality of life through an individualized health and wellness plan — through hormone balance, nutrition, and supplement support, gut health testing, and treatment and weight management.

Functional medicine is a drastically different model of practice as it looks at what can be done to restore the patient to optimal health rather than just treating a symptom.

Some examples of how this is achieved can include:

• First and foremost, just spending more quality time with patients is crucial. Our providers see 4-6 patients per day.
• Treating everyone as an individual — no cookie-cutter diagnoses or treatments.
• State of the art, comprehensive testing, and treatment protocols. For example, for thyroid patients, it’s common for a conventional medicine provider to test TSH levels and possibly T4 hormone levels. A functional medicine approach involves six different tests to find all aspects of potential dysfunction so that the patient can be diagnosed and treated accurately.
• Focusing on prevention and cures through an integrative approach that includes hormone balance, nutrition, diet, exercise, and stress management.
• Recognizing that successful treatment and optimal health can only be achieved with a whole body/all systems approach, not just putting a band-aid on a symptom.
• Provider/patient partnerships so that patients can participate in their wellness.
• The use of compounded hormones and medications can be tailored to the individual.
• Incorporating the use of quality nutriceuticals in therapy protocols to address deficiencies in vitamins and minerals.

As more research is emerging showing how much influence gut health has on the immune system, autoimmune disorders, and chronic illness, we understand the importance of having a healthy gut microbiome. Because we take a functional medicine approach to your health, our office offers gut health testing to find the root causes of disease. 

We offer nutritional testing, GI health testing, and food sensitivities testing to complement patients being treated for hormone and thyroid balancing and now as a stand-alone service for new patients.

Gastrointestinal Testing

Gastrointestinal function is important for general health. Balancing beneficial microbial flora in the gut is key to proper digestion, nutrient usage, and ridding the body of waste and pathogens. The Genova GI Effects test detects both beneficial and harmful bacteria and flora in your gut so that you know what you need to work on to restore gut health. A healthy digestive tract is vital in building a strong immune system, preventing inflammation and disease, and achieving overall wellness. Keeping the “good” bacteria and “bad” bacteria balanced in your GI tract can rid you of conditions such as:

Nutritional Testing

It can be surprising to learn that many people are malnourished and not getting the nutrients that their bodies need. Reasons for this vary, but one of the biggest culprits is the “Standard American Diet” which is sugar/carbohydrate-dense and nutrient-poor. Commercial farming depletes the soil so that much of the food that we eat is just not as nutritious as it used to be. The NutrEval by Genova Diagnostics is a blood serum test that looks specifically for nutritional deficiencies in your body. 

Because certain elements of healthy nutrition are considered “essential,” and must be obtained from the diet, lack of these nutrients can contribute to a number of health conditions including inflammation, cardiovascular issues, hormonal imbalances and deficiencies, mood disorders, and many more. 

NutrEval Testing delivers very exact insights about the way nutrition and the environment impact your body’s needs. Here at Forum Health Las Colinas, we will tell you how you could benefit from such nutritional testing to achieve optimal health. It is used by our office to give a better understanding of patients’ nutritional deficiencies. These deficiencies could be worsening or, in some cases, causing unwanted physical conditions.  Discovering what these deficiencies and imbalances are can open the door to vastly improved nutrition, wellness, and quality of life. 

Many years ago Lucretius stated, “One man’s meat is another man’s poison.” For over 20 years, food tolerance testing has provided healthcare professionals and their patients with a tool for managing a wide variety of conditions linked to the activation of the immune system. We use the ALCAT test. By testing hundreds of common foods and other allergens, you can discover if your body has an intolerance or a sensitivity that can cause adverse reactions. These conditions include but are not limited to:

• Digestive disorders
• Migraines
• Obesity
• Chronic Fatigue
• Aching joints
• Skin disorders
• Allergies
• Autoimmune disease