VII.1. THE LABORATORY TESTS. SERUM PROTEIN ELECTROPHORESIS, IONIZED CALCIUM AND REBALANCING PLASMA PROTEINS
When, for the benefit of human health, tests for serum protein electrophoresis and ionized calcium become routine laboratory tests, their correct interpretation will support accurate diagnosis, determine therapeutic approach, as well as monitor of both the efficiency and safety of a treatment, in this way becoming valuable tools in restoring homeostasis through the rebalancing of plasma proteins.
However, normal values of both plasma proteins and serum proteins should be different from those adopted by medical literature and medical laboratories.
We propose alternative reference ranges for normal values, and we will substantiate these with medical documents from the Apitherapy Medical Center database. The acceptance of these by specialists, or indeed their criticism, should be based on the “litmus test”: results of the laboratory tests for each clinical case!
Checking one’s state of health requires undergoing various medical laboratory tests. One’s state of health can be constantly good – where the determined values are within the laboratory’s upper-lower reference ranges, therefore having normal values (n.v). If the results are trending towards or have already exceeded the n.v, this can indicate the onset of a disease or a disease that is already present. Laboratory tests combined with medical investigations are the most common indications of the necessity to commence prophylaxis or, where applicable, to provide an accurate diagnosis to commence treatment of the diagnosed medical condition.
The laboratory tests can show a deterioration of one’s health, which may or may not be accompanied by symptoms. Indeed, certain diseases can begin and develop insidiously for some time, without showing any alarming signs or symptoms. Certain medical conditions can be critical and if they lack any signs or symptoms, their detection is only achieved with the help of laboratory tests.
Laboratory tests can be:
- routine tests (periodical – usually done once a year)
- tests recommended by a general practitioner (GP) or a specialist.
We firmly believe that serum protein electrophoresis (SPE) is among the tests that have the highest predictive potential for the clinician, but unfortunately SPE doesn’t receive the importance it deserves. The ionized calcium (Ca2+) test is also very important. Determining the calcaemia of a patient based solely on the total serum calcium (TCa) often leads to an incorrect diagnosis. In the same way, diagnosing without correctly interpreting the albumin-ionized calcium relationship also leads to an incorrect diagnosis. Sometimes, as you will see from the medical documents in our database, these errors can have very undesirable consequences for the patient.
Our clinical research has led us to the conclusion that the evolution of the values of albumin (ALB) and the ionized calcium (Ca2+), among many other indications, can be a marker prior to the development of cancerous diseases, but also useful in monitoring the efficiency of treatment of these fearful diseases. The evolution of the ALB-Ca2+ ratio represents for us (and can become so for any doctor) an indicator of necessity for prophylaxis in order to prevent the evolution towards a disease, but also a valuable indicator of effectiveness of treatment, whatever this might be. For example, if in other diseases the ALB level is increasing or decreasing simultaneously with the increase and decrease of Ca2+, in the case of cancers the ALB level is decreasing while the Ca2+ level increases.
The evolution of the values of ALB and Ca2+ is an indicator of the evolution towards a considerable number of other diseases such as, for example, autoimmune diseases. The negativation of autoantibodies through apitherapy, prescribed based on SPE and Ca2+ data was achieved for the first time in medical history at our medical centre. The increase and decrease of ALB levels in the autoimmune diseases are followed by those of Ca2+ and we believe that no autoimmune diseases can be permanently remitted without rebalancing the values of SPE (ALB and globulins) and those of Ca2+. In the same way, undoubtedly, the autoimmune diseases can only begin where hypoalbuminemia and ionic hypocalcaemia are present. This theory was first presented by us, and in the case of autoimmune diseases, has been proven in our medical sciences doctoral thesis.
The ALB is a remarkable life giving protein. We would like everyone to realise this fact, including those without any medical qualifications. To prove our point, we will underline a few facts about the protein balance of a mother’s body during pregnancy, the moment when the “foundation” of her descendants’ health is laid. We reached the conclusion that the maternal hyperalbuminemia – a rare case that has serious consequences in pregnancy – can determine, among others, the start of “brittle bone disease” and that of ichthyosis. The causes of these serious diseases of the descendants are considered to be cryptogenic ubi et orbi in the medical research dedicated to them. But if they are “viewed” through the values offered by SPE, they are perfectly explainable with the help of molecular biology, medical biochemistry and immunology. Restoring the ability of the mother’s body to synthesize the originator proteins for both the fibroblasts and the cells that build the blood vessels (vascular endothelial cells) is the only prophylaxis for these neonatal diseases.
As we will see, this is the only real treatment. This interpretation is ours and we will come back to it later in this paper, as we will see that it has a prophylactic, diagnostic and a therapeutic value.
On the other hand, however, maternal hypoalbuminemia and hypocalcaemia are forerunners of newborn’s bone diseases (Paget’s disease, rickets, etc.), autoimmune diseases (juvenile arthritis, asthma, nasal polyposis, uveitis, etc.), but also a range of other, so called, third age diseases. This last observation made us look into the causes that determine common diseases of the “two extremities of life”: the new-born and the elderly. This last statement demands an explanation. If autoimmunity, in no matter what kind of clinical manifestation, is a disease of childhood, youth and adulthood, in the third age it becomes a physiological state (normal). For many years, we have relentlessly searched for the aetiology of several pathologies that are common to children and to the elderly. When the evidence was sufficient, we concluded that the aetiology can be traced in particular values of the bio structure of the maternal blood which are identical to those found in the elderly people’s blood. The explanation is the following: a foetus develops, during its life inside the mother’s womb, “nurtured” only by the substances found in the maternal blood, substances that reach him/her through the placenta’s blood vessels. Furthermore, when the foetus’ organs, in particular the liver, start to participate in the proteinogenesis – meaning the “processing” of the proteins that are necessary for its own body functions - their “raw material” can only be the proteins from the maternal blood. The same applies to the other nutrition principles – lipids, carbohydrates, minerals, vitamins, etc. If, biochemically speaking, the structure of the maternal blood has similarities with that of an elderly person, then the children will have diseases that are similar to theirs. Some of them will begin early, in the intrauterine life and for other diseases that begin after birth, the child will develop the predisposition to have them before birth.
When should we undertake tests to determine the prophylaxis of these diseases in newborn children? Answer: before conception! Or:at the latest, immediately after becoming pregnant. It takes time to rebalance the mother’s body protein synthesis, which is so important for the life growing inside. This is one of the reasons we suggest adding both SPE and Ca2+ as routine laboratory tests.
When does old age “begin”, during which decade, in which year of life? I have met young people that looked old and old people that looked young. The measure of the passage from maturity to old age is the liver, and the “passage” takes place when the potential of the liver to synthesize ALB is reduced towards and especially below the lower reference of the medical laboratory. It can be proved that “age related” hypoalbuminemia serves as a basis for organ fibrosis and systemic age related fibrosis, being an indicator of physiological autoimmunity (normal for the age). Can autoimmunity be physiological? It can be! And this fact can be substantiated by reference to the values of the SPE.
If ALB was not a protein, we could call it “living water”, in the same sense that, when Prince Charming drinks it, it helps him destroy the most fearful dragon. The dragon can be compared to the fibrous proteins which become prolific when the “living water” is gradually “drying up”, causing the formation of fibrous tissue in the liver, lungs, skin, blood vessels, nervous system, etc. Cataract, glaucoma, some cardiovascular diseases, many other diseases and even the fearful Alzheimers are caused by them. Can these diseases be prevented or treated in time? They can! How? The first step is the correct interpretation, in a clinical context, of the values of lab tests. In our experience, these tests show how the apitherapeutic protocol should be prescribed in order to restore the proteinogenic functions of the liver and establish the ALB synthesis. The albumin is the “living water” and reducing the synthesis of this protein to lower than one third of the normal physiological requirement means drying it up and it would have irreversible consequences.
Can old people become young again? Yes, they can! When? The moment when (and if!) the liver’s biosynthesis of the albumin is re-established. The clinical cases that we will present will be illustrative for the geriatric apitherapy. No other geriatric treatment, regardless of type, can overcome or equal the effects of apitherapy in re-establishing the functions of the “living water source” – the liver.
We have mentioned several things about ALB and Ca2+ specifically, perhaps more than necessary. Although they have a great importance in assessing the state of health, they are in most of the cases absent in laboratory test results.