Hello everyone,

Everybody knows that we do complete lab testing on all our patients, and that these blood tests show a comprehensive picture of a person’s chemistry and overall health. But if these blood tests are so complete, why do we still do muscle testing? I mean, hardly anybody else does muscle testing, and especially not in the medical world! Well, as I like to do, let me tell you a little story.

How It All Started​
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As most people know, I started off as a chiropractor, but before going into chiropractic school, I got deathly ill while on vacation in Cancun, Mexico, and as a result, had a crippling pain in my low back for the first 2/3 of chiropractic school. I mean, it was so bad, I had to carry my own special chair everywhere I went, and oftentimes I had to stand during class! They even made podiums in the back of the rooms for me so that I could stand and take notes.

I consulted with all the chiropractic clinicians, physical therapists, and medical doctors about my back pain. No one could help me. But a change in diet, much like the one that we give to our patients, not only fixed my crippling back pain, but I lost about 40 pounds of fat in 2-3 months without even trying! That’s when I realized that I had to address my patients’ nutrition in addition to just doing chiropractic early in my career.

The Beginning of My Nutritional Practice

But something happened when I tried to teach people about diet. I began by explaining that adopting a healthier diet would make my patients hold their adjustments better. It just didn’t work for my patients the same way it took for me. First of all, just changing the diet took forever to have any effect, and people didn’t typically get the degree of results that I had gotten.

So, I started asking around, and I found that there was a doctor named Dr. Versendaal who was getting miraculous results with patients using muscle testing, and his visits were relatively quick! I knew I had to learn what he was doing. Since 1998, I’ve spent hours each day studying muscle testing and how to get great results with patients with it. We practiced this way for years, using muscle testing and witnessed daily what it’s capable of uncovering in a patient’s health puzzle.

Enter Comprehensive Blood Testing

In the beginning, we holistic chiropractors were taught that blood tests didn’t show anything, so we shouldn’t even bother using them with patients. And in a way, this is true. If you use the standard laboratory reference range used by most doctors, nutritional stresses and organ dysfunctions simply will not show up.

But what if we looked at another value, called the optimum lab reference range? What if we looked at what labs should look like for a healthy person, instead of just the general sick population? Well then, lab tests could show you a whole lot! Why do I tell you this? Because from 1998 to 2010, we used exclusively muscle testing but then started checking blood tests in 2010. We started specializing in blood testing in 2017. We were muscle testers first, then blood testers. That’s important.

But I never gave up muscle testing, and why didn’t I? Well, even though modern, functional blood tests show a whole lot more than you get from the medical doctor, there are still things that show up much better with muscle testing. Let me give you an analogy.

Both the Big Map (Overview) and the Turn-by-Turn Directions​
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You see, if I were traveling to New York, or across the country to Los Angeles, or wherever, I would need a map. To get from where you are today to your picture for optimum health, you need a map. The map is your blood test. (Other functional tests can help complete this picture too.) The more complete your blood test, the more complete your map. It’s pretty simple. But just like there’s 1 million ways you can get to New York or Los Angeles, there’s 1 million ways to get to your optimum health. But you have to know where the roadblocks are. That’s what muscle testing is for. Muscle testing tells you which is the best route to get to your destination. So, think of it like this: blood tests are like the map, and muscle tests show you the best route to get to your destination. So that’s why we still muscle test.

Here's another example:​
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More and more people are realizing that chronic immune system issues like Lyme disease, fungal illness, Epstein-Barr, and parasites are a very big problem. When you run a blood test on somebody, you might see elevated white blood cells, inflammatory markers, even markers for mold, toxins, and viruses. And this tells you that on your map, you have an immune system challenge. Your symptoms might be fatigue, Inflammation, joint pain, depression, anxiety—stuff like that.

You know you have an immune system challenge from your symptoms and blood testing. But what you don’t know is exactly what your body thinks of this immune system challenge, and what to do about it. That’s why you need muscle testing. There are reflexes on the body that tend to go weak when you have weaknesses in the part of the immune system that fights bacteria, viruses, fungus, yeast, and parasites. When one of these reflexes is weak, you can test different supplements to see which ones will fix this weakness. This is the most effective remedy for your particular unique immune system challenge.

Let me give you yet another example.​
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A couple of weeks ago, after we got home from our vacation, I started feeling kind of rundown, and I was coughing a lot. My allergies were also bothering me. Laura said to me “this is usually what happens when you have a parasitic challenge.” Sure enough, when she checked me, the point on my body that tends to go weak when there are parasites was weak, and she found that anti-parasitical supplements strengthened it. She gave them to me, and I started feeling better immediately. I never even got sick.

And another example:

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Some of you may remember this a few years ago, when our dog, Sunshine, was paralyzed. She couldn’t walk for about six months. Her lab tests showed that she had some kind of immune system challenge that looked like it was really affecting her liver. None of the vets could help her. But there’s a specific way to use muscle testing on dogs, using what’s called an indirect tester, so that you can test them.

We found that she had a viral challenge affecting her adrenal glands. When we gave her the very specific and individualized homeopathic remedy to handle this, within a week’s time, she could sit up. In another week, she could walk. While the whole process has left her a little weaker than she was before she was paralyzed, she can now hike with us 8 to 9 miles with no real problem, in fact, she loves it!

That’s the power of muscle testing. We knew from her signs and symptoms that she had some kind of immune system challenge, most likely related to Lyme disease, and the blood tests confirmed this, but it was muscle testing that showed us how to get our little doggy back.

Let me give you another, more generic example.​
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Lots and lots of people come in with digestive issues. Maybe they get a little constipated, or diarrhea, or feel bloated, whatever. There are a number of different organs that can cause this. You could need more enzymes, digestive acids, liver support, gallbladder support, or even probiotics. Certain things will show up on your blood tests, like elevated liver enzymes, food sensitivity tests, elevated or depressed blood proteins, you get the idea. So, your body‘s map shows you that you have a digestive weakness. But with muscle testing, you can show that the person needs a specific gallbladder support from Standard Process. Or a specific Enzyme product from Allegheny Nutrition. You get the point.
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So, I hope this helps. You understand why we still use muscle testing, even when we run such a thorough blood test. The blood test shows us a map of what’s happening in your body, and the muscle testing shows us the quickest way to get from point A to point B—from where you are now health-wise, to where you want to be.

The power of this approach is how individualized it is. When we know specifically for you where we need to go, and also how to get there—baby, we can really go places!

Sincerely yours,

Dr. Keith Sheehan