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Weight loss
hello B /I’m supporting a friend to shift her way of living and start preparing meals at home. She’s facing challenges with losing weight and hasn’t been successful. To understand the situation better, I recommended she undergo some basic health tests. Having qualified as a health coach from IIN, I’m exercising with her too. Yet, I’m seeking additional support and direction to aid her more effectively. I’d be grateful if you could review her blood tests or suggest any further assistance I can provide.
Please check her file in this link below
https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/6jvoskzkrn9fatqc1myif/h?rlkey=equo62ach4yiptfhl1pn9a957&dl=0
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5 Replies
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@Moza Alsuwaidi she’s lucky to have you guiding her. The best learning opportunity is to try and read labs yourself, so what I’m going to do is highlight a few markers of note, and link you to the videos from the Understanding Basic Blood Chemistry course to help with interpretation, and I would like to hear from you, what you think might be going on, since you know her better than me.
Let’s look at the ‘Maryam 1’ document:
Total bilirubin is 0.3 mg/dl, which is on the lower end of the clinical reference range. Please watch the video on Bilirubin and tell me your thoughts of what could be causing that suppression and how it can potentially affect weight loss.
Vitamin D is clinically low. Here’s a helpful handout on dosages.
Fasting glucose is 96 mg/dl, which is suboptimally high and HbA1c is 4.9% which is at the lower end of the clinical reference range. Please watch this video and let me know your thoughts on what may be at play, and if anything else should be measured as a follow-up. Hint – this could be the reason for her inability to lose weight!
Neutrophils & lymphocytes in her white blood cells are skewed (45 and 43%). When they’re close like that, it could indicate some type of low-grade simmering infection of some sort. With a clinically low vitamin D, this will contribute to compromised immunity. Also, her eosinophils are suboptimal high (4%) and monocytes are at the cusp of being suboptimal high (7%). Please watch this video to understand what the differentials mean, and then this video for interpretation of results. Let me know your thoughts on what can be causing an increase in eosinophils and monocytes that could be affecting weight loss!
Finally, do you have her free T3 result? It’s not showing and is definitely something to be looking at when someone struggles to lose weight.
Waiting to hear back from you! After you watch the videos I shared, you’ll feel much more confident answering the questions/clues I’ve pointed out. Putting you to the test Give it your best shot!
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Hello B thank you so much for the support I am check now all the videos m. So excited to start learning you motivate me more
Could you please tell me which video I should watch for fasting glucose? Because the link is taking me to main page.
Thank you
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@Moza Alsuwaidi I checked the link for the glucose video and it’s working for me. Here it is again. Let me know if it’s still not working for you.
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I watched all the videos and looked at the handouts.
Her bilirubin is low because she drinks a lot of coffee daily that might cause the stress
I told her to take Vitamin D3 with magnesium and K2 since October, but the amount might be too little. Definitely she need to take vitamin D.
Her fasting glucose is high because she is stressed, which could mean her body is starting to resist insulin because of the stress. She rated her stress as 6.5 out of 10 when I asked her.
Her Glycosylated Hemoglobin (HbA1c) is low because she followed a low-carb and keto diet for a long time, which worked well at first but isn’t showing results anymore. Since September, I’ve been helping her switch to a more balanced diet because the one she was on seemed too stressful for her.
The high levels of eosinophils and monocytes in her Complete Blood Count (CBC) might be due to stress, eczema and asthma
Overall, it seems like stress is the main problem causing her weight issues.
For the T3 I am still waiting the rest of the test didn’t come out yet.
I hope I’ve done well on the test.
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@Moza Alsuwaidi well done for giving it a shot! That’s how we learn… I’m going to touch on every point you brought up:
So her bilirubin isn’t low, but it’s definitely suboptimal. In the video I shared on Bilirubin, I mention how suboptimal levels can be due to insufficient zinc, because we need zinc to convert biliverdin to bilirubin. Seeing that she was following a keto diet, I’m going to assume she was getting enough animal source proteins. So my next question is why would her zinc be insufficient? If you say she’s really stressed, could that be causing a suppression in her overall digestion, including stomach acid? RBC zinc can be measured, and we want it to be in the upper 2/3rds of the reference range.
Also, oxidative stress can also suppress bilirubin since it’s an antioxidant. Here’s a handout on examples of oxidative stress. You can show her these as well.
You’re correct about stress being a potential driver for suboptimal high glucose levels. A person can have the best diet, but chronic stress can lead to insulin resistance over time. You’re also correct that a lower HbA1c can be due to a low carb diet. But what other marker do I mention in the video that would be helpful in this type of situation? Hint – when it’s elevated, it will make losing body fat extremely hard because it’s a “storage hormone”.
Suboptimal high levels of eosinophils and monocytes could indicate the possibility of intestinal parasites. Higher eosinophils could also be due to allergies/sensitivities. And if she has asthma and eczema, doing a food sensitivity test (like the one by KBMO) could help eliminate a lot of trial and error and ease both of these symptoms. Weight loss is often a welcomed side effect of removing food sensitivities as well.
Hope this helps!
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