One of the most common types of medical tests currently used to determine if you are sick, experiencing trouble, if you aren't sick at all or to best find why you are in discomfort or medical red-flag is a blood test referred to as a Complete Blood Count, or more often explained as, CBC, its acronym.

Humans couldn't survive without blood flowing from top to bottom within our bodies. It, makes sense it is one of the first tests ordered by your doctor when determining diagnosis. CBC blood tests are often called out by doctors in t.v. dramas these days, which may be a bit of an overkill, but in reality, it is a crucial step in being sure what's normal and what's abnormal with you, internally.

A CBC blood test may be ordered by a doctor simply when you are are under the weather, fatigued, or even if you simply have a cold you can't get rid of. You don't have to be at death's door, nor completely sick to have CBC blood tests ordered.

But, that said, every year when you visit your doctor, or physician for your yearly check-up, if your doctor does not order a CBC Blood Test, you should ask for one. It is the cheapest, easiest, perhaps life-saving act you can do and should do at least once a year.

Your complete blood count test is a representation of your overall health and if there's something to worry about, odds are, signs will be found within your blood and its makeup. There are exceptions to the case, but be on the safe side, anyways. Many determining variables are studied with CBC Blood Tests: white and red blood cell counts or levels, the HCT (or Hematocrit, which basically is defined by the volume of space which your blood occupies), Hgb (or Hemoglobin that accounts for the oxygen inside your blood cells), and platelet count which makes it possible for your blood's ability to clot.

Too many of one or too few of another essential part of your blood, depending on those numbers could be a warning that tells your medical team what's really going on. While the diagnosis variations can be vast and cover a wide spectrum, having your CBC Blood Test at least per year, after visiting your doctor can hand you the answers to many questions about your overall health, that just an external examination, putting a stethascope to your chest, checking your lungs and using a tongue depressor just can't do.

A CBC (Complete Blood Count) Test (or Tests) can provide you specific reasons why you are fatigued, not feeling 'normal', showing bruising for 'no reason', having chest pains, have a virus, are showing allergic reactions, plus a slew of other possibilities. But, perhaps even more important, these blood tests allow you the potentially life-saving, time stretching benefit of detecting early alerts and signs of potentially hazardous and life shortening trouble if allowed to grow. Make a note now for both yourself and your family to regularly (at least once a year) take part in a CBC Blood Test or Complete Blood Count Tests. It may spare your life and theirs, but even if nothing is seriously abnormal, it's an easy method to increase the quality of your life.