The Truth Behind Blood Tests: Why Functional Blood Ranges Are The Only Markers You Should Trust

For most people, when their doctor looks at their blood work and tells them they have high cholesterol or that their CO2 is in range they don’t think twice about their results. After all, it’s a blood test, how much more accurate can it get?

The truth is most Americans are grossly misinformed when it comes to their health and body.

Did you know that lab ranges are based on population averages? Meaning, as people get sicker lab ranges get broader. In fact, the only lab range that remains consistent from lab to lab is the lipid panel. Because of this, depending on where your doctor gets his blood work processed, you may or may not have the markers of diabetes, hypothyroidism, iron-deficiency anemia or any of the other countless diseases plaguing the US population.

Functional blood chemistry analysis has a standard. It is based on the premise of optimal health, not the median of a sick population. Functional ranges are consistent and congruent with health and vitality and their ranges are constant, across the board.

This gross negligence on the part of the medical community has lead to countless people being over-prescribed, under-prescribed and mis-prescribed medication, which is at the very best damaging and the very worst detrimental to their health.

For example, according to one lab, the range for cholesterol is 100-199, however, for absolute optimal health your cholesterol markers should be between 150-200. Anyone with a lab range between 100-150 does not need to be on cholesterol lowering statin drugs. However, if your cholesterol marker is 110 your doctor will probably tell you your cholesterol is high and prescribe you Lipitor. This is potentially life threatening. Your body needs cholesterol to survive.

Cholesterol makes up a large percentage of your cells, ranging from internal organs to muscle tissues. Cholesterol is also one of the essential building blocks for hormones in your body, particularly your sex and steroid hormones. Cholesterol levels inadvertently helps control blood sugar and blood pressure levels. Cholesterol also synthesizes bile acids which are essential in absorption of fat from the intestines. It is also the precursor for vitami
D. So, when your doctor prescribes you cholesterol-lowering medication unnecessarily because of skewed lab ranges, all of these processes become affected.

Additionally low cholesterol can be just as troubling, if not more so, than high cholesterol. Symptoms of low cholesterol include: depression, anxiety, mental impairment, stroke, vitami
D deficiency, cancer and heart disease. Sounds eerily familiar to the current health state of the general American population, doesn’t it? Ten times more people suffer from depression now than they did 50 years ago. Cancer is on the rise as well, with certain types weighing in at a 223% increase. Heart disease is currently the number 1 cause of death (and cancer the number 2) in the United States. Could these numbers be drastically cut if we weren’t overmedicating our population because of mis-read blood panels?

The body is an amazing being that houses 50 trillion cells – each with a unique structure and function. The balance necessary to facilitate each of the body’s cells, organs, muscles and tissues doesn’t change because a population’s health takes a nosedive; the body’s needs remain constant. Please remember this next time your doctor diagnoses you according to your blood work. Ask for a second opinion. Or better yet, find a functional blood chemistry practitioner near you.