Blood Chemistry Analysis is Not Taught Properly
People will interpret blood chemistries based on their education and experience. Virtually no medical or allied health school teaches blood chemistry interpretation beyond diagnosing a disease, by the way of analysing isolated biomarkers. Nothing is taught about the homeostatic relationships that exist between multiple biomarkers. This means that practitioners are taught to look at biomarkers individually - analysing vitamin D alone without considering its relationship with cholesterol or albumin, for instance. The result is a system that views markers as binary - they are either 'good' or 'bad'. There is no good or bad when it comes to blood chemistry. Low vitamin D, for instance, is not bad in and of itself - it is simply indicative of an imbalance in body chemistry. Often, low vitamin D can be corrected by addressing other imbalances in the body - namely key protein markers (like serum Total Protein, Albumin and Phosphate).
They Follow a Flawed Method of Analysis
The point is, most health practitioners follow a flawed method of analysis. Analysing blood chemistry in this way tells practitioners very little about how the body is functioning. It also means that the vast majority of health practitioners are not well equipped at balancing body chemistry. Thus, they have little ability to restore the health of their patients.
Let's look at a typical example. Doctors will often use blood chemistry to diagnose diverticulitis - the inflammation or infection in the small pouches of the digestive tract. On the other hand, naturopaths (who are prevented by law from diagnosing a medical label like 'diverticulitis') will diagnose the same problem as SIBO/SIFO, gut dysbiosis, or 'leaky gut'. A doctor will commonly prescribe antibiotic treatment, whereas a naturopath will commonly prescribe a low carbohydrate diet, herbs and probiotics. While these approaches appear vastly different at face value, they are the same.
Both look to treat the symptoms and fail to explore and correct the cause of diverticulitis/leaky gut. They both fail to analyse blood chemistry properly and overlook how poor diet leads to "poor" dentistry, which is the entry point to the gut of a range of toxins. This is typical of the biomedical model of disease - which is the model that universities indoctrinate all health/medical students. As explored in our previous article, this model dovetails with Big Pharma and large health insurance companies, to create a transactional style dependency instead of providing health autonomy.
The Problem With Normal Reference Ranges
This is compounded by the fact that most health practitioners cite the normal 'reference ranges' to determine if a client's blood chemistry is in or out of balance. The issue with using 'normal' reference ranges is that they consider both healthy and unhealthy individuals. So, if a society has a higher concentration of sick people within a pathology lab, a client’s blood chemistry may be considered normal by a doctor, but it may be well out of balance (meaning they are unwell). Reference ranges also ignore the concept that each person is biochemically unique.
Blood chemistry reference ranges are distributed along a bell-shaped curve, where ‘normal’ is essentially the middle of the curve. A ‘normal’ reference range is essentially an average of the population. In Australia, there are 8 different pathology labs that we use to carry out our blood tests and all of them return different ‘normal’ reference ranges. Thus, normal is not a reliable reference point. Based on our observations when meeting with international clients, the same is true of international reference ranges. Unfortunately, this is how the modern healthcare system has been set up and is why so many people slip through the cracks - being told there is nothing wrong with them when in actual fact, there is.
The Bell Curve of Blood Chemistry
Looking at Blood Chemistry the Wrong Way
This is all to say that most health practitioners - be they doctors, dentists or naturopaths - don't have an inherent understanding of blood chemistry. While we welcome working with doctors and other health practitioners, the unfortunate reality is that they often lack knowledge on balancing body chemistry, which may lead them to take a conflicting opinion to ours.
A great example of this is copper. Many practitioners will see high copper levels in hair and blood, and attribute this to excess copper and an imbalance in zinc. We, on the other hand, often find that copper in the hair and blood means that the copper is being displaced by mercury. In other words; mercury toxicity creates the illusion that copper is high.
In this instance, we prescribe copper (found within our multi-mineral supplements) to our clients. We do this as a means of helping them build connective tissue. This is often seen as counterintuitive by many other health practitioners, however, when viewing the homeostatic relationships between biomarkers, it is a necessity. This is just one example as to how our thinking may diverge from other health practitioners. You can read more about how mercury toxicity results in high copper levels here.
How Copper Helps Build Connective Tissue
Looking at Blood Chemistry Through the Wrong Prism
For those that follow our health programs, it is crucial to understand that most health practitioners view blood chemistry through the wrong prism and make the following mistakes:
- They look at biomarkers in isolation
- They look at biomarkers as being binary - as either good or bad
- They fail to consider the relationships between biomarkers, measurements and chemistry collection times
- They benchmark against 'normal' reference ranges for children, adult and between genders male and female
- They prescribe supplements or medications to treat markers in isolation - prescribing vitamin D for a low vitamin D3 reading in chemistry
- There is usually no follow up testing with respect to the life cycle of red blood cell timeline - 1st week, 5th week, 16th week (128 day blood cell cycle).
The Prescription for Health Report: The System for Getting Well and Staying Well
Every client who undertakes one of our health programs will receive a 'Prescription for Health Report' and a prescribed eating plan. This report outlines a method for balancing that person's body chemistry. The Prescription for Health Report is the first and only system to provide a comprehensive, tailored health plan based on biochemical individuality. If you commit to undertaking a program with us, following the protocol outlined in the Prescription for Health Report is to your advantage. It is designed to correct fundamental health defects and restore balance to the body, which allows it to triumph over disease.
It is important to understand that what we see in blood chemistry is the accommodation of survival, where the body is making its best effort to heal. Ultimately, numbers lead some people astray but the correct interpretation leads the way. To learn more about how to balance body chemistry and how it serves as the roadmap for health, click here.
