If you’ve ever felt like your body is speaking a different language—you’re not alone. I hear this all the time from the women I work with.

You’re tired, but wired. You’re doing “all the right things,” but your energy still crashes mid-afternoon. You’re bloated even when you eat clean. You wonder if your hormones are off, but your labs “look fine.” Maybe you’ve even been told everything is normal—when you know something is off.

That’s where functional lab testing comes in. These tests help us stop guessing. They gently uncover what’s going on beneath the surface—so you’re not left wondering why you still feel off. Curious what functional testing really means? Click here to learn more.

As a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition® Practitioner (FDN-P), I work with a curated set of functional lab tests—what I refer to as the Foundational Five. These give us a reliable starting point for understanding how your body is functioning and where it may be asking for support.

🧠 SHP (Stress & Hormone Profile)

🔥 MWP (Metabolic Wellness Profile)

🍃 MBA (Mucosal Barrier Assessment)

🦠 GI-MAP (Microbiome & Pathogen Panel)

🌾 MRT (Food Sensitivity Testing)

In some cases—especially when symptoms like fatigue, brain fog, or weight that won’t budge are part of the picture—I may also recommend a Full Functional Thyroid Panel. While it’s not part of the core five, it often adds valuable context and pairs beautifully with the tests below.

Together, these labs create a clear, holistic picture of how your body is functioning—and where it’s asking for support.

The best part? Most tests are simple and can be done from home. MRT is the only exception—it requires a small blood draw, typically done at a nearby lab. Still, the process is straightforward, and the insights it provides are incredibly empowering.

Let’s take a closer look at each one—starting with how your body is handling stress and hormones, and then moving into digestion, detox, and immune balance.

These Lab Tests Can Change Everything

🧠 SHP: Stress & Hormone Profile

This saliva-based test helps us understand how your body is handling stress—day and night. It tracks your cortisol rhythm, along with key hormones like DHEA (for resilience), estradiol (your main estrogen), progesterone (for calm and sleep), and testosterone (for motivation and muscle tone).

Why it matters:

• Tired all day but can’t sleep at night?
• Struggling with PMS, low libido, or feeling “off” mid-cycle?
• Dealing with weight gain, menstrual changes, or feeling foggy and forgetful?
• Wondering if stress is messing with your mood, memory, or motivation?

This test gives us real-time insight into your adrenal and sex hormone balance—and how they may be impacting your energy, sleep, mood, and more.

🔥 MWP: Metabolic Wellness Profile

This dried urine test gives us insight into digestion and detoxification, along with oxidative stress and overall gut balance—using markers that can reveal subtle imbalances before they become symptoms.

Why it matters:

• Chronically inflamed? Skin acting up?
• Feeling run down or foggy even when you’re eating well?
• Signs you’re not getting what you need from your food—like fatigue, cravings, or trouble with protein-rich meals?

MWP helps us catch silent stressors that may be slowing you down. We get clues about how your cells are handling stress, how inflamed your gut may be, and whether your blood sugar is stable or swinging more than it should.

🍃 MBA: Mucosal Barrier Assessment

This simple dried blood spot test gives us a look at the strength of your gut lining—your mucosal barrier—which works like a protective filter, helping your body absorb the good and block the bad. It’s especially helpful when things like food reactions, histamine flares, or unexplained sensitivities keep popping up.

Why it matters:

• Persistent gut discomfort—bloating, gas, or food sensitivities?
• Immune flares, skin issues, or feeling reactive to certain foods?
• Long history of antibiotics, gut bugs, or mold exposure?

When this barrier is compromised (what many call “leaky gut”), it can lead to an overactive or overwhelmed immune system. The MBA gives us a window into whether your gut is feeling calm and supported—or if it’s still in repair mode.

🦠 GI-MAP: Microbiome and Pathogen Panel

This is the only test that requires a stool sample, but it offers unique insights you can’t get elsewhere. The GI-MAP gives us a detailed picture of your gut—what’s thriving, what’s overgrowing, and what may be missing.

It also helps us understand how well your digestion is working, how inflamed your gut might be, and how your immune system is functioning. We even get a peek at how your body handles gluten—and whether it’s keeping up with digestion and detox.

Why it matters:

• Bloating, reflux, IBS, constipation, or irregular digestion?
• Histamine issues, skin flares, or brain fog?
• Suspect hidden infections like parasites, yeast, or H. pylori?

It gives us a clear view of whether your gut is doing its core jobs—digesting nutrients, defending against harmful microbes, and detoxifying waste—so we know where to focus support. And when your gut is happier, the rest of you usually is too.

🌾 MRT: Food Sensitivity Testing

The MRT blood test helps identify hidden food and chemical sensitivities—things your immune system may be reacting to without you even realizing it. Unlike traditional allergy tests that focus on immediate reactions, MRT uncovers delayed inflammatory responses that can quietly fuel fatigue, joint pain, migraines, skin issues, or stubborn digestive symptoms.

It’s especially helpful if you’ve tried eating clean but still feel bloated, foggy, or off after meals. If you’ve ever wondered whether certain “healthy” foods might be causing more harm than good, this test gives us clarity.

Think of MRT as a smart shortcut—it takes the trial-and-error out of elimination diets and helps us create a personalized nutrition plan that’s gentle, doable, and actually works for your body.

🦋 Full Functional Thyroid Panel

While the foundational labs help us explore stress, hormones, digestion, detox, immune function, and food sensitivities, the Full Functional Thyroid Panel brings in another critical piece—your metabolism and energy regulation. This panel complements the other tests beautifully by showing us how your thyroid is performing across multiple points in the system: production, conversion, activation, and immune response.

It gives context to fatigue, mood changes, weight struggles, and hormonal shifts that may not be fully explained by adrenal or reproductive hormone tests alone. Paired with the foundational five, it helps complete the picture—especially if you’ve ever been told your thyroid is “normal,” but you still don’t feel like yourself.

This blood test goes far beyond the standard TSH screening to give us a complete picture of your thyroid function. It includes markers like Free T3, Free T4, Reverse T3, TSH, and thyroid antibodies (TPO and TGAb)—so we can see not only how much hormone your thyroid is producing, but also how well your body is converting, activating, and responding to those hormones.

Why it matters:

• Struggling with fatigue, hair thinning, cold hands and feet, or weight that won’t budge?
• Feeling foggy, anxious, or low—even when your labs say you’re “normal”?
• Suspecting Hashimoto’s or want to rule out autoimmunity?

This panel helps us spot subtle imbalances that are often missed. When your thyroid is properly supported, energy, metabolism, and mood can all start to lift.

Here’s the Bottom Line

You’re not crazy. You’re not lazy. You’re not imagining things. Your body is communicating—it just needs a translator.

These labs help us move from guessing to knowing. From “trying everything” to doing what actually works. They’re a launchpad for targeted, effective, and sustainable healing.

If any of this resonates with you, know that you’re not alone. These insights are here to help you make sense of your symptoms and take meaningful next steps—at your own pace.

If you’re ready to get started, I invite you to begin the 90-Day Functional Wellness Journey.

This is where we combine functional lab testing with personalized support to uncover what your body needs most—and help you begin the healing process with clarity, confidence, and care.

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📩 Let’s Connect

At Ruth Wellness, we recognize that healing is rarely just physical—it’s layered, complex, and deeply personal. Dr. Klinghardt’s Five Levels of Healing beautifully affirms what many of us intuitively know: true restoration happens when we tend to the whole of who we are—body, energy, emotions, intuition, and spirit.

If this framework resonates with where you are on your journey—or where you hope to go—let’s talk.

Reach out by clicking the button below to begin a conversation about whole-person wellness.