Blood Work 101: What Lab Results Really Mean

Blood work is so confusing. What do all those numbers mean? How the heck do you even pronounce that word? What do the results say about overall health? I know what I’m looking for when clients come to me with their lab work. I learned lab values in grad school and have used them in my practice for years. I indeed understand why they can be confusing, but you really should have a cheat sheet to refer to since, after all, the results tell you lots about what’s going inside of that bod of yours. It’s back to school today friends. Now, keep reading! You don’t want to miss this lesson. Blood Work 101: What’s the Deal? Even with my training, looking at lab results can be confusing – they aren’t always straightforward to read and results can be put in different orders, depending on the lab. Sometimes the normal range is in front of the result and sometimes it is the other way around. Unlike lab results, a lot of the work I do is incredibly subjective: “how much pasta do you think you ate?” and “do you remember what you had to drink with your dinner?” I kind of like the black and white and concrete evidence I get when I look at lab values. I use blood pressure results when I teach my clients with high blood pressure how to be mindful of sodium in their diet — eliminating their salt shaker use, drinking enough water and managing their stress. Or I teach clients with high cholesterol how to watch the trans and saturated fat found in animal foods and processed foods. Even if you brush off your lab results because your doc says you are in a “healthy range”, you should always ask for a copy of your blood work so you can compare it through the years. If you want to know what the digits mean, check this out. Blood Pressure You may not even be aware, but every time you go to the doctor’s office, the nurse checks out your pulse and blood pressure. Your blood pressure is the force of blood against the walls of your arteries. Hence, the word “pressure”. It helps us look at two numbers, the systolic pressure (as the heart beats, it’s the number put on the top of the fraction) and the diastolic pressure (as the heart relaxes, the number on the bottom of the fraction). Blood pressure is written as systolic/diastolic pressure. For example, you may be told your blood pressure is 110/70. Optimal—120/80 or lower Prehypertension—120-139/80-89, (note: higher number equals more “pressure”) High—140/90 or greater Hypertension is the same thing as high blood pressure; you have it if your blood pressure is 140/90 or higher. If you have high blood pressure, you are at greater risk for developing heart disease and stroke. If you get a higher than normal number for the first time, rest and relax a few minutes and take your blood pressure again. Sometimes the stress alone of being at the doc can make your heart work overtime. Basic Metabolic Panel You’re going to get something called a basic metabolic panel at your annual checkup as well. It’s a blood draw that tells the physician: how your kidneys and liver are doing their jobs, how your blood sugar is doing, your cholesterol and calcium levels, and your electrolyte and protein levels. Remember that you can’t eat for 8 hours before you get your blood work done or the results won’t be true! Just as a note, don’t freak out if the numbers I have below are slightly different than your lab’s normal range. What is “normal” from a laboratory can vary slightly from place to place. Albumin: 3.9 to 5.0 g/dL – this measures protein in your blood Alkaline phosphatase: 44 to 147 IU/L – this looks at your liver and nutrition status ALT (alanine aminotransferase): 8 to 37 IU/L – measures your liver functioning/status AST (aspartate aminotransferase): 10 to 34 IU/L – looks at kidney and liver status BUN (blood urea nitrogen): 7 to 20 mg/dL – indicators of heart and kidney functioning Calcium: 8.5 to 10.9 mg/dL – important for almost all organs in the body, can be a marker of many disease states, this is not measuring the calcium in your bones, but the calcium in your blood Chloride: 96 – 106 mmol/L – can measure poisoning and alkalosis/acidosis (how well your pH is regulated in the body) CO2 (carbon dioxide): 20 to 29 mmol/L – measurement of metabolic function and pH balance (how basic, neutral or acid our blood is) Creatinine: 0.8 to 1.4 mg/dL – marker of kidney functioning Glucose test: 100 mg/dL – diabetes marker and measure of insulin functioning Potassium: 3.7 to 5.2 mEq/L – may be high/low because of medications and affects many organs in the body Sodium: 136 to 144 mEq/L – measures hydration status, is a marker for many disease states and balances the pressure on your artery walls Total bilirubin: 0.2 to 1.9 mg/dL – liver functioning marker Total protein: 6.3 to 7.9 g/dL – measure of infection and kidney/liver diseases Cholesterol Panel You’ll also get your cholesterol panel taken: this test measures the different fats in your blood. You need some fat in your blood for your body and organs to work, but doctors are specifically looking at the good fat and bad fats to make sure there is a balance in the ratio. Just to be clear, this isn’t a ratio of fats in your diet – your body makes cholesterol in your liver and that process is influenced by your genetics, age, lifestyle and other factors. Too much bad fats (LDL and triglycerides) in your blood will make your arteries hard and can be responsible for heart disease and stroke. The good cholesterol (HDL) are responsible for undoing some of the damage from the bad cholesterol and support your body’s health. Total cholesterol: <200mg/dL – measure your combined LDL & HDL LDL cholesterol: <100 mg/dL is optimal – your