We’re just starting to get comfortable interpreting DUTCH. Noticed something that was confusing. They provide age-specific ranges for select markers like testosterone, androgen, metabolites, and total DHEA. But the dial indicators of the patient do not reflect the age-specific ranges for the patient. As an example, 62-year-old male patient, total DHEA was 3,761, age-specific range is 1,000 to 2,500, but the arrow is in the middle range of the dial. Which range should you use?

Chris Kresser:  You should use the age-specific range. I’ve talked to Mark about this for a while. You know, they’ve made pretty consistent updates on the report. If you look even in the DUTCH section, you’ll see that some of the case studies I had earlier, versions of the report, and I think they’ll have another update. The one example you just used is something that needs to be improved, and then there is another where if you have a menopausal woman, they do now put the little purple square on the dial that shows that menopausal range. But in the written part, the table where they list the values, it still defaults to the premenopausal range unless they’ve changed that even more recently. So there are some things that need to be updated but nothing that you can’t overcome just by explaining to your patient and looking at the more specific ranges for age.