Why Lab Testing?

“If you can’t measure something, you can’t understand it. If you can’t understand it, you can’t control it. If you can’t control it, you can’t improve it.”

• H. James Harrington

When it comes to your health, the last thing you want to base your care on is a hunch. Any healthcare provider will tell you that when it comes to treating or managing sickness, you need to acquire all the information you can in order to make the most appropriate decision. Because of this, every single patient that comes through our doors is required to go through an extensive examination process including an in-depth history, various health questionaries, a comprehensive physical exam, and most often, laboratory blood testing. If this sounds like a lot, that’s because in order to know where you are going (better health) we have to know where you are starting. Think of it another way, can any GPS tell you how to get somewhere without a starting destination?

At LifeLogic Health Center, we analyze your blood work differently than most other healthcare providers. Laboratory tests are routinely returned with a report that gives your lab value, that laboratory’s reference range for the specific marker, and then a positive/negative indicator based upon whether your value is inside or outside of that laboratory reference range. Most healthcare providers assess a patient’s laboratory findings based upon whether a marker is positive or negative. The problem with this is that most laboratory reference ranges are created based upon that given lab’s testing pool (everyone that the lab has tested for that specific marker). A laboratory testing pool is usually made up of sick individuals, because healthy people don’t get their blood tested regularly. What does this mean? This means that your lab results and your health is being compared against sick people, not the healthy people that you aspire to be like.

At LifeLogic Health Center we analyze our blood work against functional or optimal ranges, comparing your lab work to what it should “optimally” be. Our optimal ranges are not something we arbitrarily created, but are rather ranges supported in the latest scientific research. By comparing your results against an optimally functioning individual, we can identify health concerns long before they become illness or disease. When lab testing is combined with a thorough history, health questionnaires, and a comprehensive exam, you are able to paint a very clear picture of the possible causes for your current state of health. All this information allows us to create an individualized treatment plan for you and gives us tools to check your progress throughout care to ensure that we are helping you on your road to optimal health.

How Old Is Old?!?

“And in the end, it’s not the years in your life that count. It’s the life in your years.” – Abraham Lincoln

 

Webster’s dictionary defines aging as “to become old, to show the effects or characteristics of increasing age.” In today’s society we really think of aging as the body’s way of deteriorating as we grow older. This means that your joints start to become stiff, your memory starts to go, you have “senior moments,” your hair turns grey, and you begin to feel physical limitations that previously didn’t exist.

Today is my birthday, so of course as I get phone calls, Facebook messages, and tweets, the recurring statement is “man, you’re getting old.” It made me really think, am I getting old? Why in today’s society is it expected that for example, once you turn 40, you are now “over the hill” and your body is going to begin to fall apart?

If we look at the body and physiology for a second, there is no possible way to predict why some system in your body is going to begin to “age.” In the body, there are two processes that occur, and every single aspect of our life is based upon these: repair and break down. Our bodies break down daily as we lose hair, skin, cells, etc. This is a natural process, it is part of our existence. As a consequence of movement, eating, and stress, we also wear down our joints, digestive system, and brains everyday. Even during birth, this process of breakdown/aging is occurring.

Repair/growth is our body’s every day defense against this aging process. We are constantly repairing and growing new skin, hair, and cells that will replace what has been broken down. When we are young or “growing” there is a substantially larger amount of growth versus breakdown taking place, resulting in us developing from babies to adults.

Once we are full grown, these two processes continue, and when they kept in balance, help us live enjoyable, healthy lives. “Aging” as it is typically seen in today’s society, is simply when break down becomes more frequent than repair. As we grow older due to  damage from toxins, poor eating habits, injuries, and stress (physical and emotional) our body’s ability to repair becomes dampened.

This means that “aging” is something that can be CONTROLLED by you! Through a healthy lifestyle, adequate amounts of exercise, and a body free of interference, “aging” is up to you. This is exactly why you see some people in their 80’s who are healthier than most people in their 40’s. You are in control of your health. You decide how fast you age. “Aging” is not an excuse for getting old, it is a result of how you are living your life.

In Good Health,

Dr. Brian

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