Welcome to the blog post series on understanding your blood tests. This series will be divided into three parallel parts – the first blog series will discuss the blood test, the second will look at how to optimise those parameters if they are not at optimal levels, the third will look at case studies related to that parameter and my personal journey in optimising my levels if relevant.
At Optimal Health, prior to your initial consultation, we request that you have a series of pre-consultation blood tests completed.
These blood tests include looking at the following parameters:
- PH Levels: Providing insights into your body’s acid-base balance and the impact it has on overall function.
- Inflammation Levels: Discover markers that show us whether or not your body is in a chronic state of inflammation or oxidative stress.
- Organ Function: Kidneys, liver and bone marrow – are these working as well as they should be? These tests provide insights into how these organs are working day-to-day.
- Hormone Levels: Hormones are responsible for a number of functions in our body and how we perform and feel – these levels confirm if they are in balance.
- Metabolic Function: Our metabolism needs to be functioning well in order to not gain unwanted weight or develop diseases related to unregulated glucose or cholesterol levels – these tests help us to assess these and other functions.
- Nutritional Status: Are the vitamins and minerals you’re consuming sufficient? These tests answer this question and assists us in guiding you to get these nutrients to reach their optimal levels.
Our bodies are complex and intertwined structures perfectly and uniquely designed. Oftentimes, we may be under the impression that each of our organ systems functions independently, but this is not the case. All our systems are in constant contact with one another and the effects in some areas of our bodies, cause ripple effects elsewhere and often in multiple other places.
The blood tests may seem intense, but they are necessary in order to get a holistic snapshot of your current overall health and bodily functioning.
Breaking down our blog post series:
In this series of Blog Posts, we will go through each of the different blood tests that we perform and attempt to give a brief overview of what the test looks at, what relevant or pertinent information this test provides, lab given reference ranges and optimal reference ranges.
In a parallel series of Blog Posts, we will look at optimising your levels of the same blood parameters – whether that may be dietary, lifestyle modifications or the use of supplements and medication.
The third series of Blog posts that will also run in parallel will explore real-life case studies that I have experienced in practice. All personal details of the clients will be omitted of course, but we will explore examples of how suboptimal blood parameters have manifested in people, how they were able to improve those parameters and the effects thereof, or perhaps just examples that are interesting to note but may be relevant to others.
Where relevant, if you’ll indulge me, I will also be sharing my personal journey towards optimal health.
I am really looking forward to sharing these with all of you and invite you to share these posts with others and provide feedback in order for these posts to be as helpful and relevant as they can be!
