Sharing a glossary of health checkup report terms I put together
I get a checkup every year, and I kept getting confused every time I looked at the results, so last year I just organized them once and for all. I'm sharing this in case there are people like me who look them up every time. Of course, you should get the actual interpretation from your doctor.
- ALT/AST: Liver enzyme levels. Gamma-GTP (GGT) tends to be heavily influenced by alcohol.
- You shouldn't look at total cholesterol alone; you need to look at LDL/HDL together. Triglycerides are heavily influenced by diet.
- Fasting blood sugar of 100–125 is "impaired fasting glucose" (not normal; prediabetes).
- Blood pressure often goes up from nerves at the hospital, so home blood pressure readings are more accurate.
- Thyroid TSH/T3/T4 should be looked at as a set. If only one is out of range, get retested.
- Urine occult blood or proteinuria can also be affected by your condition that day, so they're often rechecked at the next checkup.
Last year my triglycerides came back slightly high, so I exercised and cut out late-night snacks for about 3 months and got retested, and they returned to normal. I found it's better to check your checkup results as they come rather than putting them off until the next year.
Have you all gotten your checkup this year?
6 answers
Oh, I didn’t know this. I always got confused about fasting blood sugar of 100–125 being prediabetes, so thanks for clearing that up.
I really felt that triglycerides are all about eating habits: I cut out late-night snacks and mine dropped by more than 40 in just two weeks. But as soon as I started late-night eating again, they shot right back up lol. In the end, habits seem to be the answer.
Well, that's a bit... There are a lot of posts that make sweeping claims like 'you only need to look at LDL' when talking about total cholesterol, but target levels vary from person to person depending on their risk factors. Just use it for reference only, and you should consult a hospital about your own risk level.
Home blood pressure is the way to go lol. Mine reads 150 whenever I go to the hospital, which surprised me every time, but at home it’s in the 120s.
If even one thyroid value comes back off, definitely get retested. My TSH alone was high, so I just let it go, and when I got tested again 6 months later, I eventually ended up starting medication. I sometimes wonder what it would've been like if I'd caught it right then. Oh, and TSH fluctuates throughout the day, so it's better to get tested around the same time each day.
Do you have a source? There are a few parts that seem too definitive to just call this a personal write-up. In particular, I'm curious where you saw that urine occult blood is affected by your condition.