“Your lab tests came back normal – Your problem is all in your head.”
By Robert H. Sorge N.D., Ph.D., N.M.D.,
Doctor of Naturopathic Medicine

Millions or suffering Americans are told each year that there is nothing wrong with them when they know innately that something isn’t right. What exactly does it mean when the doctor says, “the tests came back normal?” More importantly what does he mean by, “it’s all in your head?”

There have been primarily two branches or medicine recorded throughout human history, allopathic medicine and naturopathic medicine. They’ve both existed concurrently since ancient times.

It should not come as a surprise to any thinking person that not only are their treatment plans different, but their philosophy and how they view the human body is different. Allopathic medicine’s primarily modalities are pharmaceuticals, surgery, chemotherapy (poisoning), etc… Naturopathic medicine’s primary treatment tools are modalities of nature that assist the body to heal itself, such as foods, herbs, vitamins, detoxification, etc…

Nothing happens in allopathic medicine until a diagnosis has been rendered. Until you have been given an official named medical condition, you are considered “perfectly healthy.” Diagnostic blood tests serve to confirm the working diagnosis. The problem that we are confronted with is that the ranges of most diagnostic tests are so broad that you could be one cell count from a serious cancer, one step from a crippling stroke, or a breath from a sudden death heart attack and be told, “you’re perfectly healthy.” Believe it or not I’ve had patients with liver cancer tell met that their medical doctor told them that, “except for the cancer your perfectly healthy.”

Allopathic medicine is the practice of intervention in the disease process after it has already gained its foothold. In short, standard diagnostic lab tests serve their intended purpose well, that is to confirm the diagnosis. In this form of medicine there is no in between states, you’re either diagnosed with a named medical condition, confirmed by an extreme, off the chart, laboratory test, or you’re perfectly healthy. The problem being that by the time the broad range tests show upon the tests the patient has fallen off the cliff.

If you were the General of the Army in charge of home defense, when would you mobilize your forces? When the enemy is hundreds of miles off our shores or after it has fully established itself on our shores?
In naturopathic medicine we believe every disease was first a deficiency. We believe that symptoms are not the disease, but the body’s way of calling out for help and that deficiency is the precursor to disease, in short, first the deficiency, then the symptom, and then the named medical conditions.

In allopathic medicine if ten patients are diagnosed with, lets say, diabetes or cancer, all ten patients will be treated the exact same way because allopathic medicine is the treatment of the disease. Its focus is to give relief to the symptoms. It makes no pretense of dealing with the cause of the disease.

Naturopathic medicine, believe or not, does not treat disease it treats the individual. If ten patients come in with diabetes or cancer, the disease of course is taken into consideration, but the primary concern is individual biochemistry and the cause/effect relationship.

There is no one on the entire planet like you. Your biochemistry is more unique than your fingerprint and must always be taken into consideration before any nutritional alternative or complimentary treatment plan.
In naturopathic medicine so called “normal” blood tests aren’t good enough and may even be malpractice. How many people do you know who have been told “the tests are normal,” who either dropped dead or came down with a major illness shortly after they were given the false assurance that they were perfectly healthy.

In naturopathic medicine we do not treat disease, but rather individual biochemistry. In so doing, we treat disease at its very earliest inception, which we believe is the deficiency stage, hopefully even before serious symptoms become an issue.
In naturopathic medicine we believe that toxicity is the common denomination to every disease. In allopathic medicine there are 26,000 names for 26,000 medical conditions and a cookbook of pharmaceutical controlled substances that correspond to each one. In naturopathic medicine we look for deficiency, toxicity, glandular imbalance, mal-absorption, excess body-fat weight, fitness level, distress, mental attitude, relationships, spinal subluxation, spiritual life development, trauma.
Allopathic and naturopathic medicine differ in many ways and in some respect are diametrically opposed to each other, but they both agree that the starting point to all treatment and healing is the evaluating process. No doctor in his right mind starts with the treatment process no matter how good the modality may be.

The reason that you will never hear naturopathic doctor say, “it’s all in your head,” is because we learned in our schools that when the tests come back normal and the patient has a valid complaint, to throw out the tests and go with the symptom, search out its cause and don’t stop until you uncover it.

Remember unlike allopathic medicine, naturopathic medicine does not treat the disease or even the symptom, but rather it seeks out the cause. If the local river is so polluted that the fish couldn’t live in it, cleaning the waste at the bottom of the river would serve little purpose. Wouldn’t it make more sense to go up river and stop the pollution at the source? That is what naturopathy is about, prevention of medical named conditions by catching deficiencies, imbalances and toxicity at its very earliest inception.

When we evaluate individual biochemistry our criterion is far different than drug medicine. Our standards are much higher. Allopathic medicine intervenes in the disease process; its area of expertise is disease to death. Naturopathic medicine begins when the body is working less than optimally. We begin our treatment at a much earlier stage of the degeneration process; therefore, our laboratory ranges are much stricter.

No one is ever told they are “perfectly healthy” in naturopathic medicine because our standards begin with optimal. As a result of no one being at their best, we all have areas we can work on and that’s exactly what a naturopathic evaluation is seeking out. After all is said and done we’re looking for nutritional deficiencies, glandular imbalances, hormonal insufficiencies, and toxic organ systems before they become named medical conditions.

Our report of finding consultation is truly an educational experience. Each of the 40 to 60 laboratory tests are bio-markers that reveal to us another bodily function. You are shown the clinical ranges used in allopathic medicine, you are shown the naturopathic ranges used in preventative/naturopathic medicine, you are shown your nutritional deficiencies, you are shown your individual scores and finally you are shown what few have experienced, you are shown the optimal ranges, what each test would be if your biochemistry was working perfectly if you were nutritionally sound, physically fit, and toxin free.
With the help of computer science, 115 years of accumulated knowledge is tapped into to deliver, for the first time in medical history, an accurate metabolic analysis based on scientific parameters. All the guesswork is taken out of your nutritional needs. Everything is based around your individual biochemistry.

In conclusion, it’s an exciting time, scientific knowledge is exploding exponentially and as it does the old form of medicine is becoming increasingly obsolete. You may have noticed that doctors who do not stay up on the scientific breakthroughs in nutrition are usually the ones down on it. They are of the same mindset as the medical doctors of a few generations ago, which held to bleeding, leeching and toxic mercury treatments.

In our age of increasing information and enlightenment it is no longer necessary to tolerate insensitive fools hiding behind a façade of a medical license. “The tests came back normal,” is not good enough. “Your problem is all in your head,” is a deeper insult than a slap in the face. You the consumer must begin to ask cogent questions and demand answers that you clearly understand. This is what evaluation is supposed to be all about. If you the medical consumers are willing to uncover yourself, bare your body and soul for the process of evaluation, even give up some of your life-blood, should you not expect the same from your doctor? Should you not be given the respect of a proper medical explanation for your main complaints?

The purpose of diagnostic laboratory testing is to connect the objective test results with your subjective complaints, symptoms, and concerns. If the two are not satisfactorily connecting, you may be in need of an honest second opinion. This may require that you at least for the purpose of an evaluation seek out a doctor of naturopathic medicine of your choice, rather than a second opinion from the same school of thought, the same good ol’ boy’s club. Paracelsus, the great Swiss physician (1495-1541) said, “the art of healing comes form nature and not from the physician, therefore, the physician must start from nature with an open mind.”

What do you know about blood tests? (Test yourself, circle T or F).
1. People with the same blood type have identical nutritional needs. T or F
2. It’s impossible for a sick person to have 40 blood tests and have all 40 tests come up normal. T or F
3. Knowing your blood test history is one of the best early warning tools for preventative medicine and detecting disease. T or F
4. Preventative blood tests are routinely run by allopathic doctors. T or F
5. Because insurance companies make sense they cover tests that can prevent serious disease. T or F
6. Medical reference ranges are set by the AMA and are based on the latest scientific research. T or F
7. Preventative blood testing can reveal disease for which there is no physical symptom. T or F
8. Preventative blood tests can reveal cancer and heart

disease months and years before it is diagnosed. T or F

Answers:
1. False – regardless of blood type everyone is an individual biochemistry. Blood type is a very small part of metabolic typing and is incomplete and often inaccurate in and by itself.
2. False – many sick people and even people with cancer often fall within the so-called normal ranges.
3. True – the life of the cell, gland, organ and system is revealed in the blood.
4. False – preventative blood tests may never be run by most medical doctors, few have been trained in their interpretation.
5. False – insurance companies do not make sense and do not pay for preventative lab tests. Companies like Big Blue may be among the biggest criminals in U.S. history.
6. False – medical reference ranges are arbitrary – set by eggheads who know much about disease and little about health or healthy people.
7. True – blood tests can help us to treat disease before it becomes a named medical condition.
8. True – the technology is available to uncover disease precursor to months and even years before diagnosed.

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