Frequent Heartburn? Your Health Could Be at Risk

You know it well: that burning sensation you feel in your chest after a big meal, while laying down or sometimes for no apparent reason at all. This frequent and fiery grip on the center of your chest is known as heartburn, and millions of Americans suffer from it every year.

Even though heartburn seems nearly as commonplace in America as a burger and fries, it is certainly not something to ignore when you experience it yourself. That’s because frequent heartburn is more than just a little uncomfortable — it can cause lasting damage to your body and your health. In fact, the condition of frequent heartburn is considered to be a disease — gastroesophageal reflux disease, or GERD for short, is diagnosed when heartburn interferes with a person’s daily life. While heartburn can be temporarily dealt with using over-the-counter antacid medications, it is important for your health to determine the cause of the heartburn so you can take the necessary steps toward preventing it in the future.

If left untreated, frequent heartburn can cause a number of painful and even dangerous health conditions such as:

Esophageal Strictures, which cause difficulty swallowing as a result of scarring and narrowing of the esophagus due to frequent exposure to stomach acid. This can result in pain when swallowing, as well as difficulty eating and drinking.

Barrett’s Esophagus, a condition caused by long-term exposure of the esophagus to stomach acid through acid reflux. This is a pre-cancerous condition that occurs in about 1 in 100 people who have experienced chronic heartburn for ten years or more.

Esophageal Cancer, which can develop when the esophageal cells become so damaged by stomach acid over time that the cells become cancerous. Even if found early, the survival rate for esophageal cancer is only around 40 percent.

If you suffer from frequent heartburn, it’s time to find out why so you can begin to recover before it’s too late. Any Lab Test Now’s Heartburn Panel includes three tests intended to give you a comprehensive look at why you may be suffering from frequent heartburn or GERD:

A Complete Blood Count will test for blood disorders that can show signs of leukemia, anemia and blood clotting.

A Chemistry Panel will evaluate your blood sugar levels, liver and kidney function, renal function and electrolyte levels.

And an H. Pylori Test will determine the presence of a destructive stomach bacterium called Helicobacter pylori. This bacterium can cause ulcers, heartburn and even stomach cancer. If discovered, an H. pylori infection is easily treated with antibiotics. An H. Pylori Rapid Result Screen is another option to test only for the presence of H. pylori.

The sooner you know what’s wrong, the sooner you can start taking the steps towards better health. Talk to the experts at Any Lab Test Now today to learn what testing options are right for you.

Stay Heart Healthy This February!

Walk into any retail location and you’ll see red, pink and purple hearts of all shapes and sizes. February is the month of love, and the heart represents this feeling for many people. Did you know, however, that February is also Heart Health Awareness Month?

This year, celebrate your heart by making healthy lifestyle changes and taking action to prevent chronic conditions like heart disease. Heart disease kills more American adults than any other cause of death, including cancer, accidents and diabetes. For this year’s Heart Health Awareness Month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention want Americans to focus on one healthy behavior they can make into a habit to take control of their heart health.

After all, your heart health influences your daily life and everything you want to do. From how often you get sick to how much activity your body can handle, a healthy heart makes your whole body run right. Symptoms of heart disease can be unique for everyone, but will often include fatigue, shortness of breath, angina or pain in the chest, nausea and swelling of feet or ankles (also known as edema). Your heart never rests — and your heart health influences your quality of life even when you’re asleep, so it’s critical that it remains healthy.

Heart disease can be difficult to detect on its own, which is why it’s so important to use laboratory testing and regular visits to your primary care physician to keep yourself on track. To find out what your risk is and begin your journey to a healthier heart, you should schedule a Cardiac Risk Panel at Any Lab Test Now this month. Getting a laboratory test entails a simple, one-time visit that will allow you to see your levels of blood cholesterol, C-reactive protein and homocysteine. These levels are an indication of how hard your heart is working and how much inflammation is in your body. Any Lab Test Now also offers a variety of other heart health related tests to consider, like cholesterol testing.

Once you have your results, you can take them to your doctor to discuss your lifestyle and how you can improve your habits, one step at a time. Suggestions may include dietary changes, increasing the consistency with which you take prescription drugs, increased exercise or quitting smoking.

Your cardiovascular system is important for your quality of life, so make February the month you take charge of your habits and make an improvement in your health. For more information on how to use Any Lab Test Now’s laboratory testing to determine your risk, visit our website!

Avoid Hormone Chaos with Testosterone Testing

Having low testosterone as a man can throw your whole body into chaos. Your body’s systems rely on hormones to tell them what to do, so if your hormones are not giving your body the right signals, you might notice changes in everything from your digestion and energy level to your sex drive and physical performance. If you have been suffering from unexplained changes in your body, testosterone testing might be the right answer for you.

According to the Urology Care Foundation, about four in every 10 men over the age of 45 experience low testosterone. The condition rarely occurs in men younger than 45, but when it does, it can be both unexpected and frustrating. It is natural for a man’s testosterone level to decrease as he ages, but if it dips too far below the normal threshold, uncomfortable symptoms can begin to occur and affect that man’s quality of life.

Symptoms can include:
an increase in body fat,
decrease in muscle mass,
calcium loss,
loss of bone density,
poor erections,
low sex drive, or
anemia.

The symptoms of a hormone dysfunction are unpleasant, but can be eliminated or reduced through proper treatment. Knowing the source of a hormone imbalance can give your doctor the information he or she needs to resolve your issue. Typically, treatment is managed through testosterone replacement therapy. Using a gel, shots, long-acting pellets, pills or patches, doctors can prescribe testosterone supplementation that restores a man’s testosterone to normal levels and alleviates his symptoms.

A carefully-administered test in a certified and safe laboratory environment is the only way to assure valid results for a testosterone level test. This is important, because treating a man who does not have low testosterone with hormone supplementation can have an adverse effect, and will not address any symptoms he might be experiencing. Supplementing a man’s testosterone when it’s not needed can actually lower a man’s sperm count and fertility.  Some of our other panels that you also might want to consider are our Comprehensive Male Panel or Pre-Testosterone Therapy Panel.

Low testosterone can be more than unpleasant. This hormone is necessary for many of the functions in the male body, and lower levels of the hormone can throw the body’s systems out of whack. To resolve the discomfort and confusion, men who have found the aging process to be more frustrating than expected should consider testosterone testing to determine if a testosterone level disorder is the cause. Find your local Any Lab Test Now to schedule a test today!

Tests to Consider for the New Year

This time of year, many people are making resolutions to change their lives for the better. Resolutions give people a sense of new beginnings for themselves, and a chance to look forward to the progress they will make toward becoming a healthier, happier individual. Most people who make a New Year’s resolution are thinking of their health – they want to make positive changes in their appearance and overall livelihood.

But what many people don’t realize when they’re staring in the mirror is that good health starts on the inside. To appear healthier on the outside, you must first make healthy, internal changes. If you’re looking to make a change, but don’t know where to start, Any Lab Test Now has several tests that can help you accomplish your resolutions for 2017:

Sensitivity and Intolerance Tests

One great way to make a healthy change is to finally find out what’s been causing your unexplained ailments or discomfort. Often, people with a food sensitivity or intolerance don’t realize what is causing their health issues. That’s because it’s hard to isolate just one food as the cause of your pain. This is where Sensitivity and Intolerance Tests can help! These tests can help you determine any food sensitivities or intolerances you may have, letting you get to the bottom of what is causing your health problems.

Sexual Health Lab Tests

If you are sexually active, it is important to make sure you are healthy and disease-free. Most people know they should get tested for STDs, but continually put it off. The thing is, by putting off getting tested, you’ll continue to feel that nagging worry in the back of your mind – “Do I have a disease?” Give yourself peace of mind by finding out for sure in 2017, and taking care of your health from head to toe. Any Lab Test Now’s Sexual Health Lab Tests will help you check off that big “to-do” item lingering in your thoughts.

Diabetes Lab Tests and Cholesterol Lab Tests

Before you can look healthy on the outside, you must address the issues going on inside your body. If you are concerned you might have high cholesterol, diabetes or pre-diabetes, it’s time to get tested and find out for sure. Dangerous complications can arise from having these conditions, including a higher risk of heart disease, heart attack and stroke. Make 2017 the year you take control of your heart health, starting with a Diabetes Lab Test and Cholesterol Lab Test.

Get started on your 2017 New Year’s resolution to be healthier by getting some much needed answers to your nagging health questions. Once you better understand your health today, you can start taking steps towards achieving better health this year. Talk to the experts at Any Lab Test Now to learn what testing options are right for you, and take the first step towards a healthier, happier you.

Last Minute Gift Ideas — Take Home Hormone Kits

The world is full of balance — Yin and Yang, day and night, good and evil. Without balance, we have chaos and unpredictability. And just as the world needs balance, so does your body in order to thrive. Many people have a hormone imbalance in their body and don’t even know it — all they know is that something just feels…off.

They may feel like they’ve been battling unexplainable skin ailments, and that nothing they do seems to work. Or maybe they suffer from insomnia and just can’t achieve a restful, relaxing night’s sleep no matter what they do. Perhaps they struggle with overwhelming levels of stress, anxiety, allergies or even illnesses. They may struggle with maintaining a healthy weight, or even experience sudden weight gain despite every effort to maintain a healthy lifestyle. All of these problems can seem vastly unrelated, yet they all have one thing in common: they may be caused by a hormone imbalance.

If someone in your life is experiencing these or other unexplainable health issues, they may be suffering from a hormone imbalance. This holiday season, consider helping your loved one finally take control of their health, once and for all, with a Take Home Hormone Kit from Any Lab Test Now. Show your loved one that you’ve been listening to their concerns, and that you care about their health and happiness.

Give the gift of good health with any of these hormone testing kits available at Any Lab Test Now:

The Skin Vitality Take Home Hormone Kit is perfect for the loved one who feels betrayed by their own skin. Imagine the happiness they will feel when they can finally understand why they have been suffering from excessive dryness, wrinkling, discoloration or acne.

The Sleep Balance Take Home Hormone Kit is ideal for the loved one who just can’t get a good night’s rest. Bring joy to their holiday season by helping them finally learn why they are suffering from insomnia, and giving them the help they need.

The Adrenal Stress Take Home Hormone Kit is the perfect gift for the loved one who feels overwhelmed by stress and unexplainable health problems, from anxiety to allergies and even infertility.

The Elements-Thyroid Take Home Hormone Kit is a great option for those who are wondering if they are experiencing undiagnosed thyroid disease or dysfunction, which can present itself in many different symptoms.

The Weight Management Take Home Hormone Kit is a wonderful choice for the loved one struggling to maintain their ideal weight, despite every effort to do so. Show your loved one you care about their concerns by helping them take the first step toward a real solution and a happier life.

This holiday season, help your loved ones start feeling better all year long. Contact the experts at Any Lab Test Now to learn which hormone testing kits are right for you.

The 5 Best Tests to Use Your FSA On

HSA and FSA accounts can help you budget for your healthcare, and ensure you always have the money you need to pay for any unexpected health events. But if you still have money in your FSA, it will expire at the end of the year. Instead of letting your money vanish, put it to use by getting some testing or immunizations you’ve been putting off. Wrap up lingering health concerns now so you can start fresh in the new year.

Allergy Test
The holidays coincide with peak cold and flu season, but if your sniffles won’t go away, you might look into allergy testing. Up to 50 million Americans suffer from allergies. If you experience emotional or physical reactions after you eat, or if you frequently have symptoms like a stuffy nose or trouble breathing, you might have an allergy to something you ate. The Allergy Test goes through as many as 45 different foods and 45 environmental triggers to identify the root of your symptoms.

Intolerance Test
If you’ve been noticing symptoms that aren’t associated with an allergic reaction, then you might have a food intolerance. If you experience fatigue, gas or diarrhea, depression or anxiety, weight gain or a general chronic discomfort, you may want to get a food intolerance test. This becomes especially important as you grow older, because you can develop new food sensitivities or intolerances later in life.

Blood Cortisol Test
If your stress levels are through the roof, the holiday season will likely only make it worse — it can seem like your to-do list never ends! To see if your stress is starting to cause problems for your body, get a blood cortisol test. High levels of cortisol are dangerous, because over time they can lead to high blood pressure, inflammation, compromised immune response and weight gain.

Thyroid Test
The holiday meals sure are delicious, but do you know what isn’t so great? The holiday pounds. If your weight gain tends to stick around a bit too long after the holidays, you should get your thyroid tested. Your thyroid controls metabolic activity, which is vital for maintaining a healthy weight. Poor thyroid health is associated with symptoms like fatigue, short attention span, weight gain and numbness or cold intolerance. Thyroid disorders can also cause conditions like osteoporosis and heart disease.

Proof of Immunizations
Are you traveling for the holidays or early next year? The first thing on your list should be to make sure your immunizations are up-to-date, which you can do by getting a proof of immunization test. These tests ensure that you have gotten the immunizations you need and provide valid paperwork to prove that you are immunized, which can be helpful if you’ve lost any documentation.

Don’t wait for the new year to address your lingering health concerns. If you have an FSA that is going to expire soon, get the important lab tests you need before 2017! For more information, visit your local Any Lab Test Now.

Everyday Stress or Something More?

Sometimes when you wake up in the morning, it can be hard to lift your head from the pillow. You hear that alarm going off and can barely reach over to hit the snooze button. When you finally make it out of bed, coffee is the first thing on your mind. It has been a busy week: you are worn out and having trouble concentrating on the day ahead!

This feeling of being worn out is your body’s way of healing during times of stress. Your body is clamoring for more rest, because in order to restore itself, the body needs to sleep. As your body begins to heal, mornings become easier and your focus improves.

But, what if it doesn’t? What does it mean if you continue to feel lethargic and drained week after week? What if your brain feels fuzzy all of the time and you find that you are constantly forgetting things because you’re so tired? At this point, there may be something more than day-to-day stress causing your fatigue. Exhaustion, either physical or mental, should not last for weeks at a time.

Fortunately, a Fatigue Panel or Adrenal Health/Stress Profile will test for a variety of potential causes. Causes of fatigue are varied. In some people, it can be caused by a disease, such as Lyme disease or mononucleosis. In other people, it can be triggered by hormone or blood sugar imbalances. And, others may discover that fatigue is a result of conditions like anemia or low iron levels.

With so many causes of fatigue, the first step to regaining your energy is knowing why you feel drained. From there, treatments that include medication, diet, exercise and lifestyle changes can be used to help you recover. Of course, resolving your fatigue won’t completely get rid of sleepy, coffee-filled mornings, but it will certainly help you restore the energy and focus that it takes to make the most of your time from morning until night.

If you have been fatigued for more than two weeks, stop in to your local Any Lab Test Now location and ask for the Fatigue Panel. Keep in mind that this test does require fasting for eight hours prior to the sample being collected. You can also inquire about our Adrenal Health/Stress Profile. Both tests are a quick, simple way to help you start the process of recovery.

Are You Ignoring Diabetes?

If you’re reading this article, you’ve probably already wondered if you are at risk for diabetes. The fact is, with around 1.4 million Americans being diagnosed with diabetes every year, odds are you could be one of them. And when you take into account that more than 8 million Americans are living with undiagnosed diabetes, and another 86 million are living with prediabetes, the numbers start to become especially alarming.

Diabetes and prediabetes can be manageable — so long as you are aware of your condition. But with so many people unknowingly living with diabetes every day, there are many whose health will only worsen over time. That’s because, if left unchecked, diabetes can greatly increase your risk of:

– Heart disease
– Stroke
– Kidney damage
– Nerve Damage
– Poor blood flow, leading to amputation of the toes and feet
– Blindness
– Alzheimer’s disease

… And the list goes on. The truth is, you are much better off knowing your risk for diabetes than remaining blissfully unaware — the knowledge could save your life! While no one can know for sure without getting tested, there are certain factors that could indicate a higher risk of having diabetes. Those especially at risk are:

– People who are overweight or obese.
– Adults 45 years of age or older.
– People who have an immediate family member with diabetes.
– People who are physically active less than three times per week.

If you identify with one or more of the risk factors listed above, it’s time to consider getting tested for diabetes. If you are concerned about your risk of diabetes, there are many tests at Any Lab Test Now that can help you find the answers you need. Many of the diabetes tests at Any Lab Test Now are perfect both for diabetics looking to maintain their health or those interested in finding out if they have diabetes.

Any Lab Test Now’s Diabetes Maintenance Panel includes:

– A Complete Blood Count Test to detect blood disorders such as infection or anemia
– A Fasting Glucose Test to detect hyperglycemia and hypoglycemia
– A Hemoglobin A1c Test to detect prediabetes or diabetes, or see if your diabetes is under control
– A Diabetic Urinalysis to determine if your kidneys aren’t working properly

These four tests can give you and your doctor the information you need to assess your risk for and manage your diabetes.

Another helpful test for those wondering if they are diabetic, or those who have diabetes and want to keep an eye on their health, is Any Lab Test Now’s Insulin Lab Test. This test measures insulin production in your body — low levels of which can indicate that you have diabetes. This test is often used with the Glucose Tolerance Test to evaluate insulin resistance, another indicator of diabetes.

Make it your goal to take charge of your health and monitor your risk for diabetes. Talk to the experts at Any Lab Test Now to find the right diabetes testing options for your needs.

The Different Types of Diabetes

Diabetes is a harrowing disease. It occurs when your body is unable to process blood glucose, your body’s main source of energy, and starts to wreak havoc. This is because excess glucose in the blood can quickly damage the walls of the tiny blood vessels that carry blood and nutrients to and from your organs. Untreated, the oscillations in blood glucose levels caused by diabetes could gradually destroy the eyes, nerves and circulatory system.

There are three types of diabetes. The main difference between them is how your body loses the ability to process blood glucose. In a healthy individual, the body absorbs glucose using insulin produced by the pancreas. With type 1 diabetes, the body’s immune system attacks the pancreas until it is no longer able to produce insulin. People with type 1 diabetes can start seeing symptoms in childhood or even early adulthood, and the most common treatment is with insulin injections. Risks with type 1 diabetes are that the patient experiences frequent hypoglycemia (low glucose levels), or that they will suffer ketoacidosis from burning fat instead of sugar for energy.

With type 2 diabetes the body slowly loses the ability to respond to insulin, so while the body is still producing it, the insulin no longer carries glucose to your cells. This leads to high glucose levels, known as hyperglycemia. Causes include family history, poor diet, poor exercise habits, and age. Patients typically see symptoms in middle adulthood, but recently there have been cases in children. Symptoms include tingling in the hands and feet, excessive thirst, sores that heal slowly and blurry vision. These are signs that high blood glucose levels are beginning to damage the nervous system, circulatory system and eyes. Type 2 diabetes is typically treated with medication and dietary changes to slow down the progression of the disease.

The third type of diabetes is gestational diabetes, which affects pregnant women. During pregnancy, the body can release hormones that make cells more resistant to insulin, leading to a temporary form of diabetes. Women who are overweight, have poor diets or have gained more weight than necessary during pregnancy are at greater risk of gestational diabetes. Although this form of diabetes is temporary, women who have experienced it are at a greater risk of developing type 2 diabetes later in life, as are their children. It is usually treated with diet management, increased exercise and insulin shots.
Diabetes can lead to horrible conditions over time, such as blindness, permanent nerve damage, heart disease and loss of limbs. At Any Lab Test Now, we know diabetes can be a frustrating and confusing disease, which is why we offer the Diabetes Maintenance Panel.

Back to School: Time for Your Student’s Proof of Immunizations

It’s that time of year again! The start of August means it’s back to school for college students all across America, and for many students, it also means back-to-school titers and immunizations. If your child needs any proof of immunizations before returning to school, or before heading off to school for the first time, look no further than Any Lab Test Now.
Colleges, universities and technical programs often require proof of certain immunizations before your student can attend. Luckily for you and your student, Any Lab Test Now offers convenient and affordable options for obtaining your proof of immunization.

Titers
A titer is a type of blood test that measures the presence and amount of antibodies in your blood. It can be used to determine if you are immune to a disease.
If you think your student has received an immunization in the past, but can’t find the proof to show your school, titers are an easy way to verify your child’s immunity to certain diseases. Any Lab Test Now offers a popular three-in-one titer for measles, mumps and rubella — some of the immunizations most commonly requested by schools and other institutions. The MMR Titer will verify whether or not you are immune to these three diseases, and we’ll even have the results ready to send to your school within 48–72 hours.
Some schools may additionally require proof of immunization against the varicella-zoster virus, which you may know better as chickenpox and shingles. A VZV Titer is also available at Any Lab Test Now and is a great option for students needing a quick, low-cost proof of immunization before entering school.

Talk to the experts at Any Lab Test Now to learn which testing options are right for your needs.