There have been many interesting things happening lately in the world of health and in the world in general. We are faced with far more confusion than at any other time in history. In the midst of all this confusion, the new iPhone 6 is coming out this week—as though it will somehow solve all our problems to have a bigger, sleeker, faster, more powerful, and smarter phone.
Many young people will purchase a $100 case for their phone, but they engage in unprotected sex because they never learned the value of spending a few dollars on some type of safe birth control. I suppose this brings me to my next subject—health.
For whatever reason, many people are not very motivated about their health and have never even considered the value of being and staying healthy. They spend money on vacations to Hawaii, cars, stereos, meals at nice restaurants, private schools, skiing, private tennis lessons, pianos, piano lessons, clothing, and all sorts of interesting things, but very little time and money on their health, which is far more important than anything else. Really, the only thing that could compare to one’s health in terms of importance is our relationships and the love experienced between two or more people. Isn’t love a part of healing? Isn’t love a part of health?
Today, I was in the middle of conducting a Report of Findings for one of my new patients, and it dawned on me how crazy our “health care” system really is. I know you have heard many of these clichés over and over again, and the reason you have heard them so many times is that they are true. I cannot tell you how many times I have had patients go to their medical doctor seeking support and help with their health, only to do a blood test that checks for pathology, reveals pathology, and then be told that there are no positive findings on the lab. I don’t know if you realize this, but blood labs do not ever reflect the good health of a patient. The only thing revealed when positive findings are found on a blood lab is that pathology is present. This is the entire purpose of the blood lab. If pathology is present, they like to monitor it with the blood lab. Remember, the focus here is still on pathology. There are only a few rare exceptions to this. A small minority of athletes create dramatic changes on labs that make the lab analysis look as though something is imbalanced. Additionally, some conditions show imbalances in the body that have not yet reached a true disease state—for example, pre-diabetes is one of these conditions. These blood labs do not look for health, longevity, vitality, or normal, vibrant function. What they are searching for on the lab is pathology, disease, and dysfunction. Therefore, the only thing they might find is what they are looking for: disease, dysfunction, and pathology. Just because there isn’t any disease, dysfunction, or pathology found on your blood lab does not mean you are disease, dysfunction, and pathology-free. The only thing it means is that the lab was not specific or accurate enough to pick up and reveal any disease, pathology, or dysfunction that you may have. I have had patients with full-blown, advanced, and progressed Rheumatoid Arthritis show completely normal blood labs. Did you know about this? You should, because it is highly likely that your medical doctor is using these labs as some type of measurement or indicator of how healthy you are or are not… And that is true insanity in practice. It is no wonder that health care in this country is such a mess.
While we are on the subject, let’s discuss the differences between different labs. Different labs will establish different ranges for normal and abnormal values in different parts of the country. This is based on the extent of pathology in any particular area. For example, if everyone’s blood sugar is especially high in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the lab that processes people’s blood samples in that area would then change the values of normal so that normal fits into higher values than it did before the population’s blood sugar went up. This is no embellishment of the truth. This is actually what happens and how the labs do things.
