LPT: go get all around blood work done at least every yr

[megbot]

@earnestq UK folks: your GP will scoff at you at the idea of a yearly blood test, and will probably be borderline scornful 'because CrossFit'. How do you get around that?

 

[earnestq]

@megbot You’d don’t have to tell them you do CrossFit right? And you could just say you feel off every yr and want to get blood work

Edit: also why will doctors in the UK scoff at that?

 

[bucktongrene]

@earnestq Basic blood panels are good to do every 6 months giving you a food sense of your levels.

 

[jesusforall]

@earnestq Interesting, in order to receive a discount on health insurance though employer they require a yearly physical. So every year I get bloodwork and those are the same 2 that always come back low for me. I didn’t know exercise could be the reason my iron is low. Thank you for the post.

 

[onalaura]

@earnestq Sunblock limits the absorption of vitamin D and in some cases is toxic over the long term. You should seriously consider researching the explosion of skin cancer and the availability of sunblock. There might be a correlation.

Eat red meat, avoid processed poultry(this is hard) drink a lot of water, take Vit D, avoid processed foods, avoid seed oils, use less sunblock.

Learn to breathe effectively.

 

[mattmc750]

@onalaura Can you share the link showing sunscreen is toxic? Is it a specific type like chemical sunscreen vs physical? How do you get around this whilst protecting yourself from UV rays…

 

[onalaura]

@mattmc750 I will find the links to a few studies but the chemicals in some of these compounds are carcinogenic. Not all, but some of the big name brands are.

I wear UV rated hats, shirts, shorts, pants but since I started eating very very clean a few years ago, I’ve not had any issue with sunburns. I’m in the sun a few hours a day, live in az. Prior to eating a standard American diet I couldn’t be in the sun without burning.

I also get full body checked by my dermatologist semi annually for skin cancer and so far it hasn’t happened.

White, fair skinned, European descent, 50 year old man.

YMMV and what works for me might not apply to anyone else.

I’m sure genetics has a big role too.

 

[dawn16]

@earnestq Most insurance companies will cover 100% yearly blood work. Use it and pay attn to results and changes over time.

 

[earnestq]

@dawn16 Yes! Mine should be completely covered and it tested a lot of stuff

 

[needheaven]

@earnestq Don't necessarily need it once a year depending on results. If you are deficient in something you probably would be the following year as well so fix that problem and you'll know it won't be an issue next time.

 

[earnestq]

@needheaven True but you could have new issues. If your insurance covers it once a yr might as well get it

 

[kazu]

@earnestq I don’t care who you are or what your Vitamin D levels are, take more!! At the risk of being downvoted, I firmly believe it helped keep me from getting Covid. So many people around me got it and somehow I escaped! 2nd vaccine this week!!

 

[earnestq]

@kazu Hehe well you can def take too much vitamin D, but I’m all for getting tested. Yay! I got my first one last wk!

 

[mynach]

@earnestq What is the best panel to request from your doctor? I get my blood work done every year but it doesn’t include any vitamins or testosterone. Is there a name for a test I can request?

 

[alodiafaye]

@mynach You shouldn’t be requesting any bloodwork. Your doctor should be ordering it based on any symptoms you have and/or your risk factors. The blanket statement the OP made is not supported by the medical literature. Testing for the sake of testing is a bad idea and can often lead to bad outcomes.

 

[sundayy]

@alodiafaye Can you elaborate on why it is a bad idea rather than adding your own blanket to the bed?

A quick Google leads me to this article by Amy Ship, MD who suggests the yearly test should be ditched for... conversations? The first reason she lists is to establish a patient-doctor relationship and discuss medical history (seems like a waste of a visit) and then resume visits every 3 years or so. Next she suggests questionnaires (LOL) in the lobby to fill out 3 years later. Finally she recommends insurance/payers cease paying for the annual test to then force people to stop getting annual tests.

Okay, so no where in that article do we see why getting tested is inherently bad. Just hand waving and generic reasons that aren't directly attributed to active monitoring of markers. Next stop...

Google Scholar (see I can do "research"...) is hard to use... I tried "annual blood testing bad" and "annual blood testing good" then I went to "blood testing annually" and "blood work annually" to attempt to find a non-biased article on it. Apparently I'm too dumb to use Google Scholar because none of the titles were related to my search directly.

Anyway, this last study fits my expectations for a middle-ground.

The conclusions they found seem to indicate that getting blood work isn't a bad idea but instead that blood work and annual testing is something that should be discussed during the patient-doctor relationship and that patients should be educated on realistic expectations for the results of their blood work.

My perspective is that you have the right to ask for whatever you wish and it's up to your physician to educate you on the potential risk/benefits.

 

[alodiafaye]

@sundayy I’ll let doctors explain it for me. My point wasn’t that you shouldn’t have any bloodwork done, asking to have bloodwork done your doctor doesn’t think is necessary or something you’re at risk of is dumb and creates more problems that it helps. Here’s a podcast by doctors discussing this sort of thing.

 

[sundayy]

@alodiafaye I'll check out the podcast, however that seems like a gross oversimplification and the study I found makes more sense from a patient perspective. I think that encouraging education around why a patient may or may not need a particular test is more effective.

That being said, you make mention of bloodwork being deemed as unnecessary or dumb due to the belief that people are seeking knowledge of what they are "at-risk" of whereas the OP was encouraging folks to simply get baseline diagnostics on your well-being.

I think it's kind of comparing apples to oranges. OP suggests observing your annual vitamin-D not getting a colonoscopy every yer lol

 

[weepingangel]

@sundayy

apples to oranges

But you can still compare them.

 

[sundayy]

@weepingangel I didn't make any statement indicating you cannot compare the two types of hypothetical visits, simply that within the context of OP's post and Canadia making the statement to "not get bloodwork done" it's best to err on the side of patient education rather than stymieing patient exploration.

But you're welcome to compare away and add to the conversation.