Something is not right.You're feeling a little different, but it's not easy to describe exactly. Maybe you've started gaining weight despite exercising and paying attention to your diet. Your energy levels aren't what they used to be. You wake up more tired in the mornings. You've noticed a decrease in your sex drive, or you feel that your ability to concentrate, which used to be so much better, has weakened.
Of course, life has its own stresses. Work, home, finances, relationships… You might think all of these are affecting you. But at the same time, you notice your sleep patterns are changing, and you don't know exactly why.
Then you go to the doctor, you have an examination, some basic blood tests are done, and the results come back:Everything is normal."
But you don't feel normal. And that's exactly where the story begins for many people.
Sometimes when patients come to see me, they say, “My doctor looked at my tests and said everything is normal.” Every time I hear that, I pause and think. Because in medicine, the word “normal” doesn’t always mean “everything is fine.” Often, this interpretation is based on the classic approach we were taught in medical school: that is, is there a noticeable illness or serious pathology in the tests? That’s basically what’s being looked at. But this isn’t the answer to the question of whether that person’s body is functioning optimally and efficiently.
The reference ranges provided by laboratories are entirely based on the population average. That is, the results of thousands of people are examined, a statistical distribution is created, and the range in which the majority is found is accepted as "normal." This is why you see different normal ranges in different laboratories. Because these ranges are not "ideal values"; rather, they mean "serious illness is generally not seen within these values." In other words, the normal range is not the optimal range and varies depending on the health level of the population. The average of a modern society with an underoptimal health level may not be a guide for your own health level.
At the same time, it's not just about whether something is within the reference range, but also the trends over the years. If my fasting blood sugar was 85 mg/dL in my last blood test, and now it's 99 mg/dL, even though I'm still within "normal" limits, if I don't correctly interpret the signals my body is giving me, this "normal" value might cease to be normal in two years, and there's nothing "normal" about a progression from 85 to 99.
There's an important point here. Not every doctor is trained to interpret blood tests from an optimal or functional perspective. The traditional medical system is very successful in diagnosing and treating acute illnesses. But when it comes to preventing chronic diseases, metabolic balance, hormonal balance, and long-term health, the classical approach needs to change somewhat. This is because the classical approach is generally geared towards intervention after a disease has developed. Small disruptions before the onset of disease are often overlooked. Factors such as nutrition, lifestyle, sleep, and stress are unfortunately often not adequately considered. Yet these are the elements that will determine the difference between illness and health.
Looking at blood test results individually is often misleading. What's truly important is seeing the relationship between the values and evaluating these results in conjunction with the patient's complaints. We see this error most often in hormone tests. Especially in men, everything is reduced to testosterone. If you look at advertisements, you always see the same message: If you're tired, get your testosterone checked; if you're gaining weight, get your testosterone checked; if you're unhappy, get your testosterone checked. There's an impression that testosterone is the only important hormone in the body. Similarly, marketing focuses on certain hormones in women. However, the hormone system is like a chain; when you change one, the others are affected. Therefore, it's necessary to look at hormones as a whole, not individually. In fact, it's not just about hormones; if you don't understand how hormones are metabolized in your body, how liver detoxification pathways work, and how all of this affects you as a whole, you'll have a very inadequate perspective.
It should also be noted that many important tests are actually not performed during a standard check-up. My patients do this a lot. Because insurance companies offer a check-up opportunity once a year, they get this check-up and think everything is fine, or they get all the tests done at a state hospital and come to me with the test results to know if everything is alright. However, this never helps us to do a complete analysis of the situation. Because most health systems order tests during check-ups to see if there is a disease in the body or not. But questions such as "Does this person have a risk of developing a disease in the future?", "What is the state of their metabolism?", "Is there inflammation?", "Is the hormone balance optimal?", "What is the risk of cardiovascular disease?" are generally not asked. This is one of the biggest shortcomings of the modern health system.
Therefore, when looking at blood test results, the goal shouldn't just be to ask "is it normal or not?". The real question to ask is this:
1- “Were the correct tests performed on this person? Do I have all the data to explain the patient's risks or symptoms?”
2- “Are these values truly within the optimal range for this person? How balanced is this body currently functioning?”
When interpreted correctly, blood tests show us not only the present but also the future. In other words, the body begins to give certain signals years before a disease manifests. The important thing is being able to read those signals.
Because sometimes everything can look normal on paper. But your body already lets you know that it's not actually normal.
Because everything really is "normal"It may not be."
Dr. Ahmet Özyiğit,
MD, ABAARM
Anti-Aging and Regenerative Medicine Specialist
