Description
Book SynopsisA guide to accurate, individualized blood test analysis for improving personal health and avoiding disease
• Explains the differences between conventional lab reference ranges for blood tests and functional analysis and why the difference is important to your health
• Reveals what healthy blood should look like and the critical markers that signal the very beginnings of a health problem, including thyroid dysfunction and inflammation
• Provides recommendations for bringing blood markers back to an optimal healthy range through diet and supplementation
Your blood holds the clues you need to maintain vibrant health. Yet a standard blood lab panel--the most widely used diagnostic tool in Western medicine--may not reveal subclinical imbalances or the earliest beginnings of disease. Your lab work results may come back “normal,” even though you have lingering symptoms of allergies, pain, headaches, fatigue, inflammation, depression, food cravings, PMS, or gas and bloating. This is because the reference ranges, to which you are being compared, are gathered from sources such as textbooks, averages based on outdated guess-work, or a small number of people who aren’t even well. You could be a tenth of a point away from a disease pattern, but diagnostic protocol won’t sound the alarm until you are “lab high” on a particular test.
In
Know Your Blood, Know Your Health, Kristin Grayce McGary explains the benefits of a Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis (FBCA), which looks at far more markers than standard blood tests and interprets your results against healthy ranges. Using real-life stories and examples, the author explains the basics of healthy blood and how a functional blood test provides a baseline for personal health and a powerful tool for disease prevention. You will learn what is meant by a standard Complete Blood Count (CBC), find clues to strengthen your immune system, and discover which markers indicate inflammation. McGary details what different reference ranges mean and highlights the importance of a full thyroid panel for women. She reveals how health issues such as insulin resistance, high cholesterol, and anemia have specific patterns in blood chemistry. She also provides recommendations for bringing markers back to an optimal healthy range through diet and supplementation and offers a road map to using your unique blood chemistry to design a customized healthcare plan to optimize your health.
Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1
The Healthcare Provider as Gardener Your Body Is a Garden, Not a Machine
Chapter 2 Functional Blood Chemistry Analysis Digging Up the Clues to Good Health
Chapter 3
The Truth about Reference Ranges What They Don’t Teach in Medical School
Chapter 4 The Foundation for a Healthy Garden What Your Blood Should Look Like
Chapter 5 Feeding the Soil Electrolytes and Nutrients in the Blood
Chapter 6 More Tools for the Garden Understanding the Iron Panel, Cholesterol and Thyroid Screenings, and Urinalysis
Chapter 7 Above and Beyond FBCA Your Garden May Need More
Chapter 8 The Garden’s Environment Major Factors That Influence Your Lab Results
Chapter 9
Taking Action in Your Garden The First Steps toward Taking Control of Your Health
Chapter 10
Understanding the Danger Signs How to Identify if Your Garden Is in Turmoil
Chapter 11 The Benefits of FBCA Green, Yellow, and Red Garden Flags
Chapter 12 Western Standards versus FBCA What the Differences Mean to Your Health
Chapter 13 Caring for Your Garden Putting Your Knowledge to Work
Chapter 14Prevention The Ultimate Tool for Your Health
Chapter 15 Building Your Healthcare Team How to Talk with Your Gardener/Doctor
Notes
Index
About the Author
