At Obstetricians & Gynecologists, PC, in Hastings and Grand Island, Nebraska, our primary care providers consider your annual wellness exam the most important health visit of the year. The information we gather during your yearly physical helps us stay on top of your health, finding issues during the early stages when they’re easier to treat.
We use many tools to evaluate your health, including routine blood tests. The type of tests we include in your blood panel depend on your age, personal health history, and family health history.
We know needles and blood draws make many people queasy, but it may help to understand the benefits of blood panel tests. Here are five reasons you don’t want to skip your routine blood test.
Routine blood tests provide valuable information about your overall health. We may order a basic metabolic panel (BMP) or comprehensive metabolic panel (CMP) to evaluate kidney and liver function. This test measures electrolyte, glucose, blood urea nitrogen, creatine, and liver enzyme levels in your blood.
We also do a complete blood count (CBC) that measures blood cells — including red blood cells, white blood cells, and platelets — to evaluate immune health.
We use routine blood panel tests to track health changes over time, making it easier to spot irregularities. That’s why it’s so important that you come in every year for a health exam. Annual blood draws also let you see real evidence of how making changes to your lifestyle affects your health.
If your diet is less than perfect, you may worry about nutritional health. Are you getting enough nutrients? Do you have a vitamin deficiency? Routine blood panel tests like the CBC give us a snapshot of your nutritional health.
For example, abnormal red blood cells are a sign of anemia and may indicate iron, vitamin B12, or folate deficiencies and the need for further testing.
One of the biggest benefits of routine blood panel tests is that it helps us find early signs of disease. We may include health screenings in your routine blood tests like to check for common diseases like a glucose test for Type 2 diabetes or a lipid panel for high cholesterol.
Regular blood tests help us detect changes in your body so we can find health issues during the early stages, before you have symptoms. Finding health problems early may prevent or delay complications.
We also use routine blood panel tests to monitor chronic health conditions. Testing helps make sure our treatment plan is working and, if it’s not, gives us the information needed to make adjustments.
Blood tests offer a glimpse of what’s happening inside your body, providing the diagnostic data that helps direct your wellness plan.
Has it been more than a year since your last physical? Don’t wait, call the office most convenient to you today or request an appointment online to schedule your annual physical so we can order the routine blood tests that help you stay on top of your health.
