The Functional System Scores are designed to give a general sense of dysfunction in a particular system. However, there are a number of systems, Acid/Base, Adrenals, Thyroid to name a few, which share biomarkers that move in a different direction due to the type of dysfunction present, e.g. TSH and thyroid hormones will move in one direction with primary hypothyroidism and in the opposite direction with hyperthyroidism. The score, typically, will show high if there's a pure case of adrenal insufficiency, metabolic acidosis, metabolic alkalosis, primary hypothyroidism, etc. In the case of pH imbalances, and sometimes the other dysfunctions I mentioned, there are situations that will occur where the movement of the various anions and cations (or the shared biomarkers) is unequivocal. Some will move in the direction of acidosis and others will move in the direction of alkalosis. This causes the score to be high but in the conditions/dysfunctions report, the acidosis and alkalosis dysfunctions will appear with a low score because only a few of the biomarkers are moving in the direction for that dysfunction. In this situation, refer to the findings in the Clinical Dysfunctions/Conditions report.