Functional Health Testing · Mason, Ohio
Functional Medicine in Mason, OH
You've been told your labs look "normal" and you still don't feel normal. You're not imagining it. We test, we don't guess — and the standard workup usually doesn't run the panels that pick up what's actually going on.
Functional health is a different question than conventional medicine asks. Conventional care is brilliant at identifying disease and matching it with a treatment — and you should absolutely keep your primary care provider in the loop. We work alongside conventional care, not against it. But if you've had blood work pulled at three different doctors, gotten the same "everything looks fine" message, and you still feel like something's off, the body is telling you something that's not in the standard panel.
That's the gap functional testing fills. Different markers. Deeper resolution. A picture instead of a snapshot.
At The Wellness Way - Mason, Dr. Ryan DeNome, Doctor of Chiropractic, pairs chiropractic care with comprehensive functional lab panels. We're cash-pay, transparent on pricing, and we don't order a test we can't explain to you. Patients drive from Mason, West Chester, Loveland, Lebanon, and the greater Cincinnati area — and a few from further out when their own neighborhood doesn't have what they're looking for.
The Truth About "Normal" Labs
Lab ranges are built on population averages. The population they're built on includes a lot of people who are tired, gaining weight, and not sleeping well. "Normal" can mean "average for a sick population" — not "optimal for a healthy human."
A TSH of 3.5 lands inside the standard range and gets called normal. But your thyroid may be working overtime to hold that number, and you're paying for it with energy, hair, mood, and weight. A single estrogen pulled on day 21 of a cycle and called "balanced" is a little like checking your car's fuel gauge at one moment in the day and deciding the entire fuel system works. The DUTCH panel maps the whole cycle and shows the metabolites — how your body is actually using and clearing estrogen. That's where most patterns hide: not in production, but in detox and conversion.
Standard care is built for high-volume throughput. We're built for the conversation that doesn't fit inside a 7-minute slot.
How We Work — The Process
We use The Wellness Way's four-step process: New Perspective → We Test → We Discover → We Guide. In practice, that looks like four phases:
- Discovery consultation. You tell us the story. The actual story, not the 7-minute version. We review labs you've had run elsewhere and listen for the patterns the standard workup missed.
- Testing plan. If functional testing makes sense for you, we recommend a specific panel set — usually two or three labs that map together — and we walk through what each one costs before we order anything. Common day-one spend lands between $300 and $700 depending on what we're looking at.
- Results review. We sit down with the actual lab reports, side by side with your history, and we name what's loading stress on your system. The Wellness Way framework is the 3 T's — Traumas (physical), Toxins (chemical), Thoughts (emotional). One or two of those is usually the driver.
- Care plan + follow-through. Chiropractic adjustments where the nervous system needs support. Targeted nutrition, supplementation, and lifestyle changes where the lab findings point. Retesting at the right interval to confirm we're moving the needle, not guessing.
What We See Most
Some patterns show up over and over in our practice. The body keeps the same conversations going, even when the surface symptoms look different person to person.
- Thyroid patterns — cold, tired, hair loss, weight that won't move, "normal TSH but I don't feel normal."
- Hormone imbalance — PMS that took over the second half of the cycle, perimenopause showing up early, anxiety that tracks with cycle phase.
- Autoimmune patterns — Hashimoto's, rheumatoid, the cluster of "your labs are getting a little weird but you're not sick enough to treat yet."
- Digestive issues — bloating, reflux, IBS, the patient who has tried every elimination diet and still doesn't know what's driving it.
- Chronic fatigue — not sleepy. Tired. The kind that doesn't fix with a nap.
- Cardiometabolic risk — the patient whose cholesterol came back "borderline" and got handed a statin prescription without anyone running an inflammation panel or an advanced lipid breakdown.
- Brain fog and mood patterns — the nervous-system end of the conversation, where gut function, hormone status, and thoughts (the third T) all converge.
- Joint and muscle pain — chiropractic territory, but often with an inflammation or nutrient pattern underneath.
Labs We Run
We don't run a fixed protocol. We run the panel that fits your story. The ones we order most:
- DUTCH panel (Dried Urine Test for Comprehensive Hormones) — sex hormones, adrenal hormones, and the metabolites that show how your body is actually using and clearing them. Maps across the cycle, not a single timepoint.
- Complete thyroid panel with antibodies — TSH, Free T3, Free T4, Reverse T3, TPO, TgAb. The full picture, not just TSH alone.
- Comprehensive stool analysis — gut microbiome composition, digestive markers, inflammation markers, evidence of dysbiosis (imbalanced gut flora) or pathogens.
- Cardiometabolic panel — advanced lipid markers including particle size and inflammation, fasting insulin, and HbA1c. What a standard lipid panel doesn't show.
- Food sensitivity testing — when symptoms point toward an immune reaction to specific foods. The Immuno Food Allergy Test is the panel we use most.
- TWW Basic Panel — broad foundational labs the parent brand designed to capture inflammation, blood sugar, liver and kidney function, and a few markers most PCP panels skip.
Tests are recommended, never required. We walk through cost and rationale before ordering anything. Cash-pay pricing only — most functional panels are not billable to commercial insurance, but HSA/FSA cards are accepted. Full pricing here.
Why a Doctor of Chiropractic Pairs With Functional Testing
Most patients searching for functional medicine in Mason are choosing between two structures: a functional-medicine MD who runs labs but doesn't address the spine and nervous system, or a chiropractor who adjusts but doesn't run labs. The Wellness Way model is the integrated version. Adjustments support the part of the nervous system that regulates digestion, immune response, and hormone signaling. Functional labs reveal what the nervous-system input is actually doing downstream. The two are designed to work together.
Dr. DeNome's training is as a Doctor of Chiropractic — chiropractic physician — and his certification as a Webster Technique provider gives him a specific protocol for prenatal care. The functional-testing layer comes through The Wellness Way's nationwide network, so the panels and the interpretation are consistent with how the parent brand runs care across the country.
Pricing, Insurance, and What to Expect
We're a cash-pay practice. That's a deliberate choice. Insurance dictates visit length, what gets covered, and what doesn't. Cash-pay means we can structure visits around what the patient actually needs, run the labs that fit the picture, and charge transparently without surprise bills three months later. HSA and FSA cards are accepted for both visits and most lab panels.
Typical first-day numbers: discovery consultation $99, follow-up adjustments $50, lab panels priced by panel (DUTCH around $400 retail, comprehensive stool around $400, complete thyroid around $200, exact numbers confirmed at booking). For a patient with no recent prior testing, total first-day lab spend usually lands between $300 and $700.
What you should never see from us: a bill you weren't expecting, a panel ordered without consent, or a recommendation we can't explain in plain language. Full transparent pricing is on the pricing page.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is functional medicine, and how is it different from regular medicine?
Regular medicine is built to identify a disease and then match it with a drug or procedure. That works well when you're in a crisis. Functional health asks a different question — what's loading stress onto your body, and why is it showing up this way? The standard panel measures a handful of markers. A functional panel measures dozens, including the ones that pick up patterns five years earlier. Care addresses the input, not just the alarm.
Is functional medicine in Mason, OH covered by insurance?
We're a cash-pay practice. Most functional lab panels and the consultations around them are not billable to commercial insurance the way a standard sick visit is. The upside: pricing is transparent, you're not constrained to a 7-minute visit slot, and HSA/FSA cards are accepted. We'll walk through cost before any panel is ordered.
Do I have to stop seeing my regular doctor?
No, and we'd rather you didn't. We work alongside your primary care provider and any specialists you're already seeing. Functional testing fills in the picture standard labs miss. Your PCP still manages medications, referrals, and acute care. We're additive, not replacement.
What labs do you actually run?
The most common ones: the DUTCH panel for hormones (sex hormones, adrenal hormones, and how the body is clearing them), a complete thyroid panel including TPO and TgAb antibodies, a comprehensive stool analysis for gut function, a cardiometabolic panel that goes deeper than a basic lipid screen, and food sensitivity testing when symptoms point that direction. We choose based on what your story is telling us, not a one-size protocol.
How long until I feel a difference?
Honest answer: it depends on what's driving the pattern and how long it's been there. Patients with a recent gut flare or a clearly modifiable hormone pattern may notice changes within a few weeks. Long-standing autoimmune or thyroid patterns take longer — the body needs time to rebuild what got depleted. We map out an expected timeline at your second visit, after we've seen the lab results, not before.
Do you treat children?
Yes. We see kids for chiropractic care from infancy through teens, and we run age-appropriate functional panels when symptoms warrant it (recurrent ear infections, eczema, behavioral patterns tied to gut function). Pediatric adjustments are gentle — about the pressure you'd use to test the ripeness of a tomato — and we don't run blood work on a child without a specific reason to.
I'm pregnant. Is this safe?
Dr. DeNome is Webster Technique certified, which is the chiropractic adjustment protocol developed specifically for pregnant patients. Functional testing during pregnancy is more conservative — most hormone panels aren't useful during pregnancy itself, but thyroid and basic nutrient status can be valuable. We coordinate with your OB or midwife to make sure care stays inside what's appropriate for you and the baby.
What's the first visit like?
We sit down and you tell us what's been going on. Not a 7-minute version — the actual story. We review any labs you've had recently, we listen for the patterns, and we talk about whether functional testing makes sense for you. If it does, we walk you through which panels we'd recommend and what each one costs. You leave with a plan. No pressure to commit before you've slept on it.
Final Thoughts
You don't have to feel guilty for not feeling well. You don't have to settle for "your labs look fine." You don't have to choose between conventional medicine and a different conversation — you can have both running at the same time.
Common is not normal. Normal doesn't always mean optimal. You have options.
Ready to Test Instead of Guess?
Schedule a discovery consultation. We'll listen to the story, look at what's already been run, and tell you whether functional testing actually makes sense for what you're dealing with.