The typical approach in traditional or conventional medicine is to sit back and wait until you have a problem or disease then treat it. We call this “reactive medicine”. At Robinson MD, we believe in “PROACTIVE medicine”. Our approach is to assess your current health with what we call “biomarkers” then strive to optimize these markers in order to prevent disease before it happens.

In conventional medicine, typical blood work for a routine physical just includes a CBC (blood count), CMP (complete metabolic panel which includes blood sugar, kidney, liver, and electrolytes), TSH (thyroid screening), and a standard lipid panel. We believe this is not enough to assess your health and wellness. We use a variety of specialty labs to assess your current health status. Our favorite test is the Genova NutrEval™. This is a blood and urine test that we collect in the office to take a deeper and overall look into your health.

NutrEval™ looks at a broad range of physiological processes to identify abnormalities that could lead to disease. Firstly, it detects numerous markers for inflammation and oxidative stress and cellular damage. Abnormalities here can be addressed with dietary changes including increasing antioxidant and omega-3 rich foods, eliminating refined foods and artificial sugars, and with specific supplements.

NutrEval™ also measures specific omega fats and ratios, guiding your diet and supplement profile. It tests for key intermediaries and deduces a dose-specific multi vitamin range that can potentially optimize your metabolism. We can check Vitamin B12 level in the blood on routine labs, but this test gives us insight to all B vitamins and many more vitamins and minerals to guide therapies.

We often detect high levels of heavy metal toxins (mercury, lead, etc) with a NutrEval™ that can come from additives, plumbing or a high seafood diet. There are also multiple markers of your capacity to detoxify. We can then help you to eliminate the toxins and support your body’s ability to detoxify, leading to overall better health and function.

Perhaps my favorite part of the NutrEval is the window it gives into the gut microbiome – or your microbial gut population. It can suggest yeast overgrowth, a bacterial imbalance or an inflamed or leaky gut. If you have a predominance of yeast, it determines which type of probiotic would be most beneficial for you as well as what dietary changes you should make to improve your gut health. NutrEval™ also can detect the need for digestive enzyme support that could potentially help alleviate certain gastrointestinal symptoms.

The information gained from a NutrEval™ test can help guide you to better health. Certain abnormalities detected can help to solve issues with fatigue, mood, weight issues, maldigestion, and lower risk for diseases such as cardiovascular disease. Most importantly, this test can help us get to the root cause of your health issues and future disease risks.