This is some information that may be told the patient to answer the question “Why am I being tested?” This script has been developed with physicians so as to not promise the patient anything that the doctor may not want to, or cannot not, do. This may be personalized, within the parameters of this statement.
We are testing a portion of your nervous system called the autonomic nervous system. You may think about it as the “automatic” nervous system. It controls all of the things we do not want to have to think about: eye blink, digestion, breathing, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. It has two parts, one part the speeds things up and one part that slows things down. Like everything else in life, there should be a proper balance: work and play, exercise and diet, spiritual and secular, etc. If you consider medicine as “balancing” disease, the balance between the two autonomic branches is a measure of how you are responding to your medications and therapy in light of your disease. This is more information that the doctor may use to manage your condition.