Page 1 - Autoimmune Diseases Blood Testing

Analyzing Blood Work to Determine the Underlying Causes of Autoimmune Disease

Submitted by the International Autoimmune Institute & Bingham Memorial Center for
Functional Medicine

Autoimmune disease is recognized as a major health crisis in the United States. Today, 50
million Americans—80 percent of whom are women—suffer one or more autoimmune
conditions. Thirty years ago, only one in 400 people developed an autoimmune disease. Today,
one in 12 Americans—one in nine women—have an autoimmune disease. More women are
diagnosed each year with an autoimmune disease than breast cancer and cardiovascular disease
combined.

An autoimmune disease is a condition in which the immune system mistakenly attacks the
body’s own tissue. Some of the more common conditions include rheumatoid arthritis, lupus,
multiple sclerosis, psoriasis, Hashimoto’s thyroiditis, type 1 diabetes, and ulcerative colitis or
Crohn’s disease, but the National Institutes of Health estimates there are more than 100 types of
autoimmune diseases.

David J. Bilstrom, MD—the Director of the International Autoimmune Institute & Bingham
Memorial Center for Functional Medicine—provides information about the importance of proper
lab testing, the correct interpretation of those labs, and following proper treatment options.

Understanding lab tests
Blood work is one of four types of lab work that we like to get on everyone with an autoimmune
disease. There’s a lot of importance in what gets ordered and the results that are found. However,
the interpretation of the results is the most important of all.

“Many people have the experience where they just don’t feel that well,” says Dr. Bilstrom.
“They go in to a see a physician, blood work is ordered, and then the lab tests come back and the
patient is told ‘oh, everything looks fine.’”

In most cases, people know that’s not true and they definitely don’t feel fine; they know that
there’s something wrong and perhaps they wonder if the wrong tests were taken. Sometimes the
right tests might be run but the interpretation is off. Or, truly the tests weren’t done in-depth
enough to really discover what’s going on.

Statistical ranges
The reason results need to be interpreted is because of the reference ranges, also referred to as
normal ranges, for each test.

“Most of the time people treat the reference range as ‘that’s where the healthy people are,’” says
Dr. Bilstrom. “When a person’s results come back as being within the range they are told,
‘You’re fine. You’re healthy. You’re good. Don’t worry.’”

“The problem is that range is not based on where the healthy people are,” says Dr. Bilstrom.
“What I do when we review labs is write down “where the healthy people are” and if someone’s