Making Sense of My Functional Medicine Test Results

Test Results

By the time my follow-up appointment rolled around, my test results had been posted to my functional medicine portal. I had access to them a few days ahead of the appointment, so I spent some time doing light internet research to better understand what I was seeing.

That Little Gland in the Shape of a Butterfly

I had never had thyroid imaging done before, so reading those results initially made me nervous. After looking them over and running them through ChatGPT for a general explanation, things didn’t seem quite as alarming.

The imaging showed nodules on my thyroid, which are consistent with Hashimoto’s thyroiditis — something I already knew based on thyroid antibody testing from a few years ago. In addition to the nodules, my thyroid was described as heterogeneous and hypervascular. From what I could gather, hypervascularity refers to increased blood flow to the thyroid and is often associated with thyroiditis and, in some cases, Graves’ disease.

While it was still a lot to take in, having some context helped ease my initial concern.

Blood Tests Reveal a Lot

A lot of blood was drawn for this round of testing. Jazmin ordered a comprehensive panel to get a clearer picture of what’s going on inside my body.

I’ve always found blood work fascinating. As I reviewed the results, I compared each value to the standard ranges. When something was flagged as high or low, I did some basic research to understand what that could mean and what symptoms or health issues might be associated with it.

Small Intestine Bacterial Overgrowth (SIBO)

The SIBO test results came back strongly methane positive.

Health History + Testing = A Treatment Plan

One of the things I appreciate most about functional medicine is how a practitioner looks at health history and test results together to form a more complete picture. Instead of isolating individual symptoms, everything is considered as part of a bigger story.

That full picture is then used to determine an appropriate plan to move toward optimal health.

In my next post, I’ll share what my practitioner said about these results and what my treatment plan looks like moving forward.

Have you ever looked at test results on your own before an appointment and tried to make sense of them? How did that experience feel for you?