If you’ve ever been told, “Everything looks normal,” yet you still don’t feel well, you’re not alone. We hear this all the time from frustrated clients who have been through years of testing only to get sicker and sicker. While conventional medicine plays an important role in acute care and disease diagnosis, it often falls short when it comes to root-cause healing.
That’s where functional lab testing and nutrition coaching shine.
First, here’s an example of a client that found healing to her chronic gut issues with functional medicine after many years of frustration:
Example Case Study:
A 38-year-old woman with daily bloating, gas, constipation alternating with loose stools, reflux, fatigue, and brain fog—ongoing for over 5 years.
Here’s what she got from her doctors:
She was told her gut was “fine” and advised to increase fiber or use antacids.
None of these appeared on standard labs—yet they explained every symptom.
After 10-12 weeks, her bloating and reflux resolved, she started having regular bowel movements, her energy improved, and alongside that her mental clarity and overall quality of life improved.
Why such a difference? Functional labs and nutrition coaching, when paired together focus on comletely different aspects than typical blood work:
Here’s why:
Typical bloodwork ordered by a PCP is designed to detect disease, not dysfunction. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. We really need this type of medicine that helps us when disease is rampant, infection is acute, bones are broken, etc. However, functional medicine shines for the person battling chronic issues, feeling overall not themselves, and reaching for optimal health.
Here’s Why:
Functional labs, on the other hand:
Standard labs usually measure:
Functional testing can assess:
Instead of asking “What drug treats this symptom?” functional labs ask:
“Why is the body adapting this way in the first place?”
This is where nutrition coaching becomes essential. At Off Beet, we require a minimum of 3 months of coaching alongside your functional labs due to the importance of implementation. If we treated our clients like typical medical providers and gave them lab data, a list of tasks, and a handful of pills, we’d be doing a disservice. Instead, we partner with clients to achieve their goals ranging from diet changes, lifestyle changes, exercise routines, sleep focuses, and more.
A functional nutrition coach makes it practical and sustainable with these focuses:
Functional Nutrition is ALL ABOUT DIET!
Conventional care rarely addresses how food:
Functional nutrition uses food strategically:
This isn’t about dieting—it’s about biological repair.
By the time something shows up clearly on standard bloodwork, dysfunction has often been present for years.
Functional labs and nutrition coaching allow you to:
This proactive model is especially powerful for:
Primary care is invaluable for emergencies and disease management—but it is not designed for wellness.
If you’re tired of being told everything is “fine” when you don’t feel fine, it may be time to look deeper.
If you’re ready to dig deeper into your health this year, schedule a free 15 min discovery call with us to talk about next steps!
Sources:
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Lifestyle medicine and health coaching: Evidence for behavior change.
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Thinking about digging deeper into your own health?
Book a free 15 min phone call with me to see if functional nutrition is the right thing for you!
Always rooting for you!
- Allie CHN, FDN-P
Allie is a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition Practitioner located in Birmingham, Alabama. She helps women across the country online and in her hometown office dig deeper into their root health issues and find holistic healing!
No information in this blog should be considered medical advice. I do not diagnose or treat disease. Taking any recommendations should be considered an opt-in model of self care.