How do you feel today?
It’s such a simple question, and yet I bet you feel like your own assessment of how you feel matters very little to your doctors. After all, how often are we told when a test comes back as “normal” that we should just relax, and there’s no need to worry despite our sense that something’s not right.
If the tests don’t reveal anything the assumption is automatically made that nothing’s wrong. But new research suggests that how you FEEL can be a far more reliable indicator of future illness than your lab results. In other words, you SHOULD trust your gut!
You know your body better than a blood test
Researchers from Rice University in Texas have reason to believe that how you feel holds greater value than blood tests do. I couldn’t agree more. In fact, whenever I talk with someone face to face about his health I trust what he tells me more than I do any piece of paper from a lab because of a dozen reasons.
For one, the reference ranges on labs are often bad because they were determined by a sick population. Your blood samples may not have been centrifuged long enough. Maybe it wasn’t refrigerated in transit. There are so many other reasons to be cautious about test results.
Different labs, different results
This reminds me of a one-man experiment I did recently. I wanted to see what happens when you use two different labs to measure the same thing. We tested Sam’s c4a levels, a marker of inflammation.
The difference in the two results was stunning.
Quest determined the level to be 9,725 and Labcorp said it was 319. The numbers are off by thousands!
So if you rely solely on labs it’s easy to see how off your treatment plan may be too.
Wrong tests lead to wrong treatments
Sometimes the biomarkers that doctors test you for are just for screening, making them pretty useless in my opinion. For example, thyroid testing and dosage changes are often based upon your TSH blood test, but that test isn’t even measuring your thyroid hormone levels.
And “Total Cholesterol” labs are useless because they don’t tell you “particle size” or “number.” Yet a bazillion statin prescriptions have been written based upon this number. (I’m also hoping you don’t go order a cheeseburger and fries to celebrate your “normal” cholesterol.)
Trust your gut instincts
So when I read the research conducted by Dr. Kyle Murdock, Dr. Christopher Fagunde and the rest of their team, it made a ton of sense to me. The truth is: Physicians should stop telling you everything is fine when your labs are “normal” and you’re sitting there in tears trying to explain that something IS wrong.
You shouldn’t be ignored if you’re not feeling any better on medication. They should trust you, and you should trust your own instincts. This isn’t an excuse to go all hypochondriac on me okay? I’m just saying if you feel bad, keep digging for the root cause.
According to Dr. Christofer Fagundes, a professor of psychology at Rice University, “When a patient says, ‘I don’t feel like my health is very good right now,’ it’s a meaningful thing with a biological basis, even if they don’t show symptoms.”
Don’t accept the “it’s all in your head” diagnosis at face value. Trust your gut. When you feel bad you deserve to be taken seriously!
In addition to writing a syndicated column on health which reaches 20 million people each week, Suzy is the author of a number of books on natural health.
You may have seen Suzy on The Dr. OZ Show (6 different appearances), The View, The Doctors, Good Morning America Health and hundreds of morning shows. Quotes from Suzy, as well as her articles, have also appeared in major publications including Woman’s Day, Reader’s Digest, OK Magazine!, First for Women, Fitness, Natural Health and Better Homes & Garden and dozens more.
Read more from Suzy at suzyCohen.com
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