Laboratory reference ranges reflect methods, populations, and policies, and experienced clinicians interpret them in context rather than applying fixed cutoffs theoretically.

Your doctor says everything looks fine, but you still feel terrible. The problem might not be your health but how labs define “normal.” Understanding the difference between normal and optimal could ...

Run-of-the mill? Middle of the road? Typical? The chance that you are correct is vanishingly small. If you're a clinician, like me, you get a LOT of medical questions. While we've all been asked to ...

When the U.S. wrestler and actor Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson was in his prime, his Body Mass Index (BMI) was around 33 kg/m², technically ‘obese’ by World Health Organization (WHO) standards. Yet no one ...

How should I treat a patient who has signs and symptoms of hypothyroidism but normal lab values? The 36-year-old woman has mitral valve prolapse, menorrhagia, headache, fatigue, brittle nails, hair ...

COPD requires regular monitoring through tests like spirometry to assess the condition’s severity and aid in an individualized treatment plan. COPD is a progressive lung condition that makes breathing ...

If you’ve ever had a doctor order a blood test for you, chances are that they ran a complete blood count, or CBC. One of the most common blood tests in the world, CBC tests are run billions of times ...