What's the story in your numbers?
As many of you already know, I have two dominating nutrition passions, one is Econutrition and the other is pathology interpretation. The first takes a very macro view of health, the other, a very micro view!What I've discovered, is that general or ‘basic’ pathology can be incredibly insightful OR incredibly misleading… it (of course) all comes down to interpretation. For 5 years I've been studiously up-skilling in the exciting area of pathology interpretation, with much of my inspiration and learning coming from integrative pathology pioneer and super-star Naturopath Rachel Arthur. Despite spending hundreds of hours diving deep into this field however, I still have SO much to learn, which is actually part of what I love about general pathology!
Thus far, I've learnt that there are many misconceptions around the interpretation of nutrients like Potassium, Sodium, Magnesium and Calcium (hint: these guys are rarely a reflection of dietary intake!); that Iron and B12 interpretation isn't always straightforward; that there are dozens of markers on basic blood tests that are often 'skimmed over' that can be incredibly meaningful; and that there is a LOT to be unpacked and understood about the application a lab's reference ranges (which can sometimes be monumentally wide!).
"If you can measure it, you can better manage it."
We know that things you measure, tend to improve.
Farmers know this, and are always finding ingenious ways of measuring soil health and nutrition... but how many people are taking supplements that contain nutrients like Iodine, Zinc, Selenium and Iron that have never had their levels of these nutrients tested? My guess would be a lot! How can you be sure of supplemental need, dosing requirements and duration of treatment is if you don't know what your levels actually are? And if you have been tested, how do you know if the results are reliable?
Why I love general pathology so much...
Because I love biochemistry, I love solid evidence, I love piecing together a patient's story, and I love working with what patients ALREADY have access to. Further to the last point, working with what people ALREADY have access reduces the need for expensive, elaborate, functional testing. There are of course instances when more expensive functional tests are useful, but over time, I’ve come to find expensive functional tests far less useful, and general pathology a whole lot more insightful!
It's important to note that looking at a patient's pathology results from the perspective of 'general health' is VERY different to the way these results are interpreted by our heroes working in emergency and acute care medicine. I believe it's helpful have the opinions of both perspectives, because we are looking at the results in very different ways, and often at very different time points. Sometimes, a person's results simply confirm that things are going well, and that's helpful too. :)
