What can you learn from blood work? A client case study
Last week I shared a post about examining blood work through a functional medicine lens & shared some of the things you can learn about your health that way. You can check it out here.
To help you get a better picture of this, I want to share with you a client case study example!
This client’s top 3 complaints are fatigue, weight loss, & anxiety.
What I identified by reviewing her labs:
-insufficient protein intake
-stressed adrenals
-dehydration
-low potassium
-deficiency in B vitamins
-calcium deficiency
-magnesium deficiency
-intestinal malabsorption
-low stomach acid production
-inflammation
-copper deficiency
-iron deficiency anemia
-heavy metal stress
Once I’ve reviewed the numbers data, it’s important to review the client as a whole. In this case I had some questions….does she know what her usual protein intake is? There are indicators it’s low, but there’s also indicators for low stomach acid, GI inflammation, & malabsorption also which means she could be consuming enough, but her body isn’t using it properly.
I also wanted to look back at what medications & supplements she’s currently taking because there’s several deficiencies here. In some cases, taking the wrong supplements or too many of them can cause other minerals or vitamins to be depleted. Lastly, I wanted to examine her biggest complaints; what connections can be made? What can I identify as drivers (or causes) of those symptoms?
Fatigue: everything listed can contribute to fatigue
Weight loss: the protein deficiency or GI malabsorption can definitely contribute as well as the vitamin & mineral deficiencies listed could be leading to the unintentional weight loss
Anxiety: vitamin & mineral deficiencies, burnt out adrenals, & the heavy metal stress can all contribute to anxiety
I then took all of this information and curated a customized recommendation plan for her in regard to diet, lifestyle, & supplement changes as well as when she should get her labs re-evaluated in the future.
I hope that this case study helps you to see how useful an in-depth review of your lab work can be! If it’s something you’re interested in visit this page to get more information!