**Transcript**
Today we're going to talk about doing your yearly or annual blood tests. It's towards the end of the year and we are seeing so many people come in that didn't get their annual test done because of covid. One reason or another but this is the time to do it. First of all you want to make sure you're doing it every year to stay in good health I'm going to tell you some pointers on which tests that you want to have done.
Also remember at the end of the year you probably met most of your deductible if not all of it so make sure you get it in this year before the end of the year so your insurance is going to cover it. So these are some of the tests that we do at McLaughlin care for our patients. And if you're one of our patients you know this already but every year we look at the cholesterol, the lipids, and advanced lipids which tells us about the quality of the cholesterol. We look at CBC chem screen which means like you know your electrolyzed for your heart and your liver and your gallbladder and your kidneys all all of those good things.
And we look at your glucose your hemoglobin A1c and your insulin to make sure you're not having diabetes insulin resistance pre-diabetes any of those things. We look at the highly sensitive CRP for your inflammation we check your thyroid your vitamin D, B12, and folate and of course iron and ferritin. That's our basic test that we look at now some patients who are having issues with it maybe we do it a little sooner than once a year if they have really specific things that they're deficient in or that they're struggling with whether it's something from their lifestyle, chronic disease, or even something that's running in their family.
Sometimes we look at other tests too like genetics we look at neurotransmitters which help with brain functions so things with like depression and those kind of things. That's how we measure it we look at gut health we look at food allergies we look at you know all of the good bacteria the bad bacteria all the the gut biome we look at autoimmune tests and even hormone tests. So if you haven't had your annual checkup this year I want you to go and get it done. Make sure you schedule it like I said you probably met your deductible by the end of the year and you'll be able to have it covered by your insurance.
Because most importantly you want to stay healthy as long as possible in your lifetime and by checking your lab on a regular basis you can pick things up before they ever become a huge huge problem. We hate to see when patients come in and you know their cholesterol is crazy their blood sugar is crazy you know they got all kinds of inflammation they got vitamin deficiencies and we have been following up with them every single year and checking these things. We could have prevented them from going into full-blown chronic disease now I don't want that for you either so be sure to get into your doctor or give us a call and we'll be happy to get you set up.
So be sure to watch my next video that talks about all the different tests and what they mean so if you say well I don't know I'm thinking about getting these blood tests done but I don't know what they all mean and how am I going to find out? Check out that next video the top 10 things that you need to know about all these lab tests to prevent reverse and really help you get out of any kind of chronic disease or pain syndrome. That's it and we'll see you next time Dr Julie McLaughlin here from McLaughlin care thanks bye-bye.