Blood testing?

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Crawf
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Blood testing?

Postby Crawf » Tue Jul 15, 2014 4:57 pm

I'm wanting to get a blood test just out of general curiosity to see how my health is, I have no concerns about anything in particular but after a major lifestyle shake up earlier in the year (going Vegan) I'd like see if everything is ok.
What sort of test(s) should I be requesting and taking note of? Red/White Blood, Cholesterol, LDL's, Testosterone? - I don't really want to to go via a doctor unless I have too.
Cheers

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bigfriendlyvegan
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby bigfriendlyvegan » Tue Jul 15, 2014 5:21 pm

Iron and B12, just to shut everyone the hell up.

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ZepinAtor
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby ZepinAtor » Tue Jul 15, 2014 6:29 pm

bigfriendlyvegan wrote:Iron and B12, just to shut everyone the hell up.
Bwwaaahhhh :lol:

+1
Gas propulsion.......it's natural don't fight it.

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casual_cyclist
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby casual_cyclist » Tue Jul 15, 2014 7:17 pm

Crawf wrote:I'm wanting to get a blood test just out of general curiosity to see how my health is, I have no concerns about anything in particular but after a major lifestyle shake up earlier in the year (going Vegan) I'd like see if everything is ok.
What sort of test(s) should I be requesting and taking note of? Red/White Blood, Cholesterol, LDL's, Testosterone? - I don't really want to to go via a doctor unless I have too.
I would go blood glucose. If it is high you can follow up with an oral glucose tolerance test.

My flatmate has to get regular blood tests as follow up to a heart attack (no his fault) and had one high reading which put him in the pre-diabetic range. Of course his doctor wanted to put him on medication :roll: Anyway, it turned out to be an anomoly and the following two tests have been normal. Still, it is good to keep on top of.
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petie
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby petie » Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:14 pm

Hate to be the devils advocate, but why the reluctance to see a doctor? They can recommend and interpret the right tests/results.

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MattyK
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby MattyK » Wed Jul 16, 2014 9:19 pm

According to Grant Petersen the things you should know are: blood glucose, triglycerides, cholesterols.

warthog1
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby warthog1 » Wed Jul 16, 2014 10:04 pm

I'm having a dabble at cutting out animal products too. Feeling good so far. :) I've been off milk for ages anyway so dropping dairy was the easy bit.
This vid is worth a look for some important stuff to be aware of. It's long but stick with it. I found him quite an engaging speaker.



After watching that and reading this; http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12442909
It might be interesting to see the omega 3 to omega 6 ratio.

I have a familial history of prostate Ca so I get a PSA level done every 18 months or so. Worth thinking about if you have a family history or are approaching middle age.
Dogs are the best people :wink:

Eleri
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby Eleri » Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:11 pm

I don't know what sort of cycling you do but endurance cyclists tend to use up iron. And maybe more so if you are female.

Getting your iron tested is one thing, but your stores of iron are measured by your ferritin levels and that's perhaps more important.

Good luck in then identifying what is an acceptable storage level. My lay interpretation of my own results turned out to be wrong.

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toolonglegs
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby toolonglegs » Thu Jul 17, 2014 8:17 pm

ZepinAtor wrote:
bigfriendlyvegan wrote:Iron and B12, just to shut everyone the hell up.
Bwwaaahhhh :lol:

+1
Don't forget potassium levels :lol:

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sogood
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby sogood » Thu Jul 17, 2014 9:42 pm

Crawf wrote:I'm wanting to get a blood test just out of general curiosity to see how my health is, I have no concerns about anything in particular but after a major lifestyle shake up earlier in the year (going Vegan) I'd like see if everything is ok.
What sort of test(s) should I be requesting and taking note of? Red/White Blood, Cholesterol, LDL's, Testosterone? - I don't really want to to go via a doctor unless I have too.
Gosh!

1) This is forum healthcare at its worst. Guess what you get for nothing? Nothing.

2) Health is not defined by blood tests. An assessment of health actually involves a medical history and physical examination as foremost steps. Laboratory tests only come after that.

I think you should rethink your thinking on this whole process! Laboratory test results are meaningless without a clinical context and you'll just get misled.
Bianchi, Ridley, Tern, Montague and All things Apple :)
RK wrote:And that is Wikipedia - I can write my own definition.

chriscole
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby chriscole » Thu Jul 17, 2014 10:22 pm

Crawf wrote:I'm wanting to get a blood test just out of general curiosity to see how my health is, I have no concerns about anything in particular but after a major lifestyle shake up earlier in the year (going Vegan) I'd like see if everything is ok.
What sort of test(s) should I be requesting and taking note of? Red/White Blood, Cholesterol, LDL's, Testosterone? - I don't really want to to go via a doctor unless I have too.
Cheers
1. See a doctor. You need a referral from a medical practitioner to have pathology done, anyway.

2. What tests you have done depends on what you're looking for. There is no magical "test-everything" blood test. Every single test that's done is specifically to measure or analyse one particular thing. If you don't know what you're looking for, you can't measure it. What you're after, it seems, is what we call "screening" tests; random tests done to pick up non-symptomatic abnormalities before they cause overt disease. Some tests are very good when done in a screening capacity (e.g. blood glucose, faecal occult blood, pap smears) and some are very bad when used for screening (e.g. PSA for prostate cancer, chest CT for lung cancer).

Chat with your doctor about reasonable things worth checking from time to time (every year, or 3, or 5), which might include your kidney function, fasting glucose, lipids and trigylcerides (i.e. "cholesterol" tests), and a full blood count. Keep in mind, though, that no test we do is perfect... some will be falsely negative, but more importantly from a random screening perspective is that some will be falsely positive. As a rough rule of thumb, you might expect to find one clinically meaningless but possibly numerically abnormal (and potentially alarming) spurious result for every 20 or 30 tests you run. Acting on an abnormal result may well result in unnecessary harm, too (this is why many tests are particularly bad when used as screening tools, even if they're perfectly useful in the context of suggestive symptoms or signs).

Anyway, see point # 1 above... See a doctor.

Dr_Mutley
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Re: Blood testing?

Postby Dr_Mutley » Fri Jul 18, 2014 1:28 pm

I'm not sure how your bypassing a doctor for your blood tests, but unless u get them done with a provider number then they are going to cost u a fortune... Unless u work at the lab I guess?

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