5 Health Information That Shows Up in a Routine Blood Test

Taking annual check-ups at least once a year, regardless of your health status, is a highly recommended activity to take control of your health. Part of this procedure is undergoing routine blood tests that provide critical information about your overall health and wellness. 

Taken as a panel or as individual tests, such routine blood work tests can help your doctor diagnose health issues early, assess your overall health, monitor age-related changes, and monitor existing medical issues.

Learn more about the specific health information that a routine blood test reveals. 

What Do Routine Blood Tests Look For

An annual physical exam or a wellness checkup focuses on evaluating critical parameters and biomarkers⁽¹⁾ that indicate your overall health status.

In this case, a blood test covers quite general aspects of your metabolism and organ function, health risks, chemical imbalances, and deficiencies.

Specifically, a standard routine blood test includes the following:

• Complete Blood Count (CBC): Checks the red and white blood cells, platelets, and hemoglobin levels, which can indicate anemia, infections, or other blood disorders.  
• Comprehensive Metabolic Panel (CMP): Assesses electrolytes, kidney function, liver function, and blood sugar levels   
• Lipid Panel: Evaluates total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and triglycerides
• Thyroid Stimulating Hormone (TSH): Assesses thyroid function, including potential issues with thyroid hormones T3 and T4
• Urinalysis: Screens for possible infections and illnesses based on concentration, amount, and physical attributes.

A routine or wellness checkup blood test only detects unusual organ activities and potential impairments. It does not diagnose an exact health condition; it simply starts the ball rolling for the correct medical intervention. Hence, after getting your results, it’s best to consult your doctor still instead of self-diagnosing the values.

Health Information That Appears in a Routine Blood Test

A routine blood test will underscore the potential issue or cause of the imbalance in the substances in question. To get to the actual problem, your doctor may recommend further testing.

In particular, it is instrumental in uncovering the following health information:

1. Organ function 

Blood tests during the routine checkup give you information about the state of your vital organs, like the kidneys, pancreas, heart, thyroid gland, and liver. The tested substances are the hallmarks of detecting issues that impede proper functions.

For instance, abnormal levels of liver enzymes may suggest tissue damage or liver disease, while elevated blood urea nitrogen (BUN) and creatinine levels may point to kidney disease, affecting its filter functions.

On the other hand, increased blood sugar levels may indicate diabetes, but it can also be a gateway information for diagnosing pancreas dysfunction⁽²⁾. Meanwhile, high lipid levels may show the risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

2. Potential infection

A routine blood test may bring to light an ongoing infection. This is because the procedure includes the CBC, which measures the white blood cells (WBC).

White blood cells, clinically known as leukocytes, are immune cells that defend the body from infectious pathogens. Thus, if they appear elevated in your test result, their rapid production and maturity can be associated with the need to battle an infection⁽³⁾.

However, high WBC does not automatically indicate infection, especially if you have other symptoms that appear to be outliers from that of pathogenic invasion. Thus, your healthcare provider will most likely recommend further testing.

3. Fluid imbalance

Since a standard routine test includes an electrolyte panel, it can underscore problems like fluid imbalance⁽⁴⁾, potentially due to dehydration, overhydration, or other health issues. The levels of electrolytes like potassium, sodium, chloride, and bicarbonate can suggest the ratio between such elements and the water content in the body.   

The abnormalities for each electrolyte level may also indicate other issues besides fluid imbalance. For example, low potassium levels can be linked to problems with nerve functions and impaired muscle contractions. These conditions, however, are only diagnosed with additional tests.

Also Read: The Health Benefits of Water

4. Heart disease risk

Given that a wellness blood test covers the parameters of assessing cardiovascular health, your doctor will likely be able to evaluate your chances of developing heart disease.

For one, your lipid profile spells out how much cholesterols and triglycerides you have in your body system. Abnormally high levels of these lipids increase your risk of cardiovascular disorders.

For example, elevated low-density lipoprotein (LDL) contributes to the accumulation of plaques in the arteries, which may cause atherosclerosis⁽⁵⁾, which narrows the blood vessels and potentially causes a blockage. This condition increases the likelihood of developing heart disease and stress.

Moreover, although high triglycerides don’t build up in the arterial wall, they can trigger inflammation in the arteries. This impact makes the blood vessel more susceptible to plaque aggregation.

5. Blood disorders

As established above, the CBC is at the forefront of a routine blood test. CBC evaluates blood cells⁽⁶⁾, which means you’ll have access to information that suggests blood health status. Hence, your doctor may detect disorders like anemias, thrombocytosis (high platelet count), thrombocytopenia (low platelet count), and so on from a wellness blood test and other diagnostic tools.

By extension, when problems related to blood count, size, form, ratio, etc., other disorders can be potentially tracked if you undergo further diagnostic procedures.  

For example, high mean corpuscular volume (MCV) of the RBCs (a.k.a. macrocytosis) can be linked to nutrient deficiencies, specifically vitamin B12 or folates. However, other pathologic conditions can also cause this issue. Thus, your doctor must evaluate this test result further to confirm the diagnosis.

Also Read: Low MCV and MCH: Meaning and Treatment

Frequently Asked Questions

Do routine blood tests check for STDs?

A standard routine blood test doesn’t include screening for sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) like HIV, chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis, and hepatitis. However, it might indicate the potential presence of STD pathogens, albeit not definitive, as CBC may screen for infections. 

Does a routine blood test show cancer?

Routine blood work tests are not designed to detect cancer. Nonetheless, certain abnormalities in the test result may indicate problems that can be associated with cancer. In this case, further investigation and possibly a diagnostic procedure to detect cancer can be put into place by your healthcare provider. Still, given the broadness of routine checkups, it’s not reliable for cancer detection on its own. 

Can a routine blood test detect pregnancy?

Human chorionic gonadotropin (HCG), the chemical screened to confirm pregnancy, is not included in the substances examined during a typical routine blood test. Still, if you or your doctor suspects pregnancy, an HCG blood test may be requested during your wellness examination.

In a Nutshell

From checking your organ functions to monitoring chronic conditions and catching potential issues early, a routine blood test provides invaluable information. These add up to the critical efforts to keep you on top of your health. Empower yourself today, schedule that routine blood test, and take charge of your health.