San Juan Regional Medical Center offers low-cost blood screens all year long with My Labs: Patient Ordered Testing. Knowing your numbers is an important part of managing your health. But what if your lab levels need improving?

The first thing you should do when you receive your results or view them via the Patient Portal, is to review them with your primary care provider. Discuss any questions or concerns you have regarding numbers that are out of the “normal” range, or anything you’d like to know more about. Your provider may have some specific steps for you to take to make improvements to your health and lab levels.

There are also things you can do on your own to improve your lab levels. Here are some tips:

Glucose- Most of us don’t get the recommended amount of fiber per day. One simple and inexpensive way to improve glucose levels is to increase your fiber intake. Eat foods like pears, broccoli, legumes, beans, bran cereal, berries, cheese, barley, whole wheat pastas and breads.

Triglycerides- To improve your triglycerides, reduce the amount of liquid sugar in your diet. This includes things like sodas, energy drinks and juices that can spike your blood sugar rapidly. Instead of fruit juice, eat the fruit.  

Cholesterol- Increasing monosaturated fats such as olive oil and nuts, along with soluble fiber, can be helpful. 

Another incredibly powerful way to positively impact lab levels is to increase any type of exercise or movement throughout your day. Try for 150 minutes of exercise a week as a baseline goal. This can be broken down into smaller, more manageable lengths. So, think about doing 10 minutes of exercise in the morning and 10 more at lunch, etc. Incorporating intervals into your movement is also a great way to improve your health and see results. Oscillating your exercise and movement in such a way where you push yourself and back off improves your lab levels, helps with more effective endurance and helps you become stronger. 

Setting realistic goals will make them more attainable and keep you motivated. Having a support system is also important when making changes to improve your health. To learn more about the low-cost labs offered at San Juan Regional Medical Center for your benefit, visit us online.