|
Why You Need a Nutritional Interpretation of Your Blood Work
|
Nutritional interpretation of blood tests, utilizing special computer software, helps to elucidate nutritional and medical problems often missed during routine blood interpretation . What is uncovered is often valuable for managing health problems where standard medical interventions have fallen short.
Please be advised that we offer two types of blood interpretation: Medical and Nutritional Interpretation.
Medical Blood Interpretation
This type of interpretation is the most common and involves the doctor ordering blood work and examining which blood results, if any, fall within the abnormal column. Traditional medical interpretation of blood work is disease-oriented and seeks to identify obvious abnormalities to diagnose disease conditions.
This means that doctors who have extensive training in diagnosing obvious diseases will examine blood work for the most extreme abnormalities that fall outside of the various ranges given on a blood test. For example, a normal cholesterol range is 0-200. If your cholesterol level is 199, you may be told that your blood work is normal; and by strict definition it is normal (meaning average…but not necessarily healthy or desirable.) Finally, if you desire to know if you have a grave condition, looking for blood results outside the low or high end of the blood ranges is appropriate.
The problem with strict medical interpretation is that it does not identify a problem until there is a full-blown abnormality. Many people, if not most, have persistent chronic conditions or symptoms and have been told their blood work is normal. This is because the blood work performed was not detailed enough and/or it has been interpreted only from a disease perspective and not also from a preventive, early-detection-of-dysfunction perspective.
Nutritional Blood Interpretation
Standard medical blood laboratory ranges (high and low values) are essentially based on a sampling of three population groups: blood donors, employees of corporations and hospital personnel. These “normal” ranges represent the average unhealthy American, not ideal ranges associated with health. For example, approximately 40% of thyroid function must be lost before conventional interpretation identifies it as abnormal. Ask yourself, “Would I rather have my blood results compared to an average population or a healthier population?” Because our goal is to help predict and prevent health problems, we perform nutritional blood interpretation in addition to medical interpretation of each patient’s blood work.
Our office uses narrower ranges of blood values, which represent values found in healthier individuals. We believe that tighter ranges are more appropriate for virtually all blood tests. When considered along with other information, these ranges often allow us to find problems not apparent when looking at disease ranges (traditional blood values). Think of it this way, if one wants to see “something coming” then using a more narrow, optimal reference range will lead to the identification of abnormalities long before conventional blood ranges.
We also analyze your results from a nutritional/metabolic perspective. For example, a low BUN suggests inadequate dietary protein. “Hidden” within routine lab results is a wealth of nutritional information. In conjunction with your health history and other tests, nutritional interpretation of blood work is important for determining the most appropriate nutritional recommendations. If one wishes to find answers to chronic problems then one must consider asking different questions – this is precisely what nutritional interpretation of blood work provides…different questions and different answers.
|
| Dr. Debé is now Certified in |
| Better Health—Now and For a Lifetime
Good health: isn’t that what everybody wants? High energy, mental clarity, full function, and absence of disease well into old age. If that’s what you want, FirstLine Therapy® can help you.
FirstLine Therapy is a Therapeutic Lifestyle Change (TLC) program that a growing number of practitioners utilize in the following ways:
- As a first line treatment for common, chronic health problems like those listed below
- To prevent chronic disease in the future
- To improve health and the quality of life now
FirstLine Therapy is about making choices every day that will enable you to achieve a long, full, and healthy life.
Leading health organizations now recommend lifestyle changes as the "first line of therapy" for the treatment and prevention of chronic disease and other serious health threats. Here are just a few of the health conditions that FirstLine Therapy can effectively address:
| Area of Concern |
Health Conditions |
| Cardiovascular issues |
Heart disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke |
| Blood sugar issues |
Type 2 diabetes, insulin resistance, hypoglycemia |
| Obesity |
Cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome |
| Gastrointestinal health |
Irritable bowel syndrome, Crohn’s disease, ulcerative colitis, autoimmune disorders |
| Men’s health |
Low testerone, low sex drive, loss of vitality and muscle tone |
| Women’s health |
Menopause, hormone imbalance, premenstrual syndrome |
| Mood and cognition |
Alzheimer’s disease, depression, poor memory or lack of mental clarity |
| Musculoskeletal (bone & joint) disorders |
Osteoporosis, osteoarthritis |
| Stress-related issues |
Fatigue, sleeplessness, poor overall health |
Many of these common health concerns can be reversed or even treated by making some simple, but important lifestyle changes. But where do you start? Who will be there to help you stay on track?
How FLT Works
One of the reasons diets and exercise programs fail is they are one-dimensional—that is, they focus only on weight loss. But FirstLine Therapy isn’t just about weight loss, it’s about achieving a lifetime of good health. So instead of counting calories, you’ll learn:
- Simple steps to help you take control of your specific health situation
- Easy ways to track your progress, tips for success, reminders, and other support that will help you achieve your goals and maintain your health improvement.
FirstLine Therapy will help you:
- Address the underlying cause of common health problems
- Take control of your health by providing you with the necessary tools
- Live your life in a way that improves your health
- Feel good now, and maintain good health for years to come
Why FirstLine Therapy works
FirstLine Therapy has helped thousands of people just like you regain their health and live fuller, more vibrant lives. FirstLine Therapy works because:
- Its basic principles are in accordance with the most current scientific research
- It addresses the underlying causes of disease, not just the symptoms
- It helps you take simple steps that you can make part of your lifestyle for life!
Are you ready to take the first step toward better health?
FirstLine Therapy is a registered trademark of Metagenics, Inc. |
|
06/29/2007
Barbequed Food Made More Healthful
Now is the season to enjoy barbequed food. After catching a tantalizing whiff of our neighbor’s backyard dinner charbroiling the other day, my 7 year-old daughter told me that she wanted barbequed food for dinner. I told her that the next day we would have a barbeque. Boy was she disappointed with the grilled chicken breasts and vegetables! To her, barbeque is synonymous with hot dogs and hamburgers.
Charbroiling food is not the healthiest way of cooking. A charbroiled T-bone steak has the carcinogenic equivalent of about 600 cigarettes. There are, however, a number of ways to make barbequed food more healthful.
Choose chicken over beef. You can eat anything once in awhile but if you like to have hot dogs frequently, buy them at a health food store. Healthier options include chicken or turkey, low-fat, nitrate-free, and natural free-range (no hormones, antibiotics or pesticides).
When it comes to beef, again, choose free-range. Buffalo is lower in fat and has a more healthful fatty acid profile than conventional beef.
The longer the cooking time and the higher the cooking temperature, the more toxic compounds form in foods (especially animal products). Therefore, I recommend cooking at lower temperature and not cooking any longer than necessary. Sugars added to meat (as found in barbeque sauce) increase the formation of compounds called glycotoxins, which are associated with damage to cardiovascular and other tissues in the body. So, add any barbeque sauce after the food is cooked.
Glycotoxin-induced damage can be minimized by a nutritional supplement called Benfotiamine (a fat-soluble form of vitamin B1).
There are also ways of helping the body detoxify carcinogenic compounds such as heterocyclic amines, which form in barbequed food. Eating vegetables such as broccoli supplies phytochemicals, which activate our enzymes involved in detoxifying these carcinogens. Two nutritional supplements that supply concentrated levels of some of these phytochemicals are Oncoplex and Celapro. I take Oncoplex, Celapro, and Benfotiamine immediately before eating barbequed food.
|
DREAM Meal Plus, our new delicious medical food, is our first product in the D.R.E.A.M. Essentials line.
DREAM Meal Plus, in conjunction with a low-glycemic load diet, was recently compared with the American Heart Association dietary program.
The DREAM Meal Plus program produced better results in every area evaluated!
These included weight loss, cholesterol and triglyceride reduction, and 11 other cardiovascular health measurements. Let us know if you would like a copy of the study.
|
|
