Visiting your health care provider for a specific problem or concern you may be having often leads to additional testing. Many times, this testing includes checking bloodwork. This bloodwork is necessary to assist your healthcare provider in confirming or ruling out certain medical diagnoses. However, did you know that bloodwork can also provide great insight to your health and wellness, and help you avoid or fix problems before significant symptoms even appear?

Laboratory testing can be frustrating and challenging for many patients for several reasons.

First, test results do not always provide a black and white answer. For example, a blood sugar level that falls in the ‘normal range’ may make you believe that your body is regulating sugar and insulin well. However, upon further investigation, a Hemoglobin A1C test may reveal that blood sugar levels are actually averaging high, and you may be pre-diabetic or diabetic.

Second, misinterpretation of lab results can easily occur, leading to conflicting answers and viewpoints from your healthcare team.

Finally, lab tests and results only tell part of the story. Test results need to be evaluated and assessed in conjunction with symptoms.

Lab results that fall in the normal range do not indicate the absence of disease.

One of the keys to understanding and interpreting lab results is understanding what the ‘normal range’ or ‘reference range’ means. The normal/reference range simply represents a ninety-five percent confidence interval and has very little to do with disease states, prevention, or wellness. All major labs pool together thousands of labs for men or women of specific age ranges. The range where 95% of those people fall becomes the low value of the reference range, and the high value of the reference range. These individuals may or may not have disease states that affect the lab values; however, this is not excluded from the range determination. Therefore, lab results that fall in the ‘normal range’ do not indicate the absence of disease. It simply indicates that your lab values fall in line with 95% of others your age and gender. Here are some insights from Jackie Tewes>>

At Flourish Medical + Wellness, our goal is to be proactive rather than reactive. When we review your lab results with you, we focus on helping you maintain optimal levels to prevent diseases like bone loss, diabetes, hyperinsulinemia, etc. instead of waiting until your lab results are far beyond the ‘normal’ range requiring medications to cover up symptoms resulting from the disease process. Trust the health professionals at Flourish. Schedule your FIRST VISIT with us and we’ll determine your ‘optimal’ ranges and give you the individualized medical care you need.

To learn more about your first visit with us, experience Flourish today.