Laboratory Testing at Kyūshi Wellness
Are you happy for your health to be less than average?
Or do you want to be in the ‘Optimal Health’ category?
Insight……
One of the most common question I get asked from my clients is how do you find all of this information from my labs when my GP tells me they are all perfectly ok?
So how do we obtain a large amount of information from the same Lab Results?…
Let’s start with a little bit about Lab Ranges….
In functional Medicine when it comes to reading labs we view them slightly differently to what a conventional medicine practitioner may do. The reason we read them differently is that we recognise how standard laboratory ranges come to be. People go to their Doctor because they don’t feel right, the doctor then orders the lab testing they want and the Laboratories then carry out the rest, your Dr gets the result and makes a diagnosis and treatment plan based on these results. This is all perfect until the question arises; where do the labs get their ranges of ‘normal’ from? They get them from the population of people that they see; which is people presenting to their Doctor with symptoms (or not feeling their best). The Labs then calculate the average ranges from the results they obtain and these are then used to formulate the ‘Standard Laboratory Ranges’.
The Functional Way….
The problem with this is that we end up with very broad ranges of acceptable levels from a predominantly ‘sick population’. This can make it difficult to draw conclusions from the results obtained. In Functional Medicine when reading laboratory tests we use something that we will term ‘Optimal’ or ‘Functional’ Ranges. To do this, we use narrower margins for error and skew them in the direction that you would ideally like them to be. Some might be a window in the higher ranges, some in the lower ranges and some right in the middle. On top of this we will also read all of your labs looking for how they correlate with one another, remaining vigilant for trends, which can provide valuable information.
Putting this into Practice….
How does this work in Practice?
It is very common for many people to have half of their markers outside ‘Optimum Ranges’ yet all of them inside ‘Standard Ranges’. The good news when this happens is that you aren’t classified as having a disease that is diagnosable and you’re considered medically healthy. The bad news is that whilst putting you at ease; this leaves you wondering why you are still not feeling well and with no treatment options to help you feel better.
The Picture that accompanies this shows a person who has all of their lab results inside standard lab ranges but all of the markers in yellow are outside optimal range.
If your not feeling great but all your labs come back as fine then why not book an appointment to find out where your results fall.
The Overall Goal…
Reading labs in a functional manner enables us to view the body as a whole and track how your different markers correlate with the performance of every aspect of your physiology. This gives us a wealth of information about the reasons that you’re not feeling as good as you should be and through finding the root cause we can return your body to a state of ‘Optimal’ Health and Balance.
“So now you know this.. We will rephrase that question.
Do you want to be average for a sick population. Or do you want to get yourself into that Optimum Health Range?”
— Kyūshi Wellness
