Your Blood Never Lies: How to Read a Blood Test for a Longer, Healthier Life Paperback – July 2, 2013

If you are an MD or have a PhD and your specialty is Pathology, perhaps (and I mean only perhaps) you will not find any new major revelation here. On the other end of the scale, if you have no idea or care to know the difference between your Potassium level and Magnesium level or you live in a dreamland by thinking that your General Practitioner walks on water, i.e. will take the time to analyze your yearly blood test for all the necessary parameters that should be included in your yearly blood test - or you just plain could not care less about your health until your doctor tells you that you have six months to live - then I guess this book is not for you. On the other hand if you are prepared to take SOME ACTION to assure a preventive method and lifestyle to optimize your health (and still have the time to have a life) then this book is FANTASTIC. In my own view, the two negative reviews are totally out of line. The author never claims any major discovery. I've studied Biochemistry and Human Physiology and have done a fair amount of research on Blood Tests as well as other informative tests like Microbiomes (e.g. H. Pylori), Fitness Tests (like Body Fat Percentage), etc., yet I found this book to be an amazing reference collection of relevant ranges of blood tests. It is already over 300 pages, so obviously it is outside of the scope to analyze every sub-range within the rightly or wrongly generally accepted "healthy ranges". If he did that, the book would be well over a thousand pages, which most people would never get around to reading. Read the title! It is not meant to be a full text on Human Physiology and Anatomy; it is a fantastic aid in helping you interpret your blood test plus gives you an idea of some of the very important tests that your good Doctor, for a variety of inadequate reasons, will not bother with. Most people, if not everyone, would "like to be healthy". Unfortunately not everyone has made a commitment to be and prefer to have their head in the sand. If you have made a commitment to your health, but you are not a professional in Pathology, you need this book - it is invaluable.

I heard Dr. LaValle discuss the things each of us have experienced at one time or another, when our primary care physician has reviewed our lab results and told us that our labs are "fine" or "normal". Normal, compared to what? I find that the questions needed during these reviews have left a lot to be desired on my part, since I don't know what to specifically ask. For example, what is the lowest level on a "scale" that I should concern myself about before I take a different approach to bring my level up? What indicates the lower end of the scale's results before something needs to be done? To tell a person that his or her results are "normal" is ludicrous, because some readings are at the lower end of a scale, and to me, should be the time to act, before it turns to insufficiency or deficiency.I think that doctors come too close to a tipping point before we are informed that something needs to be done to bring our levels up to the midpoint vs. seeing a reading at the lower end of the scale, and tell us patients that our readings are normal! That's an irresponsible statement: we are headed towards deficiency or insufficiency, but we could get moving to correct the level before it gets lower! Example: our Vitamin D level. Dr. LaValle provides an enormous amount of information that's to our advantage to use so that we can ask the questions that need to be asked when lab results are "discussed" (glossed over), and, he provides solutions to many of our medical issues that may further not get discussed during those lab result review discussions. This is a "must have/must read" book. Many solutions to ailments as well as how to get health issues better treated, if you should choose to do so, with your medical professional's help, are available, if that professional doesn't get offended by your questions or concerns (is that an oxymoronic statement, your medical professional - the one who doesn't treat you unless it involves prescription meds?).

Find out why your "normal" blood tests most likely are not normal. The doctors are not totally to blame. They must follow a prescribed "standard-of-care" which means treat the symptoms and ignore only the most serious.

Interesting read. Learn about the blood type lab results and gain an understanding into what chemistry is involved.