blood screen

Last week our department hosted a blood screen for a local company's employees. Not everyone may realize this is another service we provide for our area residents. People don't always love to go to a blood draw. They have to fast 12 hours, which can be mentally challenging. We typically hold these pretty early in the morning so people are bleary eyed. Of course, there is also the whole needle factor, which can make some people fairly uncomfortable. We do our best to counteract this with friendly smiles, soothing music, and breakfast available right on site, but they are still there lurking in the background.

Despite the discomfort factor, we had a large turnout. It great because these blood screens provide extremely valuable information. We do a CBC (immune function), a lipid panel (diet and exercise info), we can provide TSH (thyroid), and PSA (prostate) as well. It's so important to know if something is going on with your blood work. We do these blood screens for several of the area's employers and we also offer a community screening. We often see our members there being proactive with their health.

At this particular screening we also offered BMI, blood pressure, and waist to hip ratios. Our job was to let people know where they currently stand in the health spectrum. We don't have control over hormones and genetics. We do have control over activity level. We also have control over what and how much is going onto our plates. We were there to remind participants of this.

It never hurts to have that reminder to stay on top of your health. If you aren't currently aware of what your blood work looks like, consider taking advantage of our next blood screen. They can give you and your doctor some very important incite into our health.