“A study at Jersey City Medical Centre showed that 83 percent of patients admitted to hospital have, at least, one vitamin deficiency and 68 percent have two or more deficiencies” [Source: Mental and Elemental Nutrients by Carl Pfeiffer, page 4]

Many patients fail to get copies of their blood tests from their surgery or from the hospital. It is in the patient right to have access, under the Freedom of Information Act and the Data Protection Act, to all of his/her medical records – and these include blood tests, x-rays or…else. It is in fact in the patient interest to monitor blood level results to prevent full bloom illness.

Some surgeries and hospitals might try to give you a hard time in obtaining such results; they might say that they are confidential. Very often they will also tell you that they ‘are normal’.

In fact, I was recently at my surgery while the receptionist answered the phone. The caller was enquiring about his/her blood test results. The receptionist looked at the records on the screen and replied “all is normal – nothing to worry about”!  I am sure many of you have been told the same or, perhaps, have received a letter from the surgery to contact them only to be told, all was in order.

Two major points – 1) tests are fine; 2) contact the surgery.

Worth a parenthesis about “Big Brother” [Under the powers of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 (HSCA) the Health and Social Care Information Centre (HSCIC) can request Personal Confidential Data (PCD) from GP Practices without seeking patient consent.  The Care Data Programme allows PCD to be collected by the HSCIC to ensure that the quality and safety of services is consistent across the country.  Improvements in information technology are also making it possible for us to share data with other healthcare providers with the objective of providing you with better care (so they say but I fail to see any improvements).  Any patient can choose to withdraw their consent to their data being used in this way.  When the Practice is about to participate in any new data-sharing scheme we will make patients aware by displaying prominent notices in the surgery and on our website at least four weeks before the scheme is due to start.  We will also explain clearly what you have to do to ‘opt-out’ of each new scheme.  A patient can object to their personal information being shared with other health care providers but if this limits the treatment that you can receive then the doctor will explain this to you at the time].

Back to blood test results – my surgery charges 20 pence per page to print records, so for my blood test results I usually have to pay for five to seven pages. I have also heard that some surgeries charge £10 to print such results. A complaint to the office manager should suffice to bring them down to earth.

Tests are fine? As it happens – blood tests are just like looking under the bonnet of your car. Something will catch the GP’s attention – only if the “value/range” is out of the ordinary. If there is something abnormal – the results will really “jump” at you.

Reference ranges for blood tests are sets of values used by a health professional to interpret a set of medical test results from blood samples. Mass concentration (g/dL or g/L) or Molar concentration (mol/L) are reference ranges used for blood tests results and are studied within the field of clinical chemistry, also known as “clinical biochemistry” or “chemical pathology”.

These sets of values vary very much depending on the test done and they should fall within a “normal value”. For example – Serum Creatinine, in a Male, should be within these parameters ≡ 70 – 120 μmol/L  (conversions from μmol/L to mg/dL can be found on line). Glucose value should be within these range > 3.9 – 5.9 mmol/L. But with a fasting blood sugar test levels from 5.6 to 7.0 mmol/L are considered prediabetes. This result is sometimes called impaired fasting glucose. A fasting blood sugar level of 7.0 mmol/L or higher indicates type 2 diabetes.

The above are just two examples for blood sugar levels tests – both arguable under different aspects. There are also “other” different parameters to consider with glucose levels (pre-prandial – post-prandial) but, for the sake of argument, let us keep this simple and talk about “fasting glucose levels”.

Our latest blood test is showing a blood sugar level of 6.8 mmol/L. We phone the surgery and the receptionist, 99 times out of 100 – will tell us that it is all clear. No questions asked or raised. You might find a keen doctor that will prescribe to you Metformin or similar drug but, generally speaking a 6.8 mmol/L level will not ring any alarm bells (yet). No-one will tell you to change your eating habits or life style or will encourage you to take natural supplements to improve your blood sugar levels.

Despite elevated levels – all is fine and you have nothing to worry about, simply carry on as you are until… your level might get to 7.0 mmol/L, at which point, Metformin becomes a must, as doctors, nowadays, are nothing more than dispensing ‘machines’.

While your life was fine and you were also told that there was nothing wrong with you, you are now taking Metformin which, as it happens, can cause any, or all, of the following symptoms: unusual tiredness, dizziness, severe drowsiness, chills, blue/cold skin, muscle pain, fast/difficult breathing, slow/irregular heartbeat, stomach pain with nausea, vomiting or diarrhea and, occasionally… death.

At which point the doctor might now prescribe other drugs to you, to “suppress” these new symptoms too. [Overdoses with Metformin are relatively uncommon, but may have serious consequences. In a five-year review of toxic exposures reported to U.S. poison control centres, only 4072 out of nearly 11 million exposures involved Metformin, corresponding to less than one in 2500.3 There were a total of 9 deaths (0.2% of all Metformin-related exposures), 32 cases with life-threatening signs or symptoms and/or residual disability (0.8%), and 187 cases with moderate clinical effects (4.6%). [Source: West J Emerg Med. 2008 Aug; 9(3): 160–164]. As I said, and they want us to believe, there is nothing to worry about.

If you are lucky and the doctor wants to see you, it is only to tell you that your values (glucose, cholesterol, PSA, Thyroid) are high and he/she will promptly suggest to you a…prescription.

Don’t you just feel much better that your doctor and the NHS are really looking after you?

There are hundreds of different “parameters” of blood tests and substantial variations exists in the ranges quoted as “normal” and may vary depending on the assay used by different laboratories. Different Countries have different ranges too.

The important point is that you should take a copy of your blood test results and if your, for example, glucose level is at 6.8 mmol/L, you ought to change your eating habits and life style with the view to bring it down to 5.8 mmol/L (or lower) – at which point, not only you will feel much better but you will also have no need to take any medication. Many natural supplements can reduce glucose or cholesterol levels, for example.

In my next “article” – Why only Blood tests – I will address other options which seem to be unknown to allopathic medicine.

 

Article by A.B.M. Procaccini – Psychologist, Naturopathist.