Lab tests are a direct window into your nutritional status. In my office I run 5 different lab tests.
Chem55 blood panel – comprehensive metabolic panel
The chem55 is a large panel encompassing everything we can take away from your blood. This includes a full thyroid panel which looks at how well your thyroid gland is working. It also tells us how your body uses the two thyroid hormones it produces. There are so many pieces that this test covers including how your immune system functions. It allows us to see the breadth and depth of your personal biochemistry.
The most important part of this panel is the ranges. Medical lab ranges for a blood panel are a lot larger than integrative health ranges. For example, doctors look at thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) to determine how the thyroid is functioning. TSH for medical lab ranges typically runs from about 0.5 to 4.5, maybe even 5.0, which is a HUGE range. Integrative lab ranges run from 1.8 to 3.0, which is where people with a healthy thyroid fall. Medical ranges only flag a person when they are outside the ranges.
Medical lab ranges are set by the standard that 95% of people who get blood work done are “normal”. According to medical lab ranges you have to be an A+ sick person to be acknowledged as sick. Since I am not looking to diagnose you with a disease instead of having to follow their wide ranges, I can look at lab ranges that are about one-third of the size. Healthy people who feel great their lab numbers fall into a really tight range of values. If your values are outside of the integrative range, but they fall within the high end of “normal” medical ranges, I would consider you a “normal” sick person.
You can be inside of medical lab ranges and still not feel good. Even if your values are not high or low enough to raise a flag they are still signs of dysfunction in those areas if they are outside of a truly healthy range.
2. Cyrex array 2 intestinal permeability
https://www.cyrexlabs.com/CyrexTestsArrays
The Cyrex array 2 lab tests for intestinal permeability, which is a fancy way of saying, “do you have leaky gut?” This determines if your gut is doing its job of keeping food and waste products in the intestines and not letting them leak into the bloodstream. We run this test to determine the state of health of your gut.
3. Cyrex array 3 (Wheat/Gluten Proteome Reactivity & Autoimmunity) & 4 (
Gluten-Associated Cross-Reactive Foods and Foods Sensitivity) – https://www.cyrexlabs.com/CyrexTestsArrays
Cyrex array 3 & 4 tells us if your immune system is attacking foods. There is no reason that your immune system should attack food unless the food is leaking into your bloodstream before it’s been well digested. If your immune system is hypersensitized, it will recognize a food even when it is in your gut. Cyrex array 3 & 4 tells us the health status of your intestines and identifies if you have food sensitivities.
4. Genova diagnostics organic acids test
https://www.gdx.net/product/metabolic-analysis-test-organic-acids-urine
The organic acids test is like an exhaust admissions test for your car. This test pays attention to what comes out in your urine because the urine contains the waste products of all that is going on in your metabolism. From this test, we can determine how well you’re taking food and turning it into electricity (called ATP) for your body. If you aren’t doing this process well, it can explain so many other problems.
Another problem this test shows us is if you’re making enough neurotransmitters. If you have mood-related issues like anxiety or depression or are chronically stressed, this test can help us figure out where that break down is. Anxiety and depression are not character issues, and they are not necessarily genetic issues either. A lot of this is actually just how well you take food and turn it into brain chemicals.
The last component we will get from this test is knowing about the balance between good bacteria and bad bacteria in the gut. Once we have all of this information we can get really specific about how we need to treat you.
5. DiagnosTechs adrenal stress index (ASI) – https://www.diagnostechs.com/our-tests/adrenal-stress-index-asi/
The Adrenal Stress Index test looks at how much stress hormone you are making throughout the day. This test tells us if you are making an excessive about of stress hormone or not enough stress hormone. If the body produces too much cortisol, changes need to be made immediately to prevent more damage. If the bodies producing too little stress hormone, it’s probably because it’s been producing too much stress hormone for too long and now the adrenals are exhausted. When you have too little stress hormone that shows up at chronic fatigue and exhaustion. Irregular stress hormone production tells us that it’s more of a brain problem than an adrenal function problem.
6. Methyl genetic genetics test
http://yourgenomicresource.com
This genetic test is not a test that will tell you what disease you’re going to get as you get older. This is a test that will tell us how well you make the processes of your body work. For example, do the genes that code for all the pieces that make your liver function work properly? Your liver is responsible for cleaning up your body. If you show weakness in one of those genes, then you could have a problem with detoxification. All this means is that you’ll need a little extra support for your liver long term so it can function optimally.
Genetic testing shows us where your body needs support. Your body may require long term support or short term support for fixable issues. With the long term pieces, it is not a lifestyle, diet, or character issue it’s just a weakness in your genes that needs extra support.
My practice is called Puckette Integrative Healthcare because we integrate a combination of holistic care and science-based protocols like lab testing to get the whole picture of your health.
