What really are the lab's reference ranges?

When I see new clients for the first time and they bring in their pathology results from their GP/doctors, 99% of the time they were told by their doctor that the results "were all normal". Clearly the results are not normal, or they wouldn't go to see the doctor!

Why do doctors or other practitioners typically never find issues in the pathology results?

Because they simply compare your latest result to the "Reference Range" from the lab. The Reference Range is sometimes called the "normal range" or "standard range" when it is neither normal nor a standard!

As you can see in the above pathology test results, this is the same test from the same client at 2 different labs, admittedly at different times, showing very different "reference ranges" for the same test markers. This is because the reference range is the lab's own statistical average, of people who get that test at that lab.

So a question to think about - "Do healthy people get blood tests?"!

Do you get it? Do you now understand why doctors almost never find issues in your blood tests?

The reference range is just a statistical average of UNHEALTHY people who get blood tests!

That is NOT the way to correctly use or interpret blood tests.

This frustrated me so much in the past that I spent a lot of time and money on training courses to learn more about pathology tests and analysing the results, on textbooks and reading many studies, and I have developed my own unique way of analysing and interpreting blood test results, and reporting software, to provide this as an extra service for everyone. I have even developed 3 training courses for other practitioners to learn this new method of pathology analysis which many hundreds of Nutritionists, Naturopaths and other practitioners have done.

Just yesterday I had a new client with major mental health symptoms which recently started, including severe anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts, mood swings, being very emotional for no reason, and fatigue. She had new blood test results from her GP and she was told that everything was "normal". So the GP couldn't (and didn't) do anything to help, because there was apparently nothing wrong in the test results. Truly pathetic.

I found in her results that there were several major nutrient deficiencies which directly cause mental health symptoms, even though her diet is very good. She had also results clearly showing major anaemia, low immune system function, reduced kidney function, low thyroid function, and probable haemochromatosis (a hereditary blood condition, to be tested to confirm), all missed by the doctor.

For other clients I have found very obvious signs of chronic health conditions, and including cancers, again missed (or ignored) by the doctor. I would say that I have always found something in the blood test results which explains the symptoms and conditions, when clients were told that everything was ok.

I analyse pathology results in a different way, which is how we at the IIFP trained practitioners:
• By not using the useless statistical ranges which are the lab reference ranges, and using "optimal ranges" which are based on healthy people instead
• Looking for confirmations across multiple test results
• Looking for combinations of results which can point to causes of the symptoms and conditions
• Understanding the nutritional factors and co-factors which can affect results, and especially looking for nutrient deficiencies in the results
• Interpreting the results as a whole
• Looking for organ dysfunctions which can be causing or contributing to symptoms and conditions.

By all means get pathology tests done with your GP/doctor, but if you are told that everything is normal when you clearly have some symptoms or are unwell, get a second opinion from us here at the IIFP, or an IIFP-trained practitioner!

More information on these services on the other pages on this website.

We can provide a short consultation to review blood test results, and a report on our analysis, and recommendations for action and further tests if appropriate. This pathology analysis service can also be used for those who think they are healthy, for prevention purposes, or to find issues before they become a major problem.

Stay healthy!