Spotlight: Functional Testing within Health Optimisation

For myself, before beginning practice as a nutritional therapist, I simply always wanted more data, more potential insights. Any test which gave me new information appealed. I was a dedicated n=1 quantified self enthusiast. 

Now, for my clients, I am far more selective. If a client is not cost constrained I will happily recommend a basket of potentially useful tests, For most others when I recommend a test I do so with explicit rationale for what actionable insights it can bring us & what the alternative is, enabling the client to make a truly informed choice. I also consider the potential downside effects of tests. The experience of extracting the various bodily excretions can be unpleasant. For some, having knowledge of unfavourable metrics is anxiety inducing rather than empowering, even with an expert practitioner ready to support them. Generically, purposeful functional testing offers the following benefits

1, Establish your personal norms

Comparison against statistical norms can be useful, sometimes, but can also be misleading if and when your natural norms are naturally lower or higher than others with no negative impact. Sometimes the statistical norms are just not helpful. If the population you are being plotted against has a high incidence of metabolic dysfunction, being average is not a great sign.

Building up your own history with regular testing enables you to be informed of change over time and connect this with your health and vitality and context at the time, giving the result meaning. For example, if you see a low or high anomaly in contrast to your personal history, it suggests there has been a significant change, prompting further investigation and action. 

2. Highlight root causes and opportunities

Functional testing can reveal or suggest the root causes of problems and in doing so, inform focused action. 

Some tests, such as Hormone panels, Organic Acid Tests and 24-Hour Cortisol Tests, deliver information which cannot be intuited or inferred from subjective experience and experimentation, thus adding a lot of value within a health optimisation plan.

3. Create baselines for test-retest comparison

To complement your own sense of wellbeing you may find it very powerful to be able to quantify the impact of changes you make to your diet, lifestyle and supplements. This is exactly what a test-retest approach can do. 

4. Provide validation and motivation

Seeing positive changes within test results can offer objective validation that interventions are working. 

Receiving this clear signal can reinforce commitment and help you stay consistent with the choices that progress you towards your health goals. 

5. Novel Personalised Insights

Using the examples of Continuous Glucose-Monitoring (CGM) and Heart Rate Variability (HRV) some tests can make available real-time biofeedback on metrics which could otherwise be entirely unknowable to you. These novel insights can enable you to grow your awareness of problems and opportunities and even support your natural sense of interoception - your sense of the inner workings of your body.

6. Trade off between cost and speed

If a food intolerance or sensitivity is suspected then an elimination and managed reintroduction diet is a fantastic tool to identify the problems and has no direct cost. It does however take weeks of thorough planning and effort to provide clarity and certainty.

Using something like an IgG food sensitivity test cannot give you certainty but can highlight potentially problematic foods, enabling a simpler and shorter elimination and reintroduction approach.