So I cannot count how many times I've been to the doctors, especially when I was younger, and asked for a blood test. For me to get to that point, was a huge deal. I am super phobic about needles. (I know, what a laugh, since I tell everyone to get blood tests all the time!!)
So leading up to making the doctors appointment, I would really be feeling like death warmed up. When I was a teenager, it was chronic fatigue and recurrent tonsillitis (7 times yearly, no joke), and as a young mother it was extreme anxiety, exhaustion, weakness, bruising, recurrent mastitis. This was all before I studied naturopathy, so I knew nothing more about my health than anyone else.
Anyway, the blood test would be done and I would be SO eager for the results to come in. There would be anxiety, always, “what if it's sinister?”
But mostly, “I hope they find something.”
Because “something” can be fixed, then I will feel better.
The sheer disappointment when the doctor would call and say “your blood tests are fine.”
WHAT?
How do I feel like this then?! What is going on?! So I'm at the end of the road with these health concerns? Nothing you can do?
I bet most of you are nodding your heads, because we've honestly ALL experienced this. It's devastating. And then to be told that whatever you are experiencing is ‘nothing’, or ‘normal’, or ‘maybe you need anti-depressants’. Ugh.
So when I studied my 4-year degree, I was absolutely shocked to my bones. Wait, there are different reference rangesdepending on if you are searching for a disease/condition compared to optimal health? To not have symptoms, you must not be on either end of the reference range? That reference ranges are created by taking the average results of an entire population, including the sickest of the sickest, which throws the ranges out? That each lab has it's own set of reference ranges, so at one clinic I may be fine, but at the next I may be anaemic?
Mind blown.
After so many truths slapping me in the face, I vowed to make reading blood tests a very vital and essential part of my career. Because there is so much valuable information on those tests. They aren't to just be skimmed. We want to thoroughly investigate the levels. To see if this person is at absolute optimal levels, for feeling their best.
And most importantly, I want YOU to be able to read those tests. So that next time you go to the doctor's to find out what is going on, you don't need to just accept that “your blood tests are fine.” I want to empower you. So you don't need to put up with feeling crappy for a moment longer.
This is why I created the Blood Test Cheat Sheet.
So that you can do all of that yourself. Get those blood test copies, and start finding out what is going on with your health.
It includes all the references that I use (not the ones that you'll find from the labs).
So if you want to start taking your health into YOUR hands, it's on our website under ‘ebooks’
Until next time!
Take care, Melanie
