Unlike conventional blood analysis, which uses broad reference ranges to diagnose a disease, FBCA utilises ‘functional’ ranges in order to determine disease risk and identify sub-clinical health problems long before they manifest as full-blown disease.
One of the most common problems we encounter with patients who consult our practice is the saying, “My doctor told me my lab tests are Normal” If this sounds all too familiar? here’s why this happens. When your blood is analyzed by any lab, your results are compared to a lab range. This lab range is derived from the average of all the people that came through that lab. There are patients with high blood sugar and low blood sugar, high thyroid function and low thyroid function, high cholesterol and low cholesterol…you get the idea. From all of the readings from all of the people they create a bell curve. You remember those from your school days. As a result, the ranges are so broad that many people who are sick appear to be “normal.”
On the other hand, a functional blood chemistry analysis compares your results to a set of standards derived from healthy subjects: patients with no disease or symptoms. This functional range is considered optimal. It is a range that is more narrow and therefore problems can be detected much earlier than using the ranges from a standard lab analysis. Who you want to be compared to? Do you want your levels compared to other sick people or do you want your levels compared to healthy people? At our Functional Medicine Clinic we use Functional Lab ranges as a goal for all our patients.
If you said you want your level compared to healthy people then you now get the idea..
If we rely on standard blood ranges health and disease becomes a very black and white issue- no in between- You either have disease or you don’t have disease.
If you are “in the range” you are normal and “healthy” and if you are out of range then you are “sick”.
Unfortunately, sickness and disease and even health come in varying shades of gray. This again is why doctors who focus on Root cause Medicine or Functional Medicine often pay more attention to “Functional laboratory ranges”
Functional Ranges are considered sub-clinical and can indicate the beginning stages of disease. They should be used as bio markers, indicating a developing condition. Another way of saying is that you are sick, but you are “not sick enough” to be treated with drugs or surgery.
Most traditional allopathic disease treating, disease managing doctors use only the Pathological Ranges. They do not address the sub-clinical findings.
Has your doctor made you feel like you were making things up, did you get the feeling they didn’t believe you when you complained of certain symptoms?
If you said yes, this is because your doctor only considers disease as black and white issue. No shades of gray.
There are some additional reasons people are told everything is normal but they feel anything but normal. I would estimate that well over 50% of the patients who consult my Functional Medicine practice don’t feel well and yet many of them have had blood work that appears “normal.” We can assume a few other problems might be happening with these individuals.
We are contracted with several blood draw centers throughout the USA as a result we are able to offer our patients a cost-effective, comprehensive blood panel at a substantial savings. These tests IF billed to insurance companies can easily cost over $1800. When paying cash, we are able to offer these blood tests at a fraction of the price due to the volume of bloodwork we do. There is no less expensive way to get a broad perspective on things that may be affecting your health. If you don’t have blood testing contact my office and inquire about “Dr Hagmeyer’s New Patient blood panel”.
This panel includes all the blood markers I typically want to see on the initial visit/contact with a patient as baseline testing. If your bloodwork is outdated or you don’t have insurance, it is recommended that you take advantage of the “Dr Hagmeyer’s New Patient Blood Panel”.
Take a few minutes to fill out my Health Questionnaire.
Once I know your top health concerns, your goals and what kind of help you are looking for, I will send you back some of my initial recommendations.
