Conducting blood tests regularly is an important way to maintain track of your overall physical condition. It is important to get tested during routine intervals and find out how the body changes in due course so that you can take proper decisions for your health.
How soon you should perform blood works–
Your doctor will suggest that you do routine blood work at least once a year. Different reasons are there why you want to conduct private blood tests in London more often such as:
- You suffer from persistent and abnormal symptoms – This will include anything from tiredness to unusual weight gain and more pain.
- You need to lessen the risk of diseases or other complications – Regular blood tests will help to detect warning signs of any disease at an early stage. Different lungs, heart, and kidney problems may be diagnosed through blood tests.
- You should optimize your health condition – It is important to understand different levels of blood components such as LDL and HDL cholesterol that may change your diet chart or fitness plan. This will lessen unhealthy habits and maximize the intake of nutrients in the body.
It is suggested that you talk to the doctor before doing certain tests often than once in a year.
Some regular tests to perform–
- thyroid panel
- complete blood count or CBC
- basic metabolic or chemistry panel
- nutrient tests for the levels of nutrients, such as B vitamins or iron
- enzyme markers when you are at risk for cancer or other conditions like celiac disease, stroke, or liver cirrhosis
- sexually transmitted disease or STD tests when you enjoy sex with several partners or a new partner
Why some blood tests need do fasting–
Whatever you may eat and drink includes some proteins, vitamins, and other nutrients that may lead blood levels to either rise or drop. The fasting done for 8 to 12 hours ensures that the test results are free from these variables by making them accurate. Some tests that require fasting are kidney function, liver, blood sugar, cholesterol, metabolic panel, and glucose.
10 Important blood tests to conduct–
- Complete blood count – With the help of a complete blood count or CBC test, you can detect the levels of 10 various components of major cells in the blood such as red blood cells, platelets, and white blood cells. The main components that can be calculated by the test are hemoglobin, red blood cell count, and hematocrit.
If there are unusual levels of these components, then this denotes some infection, heart problems, bone marrow, deficiency of iron, inflammation of tissue, nutritional deficiencies such as vitamin B-12 or B-6. The doctor may ask to conduct follow-up tests for identifying unusual levels depending on your test results.
- Basic metabolic panel – A basic metabolic panel or BMP will enable to detection of the levels of certain compounds in the blood that consists of sodium, potassium, creatinine, chloride, calcium, glucose, electrolytes, and blood urea nitrogen. The test requires fasting for at least eight hours before collecting your blood. Unusual results denote diabetes, hormonal imbalances, or kidney problems and the doctor will conduct necessary follow–up tests for these conditions.
- Complete metabolic panel – A complete metabolic panel or CMP consists of the measurements of a BMP and other proteins as well as substances for liver function. These are – alkaline phosphatase or ALP, bilirubin, aspartate aminotransferase or AST, total protein, albumin, alanine aminotransferase, or ALT.
- Lipid panel – The test can detect the levels of two kinds of cholesterol such as low-density lipoprotein or bad cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein or good cholesterol. HDL can remove all the harmful substances from your blood and enables the liver to break them down into waste. LDL may lead to plaque and develop in the arteries by increasing the chances of heart disease. You should do fasting for at least 8 hours before conducting the test.
- Thyroid panel – The thyroid function test or a thyroid panel can detect how well the thyroid is reacting to some hormones like thyroxine or T4, triiodothyronine or T3, thyroid-stimulating hormone, or TSH or T3 resin uptake or RU. The thyroid allows for regulating different functions of your body such as level of energy, metabolism rate, and mood changes. Unusual hormone levels denote several conditions such as abnormal levels of estrogen and testosterone, thyroid growth, and low levels of protein.
- Enzyme makers – Enzymes are the proteins that enable your body to attain certain chemical processes like blood clotting and breaking down of food. They can be used throughout the body for different functions like abnormal levels of an enzyme which denote different conditions. Common enzymes that need to be tested are – CPK-3, CPK-2 or CK-MB, troponin or creatine phosphokinase, or CPK-1.
- Tests for sexually transmitted diseases – Different sexually transmitted diseases can be detected with the blood sample. These tests are generally combined with swabs of infected tissue or samples of urine for more accurate results. The STDs that may be detected through private blood tests are gonorrhea, HIV, Chlamydia, syphilis, or HIV. The blood tests do not deliver the most appropriate results all the time after you contract any infection. In the case of HIV, you should wait for at least one month before the test can identify the virus.
- Coagulation panel – By conducting a coagulation test, you can calculate how well the blood clots and the timing it requires for blood clotting. Some examples are the fibrinogen activity test or prothrombin time test. Clotting is indeed very critical that can stop the bleeding after there has been some wound. But when there is a clot in the artery or vein, this can be deadly thus, blocking the flow of blood to the heart, lungs, or brain and causing strokes or heart attack. The results for the coagulation test will differ based on your health condition that can affect blood clotting. The results can help in diagnosing hemophilia or excessive bleeding, deficiency of Vitamin K, thrombosis, liver problems, and acute myeloid leukemia.
- DHEA-sulfate serum test – The dehydroepiandrosterone or DHEA hormone comes from the adrenal glands. The test enables us to know if it is extremely high or low. In the case of men, DHEA can develop traits such as the growth of body hair and so, the low levels are unusual. For women, the higher levels may be the reason for male traits such as excessive body hair to develop and the low levels will be normal. The lower levels in men are known as DHEA deficiency that may occur due to kidney disease, AIDS, type 2 diabetes, and anorexia nervosa. In case of high levels in men or women, it may lead to tumor or cancer in the adrenal glands, polycystic ovary, unusual genital development, or onset of puberty from congenital adrenal hyperplasia
- C-reactive protein test – C-reactive protein or CRP is formed by the liver when your body tissues get inflamed. Higher levels of CRP denote inflammation due to several reasons such as heart disease, some infection, lupus, rheumatoid arthritis, inflammation of artery, cancer, or inflammatory bowel disease.
The blood tests provide a completely important picture of your overall condition. They can help to detect any disease at an early stage and know how well the body reacts to different treatments for your health. Use search strings like, “blood test near me” to conduct necessary tests from a reputed clinic once a year and speak with the doctor to know whether you need to perform other tests for improving your health. ANKUSH
