FUNCTIONAL BLOOD SCREENING
What is blood screening?
Most of us are using the conventional laboratory reference ranges for our blood chemistry interpretation. For many practitioners blood chemistry analysis is a matter of comparing a test result with the conventional laboratory reference range, seeing whether or not the patient’s results are normal or abnormal and attempting to fit them into a particular disease pattern or pathology. Unfortunately these conventional laboratory ranges are designed to identify and diagnose disease states and pathology. People who fall within the reference range are assumed to have no clinical signs and symptoms of any disease, and are considered “normal”.
In the field of alternative and preventative medicine we know that most of our patients are by no means “normal”, so why do we use an interpretive method that is based on that assumption? It is our hope that this information will present another method of analysis, one that looks at blood chemistries from a functional or prognostic perspective and can therefore give us data on how the physiology of body is functioning. By looking for optimum function we increase the ability to detect the dysfunctions that plague patients long before disease manifests. Our conventional lab testing becomes more comprehensive by being prognostic and preventative, as well as pathology oriented.
Functional versus Pathological
Medicine and health care are undergoing a paradigm shift. We are seeing more and more demand from patients to look at their complex cases from a holistic rather than a mechanistic or reductionistic perspective. In order to do this we need to have diagnostic methods that focus on physiological function as a marker of health, rather than merely the presence of pathology or tissue change as a marker of disease. The following lists the differences between a reductionistic, pathological view of the body, and the view of the body as functioning physiology.
PATHOLOGICAL VIEW 1. The body is viewed as a “machine composed of separate systems reduced into its constituent parts. 2. Emphasis is placed on the identification of disease or pathological tissue change. 3. Diagnosis is extremely specialized. 4. Treatment is based on reducing symptoms. 5. Major focus is spent on how the patient is doing based on charts, statistics, and test results etc. that are measured against a statistical “normal population”. 6. Relies on late stage development of disease as a marker. 7. Health is measured as an absence of disease. As long as you do not have a disease you are considered healthy. | FUNCTIONAL VIEW 1. The body is viewed as a dynamic and complex interconnected system of mind, body and emotions. 2. Emphasis is placed on identification of areas of imbalance or dysfunction in normal physiology. 3. Diagnosis integrates data from many different systems and methods. 4. Treatment addresses the underlying causes of dysfunction. 5. Major focus is spent on both subjective and objective information gathering based on a concept of optimal physiological function. 6. Allows for an early prediction of dysfunction. 7. Health is measured along a wellness continuum, which is a spectrum moving from health to disease. Intervention can be made at every stage of the spectrum to restore and/or improve health and wellness. |
What is measured in this blood chemistry profile?
Glucose & Lipid Metabolism:
Glucose
Cholesterol
HDL Cholesterol
HDL (% of Total)
LDL Cholesterol
Triglycerides
HbA1C (Glycosylated Hb)
Renal Function
Urea
Creatinine
Uric acid
Adrenal Function
Sodium
Potassium
Chloride
Bicarbonate
Liver Function
Protein, Total
Albumin
Globulin
Bilirubin, Total
Alkaline Phosphatase
Aspartate Transaminase
Alanine Transaminase
Creatine Kinase
Albumin / Globulin Ratio
Thyroid & Parathyroid Function
Calcium
Phosphorous, Inorganic
Thyroid Stimulating Hormone
Free Thyroxine (T4)
Free T3
Iron Metabolism
Iron binding capacity
% Saturation
Ferritin
Iron, Total
Functional Haematology
Haemoglobin (Hb)
Monocytes (%)
Red Cell Count (RBC)
Haematocrit (HCT)
Mean Cell Volume (MCV)
MCH
MCHC
RDW
Platelet Count
Mean Platelet Volume (MPV)
White Cell Count (WBC)
Neutrophils (absolute)
Neutriphils (%)
Lymphocytes (%)
Lymphocytes (absolute)
Monocytes (absolute)
Eosinophils (absolute)
Eosinophils (%)
Basophils (absolute)
Basophils (%)
ESR