Interpreting lab results.

So many folks bring in their lab results, I thought it might be a good idea to help explain what some of the results mean so you can have a better idea of what you are looking at.

A CBC (complete blood count) report will include the following:

Platelet count and wat it means:
Platelets or thrombocytes help stop bleeding. They look like little pieces of torn paper under the microscope. The measurement in a CBC should be in the range of 150 to 400. Problems can signal thrombocytopenia (too few platelets), leukemia, or drug side effects.

HGB (hemoglobin value):
Hemoglobin is the protein that carried oxygen and you will see this way; g/dl or grams per decaliter. The range for men is 13.5 to 17.5 and 12 to 16 for women. When hemoglobin is low the body cannot carry oxygen and may result in fatigue.

HCT (hematocrit value):
This number is the percentage of your blood that consists of red blood cells (RBC's). A decrease in HCT indicates anemia, bleeding, some cancers, and chemotherapy side effcts. (This also applies to HGB)

RBC count (red blood cells):
In men a normal RBC count in men is 4.5 to 6 for men and 4.2 to 5.4 for women. It may sound simplistic but the function of RBC's is to carry oxygen to the tissues and carry off carbon dioxide. Too few and blood gases like CO2 are not carried off properly.

WBC count (white blood cells or leukocytes):
WBC's are your body's army that fight off invaders. Normal in a CBC is 4 to 11. There are differential counts and absolute counts. A decrease in any of these can signal serious problems like bone marrow failure or infections. However, it is important to differentiate which WBC's are being counted. For example, eosinophils signal a parasitic infection and/or allergies or both.

You should know these simple few abbreviations because too often your PCP may not have the time to devote to interpreting these for you. Also, since these tests are performed by automated equipment, ask your doctor if the lab is reliable. It can be a huge difference in your treatment.

Above all....ALWAYS ASK!

Hormones...What your doctor probably won't tell you.

I am constantly amazed at how many people, men and women, who come to see me that have been diagnosed with some exotic disease only to find out that their hormones are out of balance.

Our entire lives are controlled by hormones yet, more often than not, if you go to an endocrinologist (a doctor specializing in hormones) they simply check the symptom and throw a pill at you. OK, I am probably playing the same broken record here, but do you really want this as a national health care plan? More of them same and get fined if you don't want it?

So let's talk a bit about hormones and what the imbalance(s) can affect.

Your body is an incredible creation. It gives warnings and alarm "bells" all the time. Some of those alarms are such things as low libido, increased weight gain (especially around the tummy and butt), hot flashes (I prefer to call them "power surges"), breast tenderness, mood swings, decreased stamina, decreased muscle size, rapid aging, osteoporosis, hearling loss and about 40 other symptoms not usually associated with a "simple" hormone imbalance.

I recommend that every man and woman over 35 get a saliva test every year. My lab of choice is ZRT labs in Beaverton, Oregon. (If you live in California or New York, you will have to have a practitioner, RN, PA, chiropractor, acupuncturist, etc.) order the kit for you.

Please check your Estradiol, progesterone, testosterone, cortisol and DHEA. These tests will usually run about $150.00 and it's the best $150.00 you'll ever spend on your health. SInce your doctor probably won;t do it, you'll have to.

Your practitioner will interpret the rather simple results for you and most likely recommend a natural course to take. (We'll talk more about so-called Bio-identical hormone treatments in another entry.)

Why saliva and not a blood test?

I have several very good friends who are medical doctors and we go round and round about this one. Remember! I'm a blood guy, but I think that saliva is much more accurate and here's why.

Sex hormones such as progesterone, estrogen and testosterone are fat-soluble steroids similar to cholesterol that attach to lipids in the blood and get stored in fat tissue.

Only 2 to 5 percent of serum progesterone, estrogen and testosterone is "free" or non-protein-bound. This is the hormone available to target tissues and to saliva. Thus, these hormones measured by serum levels is mostly a measure of hormones that are not going to be used by the body and is therefore an erroneous calculation for our purposes.

Hormones transported by red blood cell membranes are readily available to all target tissues and to saliva. This progesterone is completely bioavailable and readily measured by saliva testing. Only a small fraction of it is carried by the watery serum. Obviously, serum testing is not a good way to measure transdermal progesterone absorption.

What I am saying about hormone transdermals also applies to other creams, as well.

I suggest you read What Your Doctor May Not Tell You About Menopause available through Amazon. This will explain in great detail what I trying to say here in a short blog.

You will be amazed at how many so called diseases (like Hashimoto's) is not a disease at all but a hormone imbalance.

Now, I know I only covered the basics, but unless you do the research, your doctor probably will not diagnose or treat the proper symptom. How many young women and teenage girls are thrown birth control pills when indeed that simply increases the risk of breast and lung cancer.

I am not saying your doctor is ignorant or stupid. I am only saying that they are overwhelmed by the system and really haven't the time to practice medicine anymore. If you want more of this medicine, then by all means let Congress run ahead with a system that isn't working.

But, please, please read and do your due diligence. It's your body.

Non-invasive approved cancer tests.

Everyone needs to know that there are safe, non invasive, totally accurate tests for cancer and I mention two here. These tests are available now and many medical doctors are not even aware of these.

The first one is the AMAS test. This is an Innovative Aid in Early Cancer Diagnosis and Follow up.

Oncolab provides the FDA approved AMAS blood test, helping health care professionals to diagnose cancer, and to follow up during treatment. In studies of more than 8,000 patients, the AMAS® Test was found to be 95% accurate and unique for its diverse use as a diagnostic tool regarding all non-terminal cancers. In some cases, the AMAS® test detected cancer 1 to 19 months before clinical detection.

These tests indicate with great accuracy (99% specificity and 95% sensitivity) if there is cancer active anywhere within your body.

A free testing kit can be ordered through the website or by calling 1-800-922-8378. Learn more about AMAS here.

Another example of a non invasive approved alternative to mammograms is thermography.

Thermography is a painless, non invasive, state of the art clinical test without any exposure to radiation and is used as part of an early detection program which gives women of all ages the opportunity to increase their chances of detecting breast disease at an early stage. It is particularly useful for women under 50 where mammography is less effective.

Additionally, thermography can help detect Inflammatory Breast Disease which a mammogram will not detect. Thermography can detect anomalies 6 years in advance of a mammogram! The information regarding your test is determined by doctors from Duke University and the results are usually available within days!

More information and local worldwide thermographers can be located here.

It's time we all had safe alternatives.