Blood Tests. The DIY trend, its ups, and downs.

Many patients suffer from various blood diseases. These diseases are diagnosed on the basis of several blood tests. Moreover, regularly performing blood tests is an important way to know the physical health and well-being. In most of the cases, blood tests are recommended by doctors if you’re experiencing unusual symptoms.

Blood tests can help diagnose a condition, assess the health condition, or screen for some genetic conditions.

The most common blood tests are:

• Complete Blood Count (CBC)
• Basic Metabolic Profile
• Thyroid panel
• Blood glucose test
• HbA1c test
• Cholesterol and lipid profile
• Erythrocyte Sedimentation Rate (ESR) test
• Liver Function Tests (LFTs)
• Hormonal profile

Results of blood tests vary from the type of test being performed. These may take anywhere from few hours to few days.

Although your doctor typically orders blood tests for assessing health conditions or diagnosing a particular disease, yet it is also possible to order your own blood test without the advice of a doctor and is legal in many states. DIY tests enable a person to order themselves from a lab. Moreover, DIY testing kits are also available for assessing common things such as blood glucose, cholesterol, and RBC count, etc.

As science is advancing and developing, medicine is coming to your living rooms. In fact, it is already in your hands. The trend of DIY blood tests has increased tremendously in recent years. Today, at-home assessment kits and instruments are easily available at the drug stores.

Although patients can perform a DIY test easily, but should they? It is now important to highlight the ups and downs of DIY tests to answer this question.

Benefits of DIY Blood Tests

DIY blood tests benefit a person in many ways, such as:

• They’re affordable and can greatly save money.
• DIY tests are accurate enough that one can rely on them for assessing a clinical condition even in remote areas where no modern medical facilities are available.
• Most of the DIY tests are life-saving as they provide instant accurate results.

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