The upside and downside of lab testing and how to get the most bang for your buck with Sachin Patel

Hey, my friends, it's Sachin. Hope you're awesome. In today's video, I want to talk about lab testing. Now, this could be conventional lab testing. It could also be functional lab testing. It could also be diagnostic imaging. That I want to discuss today because I think we've become lazy practitioners. And what I mean by that is that we're so quick to essentially run labs on people, and. And that may prohibit us from asking all the right questions. Sometimes we run labs before we even hear the entire story of the client. So I'll hear over and over again from patients and clients that, hey, I went to the doctor and they asked me a couple of questions, ran some labs on me. And the good news and the bad news is, is that my lab work is normal. Now, the problem with this is that sometimes patients are upset by that when their lab work is normal. That could be a good thing. That could be awesome. It could mean that their issue is, you know, environmental. It could mean their issue is maybe emotional, which we now know many conditions, especially chronic conditions, can be. Or it might be something that has to do with lifestyle. And so you might feel tired, you might feel crummy, you might feel inflamed, you might feel bloated, you might feel upset, anxious, or depressed because of your environment, because of your emotions, or because of your lifestyle. And that doesn't mean that there's something wrong with your body. It means there might be something wrong with how you're fully leveraging your body's own ability to help you heal. So one of the most important things that we learned in chiropractic school and medical school as well, is that if you listen to your patients carefully, they will tell you everything that you need to know. And lab testing and imaging can be confirmatory instead of exploratory. So let me say that again. If you listen carefully to your clients, then lab testing is to confirm your intuition, to confirm and put together the pieces of the puzzle that the client is telling you not to be an exploration, to find out what's wrong and. And then tell them everything's normal and dismiss them as if there's nothing that can be done for them. So one of the things that we start off with always is an extremely thorough history. In fact, depending on what type of client, you become of ours, your intake form is about 45 pages. And at first, people are a little bit annoyed. Some people get excited about that. Some people are annoyed by that. And I could understand why. You know, I just want to get to the bottom of it. Now, the reason this is important is because we take a thorough history. We can't always sit there and interview you for three or four hours. But if you're willing to spend an hour and fill out a thorough assessment of what's going on, then we can rule in and rule out certain things. And then instead of jumping to diagnostic testing or, you know, diagnostic imaging, maybe we can ask the right questions that help put the puzzle together and then give you certain nutritional recommendations, lifestyle recommendations, maybe breathing recommendations, maybe environmental recommendations that you can put into action. And then within a couple of weeks, you might even notice a significant improvement if you're doing all the right things. So, for example, if you're feeling tired, which is the number two reason people see their doctor next to the common cold, then the reason you could be feeling tired may not have anything to do with your blood work. It may have to do with the fact that you're not going to bed on time. It may have to do with the fact that you have toxic lighting. It may have to do with the fact that you don't breathe properly while you're sleeping. So what would I expect you to be except tired? I would expect you to be tired if you're not doing those things. So if we ask the right questions, then we can make the right recommendations. And when we make the right recommendations, we can lower costs, we can lower frustration, we can lower the number of visits. But most importantly, people can get better faster instead of, you know, being bounced around from visit to visit, from lab to lab, and not actually getting to the bottom of what's going on. So a really good history is first and foremost, foremost and paramount. Now, I know sometimes doctors don't have time. I get that. I understand that. However, then they should have more thorough forms for their clients to fill out. And that's one of the things that we do. So we have one of our intake forms is 321 questions. And those questions can be filled out within 15 or 20 minutes by the patient, because you can read really fast and you can highlight the things that are going on. And the form is organized in such a way that it lays out what's going on based on different systems in your body. So literally within a minute, I can tell where we need to focus. I can tell what additional questions I need to ask. I can tell what lifestyle or environmental or emotional modifications you need to make to help you deal with this challenge that you're facing. So then it becomes really easy to help people help themselves instead of doing exploratory expensive lab testing that may not really get to the bottom of it. I know sometimes, depending on where you live, lab testing might be free or might be covered, but it doesn't mean it isn't wasteful, wasting time, wasting money, and then also not getting an outcome that you might desire. Now, let me tell you that. So if you were to go to the doctor, they did a thorough history, made some recommendations, had you follow up, if you weren't feeling better, then did lab testing, then based on the questions that they asked and based on what didn't work for you, they could become much more focused on the labs that they want to order so that they can really get to the bottom of what's going on. So it isn't bad intentions that your practitioner has, but. But maybe they're not listening, and maybe they're not spending enough time asking you the right questions for you to then tell them, you know, the cheat code, which is, hey, here's what's wrong with me, and then here's the testing that needs to be done in order to address what's going on. Now, one of the things that it's also important to understand is sometimes, and I was guilty of this early on in my career, we order testing too soon. So we order testing right off the bat. And, and what the problem is with that is by the time we get the results back, the clients change their diet, they've upgraded their lifestyle, maybe they've upgraded their breathing, they've upgraded their mindset, maybe there's some environmental changes that have taken place for them. And now the lab testing doesn't have as much value because it's based on the past and not necessarily based on what's happening right now in this moment and the future that we want to create for that person. So we always have to be careful as practitioners, how we're allocating resources and time in order to help our patients get an outcome. So testing can cost hundreds, thousands, and depending on what's going on, even tens of thousands of dollars. You know, whether you're paying for it or whether your insurance is paying for it doesn't really matter. What matters is the right testing at the right time based on the right questions. That's what matters the most. So one of the things that we've done is we found that as we've gotten better at asking questions about their environment, about their emotions, about their lifestyle, we're able to get people results 90% of the time without doing any testing. And the beauty of that is that people love that they Feel better. They don't have to poop in a cup. They don't have to get blood drawn, they don't have to provide a urine sample. They can do all these. They can get amazing outcomes with little to no cost and very little effort when it comes to getting to the bottom of what's going on. So I want to encourage you to make sure that your practitioner, whoever you're working with or your health coach is asking questions, is spending time with you to really understand your environment, your emotional well being and then also your lifestyle. And, and if they're not asking you those questions, there's almost no way that they're going to be able to help you because there's no lab test for emotions. There's no lab test for you going to bed late at night. There's no lab test for you having toxic lighting in your home. There's no lab test for you not breathing properly. There's no lab test for you not spending enough time in nature. There's no lab test for you to see if you're getting enough hugs in the day. There's no lab test to see if you're laughing enough. Okay? So you can start to see immediately the limitations of lab testing and where it can fail miserably, even in a functional medicine setting. So I encourage all of you practitioners, I encourage all of you patients to ask more questions to really get to the bottom of how we can work with one another to optimize our health. This will speed up timelines, this will lower costs, and this will also teach you skills, right? So one thing I remind my clients of is that, hey, if I give you a magic pill and it fixes all of your problems, it only helps you. But if I teach you a skill set, then your entire family benefits and the next generation benefits as well if they are willing to be coached and trained by you by making these simple changes. So keep that in mind as well. If I run a lab test on you, then only you get the, the information only pertains to you. But if I teach you how to live your life, then that information pertains to your entire family. So your ROI of that skill is so much higher than the ROI of a bottle of pills. Now, not to say there isn't a time, not to say there isn't a place where testing is the most appropriate initial intervention. But it's not always the case. And I want to remind you that now, if you're sleeping perfectly, if you're spending lots of time in nature, you're getting Good. Belly laughs. You're breathing perfectly, you're doing everything right, then maybe seeing your practitioner and getting testing right off the bat makes a lot of sense. But if you're not doing those things, then I promise you that that's low hanging fruit that there are no tests for. So even if your doctor says your labs are normal, you still have to do those things because that's what's going to help you optimize your health. So that brings me to my last point, which is what's your favorite test? Satchin? And you know, I'll share with you a test of test that I've done, I've done five years ago. And that test actually continues to provide insights for me and it continues to provide value in my life and in my relationships and in my business. And it's a test that I only ever have to do once and that's genomic testing. So I use a company called the DNA company and they do genomic profiling to look at my executive function, to look at my detoxification pathways, to look at my hormone metabolism. And based on these genomics we can discover and uncover what's the best and lowest hanging lifestyle fruit for me. What's the best emotional fruit for me, what's, what's the best environmental fruit for me. And I know exactly what buttons to push when it comes to my health based on the reports that I receive. And the beautiful thing about that is that information never changes. So unlike blood work or even stool testing or urine testing, which again can be valuable, there's diminishing value. So if you came to me and said, hey, I ran this test six months ago, well that test would have zero value because it's no longer relevant. And chances are if I ran that exact same test on you, the markers would be completely different. So what I need you to understand is that something like genomic testing actually increases in value over time because it's teaching you what skills, environment and emotional tools you need to be your absolute best. And it teaches you over time it also becomes more valuable because there's more information that's available to us. So an example, I did this test five years ago and just recently they released a new report based on how my immune system would respond to a viral infection. And so all I had to do was send them a notice, didn't have to redo the test, but just sent them a notice and I said I want this report. And I got a beautiful report that tells me exactly how my body would respond based on my genetic predisposition if I'm exposed to a virus. And it turns out that there are special precautions that I need to take so that I can provide my body with the best possible response that's favorable to the outcome that I want. So genomic testing actually increases in value over time and the results stay relevant for a lifetime, making them, in my opinion, dollar for dollar, the most valuable test that you can possibly do. So, so, as you know, I'm all about lifetime value. I'm all about practicality. I'm all about things that make sense, and not just from a financial perspective, but from a health perspective. And I'm always about delivering as much value as I possibly can for my clients. And so I can't think of a better way to do that when it comes to health than teaching you skills that help you and your entire family. And if I run labs, running labs on you that actually benefit you for an entire lifetime and teach you how to partner with your body so that you can have the best possible outcomes when it comes to your health. So I hope you found this valuable. If you did, please share. Please drop a heart if this was valuable information to you. And if you ever have any questions, send me a pm. I'm always happy to answer questions to make sure that you're getting the best information that's relevant to the goals that you have when it comes to your health. Always here to help, always here to serve, and always looking out for you. Lots of love, lots of gratitude, hope you're having an awesome day and I will talk to you soon. Bye for now.