In this week’s episode, I'm delving into an exciting addition to my nutrition practice: functional blood chemistry. Functional testing is a powerful tool for uncovering potential imbalances in the body, especially when it comes to understanding symptoms like those associated with endometriosis.
By combining functional blood chemistry with dietary interventions, I can pinpoint specific issues and tailor my approach to each client's needs. This testing provides a deeper understanding of the body's inner workings, and enables my clients to make more informed decisions about their health and well-being.
In this episode you’ll hear:
-What functional testing is vs conventional testing: at the doctor's office they typically use conventional testing, but functional testing offers a lot more data.
-Optimal ranges vs conventional ranges: optimal ranges give you a better idea of how much of a nutrient your body really needs to thrive, rather than to the bare minimum you need to survive.
-Functional approach vs conventional: with functional work, it's all about diving into the data and letting it guide our decisions; whereas, when you see a doctor, they're mainly focused on diagnosing your condition based on symptoms and tests.
-What you can learn from a functional test and how that applies to endometriosis.
-Functional blood tests give you a comprehensive view of your thyroid health, unlike typical doctor's tests that usually only cover two markers.
Functional blood chemistry is crucial for addressing endometriosis effectively. Join me for a free live webinar on Thursday, March 21st at 4pm PST, where I'll dive into the wealth of information it provides. Attending live ensures you'll get all your questions answered and maximize the benefits.
Additionally, I'll be introducing the Thrive with Endo Starter Package, a more accessible and affordable program. Applications open the same day as the webinar, but only for a few days. Check out the links below for more details!
Ep. 3: What is Functional Nutrition and How Does It Help With Endo?
Ep. 13: What is a Root Cause Approach for Endometriosis?
Ep. 21: Blood Sugar: The Key to Hormonal Balance?
Free Webinar
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Disclaimer: This podcast is for educational purposes only. This may not be the best fit for you and your personal situation. It shall not be construed as medical advice. The information and education provided here is not intended or implied to supplement or replace professional medical treatment, advice, and/or diagnosis. Always check with your own physician or medical professional before trying or implementing any information read here.
Alyssa Chavez [00:00:01]:
Hello, my friend, and welcome back to the Endo Belly Girl podcast. I feel like a kid at Christmas because I have a fun new toy that I have recently added to my nutrition practice that I can't wait to share with you all. And so I'm going to dive into a little bit of that today because I, I just can't wait to share. Now, before I dive into that, at the time I'm recording this, and actually at the time that this episode is going to be released, it is March, which is endometriosis awareness month. Now, it's an interesting time because for me, I am aware of endometriosis all the time. If you're listening to this podcast, you probably are too. That's why you're here. So for me, what endometriosis Awareness Month is really all about is sharing this information with other people who may not be aware of what endometriosis even is.
Alyssa Chavez [00:01:04]:
And I think that that's really important because I know for myself and I know this story, it's true for so many other people. It took me a really long time to receive a diagnosis for endometriosis from the first time I started experiencing symptoms. Looking back, for me, it was probably about ten years. And that's typical, right? The average these days is seven to ten years, which is nuts. And a large part of that, I believe, is because there's just a lack of knowledge and awareness of what it is. Because if I knew what the endometriosis symptoms were and kind of what to look for and know when to go and get support and help, I probably would have gone to a doctor much sooner. Because in my story, it wasn't so much. I didn't have the story of going to doctor after doctor and just not getting any answers.
Alyssa Chavez [00:01:57]:
For me, it was more a matter of I didn't go to a doctor to get any answers because I didn't know that was a thing, right? I mean, I did go into the doctor when I was about 20 years old to go on birth control because that's just what you do. And that helped with my period pain because, well, I wasn't actually having a period during that time that I was on birth control, but I still had no idea what endometriosis was. I had no idea that all of the pain and other symptoms that I were experiencing could be something deeper. And so I didn't bother to investigate deeper until many years later. And it's one of those I wish I had known then what I know now. So I hope that by spreading awareness of endometriosis. We can help others to know now what we know now, so that we can all move forward and help people to receive a diagnosis and the support that they need, most importantly, that much faster. So, that being said, I'm not really going to dig a lot into endometriosis awareness on the podcast, because, again, I know that my listeners here are already well aware of what endometriosis is, and I don't need to sit on here and tell you all about what the symptoms are and all of the things, because you know that.
Alyssa Chavez [00:03:16]:
But I am sharing a lot of information this month on Instagram. You can find me there at endobelly girl. And what I really encourage you to do, more than anything, is just interact with those posts that I share, comment on them, share them with your friends, anything that will help that information get to more people. I have very little understanding of the Instagram algorithm, really, but I do know that the more interaction that a post has, the more people it will reach or something like that. So anyway, if you see a post and think that other people could benefit from it, interact with it, share it to your stories or whatever, and help to spread that awareness so that we can all kind of play a part in that along the way. Okay. That's not really what we're here to talk about today, though. I just wanted to interject that as we begin today's episode.
Alyssa Chavez [00:04:09]:
What we're really here to talk about today is functional testing for endometriosis, and specifically today, functional blood chemistry. So this is something that I have just recently added to my nutrition practice. I have been working for quite some time with gut testing and food sensitivity testing and hormone testing and things like that, and have recently added blood chemistry as well, because it is such a powerful tool. And so I took the time to dig in and do a course, a training in that, so that I could bring that to everybody. And I really love functional testing of all kinds because it gives us some hard data. I mean, there's so much that we can do just through nutrition and even supplements and things like that. And I certainly do a lot of that work for myself and for my clients. It's super powerful.
Alyssa Chavez [00:05:04]:
I talk about that stuff a lot on the podcast, but I really like functional testing because it allows us to get that hard data and kind of look under the hood of what might actually be contributing to those imbalances in your body that cause those endosymptoms, like pain and fatigue and endobelly, the bloating. Right. All of the different things that we experience. And so we're going to dig into that a little bit today, because I know I was one who had all these weird symptoms that I didn't know where in the world it was coming from, what was causing that, had no understanding of how all of this was even related to endometriosis. And I'm sure you have all felt the same way somewhere along the way. So we're going to dig into that a little bit. So what we'll look at today is what functional testing is versus conventional testing, like what you'd find in a doctor's office, looking at optimal ranges versus conventional ranges on test results, looking at the functional approach to those test results versus conventional, and then what you can actually learn on a functional blood test and how it actually helps with endometriosis symptoms. So a lot to dive into today, a lot to unpack.
Alyssa Chavez [00:06:16]:
As I mentioned before, there are other functional tests that can be really beneficial for endometriosis. I personally am a big fan, more than anything, of doing gut health testing, like stool testing, as well as food sensitivity testing, to kind of get to the root of some of that inflammation, especially if you have a lot of gut symptoms coming, going on in your body. And I really took a deep dive into that stuff in a couple of episodes. We talked about that in episode three, what is functional nutrition and how can it help with Endo? As well as episode 13, what is a root cause approach for Endo? And I'm going to go ahead and link those in the show notes. So if you're interested in learning more about that, you can click that link and just queue those episodes up to be next in your feed if you haven't heard them already or just need a refresh on that. And there are also functional hormone tests out there. I like to use cycling saliva panels where you get to see how the hormones change and fluctuate throughout your cycle, as well as adrenal panels to kind of look how the adrenals are functioning, as well as the dutch test, which is a dried urine test that looks at hormone metabolism. And we'll talk about that more in the coming weeks.
Alyssa Chavez [00:07:35]:
This is all stuff that I have worked with in my practice for some time and have seen great results using that with my clients. And now I am super excited to introduce functional blood chemistry to the mix because it is such a powerful tool. And the cool thing is, too, some of this functional testing can get really pricey. If I'm honest about things. You get a lot out of it, but it's not something that may be accessible to everybody, which is totally understandable. Right. Everybody has a certain budget to work with. But that's what I love about the functional blood chemistry, is that it's actually pretty affordable.
Alyssa Chavez [00:08:13]:
And you don't have to do months and months and months of work like you do if you're doing GI testing and all of the protocol that goes behind that. It can also be a great addition to all of that work. It's something I'm going to be offering to my current clients as well, who have already done some of the gut work and even hormone testing and things like that can be a great addition, but it can also be very powerful to use just on its own. So I'm super excited to share that with all of you so you can have a better understanding of what that looks like. So first thing I wanted to cover is just what conventional testing versus functional testing is. So conventional testing would be what you get in a typical doctor's office. And I have to say, first of all, that a lot of this has to do with insurance, right. The insurance will only cover so many things, and so the doctors are only going to test for what the insurance covers.
Alyssa Chavez [00:09:12]:
There's a whole world that I could dig into on that that I'm not going to today. That's a whole other topic. Whereas functional testing. Yeah, you're going to pay out of pocket for that, but you're going to get a lot more out of it. So it's a give and take. Right. So the biggest thing that you're going to get in functional blood work, I'm going to really focus on the blood work today, although this can apply to other sorts of testing as well. But you get a lot more data in the functional testing, which is really the important thing.
Alyssa Chavez [00:09:46]:
There's a lot more markers to look at, and that's really powerful so that you can have a better understanding of what's going on in your body. So, for example, just looking at the conventional versus the functional testing. In conventional testing, if you're looking at thyroid health, for example, which we'll talk about more in a bit, conventional doctor's office will often test only for tsh and t four, free t four, whereas a full thyroid panel includes all of the markers. Right. Tsh, free t four, free t three, your tpo antibodies, your reverse t three. It includes the full package so that you can get a much better picture of what's actually going on in your thyroid, how those thyroid hormones are converting, if you have antibodies, which can point to things like hashimoto's, which is very common with women in general. But it's definitely something I see a lot with endometriosis. And so it's very easy if you're not testing for all the things that conventional testing can miss stuff, and that can end up taking longer to receive a diagnosis and to actually get the support that you need.
Alyssa Chavez [00:11:01]:
Now, when we're looking, the other thing that's an important difference between the two is looking at optimal ranges versus conventional ranges. So if you're in a typical doctor's office and you get a blood test, let's say I'm just going to use vitamin D levels as an example. They're going to have kind of a minimum of what your vitamin D levels should look like. And that minimum is really like a bare minimum. If you want to just survive in life, you should be hitting this bare minimum marker, and that's really what they're looking for, whereas in functional work, we're looking at optimal ranges, meaning where should those vitamin D levels be optimally for your health? So that way that vitamin D is really supporting your immune system and all of the other wonderful things that vitamin D does for your body. So it's just a different way of looking at the test. I think the other important difference, and this is something that is important to consider as well, is that a conventional doctor can, in fact, use data from a test, like a blood test, to actually diagnose something, like using Hashimoto's as an example, which is a hypothyroid condition. It's actually an autoimmune condition of the thyroid.
Alyssa Chavez [00:12:22]:
A doctor could look at that data and diagnose Hashimoto's. Right. Whereas in functional work, we're not going to diagnose anything. That's not really what we're here for. Also, there's a whole thing with that as far as just scope of practice and legalities and all of that. But what we can do is still look at the data, look at what your numbers are looking like compared to the optimal range, like what those numbers should look like if you were in the most optimum health, and we can use that to help to support your body to get back to that optimal health. All right, hopefully that made some sense on just what the difference is, because, of course, you're probably all thinking, well, I can just go and get a blood test done at my doctor's office. Right? And so I just wanted to clarify that it is a little bit different.
Alyssa Chavez [00:13:18]:
So hopefully that brings some clarity to that so let's take a look at then what you can actually see on a functional blood chemistry test. And like anything, this can vary. I'm not saying that this is going to be the exact same panel you would get from any functional practitioner, because it can be individualized, first of all. And also the panel that I use is kind of a specific, customized panel that was created and has a lot of beneficial information. But just wanted to clarify that it may not look exactly the same depending on who your practitioner is that you're working with. So one of the things that the functional blood chemistry looks at is your complete blood count or CBC, and this takes a look at basically the different types of blood cells and immune markers and things like that in your blood. And that can give us some insight to immune health, which is really important for endo. That's something that we've talked about before, certainly something that we did dive into in episode 13, which I'm already going to link to in the show notes, why the immune system matters for endometriosis.
Alyssa Chavez [00:14:31]:
That's something we've covered a few times on the podcast here. It also looks at things like your iron and ferretin levels. There's a comprehensive metabolic panel, which is really and insulin as well, which are very important for looking at blood sugar levels. And that's something that we took a deep dive into on episode 21. And I will go ahead and link to that in the show notes as well, if you want to have a better understanding of why blood sugar matters for endometriosis, because I realize it's maybe not a connection that everybody would just make right off the bat, but it is something that is very important. It also looks at cholesterol, at immunoglobulins. It can look at amh levels, the antimalarian hormone, to check out your ovarian health, how well your body is producing follicles. And that's something that would definitely be a consideration if you're thinking about fertility now or in the future.
Alyssa Chavez [00:15:32]:
There's also a full thyroid panel included, and we're going to dive a little bit into that today. And what that means, why that's important. It's also going to look at nutrient levels like vitamin A and vitamin D. It's going to look at creactive protein and homocysteine, which are inflammatory markers. It's also going to look at mineral levels like copper, zinc, and magnesium, which are some of the mineral levels that are super important for endometriosis. Now, why does this all matter to you? That's probably the part that you really want to know more than anything, because a lot of this may just sound like a bunch of mumbo jumbo. I get it. And that's the part that I really want to clarify for you, so that you have an idea of why this might actually help you.
Alyssa Chavez [00:16:17]:
So, for starters, there are a lot of nutrients that are measured in there, like iron, ferretin, vitamin A, vitamin D, some of those minerals, and those are all things that your body needs to function correctly in all the ways the healing process, your immune system, your hormones, your reproductive system. Basically everything that your body does needs those nutrients. It also gives us a better picture of what you may actually be deficient in, so that you can use targeted supplementation rather than just guessing what you might be deficient in, or just going on supplement recommendations because it worked well for somebody else. Which if you've listened to me for some time, or followed me for some time, you know that I am all about bio individuality. Meaning you're different. You're unique. You are your own unique snowflake. You have your own unique needs.
Alyssa Chavez [00:17:15]:
You are not the same as anybody else. And so the same supplements and even dietary practices that work for your neighbor or your friend on the Internet may not work for you because you are not the same person. I also want to take a quick look at the thyroid. I'm not going to dive super deep into this today, although it's a topic I'd like to talk about more in the coming weeks and months of this podcast, because it's something that I see super often. I currently have multiple clients who have some thyroid stuff going on, along with endometriosis. It's very common and something that is very important to your health. It is often overlooked and under diagnosed. Not that I would be diagnosing anybody, as we talked about before, but it can give you valuable information to bring to your doctors, which is invaluable, because if you're not aware that there may be an imbalance in your thyroid and you go into a doctor, they may not bother to check for thyroid health at all.
Alyssa Chavez [00:18:23]:
Or they may do one of those thyroid panels where they're only testing two markers and not doing a full thyroid panel, which can delay you getting a diagnosis. Right. Whereas if you already know, or you can just bring the test results to your doctor, that can give them so much more information to go off of, which will help you to get the support that you need and the diagnosis that you may need, if that's something that's going on. So much faster. So in case you are unaware of what your thyroid even is, because I know I wasn't once upon a time. It is a butterfly shaped gland in your neck that lives right above your sternum, and it produces hormones that control different systems in your body, but most importantly, it manages how your body uses energy. So if you're somebody, for example, who struggles a lot with fatigue and sluggishness, maybe restlessness, irritability, you're having some weight gain that is unexplained and you're not sure what is going on. Those are kind of some of the typical symptoms that you see with thyroid imbalance, and that can be either hypothyroid, meaning the thyroid is not as active as it could be, or hyperthyroid, meaning that thyroid is kind of working overtime and doing too much.
Alyssa Chavez [00:19:41]:
I will say that I tend to see more of the hypothyroidism, the under functioning thyroid, with women with endometriosis. Not saying that's always the case. I'm just saying it's more common. And there is also relative commonality of a hashimoto's diagnosis, which is that autoimmune condition relating to your thyroid and also hypothyroid type condition. So things to think about and definitely something that you may want to take a deeper dive into if that sounds like something that could describe you. Now, when it comes to functional blood chemistry, there's just a lot of information to dive into, and I really want to be able to take the time to dig deep into that topic and really look into all the things. Whether you end up working with me as a practitioner, I do have a virtual one on one practice where I'm happy to help people. But even if you're going to, at some point in the future, work with, whether it's a conventional doctor or some sort of holistic practitioner in your area or whatever, whoever may resonate with you, just to have this understanding of blood work and what information you may actually want to get from it, I think can be super powerful.
Alyssa Chavez [00:21:05]:
So I have a couple of things in that regard that I wanted to share with you because I think we can all stand to learn more on that. So we can go into whatever you're going to go into with that knowledge, right? Because knowledge is power. Feeling empowered to take your health into your own hands, because you know what these blood markers mean and what blood markers might be important to even look at all the things. So what I've done is I went ahead and put together a free webinar on this topic where we can dive much deeper than what we did today because can only go so far on a podcast episode. And so if you're somebody who really wants to learn more and nerd out on all of the things, I would love for you to join me. So it's a free webinar. It's live. It's going to be held, if you're listening to this in real time, it's going to be held on Thursday, March 21 at 04:00 p.m.
Alyssa Chavez [00:22:08]:
Pacific time. That's the time zone that I am in. And yes, the replay will be available if you are not able to join us live. But I do really encourage you to join live if you can, if at all possible, because a let's be real. We all have the best of intentions of going back to watch the replay and then life happens. So there's that, right? I know I've done this. I see something that I really want to watch and I say, oh, well, I'm not going to join live, but I'll just watch the replay later. And then it sits there for days and days and weeks and never actually gets watched.
Alyssa Chavez [00:22:51]:
So there's that. And secondly, I will actually be there live so you can interact with me, you can ask questions, and you'll get so much more benefit out of it that way. So I really encourage you to come live if at all possible for you. I'm giving you a heads up so you can clear your schedule a little bit. And I'm also going to be offering a free bonus gift if you come live because I fully believe that there is so much value in being there live and being together, building that community. I'm all about building that community. So I am going to be putting a link to that free webinar to join in in the show notes. I highly encourage you to join us.
Alyssa Chavez [00:23:35]:
It'll just help you to have much better insights and knowledge in your own health. The more tools that you have in your tool belt as an endowarrior, the better, right? And I will also be on that same day on Thursday, March 21, I will also be opening applications for a brand new program that I am starting that you guys are going to be the first ones to hear about here. And I'm super excited to share because I actually haven't done anything like this before. So my current program that I have is called Thrive with Endo, which is a six month comprehensive program where we dive deep, we do all the gut health stuff, we dig into doing the gut health testing and the food sensitivity testing. We go through a full, intensive gut healing protocol. We do all the things, and hormone testing if that's needed. Like, there's so many things that we can dive into. But I have recognized that, again, like I said, that may not be for everybody.
Alyssa Chavez [00:24:37]:
It may not be accessible for everybody right now. And I know that the blood work is something that is more affordable, more accessible. And so I'm able to offer this at a much lower price point than my typical thrive with Endo program. So I am excited to announce the arrival for a limited time of the thrive with endo starter package. And applications for that are going to be open on Thursday, March 21 as well. It'll allow you an opportunity to dip your toes into functional work. I'm not sure at this point in time if that's something that I'm going to offer again in the future. We will see how all of this plays out.
Alyssa Chavez [00:25:20]:
I'm like you. I'm a human, so I'm learning each and every day what works and what doesn't work in life and in business and everything. So this is something I'm going to be offering for a very limited time. Applications for that program are going to be open March 21 and just for a few days. So I highly recommend a signing up for the free webinar that will ensure that you get all of the information that you need and then hopping on and filling out that application as soon as it's available so that you can be the first one in and take advantage of this. I think it's something that so many people can benefit from and so I'm super excited to share with all of you. I will link to that in the show notes as well. And that's all I've got for you today, my friend.
Alyssa Chavez [00:26:10]:
All right, so much fun stuff to come. I absolutely love hopping on here every week and connecting with all of you. It's my favorite. If you love this just as much as I do, hit me up. Come find me on Instagram at endobelly. Girl, I always love hearing from you and I hope you have the most wonderful week. We'll talk soon.