Wisdom Wednesday: Functional Blood Chemistry

This time every year I encourage my patients to have broad based laboratory testing of their blood and urine. These tests are excellent predictors of general health and help me correlate and confirm my QA (Quintessential Applications) findings.

I do this through our holiday newsletter, reducing the lab fees for the months of December, January and February. For the next several weeks, I will be reviewing the routine tests I recommend on the Wisdom Wednesday blog.
Comprehensive Metabolic Profile (CMP) – this series of tests provides information about electrolytes, liver, kidneys, bone and mineral status. It contains 14 tests as compared to the Basic Metabolic Panel with has 7. Managed care will often only order the BMP to save money.

The tests are:

• Glucose
• Calcium
• Albumin
• Total Protein
• Sodium
• Potassium
• CO2
• BUN
• Chloride
• Creatinine
• Alkaline Phosphatase
• AST/SGOT
• ALT/SGPT
• Bilirubin
• Anion Gap (calculated measurement)

The patterns seen on the metabolic panel:

• Dehydration
• Digestive imbalances
• Malabsorption
• Protein assimilation
• Hypochlorhydria
• Dysbiosis
• Insulin resistance
• Diabetes
• Liver/gall bladder
• Inflammation
• Cardiovascular
• Renal insufficiency
• Edema
• Metabolic acidosis
• Metabolic alkalosis
• Male urinary issues
• Adrenal dysfunction

Function ranges and laboratory ranges can vary widely from test to test. For example, the laboratory range for the fasting glucose is 65-99 mg/dL while the functional range is 80-100 mg/dL. That’s pretty close. However, the laboratory range for calcium is 8.5-10.8 mg/dL but the functional range is much narrower at 9.2-10 mg/dL. In most cases the narrowed functional range allows the practitioner to see patterns in general health before they indicate obvious disease.

The Bottom Line:
The CMP is an inexpensive broad based look at metabolism. The BUN and creatinine are excellent indicators of kidney function while the SGOT and SGPT reflect liver status. Although the fasting glucose does have value, I prefer the hemoglobin A1c as an indicator of long term glucose control.