Why Am I So Tired When My Blood Work Is Normal? What Standard Testing Misses — Frequently asked questions about normal labs in chronic illness

Are my doctors wrong when they say my labs are normal? No. The labs they ordered are correctly interpreted by the standard. The limitation is that the labs they ordered measure a relatively narrow set of analytes that do not capture most of what produces chronic illness. The doctors are reading the data correctly. The data is incomplete for the question being asked. What should I do if I have already had extensive functional medicine testing? The testing is often useful. The interpretation is often where the limitation is. The same panels read through the Host Capacity Model framework often reveal patterns that standard functional medicine interpretation misses. A Biomelogic consultation is specifically structured around this re-reading. Are there any standard labs that DO catch some of what I&rsquo;m experiencing? Yes, with attention to optimal ranges. Ferritin (in the optimal range, not just within reference), TSH and free T3 (with reverse T3 added), vitamin D (with attention to optimal levels), and HbA1c (with attention to early dysglycemia) often contain useful information when read carefully. The standard panel, read carefully, captures more than it captures when read categorically. Could this be in my head? The likelihood that the symptoms you are experiencing are produced by a psychological process alone, in the absence of any physiological substrate, is much lower than