why fasting is important when having blood work done
In: Biology
When you eat you put stuff in your body. Some of that stuff may be yummy sugar. That puts sugar in your blood. Sometimes doctors need to see how much sugar is in your blood to make sure you don’t feel all icky with a disease called diabetes. If you ate not that long ago there will be more sugar in your blood. By making people not eat you can get a good idea of how much sugar is normally in their blood. If they are, well, everyone eats different things and amounts. So letting everyone start at the same point with no food let’s the doctor have good tests. And it’s not just that way with sugar. All sorts of yummy stuff from your food needs to be tested to make sure your body is handling it properly.
The digestion of food changes what’s in your blood, so it will affect the analysis. For example, eat a big meal and you’ll get a spike of glucose, then insulin will be secreted to counteract it, and gradually it goes back down. If you fast before every blood draw, you’re at the baseline levels and can make a fair comparison with what’s typical or with your previous results.
The elements that are broken down by digestion are carried to where they are needed by the blood so the chemical content of the blood varies with what you have eaten in order to get a standard reading they eliminate the digestion factor.
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