Functional medicine focuses on treating the root causes of illness. A skilled functional medicine doctor will have a differential diagnosis that explores the reason or root cause and confirm the diagnosis using alternative lab testing, radiology, or energy testing.
I received my first microscope at the age of 6. Though most kids would have tossed aside a microscope at that age, for me, it opened a whole new world.
I later became a clinical laboratory scientist, earned my degree in Medical Technology and Medicinal Research. I spent my first two years of college at Villa Julie College training as a laboratory medicine technician at John Hopkins Hospital. It was an amazing experience as doctors were rotated through labs and we were invited to rounds, and back then there were no computers so the technicians were responsible for reporting on labs.
My father, a clinical pathologist, pulled some strings and I was able to work in his hospital at the University of Maryland. I learned everything I could until I finished my bachelor of science at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine graduating with honors and the president of my class. At graduation, I was given the Department Chair’s Award for Outstanding Commitment to Lifelong Learning, which is one of my proudest achievements.
After completing my bachelor’s degree, I took a position at the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine in Infectious Diseases and eventually became the lead technologist. This was an area of laboratory medicine that I had not yet mastered. During my senior research project on Hepatitis C, the medical direction recruited me to be the first medical technologist of the University of Maryland’s School of Medicine in Infection Diseases.
With this position, I was able to help the laboratory become certified under the College of American Pathology. I learned every facet of virology from cell media, growing viruses, to watching how viruses can kill cells.
Each virus likes certain cells and has distinct killing patterns which is important for a doctor to know especially when a patient is trying to overcome an infectious disease.
This field of focus was personal for me because in my early years as a medicinal technologist there was no handheld pipette meaning technologists would mouth pipet specimens from patients who were sick. This exposed me to a multitude of pathogens and over the years I struggled with chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia. However now, I rarely experience any fatigue or pain and am the healthiest I have ever been.
In my office, we utilize many alternative laboratories. Below are a list of common testing services we offer part of a functional medicine approach:
- Advanced Cardiovascular Screening
- Advanced Intestinal Barrier
- Brain Zoomer (antibody testing for brain illness)
- Dutch Testing (urine hormone panel)
- Food Allergy and Food Toxicity Testing
- GI Effects Panel (comprehensive digestive stool analysis with pathogen testing)
- GI Mapping
- Heavy Metal Testing (urine, blood, and hair)
- Lyme Testing
- Neurotransmitter Testing
- Nutritional Panels
- Salivary Hormone Testing
- Serum Hormone Testing