Case Study: 60+ Year Old Woman
Chief Health Complaints
Fatigue
Poor sleep/waking in the middle of the night
Weight around midsection
Hypertension
High cholesterol
Dry skin
Allergies
Gum recession
This sweet client came in with the feeling that although she had been exercising regularly and eating pretty well, what she was doing just wasn’t working. She had been seeing a Naturopathic Doctor and was under their care for both the hypertension and the cholesterol which she stated had been creeping higher. Her ND had her taking a nutraceutical which was helping.
She shared that she was looking for more education, accountability, and direction. I’m so happy she found her way to me because education is at the forefront of Krave.
Let me show you what we learned from her blood work and how it aligned with all of her big health concerns.
Blood Sugar Handling: Increased glucose and a pre-diabetic HbA1c number.
Relevance: Chronically elevated glucose levels drive inflammation and oxidative stress, contribute to fatigue, promote weight gain, promote leptin resistance, stress the liver, mess with sleep quality, and is a big part of a high cholesterol picture.
Lipids: Turns out her lipids looked pretty darn good, if anything just a tad low. Her Apo-A and Apo-B both looked great, no outright cardiovascular inflammation found. This left me wondering what her lipids looked like before she started her nutraceutical, was she actually an appropriate candidate for it? Turns out that was an unnecessary support for her when we looked back at historical marker values.
Liver: Increased glucose, increased liver enzyme (AST), decreased LDL, decreased total cholesterol, increased monocytes.
Relevance: although there was not an outright picture of liver dysfunction, there is indication that her liver needed support. This could be contributing to her fatigue, weight issues, waking in the middle of the night, and her dry skin.
Dehydration: Increased BUN and increased potassium.
Relevance: this is especially relevant for someone with hypertension! Most people think they need to cut sodium but usually I find a poor sodium to potassium ratio. Dehydration is also linked to fatigue.
Inflammation (non-cardiovascular)/Infection: Increased ferritin, increased glucose/HbA1c, increased BUN, decreased WBCs, increased monocytes.
Relevance: this client had many digestive symptoms and given her gum recession, I have to wonder what we would find on a GI-MAP stool test. This would surely contribute to her fatigue, allergies, and gum recession story. The mouth is the opening to the gut, after all!
Poor Methylation/B Vitamin Need: Increased homocysteine, increased glucose, increased MCV and MCH.
Relevance: B vitamins have a direct impact on energy levels. Poor methylation is linked to fatigue, poor detoxification, inflammation, heart disease, hormone imbalances, and more. Every cell of the body requires methylation and we usually assess this through the homocysteine marker. When we don’t have enough B vitamins to convert homocysteine to other metabolites we see it rise in the serum. The concern becomes inflammation in the blood vessels. Homocysteine is linked to atherosclerosis creating a higher risk for blood clots, stroke, and heart attacks. B vitamins are necessary for blood sugar regulation, immune function, cardiovascular health, and more.
Malabsorption/Hypochlorhydria/Poor Protein Utilization: Decreased GGT, increased BUN, increased MCV and MCH.
Relevance: If we aren’t able to break down our foods due to insufficient stomach acid or absorb their nutrients, this will impact everything to some degree. Issues in the gut can exacerbate a methylation issue.
Do you see how her blood work validated her concerns?
I hope breaking it down like this makes it as clear to you as it is to me!
From the client perspective, I pull all relevant signs, symptoms, and personal history shared during an Initial Consultation and organize them into categories like digestion, blood sugar, liver health, and so on. This way when I point out that we identified blood sugar dysregulation for example, she knows exactly all the ways that is impacting her on a day to day basis.
I was strategic with her custom recommendations based on these results and she is on her way to feeling progressively better!
At her 6-week follow up appointment she reported that she was sleeping through the night and felt more rested, that she was waking up refreshed and no longer craved that immediate cup of coffee, her joint pain had improved, she’d lost some weight, and noticed she had more energy to work out and teach her exercise classes. At the end of our chat she was excited to move on to the Gut Restore package where we will dig into what we saw trending in her blood (infection, inflammation, hypochlorhydria, malabsorption, etc).
I’m so proud of her and cannot wait to see her results snowball as we peel back more layers!
NOTE: I don’t share protocols (they’re custom) so please don’t ask.