Fix the Battery, Not Just the Machine
Whether you're fighting fatigue or chasing a PB, the ceiling is the same — cellular efficiency. As your Metabolic Physiotherapist, I combine blood chemistry analysis with metabolic science to pinpoint exactly where your system is leaking energy.
Why Metabolic Physio
We Don't Guess, We Test
Four layers of functional testing to identify what's limiting your recovery — not just what's "in range."
50+ Biomarker Blood Panel
Wider than a typical GP screen — designed to complement your GP's workup. We test insulin resistance (HOMA-IR), inflammation (hsCRP), methylation (homocysteine), full iron studies (ferritin, transferrin saturation, TIBC), thyroid (TSH, Free T3, Free T4), CK for muscle recovery, and the nutrient cofactors that drive energy production.
Included in the Metabolic Assessment
DEXA Body Composition
The gold standard for body composition — measuring visceral fat (the dangerous kind around your organs), appendicular lean mass, and bone mineral density with precision no scale or body-fat caliper can match.
Available as an add-on
Organic Acids Test (OAT)
A urine test that reveals how your mitochondria are actually producing energy — including your lactate:pyruvate ratio and full Krebs cycle intermediates — plus markers for neurotransmitters, gut dysbiosis, oxidative stress, and detoxification capacity.
Available as an add-on
Cellular Energy Test
Direct measurement of your NAD+, NADH, NADP+, and NADPH — the coenzymes that power ATP production, DNA repair, and antioxidant defence. The difference between feeling energised and running on fumes.
Available as an add-on
Targeted Nutrient-Support Recommendations
No generic multi-vitamins. Based on your biomarkers, we recommend practitioner-grade formulas alongside movement and lifestyle protocols. Any nutrient or supplement recommendation is a clinical recommendation — not a medical prescription — and is discussed with your GP before you start.
How It Works
Your Telehealth Metabolic Assessment Journey
From booking to blueprint—a streamlined telehealth process designed to get you answers, not runarounds.
The Booking
Choose your service and pay upfront. You’ll get all your test referrals straight away — your strategy session is scheduled later, once your results are reviewed.
The Lab Orders
Within 24 hours, you'll receive emails to book your tests: i-Screen for bloods (all clients), DEXA imaging (when added at booking), and NutriPath for your OAT + Cellular Energy kit (when OAT/NAD is added).
Complete Your Tests
Visit a collection centre for bloods, book your DEXA scan at a partner clinic (when added), and clients with the OAT/NAD add-on collect their urine and blood-spot samples at home for courier pickup.
Your Protocol
Once all your results are in, we review your full picture and send a personalised booking link. You pick a time, attend your 30 min strategy session, and walk away with a bespoke protocol including practitioner-grade nutrients via Vital.ly (a practitioner-only dispensary — Metabolic Physio retains a standard practitioner margin; you may also source recommended products elsewhere).
Services & Pricing
Metabolic Testing & Functional Nutrition Services: Australia-Wide Telehealth
Metabolic Physiotherapy uses objective data — blood chemistry and functional testing — to help identify the physiological factors that may be limiting your recovery and performance. All consultations are conducted via secure telehealth video, giving you access to focused care from anywhere in Australia. This isn't about chasing symptoms; it's about understanding your unique biology and building a plan around it.
What's in a Metabolic Physio Assessment
A snapshot of how each engagement is structured, so you know exactly what you're getting before you book.
Objective Data
Blood chemistry (50+ markers), and — when added at booking — DEXA body composition and Organic Acids + Cellular Energy Testing.
Focused Telehealth Consults
30-minute video consultations focused on interpretation, planning, and integration with the rest of your healthcare team.
A Written Plan
A bespoke movement, lifestyle, and nutrient-support protocol — plus a written summary you can share with your GP.
The Metabolic Assessment
50+ Biomarker Blood Panel & Forensic Analysis
Consultation + 50+ biomarker blood panel included
All-inclusive — no separate lab fees
- 50+ biomarker blood panel
- HOMA-IR, hsCRP, Homocysteine
- Full lipids, nutrients, liver/kidney
- Forensic-level interpretation
Assessment + DEXA + Cellular
Blood + Body Composition + OAT & Cellular Energy
Core + Organic Acids & Cellular Energy (lab at cost + clinical interpretation)
DEXA booked at your local imaging centre (~$99, paid directly)
Every add-on result is interpreted alongside your biomarkers
- Everything in the Metabolic Assessment
- DEXA body composition scan
- Organic Acids Test + Cellular Energy (NAD)
- Mitochondrial & nutrient pathway mapping
Review & Refine Follow-up
30-minute consultation to adjust protocols, review progress, and troubleshoot any issues. Stay on track with your metabolic optimisation.
Understanding the Pricing
What's included in the price?
The Metabolic Assessment price includes your consultation, detailed analysis and the 50+ biomarker blood panel — no separate lab fees. Any add-on tests you select (e.g. OAT/Cellular Energy) are added transparently at cost during checkout.
What about the DEXA scan?
If you add DEXA body composition, the imaging fee (typically $99) is paid directly to your chosen DEXA imaging centre — it is never charged here. We provide the referral and help you find a centre near you.
Ongoing Care
After Your Diagnostic: The Optimisation Membership
For existing patients who want ongoing, data-driven oversight — so the progress you've made keeps compounding.
Clinical Continuity
Quarterly 45-minute deep-dive consultations to evolve your protocol as your data evolves.
Forensic Tracking
Quarterly blood panel requisitions and six-monthly DEXA referrals — your trajectory, in hard numbers.
Members App & Supplements
Full access to the Members App for live biomarker tracking, lab history, and your active protocol — plus a 10% member discount on practitioner-grade supplements.
Available to existing patients who have completed any consultation with us.
Why We Test Differently
Blood Chemistry Markers Beyond the Standard Panel
Our panel extends beyond the typical 10–15 markers on a standard GP request. These additional functional markers can complement your GP's workup.
HOMA-IR Score
Standard fasting glucose only tells half the story. We add Fasting Insulin alongside Glucose to calculate a HOMA-IR score — a screening tool that helps flag early metabolic patterns worth a closer look with your GP.
High-Sensitivity CRP (hsCRP)
We add this highly sensitive marker to pick up low-grade systemic inflammation — useful context when investigating slow injury recovery and persistent pain.
Homocysteine
This amino acid is a window into your methylation process. If it's high, your energy production, DNA repair, and nervous system health are at risk.
Full Nutrient Baseline
We don't just check if you're "anaemic." We look at Ferritin, Vitamin D, and essential minerals like Magnesium to ensure your cellular "battery" has the raw materials it needs to function.
Illustrative Case Studies
How the Data Comes Together
These are composite, illustrative scenarios built from anonymised, representative patterns — not real patients. They show how Blood Chemistry, OAT, DEXA, and Cellular Energy Testing can be read together to inform a movement and lifestyle plan, and where we'd refer back to a GP.
Illustrative Example
The "Tired Professional"
42-year-old, desk-based work, exercises 3x/week but "never sees results"
Blood Chemistry
"The Fuel System"
Key Findings
The Insight
Glucose alone looked fine, but the insulin reading suggests the pancreas may be working harder than it needs to — a pattern often associated with weight plateaus and energy crashes that's worth a closer look with their GP.
Organic Acids Test
"The Engine"
Key Findings
The Insight
The Krebs Cycle is stalling at step one. Elevated citrate + pyruvate indicates B-vitamin cofactor insufficiency—the mitochondria can't convert fuel to ATP efficiently.
DEXA Scan
"Body, Bone & Foundation"
Key Findings
The Insight
BMI in this case can mask the underlying composition picture: higher visceral fat alongside lower muscle mass. This composition pattern is one we discuss with the patient's GP — particularly the bone density reading, which sits in a range warranting medical follow-up.
Connecting the Dots
Low Muscle
→ Fewer glucose "sinks"
High VAT
→ Inflammatory cytokines
Krebs Stall
→ ATP deficit despite eating
The Vicious Cycle: Low muscle mass reduces metabolic rate → excess energy stored as visceral fat → VAT releases inflammatory signals → mitochondrial efficiency drops further → fatigue worsens → exercise feels impossible → muscle loss continues.
Illustrative protocol — not a recommendation. The items below are examples of the kinds of nutrient, training, and lifestyle inputs we discuss in consult. Any plan you receive is built from your own data and reviewed against your medical history.
Targeted Intervention
The Protocol
1Mitochondrial Support
- Activated B-Complex — addressing pyruvate bottleneck
- CoQ10 (Ubiquinol) — electron transport chain support
- Magnesium Glycinate — ATP synthesis cofactor
2Glucose-Handling Support
- Nutrient cofactors — alpha-lipoic acid and chromium are among the cofactors discussed in the literature for glucose handling — actual selection and dose is matched in consult and reviewed alongside any existing medications with the patient's GP
- Dietary structure — protein-and-fat-first meal composition, low-glycaemic carbohydrates
- Loading + movement — muscle as a glucose sink — progressive resistance training is one of the largest levers
3Muscle Building Programme
- Progressive Resistance — prioritise compound lifts
- Protein Timing — 1.6-2.2g/kg, spread across meals
- Creatine Monohydrate — ATP regeneration + muscle
4Lifestyle Modifications
- Post-Meal Walks — 10-15 min to blunt glucose spikes
- Time-Restricted Eating — 10hr window for mitophagy
- Sleep Optimisation — 7-9hrs for recovery + HGH
"Muscle is Metabolic Currency"
Skeletal muscle is one of the most influential levers for metabolic health that movement-based care can directly support.
Scott Dunford
• Clinical NotePhysiotherapist · AHPRA PHY0002271516
"A wider biomarker view can help us connect threads that single-panel snapshots leave separate. Across this picture we're seeing the same theme — energy production under strain (OAT), nutrient cofactors stretched (blood chemistry), and a composition pattern that movement and lifestyle work can directly influence (DEXA). The bone density and HOMA-IR readings are flagged for the GP; the rest sits comfortably inside what physiotherapy and lifestyle support are built to address."
Meet The Practitioner
Why I Built Metabolic Physio
Scott Dunford
Metabolic Physiotherapist
After years in clinical practice, I noticed a frustrating pattern: many patients weren't failing because of poor technique or weak muscles—they were failing because their bodies' underlying systems weren't supporting recovery. Persistent fatigue, stubborn inflammation, and slow tissue healing often pointed to something deeper than a mechanical problem.
That observation led me to metabolic health. I use comprehensive blood chemistry panels, DEXA body composition scans, the Organic Acids Test (OAT), and Cellular Energy Testing to go beyond the surface. We're not just looking for disease; we're identifying the physiological roadblocks—like nutrient deficiencies, inflammatory loads, and mitochondrial bottlenecks—that are hijacking your body's capacity to heal and perform.
This data transforms how we approach your physiotherapy. It helps us understand the "why" behind your condition, allowing me to build a complete, evidence-informed plan that supports your body's recovery from the inside out.
Credentials & Training
AHPRA-Registered Physiotherapist
Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency
Australian Physiotherapy Association (APA)
Member in good standing
ACNEM Foundations Parts 1 & 2
Australasian College of Nutritional and Environmental Medicine — providing the framework to interpret functional pathology and integrate it into evidence-informed physiotherapy care.
Conditions We Support
Who This Is For: From Rebuilding to Peak Performance
Metabolic Physiotherapy serves two kinds of people who want the same thing — to stop leaving performance on the table. Whether you've been told "everything looks normal" but you still feel flat, or you're an athlete trying to understand why recovery has stalled and PBs aren't coming, the answer lives in the same place: your cellular biochemistry.
Persistent Fatigue
Supporting those experiencing unexplained tiredness by identifying potential metabolic drivers affecting cellular energy production.
Peak Performance & Recovery
For athletes, lifters, and high-output professionals who want to see why recovery has plateaued, PBs aren't coming, or training load isn't converting to adaptation. We surface the markers that separate recovered from under-recovered — ferritin and iron studies, CK, hsCRP, HOMA-IR, lactate:pyruvate ratio, NAD+ status, and appendicular lean mass via DEXA.
Systemic Inflammation
Identifying inflammatory markers and physiological factors that may be contributing to widespread discomfort and slow recovery.
Slow Injury Recovery
Managing tissue healing by identifying nutrient insufficiencies and metabolic factors that may be delaying your recovery timeline.
Chronic Pain with Metabolic Links
Supporting pain management by exploring metabolic factors — inflammation, nutrient status, mitochondrial efficiency — that may be contributing to symptoms.
Not Sure If This Is You?
Take our quick quiz to find out which assessment matches your health profile.
FAQ
Common Questions
Everything you need to know about Metabolic Physiotherapy and our telehealth services.
Metabolic Physiotherapy is data-driven. My approach centres on analysing your results — blood chemistry panels, and any add-ons you select (DEXA body composition, Organic Acids + Cellular Energy testing) — to identify physiological factors affecting your recovery. During our secure video consultation, I interpret this data, discuss your symptoms and history, and provide a personalised protocol covering movement, lifestyle modifications, and targeted nutrient support. It's about using objective data to guide your care, alongside your GP and existing medical team — not a replacement for hands-on or medical care.
Yes. Video consultations run on Cliniko Telehealth (powered by Coviu), an encrypted Australian platform. Your clinical records are stored in Cliniko, hosted in Sydney, Australia and managed in accordance with the Privacy Act 1988 and AHPRA guidelines. Cross-border processing (e.g. Stripe for payments, Resend for email, Anthropic for our chatbot and AI-assisted report extraction) is disclosed in full in our Privacy Policy. I never share your data without your explicit consent.
The core Metabolic Assessment includes a 50+ biomarker blood panel via i-Screen. From there you can layer in add-ons at checkout: DEXA body composition (booked at your local imaging centre, ~$99 paid directly there) for visceral fat, lean mass and bone density; and Organic Acids + Cellular Energy (NAD) via NutriPath, posted as one home-collection kit, for mitochondrial function and cellular energy markers. I'll guide you through which add-ons are sensible for your picture before you commit, and everything is itemised at checkout — the lab pass-throughs are billed at cost with no Metabolic Physio markup.
Practitioner-grade supplements differ from retail brands in three ways: higher bioavailability, clinical-strength formulations, and third-party purity testing. After your Metabolic Assessment I use your biomarkers — and any add-on data you've chosen (DEXA, OAT, Cellular Energy) — to recommend a targeted, prioritised plan. As a physiotherapist I recommend nutrients; I do not prescribe medications. All recommendations are accessible via Vital.ly, a practitioner-only dispensary with direct-to-door delivery. Supplement costs are not included in consultation fees. Disclosure: Metabolic Physio retains a standard practitioner margin on Vital.ly orders — you're under no obligation to purchase through Vital.ly and may source the same products elsewhere (see Terms §7.7).
No. The nutrient recommendations are clinical suggestions based on your individual data — you have full control over what you choose to order through the Vital.ly portal. My role is to identify nutrient gaps relevant to your physiotherapy goals and recommend targeted support; the decision to purchase is entirely yours, and you may source recommended products from any retailer.
Two groups benefit equally. The first: people who feel stuck — persistent fatigue, slow injury recovery, chronic pain that hasn't responded to traditional care, or anyone told 'everything looks normal' who still doesn't feel right. The second: athletes, lifters, and high-output professionals who've hit a plateau and want objective data on why recovery, energy, or adaptation has stalled. Both groups are solving the same puzzle — cellular efficiency — just from different ends. For anything sounding like a medical emergency, call 000 or attend your nearest ED.
Yes — please provide at least 24 hours' notice via email or phone. Late cancellations (under 24h) and no-shows (failure to join within 10 minutes of the scheduled start) are charged the full session fee. Once your pathology referrals have been issued — typically within 24 hours of booking — the laboratory component is non-refundable regardless of whether you complete the testing. The clinical-interpretation fee component remains refundable up to the point referrals have been issued. Full detail in Terms §4 + §6.
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Stop guessing — start testing. Get a clear, data-led protocol designed to support sustained energy, recovery, and performance.
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