You can get SO MUCH MORE out of your basic annual labs than your doc is sharing with you!!!!

Here’s why…

No, your doc is not keeping secrets from you. In a diagnostic setting, yearly labs are used to diagnose disease…that is how doctors are trained to use lab work- so they are doing exactly as they should. As long as your numbers are “in range”, everything’s fine and they will see you again next year for 10 minutes!

The ranges created for these labs is relatively loose, as it was created to find disease that has already taken root. The lab ranges used are gleaned from the population with a declining health, so this is another reason we do not want to use these ranges to detect OPTIMAL function in the body.

Additionally, common conditions like diabetes, hashimotos, and many more are developing years, or even DECADES before they are in a diagnosable range. 

HOW TO GET MORE FROM YOUR LABS:

1. FUNCTIONAL RANGES

   • Functional ranges are much tighter. They are NOT used to diagnose, rather to note where function is not optimal in the body, and where we can provide support to those areas to increase optimal function.

2. PATTERNS

   • In typical medical settings, each marker is looked at independently, but you can get TONS MORE INFO by looking at blood chemistry as an art. The patterns shown throughout can tell you so so much information- more than just a high or low of one marker EVER could. Common conditions like diabetes, hashimotos, and many more are developing in the body for years, sometimes even DECADES before they appear in a diagnosable range. We can see function starting to decline by looking at patterns on labs, long before individual ranges would appear out of a conventional range.

3. ABNORMAL “NORMALS”

   • Have you ever KNOWN something was off in your body, so you got labs checked, but everything was “in range”…? It can leave you frustrated when you just want answers about your health. This could be due to point number 1, the docs are using really wide ranges. It could also be point number 2- you are looking at individual markers rather than looking for patterns. But it could also be an abnormal normal. Maybe one marker should be low because of a pattern present in your labs, but it appears to be in-range. There’s a possibility that something is pulling it down and another root cause is pulling it up, therefore the result is an in-range number but now we know it is not optimal. Looking deeper can lead us to find these abnormal normals, and question WHY its being pulled up and/or down. 

THINGS YOU CAN LEARN ON YOUR ANNUAL LABS:

• Iron status

  • whether it's high or low (symptoms are similar for both) and if its a dietary iron deficiency or lack of vitamin A and copper, iron storage, or assimilation problem.

• Root causes of gut imbalances such as bacterial infection, fungal infection, viral infection, parasitic infection, or leaky gut.

• Blood sugar imbalances such as insulin resistance, metabolic syndrome, or pre-diabetes.

  • ~80% of adult Americans are thought to be pre-diabetic, and diabetes develops for over 10 years before it is official. So while this sounds like a problem not to worry about until you're older, it's not.

  • Additionally, blood sugar is absolutely foundational for hormone balance, weight loss, energy levels, and more and can be a common root cause for some hormonal diagnoses, like PCOS.

• Patterns in cholesterol and if high cholesterol is due to stress on the body, inflammation, or dietary intake.

• Hydration status.

• Adrenal health status and whether they are hyper- or hypo-.

• Signs of gallbladder, kidney, and liver deficiency.

• Signs of need for more protein, carbs, or fat in the diet (or better absorption).

• Signs of deficiencies in zinc, B vitamins, magnesium, vitamin D, copper, vitamin A, iron, glutathione, etc

• Signs of need for thyroid support.

• Inflammation in the body or a stressed out body.

• And more!!

Again, none of this is used to diagnose, treat, or prevent disease. These are used to determine function and support the body to heal itself and move toward more optimal function in every area.

I know this is a lot of information, but I can help!

If you would like to work with me to learn more about your health using labs by a) incorporate labs into a 1:1 program to get a targeted protocol just for you (with incredible results!) or b) a quick analysis of your blood work with functional ranges for optimal health- Sign up here! Or contact me to get more info!

Download this guide of basic labs to ask your practitioner for and how to prepare for your labs!