Services

Laboratory Testing

Laboratory testing is an important tool in providing an objective framework from which to develop your treatment and assess your health status.

We offer comprehensive testing and follow-up in a relaxed and comfortable atmosphere. Most of the laboratory testing offered at the Integrative Health Institute is not offered or paid for by OHIP, but is often covered through medical insurance companies. In many cases this testing represents some of the most sophisticated and sensitive testing available for the assessment of disease risk, environmental exposure, nutritional status and food sensitivities.

Blood Tests

Blood tests can offer important insight regarding biological functioning, hormone regulation and markers of disease and imbalance. IHI offers hundreds of basic laboratory tests to examine health and nutritional status and more specific testing to evaluate potential food sensitivities

Tests include:

IgG food sensitivity blood testing

Using just a small finger prick sample, IgG sensitivity testing will evaluate immune reactions to over 96 commonly consumed foods. This test is highly valuable to individuals who have been experiencing long-term immune dysregulation or chronic digestive disturbances.

Screening tests

Screening tests can include everything from cholesterol and thyroid panels to vitamin D and iron status. Having the ability to access this testing is important in providing specific, evidenced based treatments to our patients.

Random glucose testing

Practitioners at IHI have the ability to run random glucose testing in our office to ensure that your blood sugar is being well managed.

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Urinalysis

Alongside blood work, urine analysis provides additionally important insight into the health of body systems as a basic screening tool.

Testing that is offered through urinalysis includes:

Basic kidney/metabolic function

Assessment for urinary tract infections

Pregnancy testing

Environmental exposure testing

Testing for the presence of solvents, heavy metals and other predictors of endocrine (hormonal) disruption. This testing can be incredibly valuable for pre-conception health evaluation as well as assessing risk factors for cancer and chronic disease development

Thyroid function testing

Estrogen Metabolism Ratio

The Estrogen Metabolism Ratio looks at how estrogens are broken down by the body. Two of the metabolites of estrogen, 16-alpha-hydroxyestrone (16OHE1) and 2-hydroxyestrone (2OHE1) are required in proper ratios to prevent conditions of estrogen dominance such as breast cancer and PCOS. Although research in this area is very preliminary, the Estrogen Metabolism Ratio may also help identify men at risk of prostate cancer.

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Salivary Hormone Testing

Salivary hormone testing enables a non-invasive manner through which symptoms related to chronic stress, fatigue, mood swings, hot flashes, decreased libido and fertility difficulties may be assessed.

Hormones pass into saliva from the cell membranes of the salivary gland. In other words, hormones must pass through saliva gland tissue to get into saliva, which means that a saliva hormone level measures delivery of hormone to tissue (cells) from the various reservoirs in the blood. In contrast, a blood hormone level reflects hormone that has not yet been delivered to tissue.

Because saliva reflects what actually gets into tissue rather than what might eventually get into tissue, it is a better reflection of a tissue’s (bio-available) hormone level.

Salivary hormone testing can be performed to evaluate the following:

Adrenal health

Cortisol, the body’s natural stress hormone, has a specific fluctuation and pattern that it follows throughout the day. When this cortisol fluctuation is altered or when the body is producing too little or too much, significant symptoms associated with chronic stress can develop.

Stress is one of the most powerful predictors of chronic disease. This evaluation allows your practitioner to assess the physiological burden that stress and cortisol may be playing in your life.

Female hormone assessment

This test allows your practitioner to evaluate the relative amount of each type of female hormone and the appropriate ratios of these hormones in their active form. Saliva hormone testing is most useful for uncovering hormone imbalance such as insufficient progesterone to balance high estradiol levels.

Once a hormone imbalance has been uncovered, nutritional or bio-identical hormone therapy can be instituted.

Male hormone assessment

This test allows your practitioner to evaluate the relative amount of each type of male hormone and the appropriate ratios of these hormones in their active form. Saliva hormone testing is most useful for uncovering hormone imbalance.

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Hair Element Testing

The quantitative measurement of elements in biological samples such as blood, urine, and hair has been used clinically for decades. Historically, elemental analysis has been used primarily to determine whether a person has had excessive exposure to toxic elements such as lead, mercury or arsenic: the heavy metals that are known to cause serious health problems.

Toxic elements concentrate in soft tissue rather than blood or urine, so hair analysis is uniquely suited for measuring toxic elements.

Elemental analysis also provides information on the absorption and assimilation of nutritionally important elements (e.g. iron, copper), making it useful for assessing nutrient deficiencies and imbalances.

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Bio Impedance Analysis (BIA)

Based on technology designed to measure the health of astronauts in space, Bio Impedance Analysis enables our practitioners to measure water, fat and muscle content in various compartments of the body. This information allows us to monitor how the body stores toxins, assimilates water and clears debris from the body.

Repeated over several visits, BIA provides both you and your doctor with an objective evaluation of your progress.

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Last Modified 1 December, 2010 1:02 AM