UPCOMING CLASSES
Class Description:
Seeing the Story in Your Blood Work
Listening for Patterns Through Functional Blood Chemistry
If you are drawn to herbs, food, and natural healing, you already understand that the body moves in patterns. Health has a rhythm. Dis-ease often begins when that rhythm shifts.
Blood work can be understood in a similar way. A single lab value is like a single note. On its own, it does not tell you much. When notes are viewed together and over time, a melody begins to form. Patterns emerge. Subtle changes become noticeable.
This course teaches you how to listen for those patterns in blood work.
Rather than focusing on individual numbers in isolation, you will learn how groups of markers relate to one another and what changes in those patterns may suggest about inflammation, nutrient status, immune activity, circulation, and overall vitality.
The goal is not to replace intuition or traditional holistic approaches. It is to support them with clearer information and a deeper understanding of what the body may be expressing.
No advanced medical or clinical background is required. This course is designed to meet you where you are.
Why This Matters
Herbs, food, and lifestyle practices help support the body’s natural rhythm. Blood work offers another way to notice when that rhythm begins to change.
When you learn to read patterns across labs, you can often see early signs of imbalance before symptoms become loud. Just as a melody shifting key can signal a change in mood, lab patterns can point toward early inflammation, nutrient depletion, oxidative stress, infection, or impaired circulation.
This course helps you develop an ear for those changes, so your support can be more intentional, responsive, and grounded.
This pattern-based approach is rooted in functional medicine and systems thinking, using standard blood chemistry as the source material.
What You Will Learn
Participants will learn how blood work patterns can inform understanding of:
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Inflammation
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Oxidation
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Infection & Immune activity
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Circulation
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Nutritional status
The emphasis is on integration and pattern recognition. You will learn how individual biomarkers, meaning measurable signals in the blood, relate to one another and how they can be interpreted together.
While this course will not go deeply into specific treatment protocols, it will include a high-level overview of intervention pathways, including herbs, food, nutraceuticals, lifestyle practices, movement, and when appropriate, pharmaceuticals.
Given the expected audience, dietary & botanical examples will be woven in throughout the day.
Hands-On Learning Experience
This is an interactive, applied course with multiple opportunities to practice what you are learning.
Participants will:
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Work with real blood work examples in small groups
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Work with real blood work examples in small groups
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Have the option to complete personal lab work ahead of time
Have the option to complete personal lab work ahead of time
This is an interactive, applied course with multiple opportunities to practice what you are learning.
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Who This Course Is For
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Herbalists & natural medicine practitioners
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Functional & integrative health practitioners
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Students & educators
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Curious learners interested in whole-body health
You do not need to be a clinician. You do not need prior experience interpreting blood work. Curiosity and openness to pattern-based thinking are enough.
Bonus App Access
As a thank-you for attending, all registered participants will receive a coupon code for a free month of a digital health application developed by MOJO Health in collaboration with VedaLife.
The app allows users to upload lab work, receive guidance around food and lifestyle considerations, access personalized recipes, and connect grocery planning through Instacart.
About the Instructor
Oscar Sierra
Oscar Sierra is the clinical director and lead practitioner at Sierra Botanica & Collaborative Medicine. With more than a decade of clinical experience, he works with patients navigating complex and chronic health conditions, including autoimmune disorders, metabolic dysfunction, and cancer-related concerns.
His work blends functional medicine, systems thinking, and botanical medicine, with a strong emphasis on understanding patterns rather than isolated data points.
Oscar often describes blood work as learning to listen rather than diagnose, noticing when the body’s melody begins to change and responding with thoughtful, supportive care.
He is also a co-founder of MOJO Health and a collaborator with VedaLife, where he helps develop tools that translate complex lab data into practical, day-to-day guidance.
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Note:
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Optional Lab Work for Those Who Want to Go Deeper
Completing lab work ahead of time is entirely optional and offered as a learning enhancement, not a requirement. Many participants choose to work with provided sample labs during the course.
For those who would like to work with their own data, the following options are available.
Option 1: Attempt to Run Labs Through Your Primary Care Provider
Participants may attempt to have their primary care provider run the requested biomarkers. In practice, this often results in partial completion, typically only 50 - 65% of the biomarkers, even when providers initially agree.
This option also requires two biomarker lists, one for men and one for women, which will be provided.
Option 2: Run Labs Through Sierra Botanica & Collaborative Medicine
Participants may choose to run labs through Sierra Botanica & Collaborative Medicine, an integrative functional medicine clinic based in metro Atlanta. Most testing is completed through Cleveland Heart Labs.
Cash Pay Options
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Full Initial Panel for male or female participants: $520 (recommended)
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Follow-up Panels (not as comprehensive, but still way more than is typically run via conventional GP physicians)
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Male: $320 Female: $360
Insurance-Based Options
Insurance-based testing is available only if both of the following conditions are met:
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A 30-minute pre-consult is completed to establish care
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Tuesday, February 3rd from 1 to 5 PM
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Saturday, February 7th from 1 to 4:30 PM
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Cost: $100
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Appointments may be completed via telemedicine using the Practice Better EMR or in person
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Dedicated appointment blocks for course participants
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Appointments must be booked by end of day Thursday, January 29th at 5:00 PM
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The participant has met their insurance deductible or has Medicare or Tricare
Additional biomarkers may be added based on individual history, symptoms, or family history.
Based on over 12+ years of clinical experience, participants who have met their deductible or who have Medicare or Tricare often pay little to no out-of-pocket cost beyond a possible copay.
Important Notes About Lab Pricing
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Lab pricing through Sierra Botanica & Collaborative Medicine is heavily discounted
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The clinic does not profit from lab testing
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Comparable direct-to-consumer testing is often 50 to 75 percent more expensive and typically incomplete
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Insurance billing can be extremely costly when deductibles have not been met
Example:
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Vitamin D through the clinic is approximately $35
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Vitamin D billed through insurance without a met deductible may cost around $85
All participants completing labs will onboard through the clinic’s EMR system prior to testing, in accordance with medical board requirements.
If You Do Not Complete Labs Ahead of Time
Participants who do not complete personal labs will still fully participate. De-identified real lab results will be provided for hands-on learning and group practice.
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To register: Email me (highgardenschool@gmail.com) that you would like a spot. If there are spots still available, I will tell you the Venmo or PayPal to use for payment. You will be registered once you pay. I will follow up with a detailed email for the event.
Cancellation policy: 100% refund 2 weeks prior to event. 50% refund 1 week prior. No refund 48 hours or less from event. If for any reason Oscar cancels you will of course get a 100% refund.