Matt Le Roux

Did you know there are thyroid tests beyond the standard TSH panel that can catch problems years before they show up?

TSH, T4, and T3 tell you how your thyroid is functioning right now. Thyroid antibody tests tell you something different: whether your immune system is attacking your thyroid. And antibodies can rise long before hormone levels change, which means this kind of testing can flag issues early.

Here's the connection most people miss: your gut plays a huge role in this. Gut inflammation and imbalanced gut bacteria can trigger immune activation, block absorption of key thyroid nutrients (iodine, iron, selenium, zinc, copper, vitamin D), and even interfere with converting thyroid hormone into its active form.

The takeaway? Thyroid health isn't just about the thyroid. Gut health, nutrition, and immune function all play a part, and looking at the full picture (not just one test) is what actually helps.

Did you know a simple blood panel can predict your biological age — and your risk of chronic disease — with 90% accuracy? 🩸

Your chronological age is fixed. Your biological age is not.

In my new blog post, I unpack the nine biomarkers (things like fasting glucose, inflammation markers, kidney and liver function) that reveal how well your body is really ageing — and what you can actually do about it.

Read it here:

The Nine Biomarkers That Reveal Your Biological Age | Wave Functional Health — Wave Functional Health Chronological age tells you how many birthdays you have had. Biological age tells you how well your body is actually functioning. Dr Matt le Roux at Wave Functional Health Gold Coast explains the nine biomarkers that predict mortality, cognitive decline, and chronic disease with remarkable accuracy.

Small changes can make a measurable difference.

A study involving 70 adults examined what happened when people were given a personalised plan based on their health history, lifestyle risks and blood-test results—along with regular coaching and follow-up.

The researchers reported that:

✅ 90% improved multiple chronic-disease biomarkers
✅ 94% reduced their overall health-risk score
✅ Average HbA1c decreased from 5.87% to 5.17%
✅ Fasting insulin and several inflammatory markers improved
✅ 80% of those who wanted to lose weight reported doing so

Importantly, this wasn’t simply about prescribing the same diet to everyone.

Participants made gradual, achievable changes involving nutrition, physical activity, sleep, stress, hydration, oral health and nutrient intake. Their plans were then adjusted according to their progress and individual needs.

This is an important part of the functional medicine approach: identify the factors contributing to poor health, measure them where possible, and help the patient make sustainable changes before those risks progress further.

The study was small and did not include a control group, so we shouldn’t treat it as definitive proof. However, it offers an encouraging reminder that personalised lifestyle support can produce changes that people feel—and that we can measure.

Study: Lewis TJ, Huang JH, Trempe C. Cureus. 2020.
https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.10039

Does standing up leave you dizzy, breathless, or foggy?

This could be a sign of Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), a condition where the autonomic nervous system struggles to regulate heart rate and blood flow properly when moving from sitting or lying to standing.

POTS is often linked to viral illness, concussion, chronic stress, and periods of prolonged inactivity. The good news is that many of the underlying drivers can be identified and addressed.

At Wave Functional Health, assessment includes objective measurement of nervous system function through HRV analysis, along with functional medicine testing where needed to understand what is really going on beneath the symptoms.

Read more about POTS and how it is approached at Wave Functional Health

Why Standing Up Should Not Leave You Breathless: Understanding POTS | Wave Functional Health — Wave Functional Health Standing up should not trigger a racing heart, dizziness, and fatigue. Dr Matt le Roux at Wave Functional Health Gold Coast explains what POTS is, why it happens, and how a root cause approach investigates the underlying drivers.

Ever checked your smartwatch and wondered what your HRV score actually means?

You're not alone. More and more people are noticing low or inconsistent HRV readings and feeling a bit confused (and sometimes worried) about what it means for their health.

Here's the short version: HRV reflects how well your nervous system can shift between stress and recovery. Low HRV on its own isn't cause for panic. But if it comes with poor sleep, digestive troubles, trouble relaxing, or feeling wiped out after exercise, it might be worth a closer look.

We've written a full guide on the signs of nervous system dysregulation and what your HRV numbers are really telling you. Link below if you'd like to read more.

If you've noticed any of these signs yourself, our team offers clinical HRV assessment to help get to the bottom of it.

https://www.wavefunctionalhealth.com/blog/nervous-system-dysregulation-hrv-numbers

Most athletes spend years refining their strength, speed and conditioning, yet very few ever look closely at the nervous system that is coordinating all of it. Performance is not only built in the gym or on the field. It is built in the brain and the autonomic nervous system, the two systems that determine how well you recover, how clearly you think under pressure, and how efficiently your body converts training into results.

Athletic Performance and Functional Medicine | Neurofeedback and HRV Testing | Wave Functional Health — Wave Functional Health Discover how functional medicine, neurofeedback and HRV testing work together to improve athletic performance, recovery and resilience from the inside out. Available at Wave Functional Health Gold Coast.

Sleep is the most underrated health intervention available to you, and it is free.

Here is what tends to happen when people stop treating it as optional:

Cravings settle down. Broken sleep changes your hunger hormones, so reaching for sugar the next day is a signal, not a character flaw.

Energy stops swinging. Steady blood sugar overnight means you wake up feeling like you actually rested.

Your brain clears out. Overnight is when the tidying up happens. Short sleep means less of it.

Want to test it for yourself? Try this for 30 days:

Same bedtime and wake time, weekends included.
Get outside in the morning light for ten to fifteen minutes.
Last coffee before midday.
Keep your bedroom cool, dark, and quiet, around 18 to 19 degrees.
Protein at every meal, and a small protein snack before bed if you wake up hungry at 2am.
Skip the evening wine and watch what changes.

Rate your mood, energy, and productivity out of ten each day. After a month, you will have your own data, not someone else's opinion.

Small, boring, repeatable. That is usually what works.

Insulin resistance is one of the most overlooked drivers of poor energy, weight gain, sugar cravings, brain fog and hormonal imbalance.
The frustrating part is that many people do not know they have it.
They may have been told their fasting glucose is normal. Their HbA1c may still be within range. They may not have diabetes. But they still feel tired, hungry, foggy, inflamed and stuck in a body that does not respond well to diet or exercise.

Insulin Resistance: The Hidden Driver of Fatigue, Cravings and Weight Gain | Wave Functional Health — Wave Functional Health Feeling tired, craving sugar and gaining weight despite normal blood tests? Learn how insulin resistance affects energy, hormones, brain fog and metabolism, and what functional medicine looks for instead.

Ever heard of "brainspan"? It's not just about how long you live, it's about how many of those years your brain stays sharp.

The great news is that cognitive decline isn't something that just happens to us as we age. Small, consistent choices like quality sleep, regular movement, real social connection, and learning new things all help protect your memory, focus, and mental clarity well into later life.

Think of your brain like a muscle. The more you challenge it in new ways, the more resilient it becomes.
Ever heard of "brainspan"? It's not just about how long you live; it's about how many of those years your brain stays sharp.
If you've been noticing brain fog, low focus, or just want to be proactive about your cognitive health, this is exactly the kind of thing we love digging into at Wave Functional Health. Prevention beats reaction every time.

Something significant just happened in autoimmune research. The NIH has launched the NOURISH Autoimmunity Challenge, funding 15 research teams to study exactly how nutrition affects immune regulation and autoimmune disease.

This research is diving into how specific foods interact with gut immunity, how to predict and intercept flares before damage occurs, and how structured diets like the Mediterranean Diet compare against the Autoimmune Protocol for real disease outcomes.

For those of us in functional medicine, this feels like validation a long time coming. We have spent years focused on the gut-immune connection and using food as a genuine therapeutic tool, often without the backing of large scale research behind it. That is starting to change, and it is exciting to see the science catching up with what patients have been experiencing in their own bodies for years.

https://orwh.od.nih.gov/in-the-spotlight/winners-of-nutrition-for-our-immune-system-health-nourish-autoimmunity-challenge