Regular blood testing will not only keep you alive longer, heading off a slew of nasty diseases like cancer, heart disease and diabetes, but also allows you to become healthier, more energetic, sexier and stronger. Yet all too often, people fall victim to a disease that could have been prevented if their blood was tested annually.
A good example is calcium overload. This is when too much calcium is removed from the bone and deposited in the vascular system. Unless discovered by a blood test, people don't find out until after they suffer a crippling bone fracture, a painful kidney stone or heart failure. These diseases manifest years after the calcium imbalance first begins, yet an inexpensive blood test could detect this problem early and enable the person to correct the imbalance long before it caused irreversible damage.
Another disorder people encounter as they grow older is elevated serum glucose causing arterial and neurological disease and accelerated aging through a process called glycosylation. If high glucose is discovered, lifestyle changes and other safe therapies are available to bring blood sugar levels into normal ranges.
Excess amounts of serum iron generate massive free radicals throughout the body that increase the risk of cancer, atherosclerosis and neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. If you have high iron levels, there are many ways to bring it down. Don't wait for an iron-induced disease to happen just because you neglected to get a blood test.
If you take prescription drugs every day to treat or prevent chronic medical conditions such drugs can have toxic side effects. In the US alone some 189,000 Americans die each year from prescribed medication. The American Medical Association says it's the fourth leading cause of death in the US and emphasises that these deaths occur even though the drugs are being prescribed by doctors, who are supposed to monitor patients to prevent drug-induced deaths. One reason for this is the HMO system, which seeks to save money in the short-term by not recommending blood tests that would detect drug-induced liver and kidney impairment in time to prevent disability and death. If you are taking certain prescription medications, regular blood testing is mandatory according to the drug labelling, yet doctors routinely fail to prescribe the recommended blood tests and their patients all too often pay the price.
In the light of this it certainly makes sense for you to check out what you are being told to take and to see if there are not more natural means to solve your problem. Invariably there are natural or integrative solutions that can help cure or at very least mitigate the effects of the drug you're taking. Always find out what the drug is meant to do, how long it should take to work, and what the contraindications are and most of all, when you can expect to come off it. If the answer is "I don't know" or "Never", then redouble your efforts to find an alternative solution. The truth is nobody knows what any of these drugs can do to you if you take them for a prolonged period.
Of course it's not just prescription drugs that cause liver or kidney damage. There are many factors - life style for a start. Alcohol, OTC drugs, excess niacin and viral hepatitis can all cause liver damage. For most people these conditions smolder for years before until a life threatening conditions occurs.
A lot of us take blood tests to assess our cardiovascular disease risk factors. Good thing too, since heart disease is the No.1 killer in the world and is what 50% of us will die from. Studies consistently show that various cholesterol fractions (HDL, LDL, VLDL) and triglycerides contribute to heart attack and stroke. What most people fail to realise is that significant changes can occur in these blood fat levels over a year's time, meaning that previous tests may not accurately reflect your current serum lipid status.
Here's some of what you should be aiming for:
Glucose: optimal level should be under 100.
Iron: optimal level should be under 100. Total Cholesterol: below 200, LDL Cholesterol: (the bad) below 100 -120, HDL Cholesterol: (the good) optimal 50+ Triglycerides: below 100.
Annual blood testing is the cornerstone of any program designed to extend healthy life span, but cost, local unavailability and inconvenience cause people to neglect it. Don't. Not only can it save your life but it can provide valuable markers for those who want to optimise their health and longevity as well.
Paracelsus
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