Reference range is a term that is given to Doctors who practice an incredibly basic way of diagnosing, managing and treating disorders.
​They simply look to see if your lab values fall inside the reference range of the lab results, and if they do, you are considered to be normal. Anything outside of this reference range is typically labeled as “high” or “low” in bold font.
Even if you are in the bottom 5% of that reference range, you are still normal. And that is a huge problem. Disease doesn’t start as soon as you go outside of that range. You’re either trending toward disease, outside of the reference range, or you’re trending toward optimal health.
There are a lot of people who go to their doctor to find out why they’re struggling with health issues, and their labs come back “normal.” They’re told there is nothing wrong with them and left with no answers or solutions.
There is a big difference between being “normal” and being “optimal”. There’s also a huge difference in what being “optimal” means between different individuals!