Everything You Need To Know About Blood Testing

How often do you do blood tests? Doctors recommend doing blood tests at least annually. Some factors like your age, physical conditions, and lifestyle may require to make this procedure more frequent. But why is it important and what to expect during the blood testing? Find answers to all of the questions below.

What is a blood test?

A blood test is a method of laboratory diagnostics, which allows understanding of the state of internal organs through the blood sample.

Blood tests may be requested from a healthcare provider to keep track of conditions such as diabetes or increased cholesterol. Other conditions that require blood tests may be:

• Keep track of chronic health conditions.
• Find out how well organs work.
• Find how effective your medicines are.
• Diagnose multiple diseases like as diabetes, cancer, and HIV/AIDS.
• Diagnose blood disorders (bleeding or clotting).
• Evaluate the state of your immune system.
• Keep track of chronic health conditions.
• Diagnose anemia.
• Discover variations in hemoglobin (hemoglobin S, C, or E).

Remember: it is your right to know why the blood test was requested by your healthcare provider and make sure you need it.

Why have a blood test?

Blood tests may be useful to yield conclusive results. In short, they can remove a lot of guesswork and assist in making sense of symptoms or hints in one's medical history. A blood test can also be helpful to estimate a patient's risk of heart disease and prevent certain conditions. Based on the results of the blood test doctors may provide you with treatment protocols.

What types of blood tests exist?

Four common blood tests are:

• Blood enzyme tests
• Complete blood count (CBC)
• Blood chemistry tests
• Blood tests for heart disease risk

Your healthcare provider should indicate which blood test he requires to collect needed information. The doctor can check to see if some elements in your blood are exceeding normal limits. In some cases, a blood test is only part of the analysis required by your healthcare professional to make a conclusive diagnosis.