It's a fascinating thought experiment. There's absolutely no way that a car mechanic could stay in business if all the cars he fixed kept on breaking down and his excuse was, "It's just the way those cars are made, don't blame me!"
Women often seem to have 'low' iron on their blood tests - because the path labs are using a range that would be better suited to a male! And don't forget that most women bleed each month. Women are going to have lower iron levels on a blood test than a male, in general. I've seen SO many blood tests where the woman supposedly has low iron, but she's fine, has loads of energy, isn't anaemic, and it in fact made me start to question routine blood tests as well - especially their 'ranges'. If you don't have the right markers for that patients, then they're pretty useless tests.
And sometimes the pathology labs change the range of something because, well, they feel like it (I'd like to say that it has a lot to do with science, but it often doesn't!). I've had this done before and I was in the normal' range with iron, but then they changed the range and suddenly I was 'low' even though I felt fine and nothing had changed in me - just an arbitrary range on my results!
If you have NO symptoms then it's not much to worry about. For example, my TSH runs at the lower end of 'normal' - and it always has. My Mum's also runs relatively low. It's probably genetic. BUT, mine bordered on hyperthyroidal for a bit there. Long story cut short, I got my Coeliac under control by making all my own food and stopped eating out and lo and behold my TSH went back to 0.92 instead of 0.51. I started putting on a little bit of weight again and I felt fantastic. Amazing what happens when you're not getting poisoned! :-D
So yes, tests CAN be useful - but my symptoms also explained what was going on. Eating right got me right. I never needed medications or blood tests in the end - just the right food! Still, at the time, I was feeling pretty rotten, and so I thought bloods would help me understand things. I guess the only thing they helped with was that I could see my numbers changing (my TSH dropping) over time, and THAT concerned me. However, the doctor wasn't concerned because he said my TSH was still in the 'euthyroid' (AKA 'normal') range. It was 0.51. Low TSH was considered 0.50 and below. So I had a 0.01 difference, quite a few symptoms and he said I was normal. He didn't even bother checking my changes through time. Ha! No wonder I took my health into my own hands. I know so much more useful stuff than medical practitioners!
I've also seen blood tests where everything looked fine - but if the patient went for a run around the block they'd drop dead! And one patient I am thinking of now DID end up dropping dead! Blood tests are sometimes so very useless. They CAN be useful, but in many cases, I think we could do without them. I can't be bothered having any more tests. I've had enough to know my baseline. And my body tells me if I'm having issues. If I listen to my body, I know what I need to do. Maybe people are too lazy to listen to their bodies, who knows. But really, if you're not getting symptoms, on the whole, how problematic IS it?!?! And one test tells you very little. You need to have them through the years so you can see the PATTERNS emerging. Once you know your patterns, in many cases, you probably don't need any more blood tests - or rarely, anyway.
I also don't see why we need a 'test' for everything when a thorough history will determine about as much as a blood test, anyway. The added bonus is that there are no nasty invasive tests during the history! :-D
You're spot on about women (at least during their fertile years) having lower iron stores than men, for fairly obvious reasons. It's noteworthy that some cardiologists have recommended that men donate blood regularly in order to bring their ferritin down to the levels typical of premenopausal women, because of the role that elevated iron stores play in cardiovascular disease.
I have definitely noticed the change in the ferritin reference range. Most labs use to set the lower end of the RR at 20, but now almost all of them set it at 30. My ferritin was < 30 for my entire adult life but I never had any signs or symptoms of iron deficiency.
You've highlighted a good use for blood tests, which is to use serial tests to track the effects of lifestyle changes. Obviously your symptoms are a good guide to progress, but blood tests provide confirmation of your subjective assessment, and often motivate people to continue with the changes that brought the improvement in biomarkers.
Doctors have on many occasions been caught out in either over-prescribing or mis-prescribing medication for minor medical conditions, non-existent medical conditions or deliberately prolonging medical conditions because Big Pharma tells them to do it and the said doctors get little bonuses $$$, I know of a case when I worked in aged care where a lady was brought in with early onset aphasia, dementia and limb atrophy, she was in a bad way, I was caring for her, now this is the cracker we had good and honest doctors at our aged care facility, they took her off the medications she was on because they were wrong medications and guess what happened and it was creepy so at 2am I was night shift when I walked past said ladies room and she called out to me for help when 2 days ago she had aphasia, it turns out her medication for migraines, high blood pressure caused a crazy snowball side effects that gave her the three conditions mentioned above two weeks later she walked out of the aged care facility all because her dickhead GP prescribed medication she didn't need and had it not been for switched on doctors at the aged care facility she would have died there...
Absolutely shocking!!!! Makes me wonder just how many people have been misdiagnosed and inappropriately treated for 'conditions' that are in fact adverse reactions to medications.
Refreshing to read this. I haven't had any blood tests for years now as I never go near a doctor. I feel perfectly well so why would I go to a doctor for a check up? I don't understand most of my friends who go to a doctor for a 'check up' every year. I break all the rules by eating, almost exclusively, red meat for the last 8 years which, supposedly, doctors say is bad for us. I have never had better health than since I became 'carnivore'.
I ate a fairly normal healthy diet, meat and vegetables and fruit. I didn't eat carnivore because of ill health but because after I was widowed I found myself eating junk food and unmotivated to cook. Meat is so easy to cook up for a quick meal plus it cured my cravings for desserts and junk. Plus I felt so much better mentally and physically. I was in my early 70s when I started and feel that it is a very healthy way to eat for older people.
I would really encourage you to check out the Blue Zones, a long-running project investigating the habits of living (including diet) of the longest-lived populations on earth: https://www.bluezones.com/.
super stuff, prof Robyn...cheers...A thought- if we mechanics fixed cars like mds 'fix' humans,
we'd all end up walking...but since the human body is so resilient, the medicalmafia get away with it
It's a fascinating thought experiment. There's absolutely no way that a car mechanic could stay in business if all the cars he fixed kept on breaking down and his excuse was, "It's just the way those cars are made, don't blame me!"
Don't forget how these 'ranges' are decided.
Women often seem to have 'low' iron on their blood tests - because the path labs are using a range that would be better suited to a male! And don't forget that most women bleed each month. Women are going to have lower iron levels on a blood test than a male, in general. I've seen SO many blood tests where the woman supposedly has low iron, but she's fine, has loads of energy, isn't anaemic, and it in fact made me start to question routine blood tests as well - especially their 'ranges'. If you don't have the right markers for that patients, then they're pretty useless tests.
And sometimes the pathology labs change the range of something because, well, they feel like it (I'd like to say that it has a lot to do with science, but it often doesn't!). I've had this done before and I was in the normal' range with iron, but then they changed the range and suddenly I was 'low' even though I felt fine and nothing had changed in me - just an arbitrary range on my results!
If you have NO symptoms then it's not much to worry about. For example, my TSH runs at the lower end of 'normal' - and it always has. My Mum's also runs relatively low. It's probably genetic. BUT, mine bordered on hyperthyroidal for a bit there. Long story cut short, I got my Coeliac under control by making all my own food and stopped eating out and lo and behold my TSH went back to 0.92 instead of 0.51. I started putting on a little bit of weight again and I felt fantastic. Amazing what happens when you're not getting poisoned! :-D
So yes, tests CAN be useful - but my symptoms also explained what was going on. Eating right got me right. I never needed medications or blood tests in the end - just the right food! Still, at the time, I was feeling pretty rotten, and so I thought bloods would help me understand things. I guess the only thing they helped with was that I could see my numbers changing (my TSH dropping) over time, and THAT concerned me. However, the doctor wasn't concerned because he said my TSH was still in the 'euthyroid' (AKA 'normal') range. It was 0.51. Low TSH was considered 0.50 and below. So I had a 0.01 difference, quite a few symptoms and he said I was normal. He didn't even bother checking my changes through time. Ha! No wonder I took my health into my own hands. I know so much more useful stuff than medical practitioners!
I've also seen blood tests where everything looked fine - but if the patient went for a run around the block they'd drop dead! And one patient I am thinking of now DID end up dropping dead! Blood tests are sometimes so very useless. They CAN be useful, but in many cases, I think we could do without them. I can't be bothered having any more tests. I've had enough to know my baseline. And my body tells me if I'm having issues. If I listen to my body, I know what I need to do. Maybe people are too lazy to listen to their bodies, who knows. But really, if you're not getting symptoms, on the whole, how problematic IS it?!?! And one test tells you very little. You need to have them through the years so you can see the PATTERNS emerging. Once you know your patterns, in many cases, you probably don't need any more blood tests - or rarely, anyway.
I also don't see why we need a 'test' for everything when a thorough history will determine about as much as a blood test, anyway. The added bonus is that there are no nasty invasive tests during the history! :-D
You're spot on about women (at least during their fertile years) having lower iron stores than men, for fairly obvious reasons. It's noteworthy that some cardiologists have recommended that men donate blood regularly in order to bring their ferritin down to the levels typical of premenopausal women, because of the role that elevated iron stores play in cardiovascular disease.
I have definitely noticed the change in the ferritin reference range. Most labs use to set the lower end of the RR at 20, but now almost all of them set it at 30. My ferritin was < 30 for my entire adult life but I never had any signs or symptoms of iron deficiency.
You've highlighted a good use for blood tests, which is to use serial tests to track the effects of lifestyle changes. Obviously your symptoms are a good guide to progress, but blood tests provide confirmation of your subjective assessment, and often motivate people to continue with the changes that brought the improvement in biomarkers.
Doctors have on many occasions been caught out in either over-prescribing or mis-prescribing medication for minor medical conditions, non-existent medical conditions or deliberately prolonging medical conditions because Big Pharma tells them to do it and the said doctors get little bonuses $$$, I know of a case when I worked in aged care where a lady was brought in with early onset aphasia, dementia and limb atrophy, she was in a bad way, I was caring for her, now this is the cracker we had good and honest doctors at our aged care facility, they took her off the medications she was on because they were wrong medications and guess what happened and it was creepy so at 2am I was night shift when I walked past said ladies room and she called out to me for help when 2 days ago she had aphasia, it turns out her medication for migraines, high blood pressure caused a crazy snowball side effects that gave her the three conditions mentioned above two weeks later she walked out of the aged care facility all because her dickhead GP prescribed medication she didn't need and had it not been for switched on doctors at the aged care facility she would have died there...
Absolutely shocking!!!! Makes me wonder just how many people have been misdiagnosed and inappropriately treated for 'conditions' that are in fact adverse reactions to medications.
Refreshing to read this. I haven't had any blood tests for years now as I never go near a doctor. I feel perfectly well so why would I go to a doctor for a check up? I don't understand most of my friends who go to a doctor for a 'check up' every year. I break all the rules by eating, almost exclusively, red meat for the last 8 years which, supposedly, doctors say is bad for us. I have never had better health than since I became 'carnivore'.
I'm curious to know what you ate before adopting a carnivore diet.
I ate a fairly normal healthy diet, meat and vegetables and fruit. I didn't eat carnivore because of ill health but because after I was widowed I found myself eating junk food and unmotivated to cook. Meat is so easy to cook up for a quick meal plus it cured my cravings for desserts and junk. Plus I felt so much better mentally and physically. I was in my early 70s when I started and feel that it is a very healthy way to eat for older people.
I would really encourage you to check out the Blue Zones, a long-running project investigating the habits of living (including diet) of the longest-lived populations on earth: https://www.bluezones.com/.