key pathology tests to mastering

your mood, your energy, and stress.

Let's dive in.

So first of all, why is it important

to even have your pathology test

or your lab test done regularly?

So firstly, the number thing, one thing

that I see is that most people don't

notice that their health is slipping.

So they may feel more tired.

Their mood is low.

They may suffer more anxiety or other

health complaints, but we don't tend

to notice when it's happening slowly.

So having a regular pathology check

is really good to make sure that If

anything is changing in your health,

you're picking up on it quite quickly.

And then the other thing is, is

that we may have imbalances that are

causing us to feel low energy low

moods and anxiety and all of those

symptoms and poor detoxification, poor

balance in our blood glucose levels,

poor insulin regulation, and so many

other things which are going to affect

the way we feel and the way that we

show up and what we can do each day.

So when should you get tested?

I recommend getting

tested every six months.

If something shows up in your pathology

test as being out of balance, then you

want to be able to do it every three

months to just keep on track and, and

track the improvements and the changes.

what to get tested?

So this is what I really recommend for

high performing women who, uh, probably

doing a lot, pushing themselves, have

a lot of responsibilities, and maybe at

times burning the candle at both ends.

And if you're noticing that you

just don't feel like yourself

at the moment, then these tests

are also really important to

identify what could be causing it.

So number one, you will go to the GP or

to your primary physician and ask for,

you know, a blood test, a follow up,

Full blood count and including a white

blood cell count is what they look at.

So that is to detect any kind of

abnormalities in the blood cells and

blood cell count, but also in your

white blood cells, you're looking

for if there's any chronic infection

there, whether it be bacterial

or viral, if there's any allergic

response that's creating a lot of

inflammation that will also show up here.

The second thing that's really

important is a thyroid panel.

So one of the main things that I

see for women is that they have

all the symptoms of low thyroid.

They go and get their tests done

and everything comes back as normal.

But they kind of tick off

all the symptoms, right?

So the typical symptoms are fatigue, low

moods and brain fog and also weight gain.

So they're kind of the typical low

thyroid symptoms or thyroid disruption.

when you get your tests, what I recommend

is TSH is always a standard that they do.

So it should be between one and two.

Then you're looking at free T4.

So it's the T4 thyroid hormone.

So this is your stored thyroid

hormone, and then it needs to be

converted into its active form.

So in Australia, we're looking

at about 14 to 18 in the US.

It's around above 1.

4.

Then you want to check your free T3.

So basically you've got TSH, 3T4, 3T3,

and that's your active thyroid hormone.

That's the one that energizes your

body, gives you mental clarity,

helps the metabolism, helps with

detoxification inside every cell,

so it's really, really important.

And this needs to be sitting at

around 5 6 for those in Australia,

and then US pathology markers

are a little bit different, so

you want to have it above 3.

7.

Now you may have all these tests done,

and everything comes back as normal.

So, this is not uncommon.

And again, still having the

signs and the symptoms of

potentially thyroid disruption.

So the thing that I always recommend

all of my clients and the women

in our community is to always have

your thyroid antibodies checked.

The reason being is that you can have

elevated thyroid antibodies before

it shows up on any of the other blood

tests, the TSH, the T4 or the T3, right?

And so that is because Thyroid

antibodies represents that there's

some kind of immune activation of

the thyroid or an autoimmune issue

causing a disrupted, thyroid hormone

or thyroid, maintenance, right?

Thyroid balance.

And this can be coming from any different

factors, but as the body tries to

maintain thyroid levels, your hormones

may look okay, but actually there's

a lot of inflammation to the gland.

And so there's a lot of disruption there.

So we need to have them tested together.

The other thing that I

look at is cortisol levels.

So this is not always

an easy test to get.

But it is a really good snapshot to have

a look at, particularly morning cortisol,

to have a look at where your kind of

stress response system is, your HPA axis.

So if it's really high, or if it's

really low, it does tell us about how

much stress you've had, How well your

body is able to cope with stress and

actually if there's a knock on effect

to other systems and areas in the body

like the thyroid or like the gut that

because of this long term stress how much

of an effect it's having on the body.

So cortisol is a really good one.

You want to have it done first thing

in the morning without caffeine,

without rushing around to get

the pathology test done either.

So really kind of calm and get it

done first thing in the morning.

The other important test is iron study.

So having a look at your stored

iron and your iron levels.

This is one of the most common

deficiencies that I see in women.

it will make you feel tired, dizzy,

headaches, cravings for a lot of sugar.

it can be low due to a number of reasons.

Obviously dietary intake can be low.

But we're also looking at gut function

plays a huge role in iron absorption

and there can also be Inflammation in

the system whereby the body is kind

of blocking that iron because iron

can exacerbate the inflammation So

there's many things to look at but

definitely get it checked because it

will make you very tired and it will

Make concentration very difficult.

So it's a really really

important one to check

The other ones I look at are B

vitamins, particularly B12, which is

really important for a healthy kind of

mood regulation and stress response.

We're looking at glucose and insulin.

Glucose is your blood glucose levels,

how much you have say in the morning

when you get tested on a fasting level.

You can also go a little bit further

and have a look at insulin levels.

One thing that I see more commonly

in high performing women is that when

we've been stressed for a long time,

The food choices aren't the best and

women can tend to go for lots of carbs

and sugars or alcohol and there can

be a buildup of insulin resistance.

And so when we do our glucose test,

we're not always going to pick up on

that, but we're going to pick it up

on it if we do a fasting insulin test.

So that's another important one to

make sure that there's no fat, excess

fat being placed around the belly,

which means it's around our organs,

which could lead to fatty liver and

disrupt thyroid hormones and more.

And lastly, but not least,

your cholesterol level.

So, cholesterol is an important

nutrient, for hormone production.

Right, so we need cholesterol,

it makes our hormones.

But obviously we want the good

cholesterol, not the bad cholesterol.

And we need to make sure that if the

LDL or triglycerides are too high,

that we have to look at our diet.

to see where it could be coming from.

So those are the main

tests that I would look at.

That seems like a quite an

extensive test, but they're all

really important to have a look at.

Is there anything impacting your energy,

your mood, your ability to handle

stress, anything that's impacting

your metabolism to maintain a healthy

weight and healthy muscle, amount

of muscle tone in your body as well.

One of the objections that I hear is

if you were to go to the GP or your

primary physician with this list, you

may not get all of these blood tests.

And so what I encourage my clients,

women in my community is to, you

know, show up at your doctor.

And let them know that you're

being really proactive about your

health, that you're, you're taking

responsibility of your health.

These are the tests that

you want to have done.

And if there's anything on that list

that they can't put through for you, that

you are willing to pay for it and really

show that you are taking responsibility.

And, you know, doctors love it.

They love that you're taking

care of yourself, that you're,

you're, taking ownership of

your journey for your health.

So if you can't get them all done

with the GP, then pay for the excess.

tests that they can't test for you.

The other option is to order

the tests yourself online.

So you've got places like

iMedical, iScreen in Australia.

You've got True Labs in the US, which

you can just order these tests online

and they will send you the results.

So when you're looking at the

results, quite often, If you've

been to the, to your doctor or

if you, order the tests online, a

lot of the ranges are quite broad.

So you're going to sit in the,

healthy range, which means that it's

not going to alarm the doctor that

anything's out of range for you.

But even though you're feeling

all of these symptoms, you're

not feeling a hundred percent,

you're not feeling your best.

You know, something's going on,

but everything comes back as

normal, which is very frustrating.

But the reason being is that the

ranges for our pathology markers

are based on the average of the

people in the community that come

in and get their blood tested.

So when we go to see a doctor,

most people are feeling unwell.

So it's the average of

people who are unwell.

And so it's not optimal level.

We can really fall into the suboptimal

level you know, nothing will be

flagged on the pathology reports,

but it's draining our energy.

We're having limited detoxification or

our metabolism is not where it should be.

So what you want to look at just

for yourself, if you're doing this

yourself, make sure it's not right

down the lower end or at the higher

end, but it's sitting nicely in the

middle and this is a very generalized

kind of way to assess I'm giving you,

but it does give you an idea, is you

want it somewhere in the middle zone.

Okay, and that's kind of

more your optimal level.

Anything on the higher end or the lower

end is going to be suboptimal, but

it won't be flagged on the pathology.

So you can already know that there

is some impact to that system or to

that hormone that is causing you to to

feel tired or to feel stressed or feel

anxious or just not feeling your best.

So I would really encourage

you to have these tests done.

Either go to your GP or doctor

and get them yourself or order

them online and let me know how

you go in the comments below.