Most of us go about our lives until something goes wrong. We start to feel sick. Then we see a doctor or go to the emergency room. At that point, we surrender control of our healthcare to men and women we see infrequently at best. Yes, they studied hard, went to medical school, know more in general about healthcare than you do, but no one cares as much about YOUR health as you do. So, it’s important to be proactive with your health. Just like you take your car in for yearly checkups, you should be doing that for yourself and your health too. That checkup involves a series of blood tests. This is why healthy people should get blood tests even when they don’t feel sick.
5 Reasons Why Healthy People Should Get Blood Tests
We understand it’s going to take time to get yourself out of the mindset of “if it isn’t broke, don’t fix it.” Some of you simply don’t want to. You have no time. You don’t see the value. We get it. Those are good excuses, but they remain excuses. Hear us out. Read these 5 reasons to get blood tests, even when you don’t feel sick. If you still think your way is the best way, we wish you well.
1. You Might Not Be As Healthy As You Think
If we’re being honest with ourselves, we don’t just wait until we’re sick. We wait until we’re really sick. There’s a certain amount of aches and pains we’re willing to put up with. We don’t rush to get help at the first sneeze. We probably don’t even check our temperature until we’ve felt hot for several days. Even when we know better and know it’s serious, STILL we wait.
Here’s the thing, there’s diseases that don’t manifest in recognizable symptoms. Doctors have trouble seeing it. You, as a lay person, have a very little chance of self-diagnosing properly. Ben Stiller insisted on extra blood testing even though he didn’t feel bad. His doctor noticed something in his lab tests that made him want to follow up with more. It turned out to be prostate cancer, which the caught years earlier than they would have if he waited for symptoms to appear.
2. Weight Loss
You might be carrying around more weight than you have to and it has nothing to do with eating right and getting enough exercise (although that always helps). Many diseases have weight gain as a symptom. Hypothyroidism, Type 2 Diabetes, Liver Damage, Kidney Disease, Hormonal Imbalance, Heart Disease, even Cancer can make your body store fat. That’s not to say you can treat these illnesses and eat badly and still lose weight. But if you’ve been exercising regularly and eating well and the weight STILL doesn’t come off, there may be an underlying reason.
3. You Are A Unique Person
Healthcare is based on the presumption that we are all alike. It’s the law of averages. If you’ve ever watched a medical TV drama talk about not looking for zebras in a world of horses, they are saying there’s a greater likelihood that what you are suffering from is common with common treatment. The problem is that sometimes, it’s a zebra.
When you have a regular history of blood testing, there’s a better chance that if you have a zebra, it gets treated. Knowledge is power. Health management isn’t an exact science. How you process insulin is not the same as how your neighbor does, for example. Without a baseline, however, it’s hard to make that judgment call.
4. It Will Save You Time
One of the biggest complaints about delaying treatment even when you don’t feel good is that there’s no time. But having a baseline of regular blood tests makes it much easier on your healthcare professional to figure out what’s wrong with you and what steps should be taken.
When you show up sick, the first thing they do is send you out to get blood tests. At the very least, they’ll want a CBC panel. Without a blood test, they are guessing what is happening inside your body. Doctors hate guessing.
In the normal scenario, a person gets sick, sets up a doctor’s appointment. That first meeting leads to the patient going to a lab to get blood drawn. Then, it takes time for the lab to get the results back and get those results to the doctor. Once that’s done, there needs to be a follow up appointment to discuss those results and set a course for treatment.
With a baseline, though, it’s easier for a doctor to see what different and recommend treatment faster. Heck, if you get a Wellness Panel from us prior to seeing the doctor, you can give him the blood test results and get away with just one appointment!
5. It Will Save You Money
Take the fact that Walk-In Lab tests are less expensive than the ones you’ll get from other labs and put that aside. It’s one way you’d save money, but not what we’re talking about here.
Preventative healthcare costs less than treatment. For example, the cost of a flu shot is minor next to the cost of getting the flu, whether in treatment costs or loss of time working. When you couple that with the benefit of catching a major disease in the early stages (sometimes the only way to survive such diseases), the savings increase dramatically.
Important Note
Don’t use these tests to self-diagnose! Remember, you didn’t spend years in medical school and more in a residency. You’re ability to read and understand the data that comes from these tests is limited. Always seek a medical professional to guide you in understanding the results of your medical tests!
Do you now believe that healthy people should get blood tests?
