Kirt, your warm praise makes me blush---but, like Dr. Larch in "Cider House
Rules", I hope to be of use, and you encourage me!  :)

>How to interpet blood tests? Talk about about a can-o-worms!! Can I ask
>you, Pat, about one of those worms?

>In _Native_Nutrition_ by Ronald Schmid, ND (Healing Arts Press), the author
>(who I respect immensely) mentions Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR)

(this is nick-named "sed rate" by med. techs, and is normally done with  a
hemoglobin test and the CBC.)(My turn to use acronyms, I'm still guessing
about this lists " RAF"---really awful fish? Rare animal
fetus?---regenerative acidosis of the rectum?)  (only kidding, gang).It is
basically how deeply packed your red blood cells get within a given length
of time in a glass measuring device. Bear in mind that I am not a trained
hematologist, I worked in the bact'y lab.(Consider the source!)
.........
>an overall measure of metabolic health, claiming that the normal
>sedimentation rate for men is up to 10mm/hour and 20mm/hour for women. He
>says it is elevated in immune system disorders and also, often, in a nromal
>pregnancy--all of which two MD's have confirmed to me. But he goes on to
>claim that the ESR "in very healthy people" can approach zero, and has
>consistantly seen readings of between zero and 1 in "healthy people",
>noting that the blood may be thin in endurance exercisers but that the ESR
>will remain very low if the are properly nourished (lots of RAF/seafood and
>veggies is his version of properly nourished).

>Have you heard anything similar or dis-similar regarding the interpretation
>of ESR levels?

The normality is as you stated, but I don't know what abnormal results could
indicate, or how an abnormal health problem could have a normal sed rate.
I've never heard of a 0-1 rate in a live human,(!!) so I couldn't and won't
guess, sorry. I am supposed to lunch soon with a friend who is now chief
tech at the hospital where I used to work, I'll ask her,  she could probably
help .

Pat