Did you know that Functional Medicine Practitioners interpret labs differently than your average primary care physician & your
favorite laboratory?
It's true!
Why this is important for YOUR health:
▪️When you have labs drawn, the lab will post it's own levels for "normal" and will only flag something as HIGH or LOW when your test levels are above or below their published range. This is called a Reference Range.
▪️Lab reference ranges can vary by lab, location, region of the country, and the world! Did you know that?!
Reference ranges are determined by a statistical bell curve based on that lab's population.
So what does this mean for YOU?
▪️This means that if you live in an area that tends towards heart disease & diabetes for example, the reference ranges will reflect those averages from that population. Your levels-- that might be a red flag to me as an FxM practitioner-- may not be flagged as high or low by your lab, and thus, not your practitioner. But you could be headed towards disease!
▪️Another example-- did you know that the average reference range for Vitamin B12 in the US is around 200-900 pg/ml and in Japan it's 500-1300? Anything below 550 in Europe is considered sub-optimal or abnormal.
▪️Not only are those wide ranges but if you visit your practitioner complaining of feeling cold, fatigued, low energy, depressed, brain fog,etc, then you have your B12 checked and it comes back at 250 pg/ml, you're "normal" in the US. But the truth is, that's possibly really low for you and could be the cause for your symptoms. A simple supplementation may be the solution, but you'd never be told that because you were "normal".
▪️The truth is, most of our physicians are hurried and under time constraints when you meet with them. It's easier for them to quickly review the lab report and rely on the interpretation. It's not because they don't care about you. It's because of the system we have going in this country.
▪️A Fx Medicine practitioner will look at the actual numbers on the labs, how they relate to your health & family history, your symptoms and your whole picture as an individual. What's normal for your neighbor or your spouse is NOT necessarily normal for you.
Want to learn more about how functional medicine can help you? Contact us!