Making Sense of Your Lab Results: A Patient’s Guide

If you’ve ever felt confused staring at a long list of numbers from your lab work, you’re not alone. At RMC, we use labs not just to see if things look “normal,” but to dig deeper into what might be driving your symptoms. This guide is here to help you understand what those results mean in plain language.

Reference Range vs. Optimal Range

When your labs come back, you’ll usually see your value compared to a reference range—what’s considered “normal” for the general population. But “normal” doesn’t always mean healthy. Many people in the “normal” group may still have symptoms or higher risk for illness.

That’s why we also look at the optimal range—the narrower zone where your body tends to function best. Sometimes your results may fall in the reference range but outside the optimal range. In our reports, we call these “abnormal,” because they may still be clues to why you’re not feeling well.

Safety Labs: The Basics

These are your general health check-ins—blood counts, electrolytes, and markers for liver and kidney health.

• Liver enzymes (AST, ALT, Alk Phos): Tell us how your liver is doing.
  
  
• Creatinine & BUN/Creatinine ratio: Reflect kidney function and hydration.
  
  
• White blood cells (WBC): Can go up with infections.
  
  
• Hemoglobin & Hematocrit: Measure how well your blood carries oxygen.
  
  
• MCV: The size of your red blood cells (ideal 85–95).
  
  
• Platelets: Involved in clotting, can shift with inflammation or infections.
  
  

Hormones

Hormone imbalances often show up downstream of inflammation, but they can still give us important clues.

• Thyroid:
  
  
  
  • TSH: Best around 1
    
    
  • Free T4: About 1.3
    
    
  • Free T3: About 3.5 (your “active” thyroid hormone)
    
    
  • Reverse T3: Should be <10 (too high can block thyroid activity)
    
    
• Adrenals: Cortisol levels vary throughout the day—timing matters.
  
  
• Sex hormones (estrogen, progesterone, testosterone): Highly individual; we look at them in context with your story, not just the numbers.
  
  

Nutrients

Nutrient labs help us see if your body is getting what it needs for energy, detox, and repair.

• B12: 1000–2000 is ideal
  
  
• Folate: >20
  
  
• B6: Around 50 (avoid >250, which can be toxic)
  
  
• Homocysteine: 7–8 (reflects B vitamin status and genetics)
  
  
• Magnesium (RBC): >5.0
  
  
• Zinc: ~80
  
  
• Iron & Ferritin: Iron stores vary by sex/age, but ferritin should be >20
  
  
• Vitamin D:
  
  
  
  • 25 OH (storage): 40–60
    
    
  • 1,25 OH (active): 30–50
    
    

Biotoxin Illness Biomarkers

These markers come from the research of Dr. Ritchie Shoemaker, who studied Chronic Inflammatory Response Syndrome (CIRS)—a condition where mold, Lyme, and other biotoxins trigger ongoing inflammation.

• ECP: <10 (high with fungal or parasitic triggers)
  
  
• VEGF: >31 (can go low in CIRS, high in Bartonella)
  
  
• Vitamin D ratio (1,25:25): Ideally <2 (higher with certain bacterial infections)
  
  

These markers don’t diagnose on their own, but when combined with symptoms and other testing, they help us connect the dots.

Why This Matters

Your labs are more than numbers—they’re a window into how your body is functioning right now. By looking at optimal ranges and connecting results to your symptoms, we can spot patterns, track progress, and make sure treatments are moving you in the right direction.

But here’s the most important thing: labs are only one piece of the puzzle. The best data comes from how your body responds to treatment in real life—your energy, symptoms, resilience, and quality of life. Labs help guide the map, but your daily experience tells us if we’re truly moving toward healing.

✨ Healing is a process, and your labs are just one of the tools we use to guide it—the real measure of success is how you feel.

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