Are Blood Tests Still Valid?

The Blood Test: What Kind of Information Does it Provide?

- Dr Patrick Quanten

Since the introduction of the blood test as a means of helping with the diagnosis of diseases, the number of things tested for has dramatically increased as well as the number of so-called routine tests. The latter are blood tests done in the event that there is nothing wrong and without the patient complaining. Still we find it necessary to do blood tests; first because it is only a little invasive and secondly because we believe it will render us very valuable information about our health. Better be safe is a phrase well-worn in these circumstances. Although we pretend that having a blood test is such a minor thing to do, we cannot ignore the enormous cost all those tests amount to for the Health Service. This financial sacrifice we as a community make is justified by the fact that a normal result at least has prevented a disease in a way we couldn't have done otherwise. Only by having a normal blood test can we be sure that we are healthy. Apparently!

As nobody actually seems to question the validity of test results I believe it worthwhile to examine the reality of blood tests. It always pays to ask some pertinent questions about behaviour and to carefully look at what is being done, rather than repeating the same headlines we learned somewhere else. If we truly want to learn, we need to consciously take note of our own experiences above what someone else tells us.

How Do We Interpret Blood Test Results?