IIFP - Institute for Integrative and Functional Pathology

02/10/2025

Friday funny meme!

But also what you can do about it...

We regularly hear about patients being told that their bloods are all "normal", when they have a number of symptoms and they are not feeling well. Because doctors don't understand how to interpret blood test results properly. So what hope do these patients have to getting answers to their health issues? They need to come to see YOU, but only if YOU know how to interpret the blood test results properly, in a holistic, personalised and naturopathic way!

With the IIFP (Institute for Integrative and Functional Pathology) training courses on interpreting and understanding pathology results, you can find issues in a patient's results, even when they are told that there's nothing wrong. You can find issues well before they become a serious problem. And you can help these patients and turn their health issues around!

Have a look at the IIFP's training courses and resources, including a pathology analysis software for helping you to analyse the results and generate reports for patients, and bundles of the training and software here:

www.pathologyanalysis.com/training.html

19/08/2025

It seems that even medical health practitioners don’t understand anaemia and interpreting blood test results!

In a recent patient I found they had unknown/undiagnosed anaemia, which explained a lot of their symptoms of poor memory and concentration, inability to focus on things, headaches, and anxiety – all because the brain wasn’t getting enough blood or oxygen.

With there being hundreds of types of anaemia, it is important to understand what type of anaemia someone has, and what might be causing it. Anaemia is not all about iron!

This same patient had a B12 deficiency anaemia and a folate deficiency anaemia, called Macrocytic Anaemia from their high MCV results, which was confirmed with low B12 and folate. They were also a long-term vegetarian, and the diet was lacking in protein and together with low stomach function, had caused low Total Protein results. This was also likely causing the low production of haemoglobin, hence the anaemia.

But the iron results were very interesting! See the attached pic of the results.

Almost all of the iron results showed an iron overload in 2 previous sets of results! High serum iron and very high TS. But nothing was mentioned or done about this by the patient’s medical practitioner in the last 2 years and many blood tests in this time.

It actually gets worse… that the patient’s doctor recommended several iron infusions based on the patient having low ferritin. Even though the other iron studies results suggested they were in an overload situation! The existing iron overload and the additional high iron dose from the infusion would have doubled the oxidative damage being done to the body, and worsening the physical and mental health symptoms.

As the last blood results were from 8 months ago and I wanted to see some more current and some additional test results, the patient went back to their doctor to ask for these tests, including the genetic testing for haemochromatosis. I heard later from the patient that the doctor was in disbelief that I was suggesting that they had iron overload and anaemia at the same time. I’m in disbelief that the doctor couldn’t see the iron overload problem and still recommended and iron infusion!

Some lessons to learn in this example:

1. Anaemia is not just about iron, but about zinc, protein, thyroid function, stomach function, blood loss, parasites, and other causes and factors. Find what type of anaemia someone has and the causes and factors in each person

2. Do not just test for ferritin, or look at ferritin alone as a marker of iron sufficiency or deficiency! You can have low ferritin even in iron overload situations, or have high ferritin with low iron results.

3. And yes you CAN have anaemia AND an iron overload (haemochromatosis) issue at the same time!

More info on pathology analysis training courses and more can be found on the IIFP website here - www.pathologyanalysis.com

16/08/2025

The following vitamin B12 results, which I often see, shows why the believed "Active B12" test is not the best test for B12 status at all.

The Active B12 result was optimal, but the Total B12 result is very low, and only 1/2 of what it should be as an optimal minimum.

Hence this is still a picture of a B12 deficiency, whereas if you only got the Active B12 test done, you wouldn't see the problem and likely wouldn't have investigated why the B12 is low or recommended anything for this to help the patient.

This is why I recommend the Total B12 test and not the Active B12 test to be done.

More info on pathology analysis training courses and more can be found on the IIFP website here - www.pathologyanalysis.com

15/06/2025

I've had a huge response and amazing feedback from practitioners who have done my pathology analysis training (through the Institute for Integrative and Functional Pathology) and the pathology analysis and reporting software!

As it's the shopping time of "the end of the financial year" or "EOFY" sales, I'm offering some big deals on the IIFP training courses and software, so you can claim some last minute expenses and reduce your tax bill, and get some more CPE points too!

Here's the special deals available only until end of June 2025:
1. EOFY Deal 1: Level 1 pathology analysis training + IIFP Software bundle - $193 (normally $254 individually, so you save $59!)
2. EOFY Deal 2: Level 2 pathology analysis training + IIFP Software bundle - $202 (normally $264 individually, so you save $62)
3. EOFY Deal 3: Level 1 + Level 2 pathology analysis training - $143 (normally $188, so you save $44!)
4. EOFY Deal 4: Level 1 + Level 2 pathology analysis training AND the IIFP pathology analysis and reporting software - $253 (normally $353, so you save $98!)
5. EOFY Deal 5: Level 1 + Level 2 + Level 3 pathology analysis training courses - $206 (normally $287, so you save $81!)
6. Deal 6: Or if you are really keen! The complete bundle of Level 1 and Level 2 and Level 3 pathology analysis training courses AND the IIFP pathology analysis and reporting software - $323 (normally $452, so you save $126!)

You save even more on the already discounted bundle deals!
Learn how to use more complete and holistic techniques for analysing clients' pathology test results to find organ dysfunctions, nutrient deficiencies, and more, even if the GP says "everything is normal" when it's obviously not the case. With the IIFP software you can generate several reports to go through with clients as additional services you provide! Learn how to use these techniques to get more clients and have clients keep coming back for analysis of their pathology results! The training and software will pay for itself quickly and over and over!

For more information on the IIFP pathology analysis training, please visit our website:
https://www.pathologyanalysis.com/training.html

If you have been looking for additional training for CPE points, or to reduce your tax, this is a great time to do it! Look for the specials on this website and click through to get your EOFY now!

The EOFY deals for the Level 1, Level 2, and Level 3 training courses are NOT available to purchase from the IIFP website link above. If you are interested in these special EOFY bundle deals, please email me on ross@rosswalter.com.au and let me know which deal you are interested in, and I’ll email you the invoice and special payment link.

Happy EOFY!

03/05/2025

Dr Norman Swan, a so-called celebrity doctor is often on the ABC as a medical advisor. He was the federal government's main health spokesman during the covid years, where he was (and still is) pushing the you-know-what as being "safe and effective". Despite all the science to the contrary.

In his almost 50 years as a doctor, he seems to have learnt something shocking today!

Dr Swan had an interview with a fellow doctor about blood tests for liver function and fatty liver disease. She explained how she quickly skims through pathology results which have come in from the labs each day, which is a concern. She was just looking for highlighted or bolded results for patients which fall outside of the reference range, and nothing else!

Dr Swan told a story from a listener about her husband's blood test results, and in particular the liver function markers, which were in the "normal" range but he in fact had a fatty liver. He spoke with a liver specialist doctor who said that the pathology lab's reference ranges (she called them the "normal ranges") are lab-specific, even when labs use the same equipment! If the normal ranges are lab-specific, they are also location-specific too, as population centres with more cases of fatty liver will have different reference ranges to other locations. Dr Swan was "gobsmacked" when he learnt this!

I could have told him 10 years ago!

I wonder what Dr Swan will say when he finds out that the reference ranges for ALL blood pathology results are just a statistical average of unhealthy peoples' results! This is not a great way at all to interpret patients' blood test results.

It seems that all the doctors in this chat need to do the IIFP pathology analysis training courses, and to learn how to properly interpret all blood test results!

Here's the link to the ABC interview with Dr Swan:

https://www.abc.net.au/listen/programs/healthreport/fatty-liver-function-alt-test/105234594

For more info on the IIFP pathology analysis training courses, please see the link here:

www.pathologyanalysis.com/training.html

Liver disease is becoming more common, in particular fatty liver disease. It affects up to 1 in 3 Australian adults. A common test – ALT or alanine transaminase – is used as a measure of liver health. However there’s huge variation in what different labs considered concerning, meaning some peo...

05/04/2025

Amazing breaking news!

The next generation of the IIFP pathology analysis software is underway! It will be an online, operating system and browser-independent web-based platform, to replace the current spreadsheet file!

This will give practitioners a LOT more functionality, more features, more reports, and being easier and quicker to access from any browser or operating system or online device.

We have a team of developers starting on this project this month! There is going to be a huge amount of work to develop this new service, and will likely be ready later this year!

I would like to get some ideas from the practitioners who have done the IIFP training and using the current software, of any thoughts, requests or suggestions for features that you would like to see in this online pathology analysis service?

Please add your thoughts and ideas in the comments!