The Problem With 'Normal' Lab Results, According to Dr. Mark Hyman (2026)

Doctors often say labs look “normal.” Dr. Mark Hyman explains why that doesn’t always reflect wellness, and what early signals can be missed over time.

By Sara Kitnick

Senior Content Strategist

Jan. 11, 2026 4 AM PT

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You don’t feel like yourself. Maybe you’re low on energy, you’re not sleeping well, or your mood feels harder to regulate. After seeing a doctor and blood work, your test results come back “normal”. And the conversation more or less stops there.

According to Dr. Mark Hyman, that disconnect reveals a bigger problem with how we define healthy. One that leaves a lot of us technically fine, but functionally, not.

Dr. Hyman is a longtime physician and prominent voice in functional medicine, a field that approaches chronic illness through interconnected systems rather than isolated symptoms. Through decades of clinical work, bestselling books, and health policy advocacy, he has focused on metabolic health, prevention, and what he describes as the gap between what medicine labels “normal” and how people actually feel. Dr. Hyman tells LA Times Studios that “normal” doesn’t mean “optimal.”

Dr. Hyman is also the founder of Function Health, a new personal health platform that makes lab testing, advanced MRI and CT scans, and longitudinal health data accessible and understandable. The goal, Dr. Hyman says, is to help people understand their health over time… not just through isolated annual snapshots.

Dr. Hyman says this platform is the first of its kind. “Where you can gather all your data from all sources and get a clear road map of what’s happening with your body in real time and track it longitudinally over your lifetime.” The point, Dr. Hyman explains, is not to label disease earlier for its own sake, “...but to identify patterns sooner. “We should all be the CEO of our own health,” he says.

(Function Health)

What “Normal” Lab Results Really Mean — and How Reference Ranges Are Set

Many people assume lab reference ranges represent ideal health, but Hyman explains they are just statistical averages. “The real question is, how are lab reference ranges determined?” he says. “They’re determined based on the statistics of a population.”

This then becomes problematic, according to Dr. Hyman, if the population itself is unwell. “If you were a Martian and you came to America, it would be normal to be overweight,” Hyman says. “That doesn’t mean it’s optimal.” If ranges are drawn from a population reflecting widespread metabolic issues, Hyman says early warning signs would fall under “normal” limits. “You’re actually averaging a sick population,” he says. “And you’re going to get numbers that don’t match up.”

Why You Can Feel Unwell Even When Blood Work Is “Normal”

Why do I feel bad if my labs are normal? This is a very common question. Hyman says that, in his experience, this often reflects the limits of routine testing.

“We’re seeing a lot of problems that just are missed by traditional healthcare,” he says. He explains that standard lab panels are designed primarily to “identify organ failure or advanced disease, not early metabolic imbalance, nutritional depletion, hormonal disruption, or inflammatory stress.” Things that he says definitely can affect how people feel day to day.

Metabolic Dysfunction: What Dr. Mark Hyman Says Is Being Missed

Hyman says he repeatedly sees signs of metabolic dysfunction across the patients he works with and the data he reviews. For context, Hyman points to broader population data that he says matches up with what he sees clinically. “Ninety-three percent of Americans have some level of metabolic dysfunction,” he says.

He distinguishes this from overt disease by explaining that in his framework, metabolic dysfunction often begins with insulin regulation long before diabetes is diagnosed. “We’ve seen 65 percent of members have insulin outside the normal range,” Hyman says. “That’s an enormous number of people that are being missed.”

Normal vs. Optimal Health: Why the Difference Matters, According to Dr. Mark Hyman

Hyman uses insulin frequently to illustrate how reference ranges can obscure risk, based on his clinical interpretation. “Quest reference range for insulin is 18 or above,” he says. “That’s ridiculous.”

According to Hyman, insulin levels well below that threshold are more consistent with metabolic resilience. Elevated insulin, he says, is something he associates with increased risk across multiple conditions, not just diabetes, based on patterns he reports seeing in patient data.

He applies a similar interpretation to blood sugar. “When you look at large clinical trials, any increase over 87 in fasting blood sugar correlates in a direct way to heart attacks, strokes, and death,” Hyman says.

He makes a comparable point about hemoglobin A1C. “Anything over 5.1 or 5.2, you start seeing a linear increase in the risk of heart disease and abnormal lipids,” he says. Hyman emphasizes that these figures reflect correlations and risk trends he considers meaningful for long-term health, not diagnostic thresholds.

(Function Health)

Blood Tests Doctors Don’t Always Order — but Dr. Mark Hyman Pays Attention To

When asked what labs people should pay closer attention to, Hyman often points to the markers he says remain used inconsistently in conventional care. ApoB, he says, is one of them.

“I’ve been testing ApoB for almost 30 years,” he says. “It was in 2023 and 2024 that the American College of Cardiology finally said this is the most important cholesterol test you can do.”

Insulin, he adds, is still rarely tested. “Less than one percent of doctors check insulin,” Hyman adds, referring to information he says he reviewed with a lab partner.

He also highlights nutritional and inflammatory markers, including iron, vitamin D, omega-3 fats, and homocysteine, which he says may not indicate disease on their own but can influence how the body functions over time. “It may not be a disease per se,” Hyman says, “but it will end up causing more health issues and consequences.”

Thyroid Problems in Women: What Dr. Mark Hyman Says Often Gets Overlooked

Search interest around thyroid health has particularly grown among women. This mirrors what Hyman is seeing clinically. “One in five women have a thyroid dysfunction,” he says. The symptoms, he explains, are often subtle: PMS, heavier periods, fatigue, mild weight gain, depression, hair thinning, and constipation.

Alone, “they don’t really seem that serious,” Hyman says. “But you put them all together and it’s a significant quality-of-life effect.”

Hyman says he sees many women showing elevated thyroid antibodies, which he interprets as autoimmune thyroid disease. And unless properly tested, he says, many wouldn’t know or be able to make informed choices about their health.

How Function Health Fits Into Dr. Mark Hyman’s View of Optimal Health

Hyman says Function Health is a response to what he sees as a fragmented healthcare system. “No human being can integrate all your medical history, your wearables, your imaging data and make sense of it,” he says.

By aggregating information and tracking it over time, he explains, people can begin to identify patterns that single lab results may often miss. Genetics may help shape how those patterns show up, but Hyman emphasizes that “93 percent of our health is determined by our lifestyle and environment.” For him, the value lies in context, not volume.

Early Detection and Prevention: What Dr. Mark Hyman Says Matters Most

Hyman does not believe earlier testing is inherently alarmist, but rather helps to arm people with information. “We’re seeing cancer much earlier than people expect,” he says. Hyman says that in his experience reviewing patient data, he has seen breast cancer detected in women under 40, prostate cancer identified through PSA testing, and colon cancer flagged before standard screening ages.

He also points to neurodegenerative disease. “Alzheimer’s happens 20 to 30 years before you forget anything,” Hyman explains. “You can start to see changes in your blood early.”

In his opinion, earlier awareness expands options rather than creating unnecessary fear.

Lifestyle Changes That Support Metabolic Health, According to Dr. Mark Hyman

Hyman consistently returns to everyday habits as foundational. “Eighty percent of health does not happen in the doctor’s office,” he says.
Food, movement, sleep, stress, and relationships remain central in his framework. “The food industry deliberately confuses people,” says Hyman. “Most of what’s eaten in America doesn’t meet the definition of food.”

One short-term reset of which he is a big proponent involves removing ultra-processed foods, sugar, flour, and alcohol for ten days. The 10-Day Detox. “We see a 70 percent reduction in symptoms from all diseases in 10 days,” he says.

Why “Normal” Isn’t the Same as Being Healthy

Avoiding disease is not the same as functioning well. A distinction Hyman repeatedly returns to.

“How do we create optimal health?” he asks. “How do we function at full capacity?” Normal lab results, in his view, may indicate that nothing is acutely wrong. They do not necessarily reflect resilience or long-term trajectory.

Recognizing that difference earlier, rather than later, is the shift Hyman says modern healthcare is still struggling to make.

Click here to learn more about Dr. Mark Hyman